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

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

Technology has come quite a ways.

The monitor we used had a bouncing blue ball and not a steady line. You had to remember to disconnect the leads when you defibrillated or you would fry the monitor.

I forgot my Aricept but I remember the A-Line heparin being in a glass bottle.

CraigB-RN, MSN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

She used to tell me stories about clinicals, like being admonished for her metal bed pans not being shiny enough.

Making cast material, putting plaster on bandages. Reusable glass syringes, Anyone else remember taping red rubber catheters to male patients?

Mommavik, ADN · Apr 14, 2016

Oh yeah; worked as a CNT from 1980 until '86 when I got my licence as an ADRN. One of my CNT instructors used to tell us it was an insult to our patients to wear gloves unless we were cleaning stool from bedpan and that there was nothing we could get on our hands that wouldn't wash off with good soap and water.: ridiculous, right? But that was the times and we were just realizing just how much infection control was accomplished with wearing gloves. MRSA was just being identified and then came VRE; super strict infection control for each (infection room with antechamber , gown, gloves (double gloves for VRE) mask and double red bagging for trash. White uniform for floor nurses,; ICU and ED nurses could wear scrubs supplied by hospital. We knew our doctors and usually were treated with respect but some were jerks (no reporting Dr for unprofessional conduct then) and I think more respect from our patients (this was before everyone was told a client (not patient) was entitled to get immediate service and deserved to get whatever they wanted like many do now. And we got more respect from administration as professional nurses before the current vision of hospitals as a business instead of a place for giving care

Libby1987 · Apr 14, 2016

I forgot about running the tape on an IV bag and marking the hours out as a guide. Maybe that's why the pumps were such a relief versus a stress when we learned how to operate them.

bell1962 · Apr 14, 2016

Just remembered something. We had to mix our own Chemo under a hood on a medical floor! :nailbiting:

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

I've heard stories about there being orders for a glass of wine at bedtime (to help with sleep).

At my first job in early 2000s, we gave some of these big ENT surgical pts 1 beer per PEG tube TID. The beer was hung like a bolus feed. They were chronic alcoholics and would likely go back to the bottle once they were home; the beer was a preventative measure for DTs, rather than chase our tails with a Valium protocol.

NurseDiane · Apr 14, 2016

I was an LPN from 1997-1980 while completing my AAS program. I worked in a locked psych inpatient unit. Patients and staff smoked in the lounge and in the nurses station, respectively. Visiting hours were limited to two hours per evening. Eight hour shifts, each charted with a different color ink.
Became an RN in December, 1980. Started working at the highest tech NICU in the country (possibly the world)- a plum job I was very fortunate to get. 28 weeks was the outer limits of survivability. PGE did not exist- so the treatment for many heart defects was to wrap the baby in a blanket for their parents to hold until they passed. (Fun fact: I got to work on the drug trials for PGE- heady stuff!) The very first IV I ever started n a human being was a #23 butterfly on an 800 gm. 28 weeker. There were no angiocaths that small. Imagine how often those steel needle IVs lasted on babies. Oh, and the IV pumps were kangaroo pumps.
At no time did nurses wear gloves for any type of cleaning or procedure unless it was sterile. That's right, we started IVs, cleaned poop, gave baths, etc bare-handed. Until late 1981 when we had a baby mysteriously die of overwhelming infection after a transfusion. Our first AIDS patient. Suddenly, they couldn't get enough gloves to supply our need.
Here's what's different between then and now: Exponentially increased documentation requirements. Patient satisfaction trumps common sense and honesty. Virtually every hospitalized patient today would have been in a critical care bed back in the 80s. Except OB. Childbirth has become a spa experience. But the biggest difference? The Quality and Safety Police have made individualized care a thing of the past.

REALLY, REALLY, REALLY excellent post!!!!

I remember being told in nursing school that nurses don't wear gloves because it makes patients think they're "dirty". Emptying bedpans with bare hands, handling urinals with bare hands, puke pans, etc. etc. etc. AIDS changed everything.

I also remember getting my first job as an RN on the night shift in OB. We had an ashtray on the med cart, and there would always be a burning cigarette in it when the nurse wheeled it around to give meds. Nursing smoking at the desk too. It's funny to look back on that!!!!

NurseDiane · Apr 14, 2016

I graduated in 1976. My first job was as a floor nurse in a large county hospital. We were discouraged from wearing gloves when we had to clean up a patient who was soiled. The first reason was that it "would make the patient feel dirty." The second reason (which I always figured was really the first) was the cost. Hard to believe when I look back on it!

HA!!! I posted the same thing!! "Don't wear gloves because it makes the patient feel dirty".

NurseDiane · Apr 14, 2016

I forgot to mention:
HIV/AIDS was an unknown. We started having male patients with inexplicable symptoms. Of course we weren't wearing gloves routinely unless it was to clean up someone's body fluids but we gave back rubs and skin care with our bare hands.
No infusion pumps for all IVs, only meds like insulin, aminophylline, amphotericin, TPN ((with lipids on the side- separate bottle)- maintenance fluid ran on gravity and were time-taped based on the order and the drip rate on the tubing box. You had to do the math, run length of bandage tape along the side of the IV solution bag and mark out the expected hourly volume with the time. So if you hung a liter of NS at 10AM to run at 100 cc/hr you placed the tape along the side over the lines that measure out the 50 or 100 cc increments, drew a line where the 100cc increments would be all the way down the tape then labeled those lines with the time: 10a, 11a, etc.
The number of drops per cc as
determined by the drip factor on the box had to be counted. If the macrodrip factor was 10 gtts/cc, you calculated :
100 (cc) x 10 (gtt factor)/ 60 minutes = 16.6gtts/min
Then you had to stand there, let the IV run and adjust the roller clamp so that it ran at 4-5ggt/15 seconds to verify the correct rate. Every hour you had to recheck the flow because it could change depending on the patient's activity or condition. Then do this for 6-10 patients. Thank goodness everything IV now is controlled by a pump.
We gave ETOH 30 cc q 4 hours po to prevent DTs. I
When I left that job and went to a trauma and burn ICU in another hospital we did primary nursing instead of team nursing.
We had Haldol drips.
The nurses determined the burn resuscitation and wound care.

Were the Haldol drips for the patients or the nurses??

JUST KIDDING!!!!!!

Kara88 · Apr 14, 2016

When I was in Nursing school, in the late 70's, we all had a to take a course called Nursing Fundamentals. We all had to take this as our first course. To all of our shock and horror, the instructors came up with a brilliant idea (according to them). We had to learn how to sponge bath a patient but doing it to our own classmates. We all paired with a buddy and had to bath each other. The reason... "so we would know how it feels". And I mean a true sponge bath, no area left untouched. Can you imagine today coming up that?! As scarred as I was, I have been in nursing for over 35 years and never regretted it. In hindsight, perhaps we should have practiced on our instructors.

Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN · Apr 14, 2016

At my first job in early 2000s, we gave some of these big ENT surgical pts 1 beer per PEG tube TID. The beer was hung like a bolus feed. They were chronic alcoholics and would likely go back to the bottle once they were home; the beer was a preventative measure for DTs, rather than chase our tails with a Valium protocol.

In 2005 I had clinical on a neuro floor...for DT prevention there were cans of Milwaukee's Best in the fridge next to the Zosyn syringes! When I became a nurse at the same hospital a few years later, we'd upgraded to Heineken. Then we started the CIWA crap with Ativan, then switched to Valium.

NurseDiane · Apr 15, 2016

When I was in Nursing school, in the late 70's, we all had a to take a course called Nursing Fundamentals. We all had to take this as our first course. To all of our shock and horror, the instructors came up with a brilliant idea (according to them). We had to learn how to sponge bath a patient but doing it to our own classmates. We all paired with a buddy and had to bath each other. The reason... "so we would know how it feels". And I mean a true sponge bath, no area left untouched. Can you imagine today coming up that?! As scarred as I was, I have been in nursing for over 35 years and never regretted it. In hindsight, perhaps we should have practiced on our instructors.

OH MY GOD---I did that too, in LPN school. We were horrified that we had to give each other bed baths, but we did it. No square inch went "unbathed", if you know what I mean. Can you imagine giving that kind of bed bath to a patient now? With warm water, a clean wash cloth and towel, soap and a basin of water? Now, they have glorified baby wipes that you pull out of a package and quickly swipe over a patient's face and hands.

Ahhh, the glory days. Didn't Bruce Springsteen write a song about that?