Remember pagers?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

One of my favorite things to do with my incredibly outstanding medical nurse wife Belinda is to watch a medical show, pause the DVD, and discuss what's taking place or recall a situation.

Last night Belinda and I were watching the first season of ER when a doctor's pager went off. I paused the DVD.

The summer of 1987, I was working as a scrub nurse at Weed Rover Township Hospital, was on call, and shopping at the Weed Rover Wal Mart when my pager went off. I immediately rushed to the payphones at the front of the store, put in my quarter, called the hospital, and hoped a bystander could hear me say, "An emergency C-section? And you need me right away? I'm just down the street at Wal Mart! I'll be there in five minutes!"

Yeah. Glory Days and pagers.

Got any?

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Specializes in IMCU, Oncology.

LOL!!!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.

5318008

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
5318008

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Whaddaya mean remember? I still have one! So do all the anesthesia providers, surgeons, and some OR staff here.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
5318008

867-5309 is another good one. It actually connects to a college student's dorm room here í ½í¸‚í ½í¸‚í ½í¸‚

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

I still have one -- though I can receive texts on it now.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Whaddaya mean remember? I still have one! So do all the anesthesia providers, surgeons, and some OR staff here.

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My beaver's going off, my computer and I are both slow on the uptake, and I thought cell phones had replaced pagers!

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
867-5309 is another good one. It actually connects to a college student's dorm room here.

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Um....we still use pagers in my hospital. On my floor we carry them every shift. No voicesaras (sp?)for us on the med floors. I've been at my hospital 18 years, we've always had the them.

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The most important page of my shift was...

"Anyone want to order chinese?"

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UGH, pagers!! We've used them in every hospital where I've worked to let us know when there's a) a delivery b) a post-op, or c) a rapid response/code.

As a millennial who had never used one until I entered healthcare, I've never quite been able to get the hang of them. Once I navigate away from the message, I can never get back (even if I navigated away by accident without actually reading the message). Lord knows I have no idea how to send a message on one (although I think you type it on the computer now?) It reminds me of that old-school texting where you had to hit the key a certain number of times to get the right letter to appear.

How is it that my hospital is on the 'cutting edge' or surgeries, but we're still using communication technology that was 'cutting edge' in the 80s? When I can literally access the internet from my cell phone? Baffling.

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