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 Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
It takes longer to go from sitting to standing

and even longer to stand up straight

You can't run down those corridors anymore

You can only limp slowly down those corridors

Ha ha - yep, that's me! It's embarassing, the limp and the grunt ... lol

When you can't seem to concentrate on the 13 things at one time like you used to.

No kidding! TWO things are pretty amazing ...

When the noise level in the nursing home gives you an almost irrestiable urge to smash the call light system.:angryfire

Hmm, I have ALWAYS had that feeling, on those kinds of nights!

Good points twilite!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..

You can't run down those corridors anymore

You can only limp slowly down those corridors

I thought of another one, you look forward to charting so you can SIT DOWN!

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
I always liked Good Housekeeping, my mom used to get it and many other "Housekeeping" type magazines, lol - does that make me "old" too? BTW it didn't teach me anything, I just liked looking at the food and "other people's" good taste!

How old is the "girl" now?

I thought she was heading to her 40's, if she wasn't already there.

I love Good Housekeeping.

Specializes in Peds, GI, Home Health, Risk Mgmt.
The iron lung gives me the creeps just looking at it.

Although the iron lung (aka negative pressure ventilation) was the mainstay of polio treatment in the 50's and 60's, its use continued until relatively recently:

"In the fall of 2003, Respironics Colorado notified affected physicians, caregivers and ventilator clients that, effective March 1, 2004, Respironics, Inc. could no longer ensure its ability to procure service parts or repair services for certain ventilation equipment. The equipment affected included the iron lung, rocking bed, Bantam, Zephyr blower, PVV, 170C Monaghan, Thompson Portable, Cascade humidifier, IPPB, Gomco 789 Aspirator, Gomco 400 Aspirator and the Huxley."

In the early 90's I cared for a pediatric patient with "Ondine's curse" (no respiratory drive when asleep) whose pediatric nurse mom didn't want her trached as she was a normal kid when she was awake. So she slept in a pediatric iron lung (a Life Care/Respironics product). My favorite memory was the challenge of keeping the blanket on her, as the suction within the chamber would pull it down to the bottom of the unit.

Of course, the number of patients with this condition is very small, and so it's understandable why the manufacturer found it to be an unprofitable product, but for my patient it was the perfect solution.

HollyVK

(who's worked with all sorts of vents over the years, including Baby Birds)

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

The article was in the June 2006 article of Good Housekeeping.

Specializes in disability.

Levodevo You seem to have sum of all our current moral standards very well put. like you say hopefully the error of their ways will be revealed & they learn! My belief is that while there is hope to inspire us as nurses to go on we do and do Its when we lose hope we lose that spark that makes us nurses

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.
You are working on the top floor of a hospital in California and during an earthquake the IV bottles clink against the metal because they are made of glass.

Been there, done that! 1971 Olive View quake! Standing next to a huge glass window on the 6th floor. I thought, Well, if I die, I die....

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..

... In the early 90's I cared for a pediatric patient with "Ondine's curse" (no respiratory drive when asleep) whose pediatric nurse mom didn't want her trached as she was a normal kid when she was awake. So she slept in a pediatric iron lung (a Life Care/Respironics product). My favorite memory was the challenge of keeping the blanket on her, as the suction within the chamber would pull it down to the bottom of the unit.

Of course, the number of patients with this condition is very small, and so it's understandable why the manufacturer found it to be an unprofitable product, but for my patient it was the perfect solution.

HollyVK

(who's worked with all sorts of vents over the years, including Baby Birds)

Thanks Holly!

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
I thought she was heading to her 40's, if she wasn't already there.

I love Good Housekeeping.

Thanks Marie and for looking up the date of the article! You're forgiven for dressing up the doggie... lol

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
... I thought, Well, if I die, I die....

Oh my goodness!!

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

@ that point, wasn't too much I could do about it, either! I didn't even remember to say an Act of Contrition till about an hour later. I had sent the LVN working w/me to the lab w/the am bloodwork, and she was in the elevator. NOT the best place to be in an earthquake. Scared the bejeez out of both of us.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

You grunt when trying to get up off the floor after draining a Foley into the urinal.

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