1950s nursing

UnewmeB4 · Mar 31, 2005

Metal IV needles, glass IVF bottles.
Barium swallows/enemas that had to be followed by castor oil cocktails to keep the barium from turning to cement in the bowel.
No CPR.
No real pain management. Be stoic or be a crybaby. Nurses and doctors decided if you were in pain and how much.
Bed rest. None of this getting up out of bed immediately after having surgery. Pain meds via IM.
No lawsuits. Doctor was "god," Nurse ran the unit with an iron fist. Patients were only allowed to know as much about their condition as the doctor felt like telling them, and nurses were expected to follow suit. A patient wasn't even to be told the BP for fear that it might raise the anxiety level, and thus the blood pressure. Ditto with many other ailments and knowledge that we take for granted now.
No dating for nursing students and in the dorm by 2100. This was 1970. (I don't recall similar rules for interns or residents or medical students, however.)
Nurses pre-poured their meds into little cups and then put them on trays to pass them to the entire ward.
Rectal temps
Placebos
Clysis
Lamb's wool to prevent skin breakdown.

Don't forget mixing your own IV meds! I HATED THAT!

Pain shots...no IV pain meds

UnewmeB4 · Mar 31, 2005

I remember as a child in the 60's of going to the hospital with my parents to see my grandmother who had cancer. Of course, I did not know that then. My sister and I were told to wait in the waiting room. We had to spend hours there. We would often go into the gift shop and look at everything. We were escorted upstairs to grandma but only for a few minutes. We usually stood at the bedside and felt awkward. Then, we were briskly rushed out of the room to go back to the waiting room.
There was a person in the elevator that closed the gate and took you to the floor you wanted.
I remember the walls were green tiles and the floor was black and white specks. X-ray was in the basement. Everyone wore white.
In the 70's, candystripers were abundant. Passing and picking up food trays, reading to patients, making beds, etc.
As a "pink lady" in the 70's, I was responsible for doing the infant hearing screens and taking their pictures. I even got to feed and change the babies.
Yes, in the mid 1980's, we smoked in the break room, and the registration/admitting people were smoking at their desks!
My grandmother was a nurse in the 30's and I have her nursing licenses now. She even had a thermometer that was worn around the neck in a metal tube. She did some private duty nursing for a short while before getting out of nursing because she had 3 children to take care of w/o a husband. She could make more money not being a nurse.
Oh yea, in my grandmother's diaries, she writes that the doctor came to my house to give me penicillin because I had a fever.
Patients brought to the ER did not have IV's. Most were transported by volunteers who just drove the "ambulance".

I was a Candystriper in the 60's. I remember feeding my first ancient pt who moaned the whole time, while I PRAYED she wouldn't die while I was feeding her.

sbic56, BSN, RN · Apr 1, 2005

I miss the smell of tincture of benzoin!

Fiona59 · Apr 1, 2005

We still use HDC. Rehydrates some elderly nicely if run overnight. Less invasive than an IV. Seen it used in palliative care as well as geriatrics. Mind you it can be a challenge to find a nice fleshy site on an 90lb little old man...

Sometimes I think the old ways are more pratical than many of the new. But hey, whats progress for but to sell more expensive technology?

colrainrn · Apr 1, 2005

What is Clysis? How long did metal needle IVs last...they must have infiltrated fast? What is HDC? I cant believe they smoked in hospitals..or airplanes for that matter. I ran accross a chart of a woman who was in her 90s admitted with renal failure...She had an Appy. in 1949..it was so neat to read..she was there for 6 days, no pain management that I could see,bedside notes were two or three words but every activity was recorded. It seemed that her first steps were on post op day 4. keep replys coming folks..this is awesome to read

Sean O'Connell, RN 36yrs old

Colrain, Massachusetts

Graduate 2004

LPNer · Apr 1, 2005

What is Clysis? How long did metal needle IVs last...they must have infiltrated fast? What is HDC? I cant believe they smoked in hospitals..or airplanes for that matter. I ran accross a chart of a woman who was in her 90s admitted with renal failure...She had an Appy. in 1949..it was so neat to read..she was there for 6 days, no pain management that I could see,bedside notes were two or three words but every activity was recorded. It seemed that her first steps were on post op day 4. keep replys coming folks..this is awesome to read
Sean O'Connell, RN 36yrs old
Colrain, Massachusetts
Graduate 2004

There were a few metal IV needles available still in the 70s but angiocaths were also available.

Seems they lasted just about as long as an angio does, some sites hold up while others fail pretty quick. In any event, none "last" past 3 days (except central lines.)

Jamesdotter · Apr 1, 2005

What is Clysis?

Hypodermoclysis or HDC: the injection of fluids into the subcutaneous tissues.

I've only given it to one patient in my career. It was a child--I don't remember the age--and we gave it into the thighs, using longish metal needles. I remember watching my mother, an OB nurse (class of '26), giving it to a premature infant in her back. This must have been about 1950 or so. Little Rosemary weighed 2#7oz. at birth. She survived and did well.

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Apr 1, 2005

How long did metal needle IVs last...they must have infiltrated fast?

I was glad to see them go. Patients had to be really careful and not move their sites around much.

debbiemig · Apr 2, 2005

We haven't done HDC in about 15yrs where I am. I'm so glad, I think it was cruel. Give me an IV anytime!

We still use HDC. Rehydrates some elderly nicely if run overnight. Less invasive than an IV. Seen it used in palliative care as well as geriatrics. Mind you it can be a challenge to find a nice fleshy site on an 90lb little old man...
Sometimes I think the old ways are more pratical than many of the new. But hey, whats progress for but to sell more expensive technology?

debbiemig · Apr 2, 2005

I can remember as a very young teen in the early 60's having surgery for an inquinal hernia repair and spent a week in the hospital. I was out of bed 2 days after and walked with my nose to the floor the entire time I was in the hospital. My youngest daughter had the same surgery in the same hospital in '78, they " glued" her together and sent her home the same day!

I remember disinfecting rectal tubes and sterilizing equipt. in the autoclave. No disposable needles. Metal bedpans ( we used them as planters in my facility for a long time after the disposable came out). I remember going to our DON to get permission to wear white uniform pants in the 70's. That had to be OK'ed by the administrator! My cap was always off to one side of my head because I was always climbing under beds to connect bed restraints!

Ah the memories!

I also remember prepouring meds in a med room with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth!

Wow, that was a short walk back in time!

Let's see how my memory banks are working
Nurses didn't routinely take blood pressures in the 40's and early 50's as that was considered part of the practise of medicine.
Patient assessmens, ie listening to lung and heart sounds ,didn't become widespread untill the 70's.
When ICU/CCU first came about nurses had to wait for the MD to come before giving antiarrhythmic drugs IV, in fact in many places RN couldn't give any drug IV. Unless of course you were a CRNA.
CRNA's gave virtually all of the anesthesia agents as anesthesia before te 1960's was considered a Nurses job and not an area a MD should do.
If an MD came onto the floor the nurse had to stand, give up her chair to the MD, open the door for MD, stop using the chart and give it to te MD.
You had to play the "nurse doctor game" to get an order changed or one you felt the patient neded.
There was no such thing as every other weekend off.
Nurses like children were to be seen and definetly not heard.
Metal bedpans and hoppers.
Bed rest for weeks after an MI or birth.
I'm sure there is more, keep them coming

Liann · Apr 2, 2005

Prmenrs:

The first book in the Anne Perry series about Nurse Hester Latterly (and her detective and lawyer friends) is called Face of a Stranger.

BonnieSc · Apr 2, 2005

For a really wonderful look at student nurses in the 1930s and 40s, read the books about Sue Barton by Helen Dore Boylston. The author was a nurse herself.