"The Good Ol' Days!"

[BostonTerrierLover]

I was blown away to find out student nurses could not be married during school, when one of my instructors went to a Public Charity Hospital based Diploma Nursing Program.

I loved hearing about having to sterilize everything, and how the student nurses practically ran the hospital. ("A Physician would find a Nurse, begin a Hospital, . . .and start a Nursing School." -Straight out of one of my old Nursing School Text books."

How mental institutions have changed soooooooo dramatically just over the last 50 years!

How cancer was once an instant death sentence.

That Physicians sometimes slept at the bedside of a really sick patient, . . .And made housecalls!!!!

How hospitals were once basically an inpatient hospice before the advent of medicinal treatments such as antibiotics/antivirals.

That one of my instructors from the ADN program worked 7 days a week for $1 per shift her whole first year! (was pinned in 1957).

How one of my professors broke down in tears when a patient with a radio told her that JFK had been shot in Dallas, TX.

How one nurse had every child she had drafted in WWII, so she went as a "Civilian" Nurse to the Corps, and worked at Westpoint post-wartime.

Please add what you know about Nursing in the Past, you don't have to be from a previous era to join in, I'm not, but I promise to cherish each piece of information.

Any books or movies you could recommend a plus too! (History Buff!)

And, if you are from an era before the present, please share some stories about the Nursing Profession, and other memorable events from thah era!!! I can't wait to read them!!! If these stories aren't passed on, it makes me shiver to think we could loose just one!!

What Could You Share about the "Way Things Were Back Then?"

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

libitina said:

we still do both of these in the nhs. re changing the sheets, how do you do that differently?

we still make occupied beds the same way in the icu as well -- and close all doors before going by with the morgue cart.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Rotating tourniquets on old ladies with chf-- in the ward, not the icu.

Backrubs at bedtime, where everyone got a back full of lotion and a coating of baby powder

A vial of digitalis leaf in the med drawer-- really, the dried, brown leafy bits, still in the pharmacopaeia.

Unscrewing iv bottle tops with a tourniquet, adding an amp of something or other, and attaching it to the 3-way foley for urinary irrigation (did this as an aide). square plastic urine drainage "bags," with screw-off tops attached to the drainage tubing--open,pour into a urinal, replace cover.

Chief of medicine cardioverting patients with carotid sinus massage. cheaper than electricity.

If the urine was "blue-negative" in the test tube, all was well.

Sheepskins for pressure relief that were really sheepskins, with leather backs, real wool. a few hundred times thru the hospital laundry and they were rigid flat things studded with wool lumps as hard as gravel, but by god we put them under people.

The ice machine in the basement, where aides from every floor met to smoke and collect the ice for the shift using the same cart to pass trays that we used to pass--and retrieve-- the bedtime bedpans.

Butterfly needles for ivs, and as an aide i saw nurses suck on them --with their mouths-- to get a blood return.

Taking care of fresh open hearts with a single-lumen cvp/ plastic manometer, and an arterial line connected to a manometer dial via a length of latex tubing.

Curing decubiti with a paste of table sugar and h2o2, covered with a denture cup with a hole for the o2 catheter. worked, too.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Will one of you guys elaborate on how one "sharpens a needle?"

You have a very fine grindstone, you wet it, and you rub the needle gently so the angle is correct and the edge is sharp, and you inspect it visually to be sure you got the little burr off the end where it always got bent. then it gets rewrapped with its glass syringe, after you have made sure that the syringe barrel and plunger are a mated pair, because they had to be or they wouldn't fit together, in a nice double layer of green or blue-grey cotton cloth, and autoclaved.

We also sterilized the glass thermometers when i worked in central supply for a summer in high school. they got packed individually in peel-apart paper packages, blue for oral (long tip) and red for rectal (blunt tip). one week my boss got a lot of complaints from the floors that the thermometers were all screwed up...turned out i had washed them in hot water before i packaged them.

We had a gas sterilizer for things that had to be cold-sterilized, about the size of a microwave oven. god knows how much ethylene i breathed that summer. and we had those huge old autoclaves, the size of mini coopers, two of them side by side, where we sterilized the hundreds of bottles of saline for urinary irrigation, or linen packs, instruments, and everything that had to be sterile. one day we had our lunches warming in there (we and the or sent out for sliced roast beef and fresh anadama bread from the bakery downtown every payday) and the don came through giving a tour. ::sniff, sniff::"what's that smell, richard?" she asks the boss...

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

as the good o'l days thread continues, i may add that i use to work in a well known catholic hospital in madrid, spain. therefore, most of the nurses were nuns, which wore those incredible hats just like the one that the "flying nun" wore on the t.v. sitcom long ago. however, they no longer wear this type of hat in this particular hospital, so for those of you that don't recall the show; below is a picture of what i'm referring to...

[DoGoodThenGo]

One thing nurses from the "old days", and one is including right though the 1980's in this, miss is the respect for authority patients and their familes had for nurses.

Yea sure, there was always the odd patient who gave the nurses a hard time, but by and large they did as they were asked told.

Nurse came in with meds or having to do a treatment? You didn't hear "I'm watching my stories/the game, come back later"

Visitors didn't have to be told one thousand times *do not sit on the beds*. You asked them once and that was usually that. If there was a problem you got out the big guns (head or charge nurse) to have a word and that usually more often than not settled matters.

Indeed "head nurses" seemed to have more respect from both staff and family than their peers today. Perhaps because so many came up from the ranks thus were well known before taking on the job. The best of them could stand down any doctor and hold ground for not only herself but staff as well.

You didn't get patients asking several thousand questions about what one was doing/giving, why are you doing/giving, and then saying they would have to "think" about letting you get on. You also didn't have family members leaning over your shoulder and or getting into "your business" whilst trying to administer a med or treatment. Ok, one is all for concerned relations and so forth, but there are limits. *LOL*

[DoGoodThenGo]

just a small niggle.

proper term is cornette or coif depending upon the religous order. the former (aka serre-tete in french), was the cornette head gear of various orders belonging to the daughters and sisters of charity rc religous orders for women.

in old french cornette meant "horns" and that name came from how after folding the head gear resembed such upon a woman's head. dating from medevial times this headgear in some form was still worn by french peasant women to help block the sun when out of doors. later when the daughters and sisters of charity were founding their orders (which historically dates from when the habit is created), they choose various forms of the cornette.

many of the elaborate coifs and cornettes adopted by rc religous orders not only came about because of association with ancient forms of daily and or mourning head-dress but they were also great for keeping custody of the eyes as well. sadly as the modern era of automobiles, trucks, trolleys and such took over from horse and buggy orders had to adapt their head dresses, at least those worn out of doors.

because they were so good at shielding the wearers face/eyes sisters/nuns couldn't see fast moving vehicles coming (nor always hear them for that matter because of all that cloth around their ears), often with dire adverse outcomes. the women would be hit and often sent flying. upon landing not only were there injuries and or death to contend with, but the fact the poor nun's habit may have ended up in the most immodest display of her person.

for sisters involved in "working" outside the convent such as teaching or nursing, those large headgear made life difficult. with lateral view blocked you have to turn your head to see what was going on. this could range from doing treatments to keeping an eye on pupils. just ask any kid who went to catholic school with nuns who wore such gear; if you wanted to act up or pass a note you waited until sister's back was turned. *lol*

[GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN]

just a small niggle.

in old french cornette meant "horns"

unquestionably, you're totally correct, however that's the reason i didn't use the proper name cornette because of the "horns" i didn't want to offend anyone...just saying...

[DoGoodThenGo]

Though IIRC the Sisters of Charity did not wear a cornette based head gear, some say the original Saint Vincent's Hospital School of Nursing cap is based upon them.

It is one of the few caps with "horns" that is meant to sit towards the front of one's head. The only other one can think of atm would be the old College of Staten Island School of Nursing cap, but they've long since stopped using them.

If you wish to see a wide variety of "old" nun's habits, head gear and nursing caps for that matter from Catholic facilites, pipe:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65359853@N00/sets/72157624205962066/with/4858016884/

[DoGoodThenGo]

unquestionably, you're totally correct, however that's the reason i didn't use the proper name cornette because of the "horns" i didn't want to offend anyone...just saying...

yea, you give me the "horns" and we are going to have trouble! *lol*

[nursel56]

One thing nurses from the "old days", and one is including right though the 1980's in this, miss is the respect for authority patients and their familes had for nurses.

Yea sure, there was always the odd patient who gave the nurses a hard time, but by and large they did as they were asked told.

Nurse came in with meds or having to do a treatment? You didn't hear "I'm watching my stories/the game, come back later"

Visitors didn't have to be told one thousand times *do not sit on the beds*. You asked them once and that was usually that. If there was a problem you got out the big guns (head or charge nurse) to have a word and that usually more often than not settled matters.

I agree so much with that, Do Good Then Go. I hear younger people saying fairly often that nurses from my era "were handmaidens", expected to get the doctor a cup of coffee, etc. This was not so in my experience. Most people were respectful, even on the private "VIP" unit of our hospital. They went down to the cafeteria if they wanted a snack. They got out of the way when you walked toward the patient. You chose the words and the tone of voice you felt would be effective - based on your judgement . . .

The "university of google" is a mixed blessing. :)

As for doctors throwing charts, etc. -- my favorite (which I've told here before) was the afternoon when an OB doc had a tantrum of some sort and threw every single stick of furniture in his office out into the hallway. I worked near the Medical Director's office and saw a red-faced nurse scurrying down the hallway to alert him of the incident. "No way", thought I. We all knew he could be temperamental but this---?

Dr S was the cool and collected type, so he didn't jump up and say "he whaaaat????". He just listened. After about 20 minutes he went and sauntered slowly by the wreckage -- I went up later and sure enough a mountain of jumbled furniture was piled up - chairs, bookshelves, the credenza, even the potted palm . . . There were still some patients in the hallway as well. Crazy, crazy place.

[DoGoodThenGo]

I agree so much with that, Do Good Then Go. I hear younger people saying fairly often that nurses from my era "were handmaidens", expected to get the doctor a cup of coffee, etc. This was not so in my experience. Most people were respectful, even on the private "VIP" unit of our hospital. They went down to the cafeteria if they wanted a snack. They got out of the way when you walked toward the patient. You chose the words and the tone of voice you felt would be effective - based on your judgement . . .

The "university of google" is a mixed blessing. :)

As for doctors throwing charts, etc. -- my favorite (which I've told here before) was the afternoon when an OB doc had a tantrum of some sort and threw every single stick of furniture in his office out into the hallway. I worked near the Medical Director's office and saw a red-faced nurse scurrying down the hallway to alert him of the incident. "No way", thought I. We all knew he could be temperamental but this---?

Dr S was the cool and collected type, so he didn't jump up and say "he whaaaat????". He just listened. After about 20 minutes he went and sauntered slowly by the wreckage -- I went up later and sure enough a mountain of jumbled furniture was piled up - chairs, bookshelves, the credenza, even the potted palm . . . There were still some patients in the hallway as well. Crazy, crazy place.

IMHO nurses and nursing staff are more of "handmaidens" today than they ever were back then. Between all this "client" and "customer" nonesense along with PG and customer service scores, many floor/unit nurses have been turned into glorified CS reps.

Yea, back in the day you choose your words carefully, but the job got done. Some patients would go out of their way *not* to bother the "nurse" because she was so busy. They were compliant to the point you'd want to say "look, it's ok, this is my job and you're no trouble". Others you knew off the bat slathering them with sugar wasn't going anywere, so you took your tone and voice up a notch.

Family members the same. They wanted ice and there wasn't an aide or nurse to spare? Point them towards the proper room (if permitted) and let them have at it. Now they want you to literally stop working on a code because their mother wants a glass of water *now*.

[Creamsoda, ASN, RN]

"Chief of medicine cardioverting patients with carotid sinus massage. Cheaper than electricity. :smokin:"

They still do that