e gripping much of the United States got me wondering what it must have been like to work the floors/units in the days before most all hospitals had central AC.
When I was young and worked first as a JV then an aide there were still many old hospitals in NYC that didn't have central air, but those big ole barns of buildings did have windows that opened and for certain areas/rooms window ACs were put in where possible. Other than that it was a constant (for me that is) running back and forth to the ice machine to keep pitchers full. It was the nurses one felt sorry for; heat tends to bring out the cranky in people and when they are sick already that is not a good combination. Worse many head nurses/supervisors would'nt relax dress code so those gals were often stuck in "whites",nylons, and possibly caps for the duration of their shift.
Ice cream was in high demand with staff and patients alike. Other than that the only other cool "food" was the cursed Jell-0! *LOL*
I work at a LTC care facility in a suburb of Chicago and we have no central A/C. What makes it worse is that most all of the residents still have their heat on in their rooms (each room has a unit). Try giving someone a shower on top of that... talk about being dizzy and wanting to pass out.
AC? Only areas like the OR and L&D are privileged to have that in my part of California. In other areas we suffer with the patients and keep all unnecessary lighting off or low, including the hallways, during the daytime.
For those of you in NC, I here with you and we had clinicals today. I was in class last week doing CPR certification and it was so hot in that building I had sweat literally running in beads down my arms and dripping to the floor. I had paper towels constantly trying to wipe off the dripping part, hoping I wouldn't overheat without it. SIGH --- We don't use AC at home either, but we have fans. No fans at school!
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Ahhhhhh......Cook County. They a few years ago finally built a new structure, a state of the art facility!!!!
Before then......we worked our butts off in non air conditioned wards where O2 was delivered by the huge green tanks at the bedside and huge fans were the only way to survive the city heat. Try full trauma gear on a 98 degree friday night 100% humidity. We would sick our heads in the fridge to cool off and huge fans a must (don't tell anyone...LOL) we walked around with water in our pockets and yes drank in front of the patients. Ice baths in cold metal basins and everytime you walked into a room you refreshened your cloth....wet your hair.
God bless scrubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was really HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! when I would get home I would turn my airconditioner so high it would fog the windows.....
All I can say is thank god I live in the most air conditioned city in the world. Houston. Heck my garage at home is air conditioned. I keep my house at a toasty 68 degrees...
There are too, those hospitals, like mine, who have the central AC but allow the heat to reach blistering levels before they use it. My hospital has been so bad, people (guests, workers etc) were going outside to cool off.
Specializes in geri,acute,subacute,correctional,pysch,.
I worked in a prison that didn't have air conditioning once. It was awful in the summer. I would take a huge bucket of ice and but a fan behind it, then blow the fan on whoever needed it. It wasn't fun refilling ice buckets all day but it kept the staff and some of the inmates a little cooler!
In today's world, AC isn't spoiled...but over the centuries, our ideas of 'spoiled' have moved on with technology- there are a lot of things we COULD live without (albeit very uncomfortably in some cases- and possibly deadly with AC)....
In the 1900s (just 12 years ago!) we saw a century that brought the following to 'commonplace' if not 'required' by most- cars, indoor plumbing, telephones, refrigeration (this was HUGE), TV (then color TV, cable, digital, HUGE cabinets to pocket sized), microwaves, space travel (ok, I don't need a rocket- lol), airplanes, upgraded mail to overnite or priority, computers and internet, etc. It's amazing in 100 years how much our worlds have changed.
Unfortunately, there are still too many in this country (not to mention the planet) who live in conditions that most of us think of as being archaic.
When I can figure out some way (on disability) to donate fans to the local fan drives, I want to do that. There is no reason for people to die (like they did in the big Chicago heat wave in the 90s) when a fan and enough fluids can prevent so much of them from meeting a miserable and premature death (surely some were prone due to medical issues- but from the history program I watched on that Chicago event, many were people who were not checked on...so sad).
My best to all of the nurses who are working in situations without AC- I found a little fan at a national drugstore that has a cord for around your neck, and takes 2 double A batteries- and actually moves some air- I stocked up (I don't work, but have a medical issue that makes being overheated dangerous at lower temps than most).....it was a buck and a half well-spent!!
Can you imagine good old Flo Nightengale with those stinky Civil War soldiers and their gangrenous legs, open abdominal wounds, bodily fluids from every orifice, and no Lysol ? That had to horrible. No wonder she could only get the hookers and drunks to work for her- the "proper" women of that era wouldn't be caught dead with that sort of thing..
Actually the breakdown of the thirty-eight nurses Miss. Nightingale initially took to the Crimea is as follows:
10 - Roman Catholic Sisters
8 - Anglican Sisters of Mercy,
6 - Nurses from St. John's Institute
14 - Nurses from various London hospitals
While not all were "ladies" in the Victorian meaning of that word, most would be considered "proper" by standards of the day especially the religous women.
Not all were perfectly suited to the mission and then as now whenever a pack of women are gathered together *things* are bound to happen. Some couldn't hack it and were packed off back to England.
By the way the Crimean War was not a "civil war" but one with the Russian Empire pitted against allies of the English, French and Ottoman Empires, along with the Kingdom of Sardina.
You may be thinking of Clara Barton and the United States civil war.
And how many on that list either died, bailed out, or were deemed incompetent? Maybe the hookers and drunks were the only ones left to stick it out - not saying that's all that was left- just that they were part of the beginnings of nursing.
Didn't Flo also croak from an STD??? I heard that somewhere in nursing school....
LOOK, it doesn't matter- nursing did not start out as all that noble. It was a garbage job back then. Attracted those not wanted many other places. The nuns probably had good intentions=and many fine hospital systems come from that background.
But Flo wasn't some halo wearing saint....just a regular person getting whoever she could to help other people- that's not a bad thing, and I didn't mean that it was .... the snobs weren't going to get their hands dirty- it's good someone did :)
That had to horrible. No wonder she could only get the hookers and drunks to work for her- the "proper" women of that era wouldn't be caught dead with that sort of thing..
KareBear0609
359 Posts
I work at a LTC care facility in a suburb of Chicago and we have no central A/C. What makes it worse is that most all of the residents still have their heat on in their rooms (each room has a unit). Try giving someone a shower on top of that... talk about being dizzy and wanting to pass out.