Foolish Memories

I have been perusing the many nursing blogs and they all seem to be posted by youngsters who are very bright but perhaps may lack perspective.  Geriatric nurses, and I am referring to the nurses, not patients have not been communicating well with the younger generation of nurses. Heck, where I live there are hardly any youngsters.  Most of my colleagues have went on to their great reward and I am not far behind them. So I am going to start this off with some foolish memories from yesteryear. I have experience in OR, med-surg nursing, and neuro ICU with a brief stint in forensic psych when it used to be called getting beat up by assaultive psychopaths.  Anyhow, on with the recollections

The aroma of a metal bedpan being steam "cleaned" in a hopper. When you opened that hopper door with your clinic shoes a big brown cloud materialized right before your watering eyes. Impressive.

Using methylene blue to dye white silk sutures so the surgeon could see it and. when you thread that suture needle make sure to pull enough through the eye. If the suture falls out when you pass it to the surgeon you're going to hear a roar like a mountain lion in heat!

Wearing beanies during nursing school hell week (initiation) and being sent to Central Supply to pick up a set of Fallopian tubes.  Your big sister (preceptor in present times) threatened to practice nursing procedures on you and had an array of latex tubing and vessels of water to back up these threats.

Bovies in the OR that looked like Maytags and made that reassuring deep HUMM noises to verify they worked properly. No beeping, clicking, flashing lights and the ground looked like a cookie sheet with camel spit smeared all over it. This was ceremoniously placed under the patients rump just prior to induction.  What a great memory before recieving anesthesia. "Oooh that sure is cold"

Setting the sigh setting on mechanical ventilators. PEEP was a yellow Easter candy.

Collecting saliva to test for Digoxin toxicity based on the notion that more potassium would be in their saliva if they were toxic. This could be confusing to some and graphic descriptions of the difference between spit and sputum were common.  Yechh

Being taught how to insert a Foley with 3 sterile finger cots.

Being yelled at, belittled, and accused of trying to bring financial ruin to the hospital if you wore gloves while cleaning up a "Code Brown"  I learned that last term from the youngster nurses-very clever we used to have to call it poop.

Well, it's getting past my bedtime but there is much more foolishness to follow.