What was it like to be a nurse in the 1980s

[fatrabbit]

I'm writing a paper for one of my classes. I have to briefly discuss what the role of the nurse was in the 1970s/80s. The only sources I can find talk about events pertaining to nursing in the 1980s.

I really want to know the experience of being a nurse in the 80s. How much respect did nurses have? Where they able to question doctors? advocate for patients?

[DoGoodThenGo]

Did you have capes? Did you live in hospital accommodation to train? Was it AT ALL like Cherry Ames? (Sorry, I love hearing about how nursing used to be). I also apologise if these questions are relevant about 50 years before the 80's, Cherry is my only insight into American nursing history and I am aware she is fictional :).

If you want to go with fictionalized sources for nursing in the USA put down Cherry Ames (pulp fiction) novels and watch some good old television!

The television series Trapper John, M.D. which ran from 1979 through 1986 though a fictional drama actually was one of the better shows when it came to period medical dramas. This included the changes happening within and to the nursing profession during the 1970's and 1980's.

Everything from union organizing to the introduction of AP nurses was covered. You also see the profession as it related to the interaction and whatever of "old school" nurses like "Sarge" to the young Gloria Brancusi R. N. (nicknamed "Ripples" by the male physician staff for the way she filled out her uniforms).

The series both directly and indirectly addressed what you were seeing in facilities. For every old school nurse who reported for duty in starched whites (most always a dress with white hose) and cap, you had younger new nurses who while may have worn whites (pantsuits or dresses) the cap thing was O-W-T, out.

Series also had the usual cast of characters you saw in places during the 1970's or 1980's; former military physicians and nurses, Dr. Dreamboat (every place had at least a few... *LOL*), the "old boy/Ivy League physician....

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

OP Where are you???? Have we been of any help to you?

[la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN]

Gosh, I remember the gloves, or lack thereof. I was an LPN and we were given this ditty to think over…"do you wear gloves to wipe yourself? No, well then why would you wear gloves to wipe your patient, you're giving them the message that that their feces are offensive." Also reminded about facial expressions when swabbing up GI bleeds and Hersey squirts.

Was this person unaware of germ theory?

[Libby1987]

Just thinking about the glove thing, the absence thereof.. Customer service seems to be a big deal now, think about being told not to wear gloves to clean an incontinent patient because it might *offend* them.

Different, not better.

[imenid37]

I graduated from an ADN program at a community college in 1987 and worked in a post open heart step down unit. Most of the nurses where I worked with were also ADN grads. There were many older RN's who attended the hospital diploma school which closed in the early 1970's. There were a few BSN's here and there. WE wore the white uniforms and caps up until I moved to OB in 1990.

I started working as a nursing assistant in 1984 on a tele floor and in CCU. Patients could smoke on some of the med-surg floors, especially those who were allowed to ambulate to the solarium. We gave all of the patients a back rub every evening and went room to room giving pm care and emptying trash. There was SOAP note paper charting by exception. If everything was "normal" then just the shift assessment was charted. There was the Medex which was the huge lined graph which was here we charted meds we gave. There was also the Kardex which was written in pencil. Once a treatment which was written on the Kardex was completed, it was erased. As a nursing assistant, I had to do the clinitests and acetests on the diabetics urine every evening. We also had the EKG with the little rubber suction ball which we placed on the chest in the V leads. I remember doing an EKG on a GYN patient and the rubber straps on the limb leads were so rotted (because they were so seldom used on that floor) that we used tourniquets! The nurses I worked with as an NA were wonderful. They really made it their business to mentor me and teach me so much. I was really treated as a valuable team member. This was a great staff. To this day, I am so grateful that I worked with these folks for three years. It is an experience which has stayed with me for a lifetime. When I graduated I went to a different hospital.

One thing I remember when I first became an RN was our manager. She was "crusty", but she was a very nice woman and a good leader. If patients or physicians were rude or inappropriate to the staff, she would stand up for us. Imagine that today! I think the patients respected us a lot more as a whole then. Some physicians were certainly prima donnas, but they are no better today. I continue to see obnoxious physician behaviour where I work almost daily.

Nursing was definitely in a period of great change in the 1980's. A lot of female RN's had been working part-time and took off months or years for childbirth. By the late 1980's, more women worked full-time and were taking on more of the burden of supporting the family or coping with being single parents. I worked with a few men, but it was mostly a female staff then. That hasn't changed as much as I thought it would, 29 years later. It was great to be young and enthusiastic!

As for TV: Check out St. Elsewhere. I loved that show. I started watching it in high school.

[realnursealso/LPN, LPN]

I graduated from nursing school in December of 1979. I got my first job in a health related facility, this definition is no longer in use. About 6 months later I got hired at the local small hospital on the night shift, 11pm to 7 am. I think the main floor had 40 beds, it was shaped like a horseshoe. We had a charge/med nurse, and 4 of us to cover the floor. My partner was a cna who had worked there for years and years. I loved working with Betty, she knew everything! 40 rooms , and two each, on each side. Rounds were made at 12m, 2 am, 4am, and last rounds started at 6am. Some patients weren't disturbed at 2am or 4am, unless they had q2h vs. We both had a flashlight with us to shine on the patients bellies to see if they were breathing and checking the iv to see if it was still dripping, also we'd shine the lights on their iv site to see if it was ok, and not infiltrated. We only turned on the lights if the patient needed attention, such as checking a dressing, changing the gown/pad if they were wet. We'd shine the lights on the foley bags to check the color of the urine, and that it was draining. Then on to the next. Depending on what we observed, rounds could take an hour or more. Being the LPN, I had to check the glass iv bottles to see if it still had plenty. In report I'd find out who was on iv's and get out and tape a new bottle so it was ready. I'd check the drip rate of every iv to make sure it was flowing the ordered rate. After each rounding, we had to chart on every patient, even if it only said, pt. sleeping soundly when checked. 20 patients/20 charts. Some patients had gaping decubs. Heat lamps and MOM, to dry it out. One lady with MS, she had been bedridden at home for years, she had decubs on each hip that my fist would fit in. Each hip was packed with lodoform gauze. That treatment took forever. As I said, IV bottles were glass. One night we heard swearing coming from a room with two elderly men. We got up when the cussing started, but didn't reach the room until one of the men pushed their metal IV pole at the other man, we got to the door just as the man's IV bottle crashed to the floor. Glass, IV fluid all over the floor and the flingers IV site bleeding profusely. Had to posey both of them because they kept trying to crawl out of bed to punch each other. Another night we had a man who was admitted for weakness and anemia. Betty and I together again. Laughing thinking of it. We heard a noise like someone jumping up and down on the bed. We went in the pts. room and there he was, jumping on his bed, swinging his wooden cane around his head. Betty and I trying to advance to get the cane, only to jump back so we didn't get hit in the head with the cane. The room he was in had windows in the wall at the end of his bed, they were painted over, but every once in a while he hit the window with his cane. It upset the lady in the next room, so I went to reassure her. She'd had a stroke. I was trying to comfort her and leaned down to comfort her, she swung back her good arm, and almost punched me in the face. I jumped back just in time. We finally got the "weak" man in a gerichair, poseyed in and brought him out in the hall. He tried to bribe Betty with the promise of money and riches if she'd only take him home. Like PP, no gloves, they were in the clean utility room, like others said, if we wore gloves we might make the pts. feel dirty. People on isolation with little carts outside their rooms with long sleeved yellow cloth gowns, and gloves. A dirty linen bag next to the cart to put the gowns in after we wore them. Dipping urine to check for sugar level. One night they wanted to put a man with rotating tourniquets on my hall because no room in the ICU. I said no way! It sure was different back then, not at all like now!

[samdbgt]

Pretty Interesting.... this is something we all new age nurses wanted to know... Here there are not many nurses who have been working from way back then.. i think we can use some tips from vast experienced nurses here.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Was this person unaware of germ theory?

I know it's difficult for today's nurses and students to understand . . . But that was the way things were in the 70s and early 80s. It wasn't until the AIDS epidemic that nurses were allowed to use and provided with gloves to clean patients. We all cleaned our patients without gloves -- that's just how it was.

[qnmimi]

When I graduated in 1987, one thing I remember is the hierarchy of the hospital: Doctor is boss, absolutely, then everything else pretty much trickled onto the nurse's lap to take care of. Few nursing assistants, LPN's to help shoulder the load. All charting on paper as the internet and computers were too new, and no programs available for us to chart on. Nursing "whites" were still the norm, and a few caps were still worn by the older nurses. I recall having your appendix out bought you a 3 day stay on average, and one day surgeries were a rare occurrence. You actually had to touch your patient to assess them...there were no machines to do the work for you. Lippincot was a heavy book to be pulled out if the senior nurses could not answer your questions, and you hoped that an updated copy was on the unit! Eight hour shifts were the norm too, only the ICU's were trying to make 12hr shifts work back then. Oh, and my favorite...orientation was something you had to pass...plenty of time was given to learn based on how well you did, not just you get 3-4 weeks tops like now. Those were bad old good old days!

[pedseraprn]

I was an Ed tech in 1988 at a university hospital Ed. Four of us on nights - 2 rns 1 tech 1 huc. Paper charting at its best. Doc slept in the on call room. Same game with the residents who did most of the work. Buretrols without pumps. Shift sign off of narc counts. some meds locked in cabinets; most behind doors. Bagged with ambus. Everyone came in on a long backboard and needed portable c spines. Vents came with rrt when called. Codes the same. Hiv was scary and we weren't sure how you got it. No effective treatments for hep b or c either. Some didn't want these patients. Same old entitlement issues with patients. Emtala existed. Those with an mi went to cath lab when the team came in. Pagers were hot stuff and only the docs with money carried the brick like cell phones. No computers or Internet. Used a calculator for drips and texts for looking things up

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Just found this thread, and no time to read through right now, ratz! But I've enjoyed what I did get to read, so I will be back!

[DoGoodThenGo]

Was this person unaware of germ theory?

BP machines/cuffs were wheeled from room to room/patient to patient and no one gave it a second thought. If you had to do TPR's for an entire ward you started at one end and went round pushing or dragging the thing behind you.

Bedpans and urinals were often metal (or porcelain) and came from a central utility room (usually same place the steam heated flush toilet was located).

Wasn't around during the Spanish Flu epidemic (*LOL*) but can tell you right up until HIV/Aids changed things a large majority of nurses and support staff cleaned up all sorts of bodily fluids from projectile vomiting to explosive BMs with bare hands.

Equally true many nurses objected to UAPs and others using gloves when coming into contact with patients unless it was a required situation. As noted already the common theme was it insulted and degraded patients by making them think something was "wrong" with them. Being young and rather foolish shot back once; well there *is* something wrong with them, that is why they are in hospital. That didn't go over to well with some. *LOL*

When places started getting more of what would be called today "full blown" HIV/AIDs cases a good number of nurses actually didn't wear gloves when doing any sort of care. They simply felt those poor souls were suffering enough and deserved some sort of human compassion and warmth for what often was their last time on this earth.

Here is an image of Saint Vincent's school of nursing students back in the 1980's caring for an AIDS patient. Notice neither the girls nor their instructor are wearing gloves. Meanwhile I personally knew nurses and assistants that would wear gloves just to give such a patient a glass of water....