What makes a COB crusty?

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Here are

some reasons why us Crusty Old Bats are Crusty! COB jump in

1. Back in the "old days" we were respected. If we said " visiting hour are over, you need to leave." Families left. Now, they stay anyway.

2. Back in the old days, the families said "doctors/nurses know best. Now it's "well I saw on Dr Oz /Oprah/whatever that this should be done. And if Dr Oz/Oprah says it is so, it must be.

Or

3. I read in the Internets that the doctor should go into the parking lot, find a red Mazda, walk around it three time counter-clockwise while saying "stroke go away" and Mom will be cured. Did the Doctor do this? Why not? Will they?

4. Back in the old days, student were not asked if they "wanted to do a cath". We were told, Mr Brown needs a cath, you will do it.

5. Back in the old days we didn't have special apps to figure out everything for us. We had to learn it, remember it and keep it in our brain.

6. Back in the old days we wrote a 2 days exam for our license and then waited 2 months for results. There was no PVT, no 75 questions, etc.

My fellow COB, what makes you crusty?

[RNIBCLC]

1. Medication calculations were done with pencil and paper, no calculators.

2. We had to mix our own bags of IV fluid and piggy backs.

3. We had to give up our chairs for the MD.

4. Older nurses were respected for their experience.

5. Most physicians were male (thank goodness that has changed).

6. There seemed to be more pride in the profession.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

R-E-S-P-E-C-T. We gave it, we got it.

Walking down the hall at night giving Haldol IMs to all the confused and agitated patients. (It's good that this has changed!)

Mixing our own IV meds after pharmacy went home at 1900.

Calculating IV drip rates in our heads.

Running downstairs to the ICU for warm blankets (that was the only place in the hospital that had them).

Weighing immobile 300-pound pts on a hand-cranked Hoyer scale.

[Vwpenn]

Wait......we still mix all are IVF's that's including cardizim, amio, bumex etc etc... No hood, jus right out there on the nursing desk! ( ya, I know) calculating drips? Yup, we still do that to? The smart pumps are only reserved for ICU. So your saying this isn't done anywhere else? (Insert sarcasm) Needless to say my hospital is back in 1960's nursing. we still give up our chairs to the pompous md's. And I remember when we could give 3cc of sodium chloride for that frequent flyer with "abd pain".

[RNIBCLC]

Don't forget hand cranking the beds..

[TriciaJ, RN]

Don't forget hand cranking the beds..

Once I overheard a friend of my mother wondering "what nurses do all day" since beds don't have to be hand-cranked anymore. (I catch up on my reading, what else? )

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

I agree the old 2 day all day test was more comprehensive to today's pass it at 75 questions. A person could just get lucky, whereas before you really needed to know it all to pass boards.

[richardgecko]

Wait......we still mix all are IVF's that's including cardizim, amio, bumex etc etc... No hood, jus right out there on the nursing desk! ( ya, I know) calculating drips? Yup, we still do that to? The smart pumps are only reserved for ICU. So your saying this isn't done anywhere else? (Insert sarcasm) Needless to say my hospital is back in 1960's nursing. we still give up our chairs to the pompous md's. And I remember when we could give 3cc of sodium chloride for that frequent flyer with "abd pain".

And what happens if you don't give up the seat? Will the MD point and scream 'MIIIIINE!' ?

if my butt has already warmed my chair, then he's not getting it. Noooope.

[RunBabyRN]

I remember when my naval clinic got its first pump. No one could figure it out! We just stuck with our drip counts. :)

**Future COB**

[dragonfly2725]

No, the MD never pointed and screamed...he kicked the chair! And remember standing there counting the drips per minute before there was even a dial-a-flow and we never dreamed something like a programable pump would come along. Who remembers the glass jars that chest tubes emptied into?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

An MD once kicked the chair out from under my DH when he was a new grad. DH picked him up by the lapels, placed him firmly against a wall, and told him that wasn't happening again. Of course, that was five years after I was a new grad. I just played dumb, and they'd sit down next to me and start pestering me with questions and orders, so it was always more time efficient to just get up and go find something to do elsewhere.

I remember putting the pre-filled D5W syringes into an ice bath for cardiac ouputs. Calculating the average by long division on a paper towel, and then figuring out the rest of the hemodynamics (also by long division on that paper towel). We calculated our drip rates, too.

We used lots of paper towels.

Mercury thermometers.

Respect. The patients respected us, the visitors seemed to be in awe of us and the doctors respected us somewhat. We get a whole lot more respect from physicians now and a whole lot less from everyone else.

Titrating our drips with buretrols because we didn't have enough pumps to go around.

checking urine for ketones and acetones rather than just a fingerstick for a glucose check.

Our beds were hydraulic and worked with a foot pump.

[malestunurse]

What is a DH?