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.
Specializes in Emergency Department; Neonatal ICU.
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.
I still use paper towels for EMS report at the bedside (before I have the patient in the computer). I call it my stationary :)
I must be a future COB...paper towel stationary always works best, at least according to the COBs who mentored me.
I still use paper towels !! Oh..the mercury thermometers... I remember breaking a couple and trying to chase down the little mercury balls on the floor....I know...not smart.
You haven't lived until the day you're racing to ICU with a patient that just coded, and the glass IV bottle is shattered by the low door height as you go through it!
I don't fondly recall the days we checked urine with a dipstick.
Our MD's smoked in the nurses station, and not only did we have to give them our chair, but get them an ashtray!
You haven't lived until the day you're racing to ICU with a patient that just coded, and the glass IV bottle is shattered by the low door height as you go through it!
I don't fondly recall the days we checked urine with a dipstick.
Our MD's smoked in the nurses station, and not only did we have to give them our chair, but get them an ashtray!
We still check urine with a dip stick on our pregnant patients.
No, the MD never pointed and screamed...he kicked the chair!
To which I'd respond, "STOP THAT!"
This thread makes me chuckle because I see a stream of "we were all that" and "we walked to school 5 miles, in the snow, and uphill... both ways."
My age and general disposition -- and interacting with ED patients 50-hours per week -- makes me crusty, not the utilization of simple technology in healthcare.
Guttercat, ASN, RN
1,353 Posts
Are you kidding me?
This makes me sick.