You know you're Old School when...

We still transfuse blood without a pump unless the pt has a central line.

Our old EKG electrodes were fastened to the chest by suction cups that you filled with conductive goop (it was a nice touch if you warmed it first).

I'm confused...Could you please explain this? Thanks!

If I remember correctly (from back in the murk of my brain) this was to culture anerobic bacteria. The burning candle consumed the O2 in the container.

If I remember correctly (from back in the murk of my brain) this was to culture anerobic bacteria. The burning candle consumed the O2 in the container.

Ahh I see. Very interesting! Glad to see I was partially correct too lol

My mother remembers mixing (really beating) infant formula in a kitchen on the floor (very sterile), boiling equipment for 20 minutes to sterilize (needles, tube, etc.) Iv's not in veins but placed under the skin (like big infiltrates), iron lungs, no air conditioning.

Determining glucose levels by testing the urine. We would put the urine in a test tube then add a pill. Urine would change colour and you would determine glucose level by mathing the colour of the urine to a chart. I remember standing there desperately trying to match the colours up.

Croup tents

Humdified O2.

Huge pillows placed between the legs of pts with hip replacements. Kept their legs spread far apart. You needed 2 nurses to turn because the pillows were so big.

Smoking in the nursing station. Pts smoking in their rooms. I remember one pt was a quad and had some special apparatus to hold his cigarette - as a student I would have to put the cigaette in and light it. The first time I could not get the lighter to light - the next day my two smoking friends spent their break teaching me how to light a lighter!

You lot should come work for the NHS. We still have a lot of the things that you miss. Flat sheets, nurses calculating drugs and mixing iv's, no 24hr pharmacy, 18 bed wards, cardex, no aircon...etc....etc....

Not so much the 18 bed wards but everything else including metal bedpans:eek: and drip rate calculations still happen in both Ireland and in the center of excellence that I now work in in Australia! post op sponge for all major surgeries the first evening if they cannot SOOB and onto a shower chair.

but then on the bright side I work in state(Victoria) with ratios for public hospitals 1 RN for 4 pt

And the banana bag correct me if I am wrong is a bag of NS with Pabarnix 1 & 11 added to it turning it yellow......a Iv infusion given to alcoholics daily for 3 days on admission to the ward to replace vitamins and minerals lost by their poor diet. Combined with up to 40mg librium QID for DTs (this was happening 2 years ago in a hospital in Ireland!!) :)

Smoking in the nursing station. Pts smoking in their rooms. I remember one pt was a quad and had some special apparatus to hold his cigarette - as a student I would have to put the cigaette in and light it. The first time I could not get the lighter to light - the next day my two smoking friends spent their break teaching me how to light a lighter!

That is something I do not miss from the "good old days". I'm a non-smoker but sometimes after a shift, my clothes and hair smelled like I'd been in a singles' bar for eight hours. And that was from the patients who smoked.

Honestly, the staff members I knew who smoked the most were the respiratory therapists! Go figure!

And the banana bag correct me if I am wrong is a bag of NS with Pabarnix 1 & 11 added to it turning it yellow......a Iv infusion given to alcoholics daily for 3 days on admission to the ward to replace vitamins and minerals lost by their poor diet. Combined with up to 40mg librium QID for DTs (this was happening 2 years ago in a hospital in Ireland!!) :)

Thank you so much for explaining the banana bag. I really wondered what that was!

Iv's not in veins but placed under the skin (like big infiltrates).

Clysis.:)

Who remembers nurses wearing starched white dresses with belt at the waist, started high hat, hard Clinic shoes,and the blue & red wool cape? OH, and you never left home without your school pin.

My teacher once told me that back in her day that to test for any UTI's, the nurses would boil the urine, and if it congealed, it meant infection was present ? Yikes.

"String of cups on all males who just had prostate surgery..."

Would somebody explain this?

That was to see the progression of urine from reddish to pink-tinged.

Harris flush and a rotating enema

Buck's Traction

open wards - some rooms with up to 12 beds - bathrooms where in the main hallway

When visiting hours were over - Visitors HAD to leave (no if's, and's, or but's)

MD order for immediate family to stay with dying patient - friend's or significant others were NOT allowed

Mrs/Ms/Mr/Dr/Student - NO first names ever or get a nasty talking to

Patient TV's could be turned off and removed if the patient did not follow room rules (Yes, there was a time when patients actually had to follow the rules!).

Using sugar on pressure ulcers

Melting the soap bars that other patients had used during a bath to later be used for orthopedic patients needing SSE (soap suds enema's)

In the days before accuchecks, the MD would taste the urine to see if a patient was hyperglycemic