Well, back in the good old days we did....

[Joe V]

Back in the olden days, one veteran member remembers washing bedpans and sterilizing them in a hopper on the wall. Then the next experienced nurse regales the crowd with a tale of mixing her own IVs, smoking at the nurses station with the doctors and patients, and wearing nursing caps. Many interventions that we all now take for granted, were cutting edge technology just a few years ago. What are some of the things you remember doing a few years ago that would surprise nurses today?

[JasBSN]

When I was a newer nurse I worked with a lady who's been a nurse longer than I've been alive. She was telling me one night about the "old days." She said gloves were rarely worn, if they were they were washed and reused. IV catheters didn't have the plastic sheath that stayed in the patient, you left a metal needle in them, and the needles were sterilized and reused and any nicks or burrs filed off. She was an awesome nurse to work with and I always loved her stories!

[explorereb96, ADN, BSN]

Once upon a time there were no "standard precautions." You were either in isolation or you weren't. Yep, gloves were rarely worn, but hand washing was pushed very very hard. I was in nursing school in the 80's when AIDS was a"big threat" and if a patient was diagnosed as having AIDS, they were in isolation. We gowned, gloved, masks and we even wore foot covers. Nowadays that would just be considered rude and over doing it bigtime. I remember mixing IVs and counting drips. I remember labeling what med and amount was within the IV with magic marker....if it was Potassium then we got an actual orange label that came with the Potassium to place on the IV bag. I remember using catheters (yes....rubber urinary catheters) to use as NG tubes and G tubes. I remember that A LOT of things were autoclaved and reused. uugh... As I was "growing up" as a nurse more and more things became disposable.!

[HappyWife77, BSN, RN]

In LTC 20 years ago.....everyone was restrained. They used vest and wrist and ankle restraints and tied them to their beds and their wheel chairs. This was thought to prevent injury.....which actually caused more harm.

Kind of hard to believe.

[TriciaJ, RN]

Back in the '80s, the head nurse (yes, we had head nurses) and I had to give someone an enema. It took 2 of us because this was a psychiatric hospital, the patients had been there forever, and cooperation was not expected. The head nurse laughed at me for putting on gloves. Then, when the enema was less than successful, she decided the patient needed to be manually disimpacted. And of course, I was the logical one to do it because I was wearing gloves!

[mamagui]

Back in the '80s, the head nurse (yes, we had head nurses) and I had to give someone an enema. It took 2 of us because this was a psychiatric hospital, the patients had been there forever, and cooperation was not expected. The head nurse laughed at me for putting on gloves. Then, when the enema was less than successful, she decided the patient needed to be manually disimpacted. And of course, I was the logical one to do it because I was wearing gloves!

OMG No way! HILARIOUS (not so much for you, I suspect jejeje)

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Maalox and a heat lamp for decubes. I also remember shifts writing in different ink. Red for nights, blue or black for days and green for evenings!

And like the others said, no gloves for code browns.