The good ole days of nursing...share your stories!

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I'm am currently being precepted by a well seasoned nurse. She graduated from a diploma program in the mid 70s and has been a nurse ever since. I love the stories she shares about going to nursing school, sitting for nclex, and all the things she has seen and done over the years. There is such a big difference from when she started as a nurse to what nursing has become now. I am very interested in hearing stories from other nurses who have been in the field awhile as well as opinions on changes with schooling, work ethic, etc. Im interested in hearing comparisons of nursing now vs. back in the day. Any and all stories and opinions appreciated :)

Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.
Does the "Welcome Wagon" still make rounds? Volunteers from the Gift Shoppe used to go room to room with a cart abundantly stocked with all kinds of sundries (that were also sold inside the Gift Shoppe) and snacks, ets.

Yup, still here and rounding twice a day. We quietly hate it, as the LOLs from volunteering department who run it constantly bother nurses with demands to do something so that this or that patient would be able to enjoy their goodies "because he/she WANTS IT". Many of them just cannot get an idea of NPO meaning "nothing per mouth".

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I'm a diploma grad and now a nurse educator. The difference between then and now is BIG! As students, we were responsible for covering all three shifts. For OB training, we were assigned a patient at 32 weeks gestation and followed her through everything. We accompanied her to prenatal visits, and we were on call and had to meet her in L&D no matter what day or time she went into labor (My patient went into labor at 2:00 am on a Sunday morning). We stayed with our patient through labor whether it lasted two hours or two days! We stayed until she delivered and took care of her and the baby until they were discharged. Students don't get that kind of training anymore. We also had an extensive OR rotation where we observed a procedure, then scrubbed and circulated. Most students today don't even get an OR rotation.

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Specializes in nurseline,med surg, PD.
Incontinent patients were cleaned up bare handed. The only gloves were sterile gloves used for sterile procedures. Thermometers had mercury in them. I had a patient who swallowed her thermometer. Patients having surgery were admitted the night before so they could get a soap suds enema and take a Phisohex shower, and get a back rub.You had to give pre op meds before they went off to surgery, demerol, and phenergan (IM) and something else to dry up secretions. Everybody got a complete bed bath the day after surgery.

We had to wash, starch, and iron our caps. We had to apply white polish to our leather shoes, and wash the shoe strings. There was one shoe store in the big city where you could buy your Clinique shoes. You HAD to wear your cap or you would be disciplined.

I mean Clinic not Clinique.

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I graduated from a Diploma Program in 1995, one of the last Diploma programs in my area. In 2006 I earned my BSN, but am so glad I was educated through the Dioloma program. We had so much more clinical time with hands on nursing care in various hospitals and all types of units. One thing that was really really pushed was the comfort of the patient. Not only were we expected to learn the meds, procedures, disease processed, etc. we were taught that just as important is to tidy the patient's room, provide basic personal care- yes we had classes on how to make a bed and give a bed bath. This is something I don't see too much anymore.

On Easter I was with my 97 year old great aunt while she was slowly slipping away. I was the one who requested the mouth swabs and performed frequent mouth care for her comfort. I was the one who asked for lotion so I could massage her dry and cracked skin of her arms, legs, and back. Not only to help with comfort and circulation, but the basic comfort of human touch. I turned down the alarms on her monitors- what did it matter if her sats were dropping, she was a no code and it was the natural process for her sats to slowly decline. I requested an order for morphine to help with her air hunger. I know hearing is the last sense to leave, so I played calming music on my iPhone. She slipped away peacefully and quietly. The nurses caring for her were wonderful and best of all, they told me that they learned much from me that night about comfort care. We must not forget that comfort is one of the most important part of being a nurse and can make a big difference. I feel like these basic things aren't taught as much these days.

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That is so beautiful Annintenn! I'm a BSN not a diploma grad but I came along in that era when patient care and comfort were our number one and only goal.

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Not necessarily. A lot of the (young) chronically mentally ill used to get dumped in nursing homes because there was nowhere else for them to go. If you didn't have family willing and able to have you live with them, you were just SOL. This was back when the only options for psychiatric treatment were inpatient hospitalization or 50 minutes once a week in someone's office, and there were no such things as group homes, residential programs, IOPs, day treatment programs, etc. They were not getting appropriate psychiatric treatment, and, when they decompensated (or just got frustrated and lost it), they could be dangerous to the frail older residents. My career has been in psychiatric nursing, and we used to see a lot of those individuals on inpatient psych units in the '70s and '80s. Eventually, there were class action lawsuits brought against various states around the country, and one of the outcomes was that the Federal government required states to develop some mechanism to make sure the chronically mentally ill had access to appropriate treatment and weren't getting warehoused in SNFs. Another outcome was the development of a wide range of treatment and living options for the chronically mentally ill. That's part of the "good old days of nursing" that I don't

miss. Younger people who are in "rehab centers" nowadays are actually there for rehab. They're not 25 year old male schizophrenics who are living in SNFs, with nothing to do all day but watch TV, smoke, and eat chips, expected to be in bed by 8 PM each night and stay there quietly until 8 the next morning, not getting any real treatment for their illness, and having nothing else to look forward to for the rest of their lives.

What do Psych patients have to look forward to for the rest of their lives today? Really? Yes, there are some group homes, state long-term facilities for forensic pts in particular, lots of meds, shock treatments, therapies, maybe a little job, being on disability, but also periods of homelessness and loads of illicit drugs and alcohol. HOnestly not all that much better.

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I'm a diploma grad and now a nurse educator. The difference between then and now is BIG! As students, we were responsible for covering all three shifts. For OB training, we were assigned a patient at 32 weeks gestation and followed her through everything. We accompanied her to prenatal visits, and we were on call and had to meet her in L&D no matter what day or time she went into labor (My patient went into labor at 2:00 am on a Sunday morning). We stayed with our patient through labor whether it lasted two hours or two days! We stayed until she delivered and took care of her and the baby until they were discharged. Students don't get that kind of training anymore. We also had an extensive OR rotation where we observed a procedure, then scrubbed and circulated. Most students today don't even get an OR rotation.

I also am a diploma grad, 1970's. Our OB wasn't quite as comprehensive as yours, but close.

We also did OR. If nothing else, the OR taught you why your patient had pain post-op, and the vital importance of sterile technique.

Unmarried students were required to live in the dorm, there were curfews, bedchecks.

The girls took some pride in their caps, although some hated them and abandoned them as quickly as possible.

We weren't plagued by computers and a million forms to fill out. We had manageable workloads and time to do all of our work.

Don't get me wrong. There was still plenty of lazy staff, wrong orders, yelling and throwing of instruments by surgeons especially. But I don't remember there being firing for calling off too much or for tardiness. Maybe I was just naive and blissfully unaware, but it seems like people came to work and did their jobs and enjoyed their work. Yes, there were eaters of young, just like today.

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What do Psych patients have to look forward to for the rest of their lives today? Really? Yes, there are some group homes, state long-term facilities for forensic pts in particular, lots of meds, shock treatments, therapies, maybe a little job, being on disability, but also periods of homelessness and loads of illicit drugs and alcohol. HOnestly not all that much better.

Not all psych patients are equal and there are many people who are able to lead relatively normal lives with mental illness. I don't claim to be an expert but the people I've known who had a mental illness would find ways to cope and manage it and live relatively normally. I realize it's not the case for everyone, but to act as though anyone with a psychiatric illness has nothing to look forward to in life is honestly a little offensive.

On-topic, I love hearing stories from veteran nurses about what it used to be like; I graduated just a few years ago from a diploma program, and though it was a far different experience than the graduates of that school in decades past, they definitely emphasized keeping the patient's room neat and doing what you could to keep them comfortable.

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Specializes in Case Managemenet.

I had to the two days for NCLEX. It was a true test of stamina for a nurse. You had to take the test with a room full of nervous people with all their nervous tics in a huge room. You could not have a restroom break if someone else was out of your room. I stayed at the hotel where the test was being given because I did not want any potential delay because if you were late you could not enter. Everyone, anywhere I went were talking about the test it was a pressure cooker. It was a fabulous test of how you could handle stress because nursing can be very stressful.

Nursing was more about noticing subtle changes in your patient's condities on not just relying on tests and monitoring devices.

I felt I used my brain and senses more to montor for changes. Not so now, if it can not be showed on a lab value or monitoring device you are not believed.

I liked spending time with the patients not paper or computer charting.

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Specializes in Crit Care; EOL; Pain/Symptom; Gero.

COB here. Does anyone remember using Kpads for treatment of DVT?

Kpads were light green rubber heating pads that we would place inside a pillow case. They would be ordered from SPD, who would bring them to the floor.

First, we would wrap the patient's legs from knee to ankle with long lengths of moist Kerlix, soaked in warm water in a small green sterile basin, then place blue Chux around the patient's legs on top of the Kerlix. Then we would wrap the pillow-cased Kpad around each of the patient's legs and hold it in place with additional lengths of Kerlix that we would tie in three places to keep everything held together.

Warm and soggy.

The order would read something like "Kpad to lower extremities, and elevate for 1 hour tid".

This treatment was intended to improve venous return via warmth and elevation.

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To me the very best thing about the old days of nursing is that you did your eight hours, recorded report, picked up your purse and you were out of there by 3:10.

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Oh I remember the different coloured inks for each shift. I also remember that when I was a student nurse I was respectful and didn't talk back and knew my place. Now the students act like they know everything and you should be thankful for their presence and they'really always overwhelmed. I fear for the care in 20 years

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