You Know You're an Old(er) Nurse If . . .

Nurses General Nursing

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You know you're an older nurse if:

1. You remember working with nurses who wore caps. :nurse:

2. You remember nurses (and doctors) sitting at the nurses station drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while charting. :smokin:

3. You remember when charting was done (handwritten) in 3 different colors (black or blue for day shift, green for evening shifts, red for night shift).

4. You remember when IV fluids came only in glass bottles.

5. You remember when breast milk wasn't a biohazard. :redlight:

6. You remember when chest tube setups consisted of glass bottles, rubber stoppers, and tubing.

7. You remember when white polyester uniforms were the standard for nurses.

8. You remember when you'd have given your eye teeth for a comfortable pair of nursing shoes (we haven't always been able to wear athletic shoes).

9. You remember when the hospital's top nurse was the director of nursing and not the chief nursing officer.

10. You remember giving lots of IM shots for pre-ops and pain meds.

What else?

HollyVK (with patient care experience going back to 1972) :gandalf:

Specializes in allergy&asthma, geriatrics.

Cracking your shins on bed cranks

Sandbags for post op cataract patients

Foot soaks

Mixing your own IV's:wink2:

You know you're an older nurse if:

1. You remember working with nurses who wore caps. :nurse:

2. You remember nurses (and doctors) sitting at the nurses station drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes while charting. :smokin:

3. You remember when charting was done (handwritten) in 3 different colors (black or blue for day shift, green for evening shifts, red for night shift).

4. You remember when IV fluids came only in glass bottles.

5. You remember when breast milk wasn't a biohazard. :redlight:

6. You remember when chest tube setups consisted of glass bottles, rubber stoppers, and tubing.

7. You remember when white polyester uniforms were the standard for nurses.

8. You remember when you'd have given your eye teeth for a comfortable pair of nursing shoes (we haven't always been able to wear athletic shoes).

9. You remember when the hospital's top nurse was the director of nursing and not the chief nursing officer.

10. You remember giving lots of IM shots for pre-ops and pain meds.

What else?

HollyVK (with patient care experience going back to 1972) :gandalf:

I have done all this............39 years and counting. I think we cared more, our patient's were happier, and we enjoyed our work. Do you remember MS and Demerol tablets that were dissolved to give a narcotic IM?

In 1991 when my DW was sitting for her exams, I made a tailgate lunch on both days for her and her buddies. I could see the strain on her and am so glad that I was able to test on the computer in just 1 hour and ten minutes. And only had to answer 75 questions,AND knew the results in just 48 hours.

Specializes in MedSurg/OrthoNeuro/Rehab/Consultant.
In 1991 when my DW was sitting for her exams, I made a tailgate lunch on both days for her and her buddies. I could see the strain on her and am so glad that I was able to test on the computer in just 1 hour and ten minutes. And only had to answer 75 questions,AND knew the results in just 48 hours.

I remember eating my lunch in the parking ramp between test sections. Those were two very stressful days! Also, checking the mailbox every day for three months until I found out that I had passed the boards. :uhoh3: ;)

Specializes in trauma, flight nurse, critical care.

When you had to switch out and carry the cardiac monitor to another room if that monitor only had 1 plug in for hemodynamics and you needed two. They were bohemoths at the time, too! And yes, I've done the CVP with a glass manometer!

Cardiac patients were not allowed out of bed, had to use a bedpan for BM's. No music, no TV, no newspaper and limited visitors.

When paralytic agents were only prn Pavulon and IV demoral; no continous drips.

When you reached up in the cabinet for whatever med you needed and mixed it yourself. It was the night charge nurse's duty to do the stock drug reordering.

Personal protective equipment was only for the weak! It was a badge of honor to have blood on your shoes! LOL!

Definately remember doing decub care with a heat lamp and maalox, but for some reason, we put suger in the maalox and made a paste. Then we dried out the wound bed and couldn't figure out why they never healed!

Wearing a nursing cap in the ICU and getting it caught on the draperies.

Listening to the patients black and white manual TV that we carried into his room while the Challenger exploded. It's one of those things you always remember what you were doing when...

Suction cannisters were not disposible. They had to be emptied, scrubbed and then autoclaved on the unit.

Nobody owned their own scrubs, unless you "forgot" and took the hospitals' home with you. Cute little puppy's and angels to individualize yourself did not exist. You came to work in street clothes, changed into scrubs and left in your street clothes.

Definately remember soaking the inner cannulas of trachs and cleaning them with the little wire brushes.

My, haven't we come a lonnnggg way!

Glass syringes and reusable needles that had to be filed (in CSR) to remove the burrs. Salem sump tubes. Do pre-op preps without gloves and using safety razors when doing them. The uniforms we had to wear were dresses or two-piece suits only - also clean caps (head nurses checked these daily). Girdles and hose (pantyhose had not been invented yet!). Bending over to do a dressing change, and your cap flipped forward. Metal dressing trays and glass medicine cups on them. All dressing changes were done with pick-up forceps - no gloves; sterile gloves were for the surgery department only. Peri lamps - 20 mins. 2 x/day. And yes, the clinitest and acitest - dipsticks and tablets. Circo-electric beds for back surgeries; then they were fitted for braces before discharge. Not be "allowed" to go shopping after work in your uniform. And everything else that has been written here.

I just finished orientation at a new hospital yesterday, and we "older" nurses talked about these things. When we were talking about compartment syndrome, I mentioned wringer washers - only three of us knew what they were. LOL.

This thread has brought back so many memories!

As an old (RN since 1973) Emergency Room, Dialysis and now a Department of Health Registered Nurse, not sure but, are we still giving "Back Rubs"?

Specializes in trauma, flight nurse, critical care.

When I was a 17 year old CNA I worked evening shift and floated to all the floors. Part of the PM care was going from patient to patient and asking if they wanted a back rub with an option of lotion or alcohol. I think it was a wonderful way for patients to unwind and have one on one time with someone. A lot of stuff was told to me that I was able to pass on to my nurses that they were unaware of but had a need to know. Don't know if it is a part of care today or not. Maybe somewhere.

These have been a wonderful walk down memory lane. I had forgotten about the Stryker frames, clinitest, acetests, water on the transducers and coke to unclog NG tubes. Did anyone else ever have to wrap Nipride tubing from the bag to the hub? Don't want it to turn into cyanide after all!

These really need to be compiled and saved for future generations so they can appreciate how different things were just a few short years ago.

GOd I"m OLD i remember all the above.

Suction cannisters were not disposible. They had to be emptied, scrubbed and then autoclaved on the unit.

oh gag. Still having to empty suction cannisters out. as you can tell, one of my favorite jobs. Had one terrible early onset Alzheimers case here, advanced to the point where she was needing suctioning every shift. Was so upsetting and terrible to have to do.

Wow! I can remember all of these and more. How about choosing the nursing school based on whether you liked the cap or not!?!? And whoever said something about not wearing gloves b/c you would make the patient feel like they were untouchable had the mindset of the day pegged perfectly. And those awful preop enemas, in the 1500 cc bags. How many abs did we perforate doing those even for abdominal surgery. Probably caused a lot of perotonitis ya think. I still have my nursing uniform I graduated in over 30 years ago, and the shoes, which I should have bronzed. Remember the white shoe polish and if your shoes weren't spotless you got reamed out. And for you psych nurses out there, remember Thorazine 100 mg. IM for prns. And you didn't need a Rogers guardian to give it. Well, my long term memory still seems to be pretty good. It's recalling what I had for breakfast that is problematic now!

Kathy

I took my boards in Pennsylvania in July 1976. 2 days of written tests and you had to wait at least 6 weeks for the results. And you got scores for all the specialties, not one meshed score. We were allowed to work as Graduate nurses then b/c there was such a long wait for the results. I just finished NP school and took the boards this summer. Took them on computer and got the results within one week. I passed by the way. Well, it's funny reminiscing about the good ole days. And remember there was no such thing as the Baylor program, or 12 hr shifts. Much less flexibility back then.

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