General Chat

We had some disposeable syringes when I started, but still used the glass ones for insulin and parentrovite (didn't that stink - hated giving it lol)
We still had blood for transfusion in glass bottles as well.
How times have changed lol

Yes, we were packing drums in the late 50s, and washing and pairing gloves in theatre when the rooms were not in use. Any that had holes were repaired and used for cleaning jobs. When I was in the army, using glass syringes and separate needles, the needles were quite large, and used several times sterilising between each use. Then they were sent to pharmacy where they were re-sharpened!

Lol - took me a while to get the knack of the cheatles forceps to lift things from the steriliser- a few things slipped to the floor.
And we used to pack the drums at weekends in theatre - after we had cleaned the whole theatre suite of course lol.

Did any of you older ones have to pack drums with gauze dressings and cottonwool swabs when doing nights? Remember the sterilisers at the end of the ward where we used to boil up syringes and kidney bowls etc.

I started my nursing training in 1958, so am ancient enough to remember the pulsometer. I had one for a while until I could afford a fobwatch.

I remember Southeys tubes used to drain ascites from legs and that was 1970. Horrendous images of this as a student and the smell if the fluid was awful.
Loved Tinc Benz. Also remember as a Staff Nurse on Nights passing 6 Ryles tubes at 6 am every morning to do Fractional Test Meals. How hectic these early morning were.
Di

That was so interesting... what a lovely load of memories you have.

So do any of you remember the old fashioned X-Ray machines?

I was taken to the hospital (Perth Scotland) when I was 4yrats old, for
an X-Ray....
It was...or seemed to be just a huge PLATE on both side, where I had to stand with my back to one... then the black curtains were drawn and (I believe) the plates were moved together.
the nurse asked me if I wanted daddy to hold my hand... and he said "no... she is a good girl, she doesn't need that!"
I was TERRIFIED.

So do any of you remember anything like the machine I have tried to describe?

And you are all great girls.
Deanna X
PS.
Forgot to say.... it was 1944, but sometimes people who come to the jobs much later have seen or even worked with old machines.

I remember washing gloves in theatre!!
We then used to hold the wrist opening, swing them round a few times to fill them with air to check no holes, then pair them, put them into a stainless steel drum and autoclave them.
How todays nurses would laugh lol (but would they be able to cope?).

Eeh what memories we all have.
What about the Gyc and Ic poultices---I.E. Glycerine and Icthamol---smelled like tar and used for DVT's!!!
Loved doing poultices and seeing how neat I could get them.

What about the mustard plaster? I last did one in1959, when the Dr prescribed one for a neighbour with pleurisy. All the linctuses in the medicine cupboard used to have a paper collar on to catch the drips. All we had in 1953 for rheumatic fever patients was bed rest and aspirin, sometimes for months. Penicillin was the anti-biotic which had just come in and was like gold dust. Sent a young orderly to do a blanket bath once and found him shortly after, laying blankets in the bath and putting water in! Jean

What a trip down memory lane.

I used to love making Kaolin poultices and also preparing the Nelson Inhalers, where have they gone? Probably a health and safety issue these days!!

My favourite thing was putting on a fresh starched apron every day, I felt so much like a proper nurse, lol.
I am still working, in Outpatients. I trained in the early seventies and there are nine of us from my set who have a get together every year and yes, we are all still in nursing.

Well done to Teresa's daughter and fingers crossed for T.

Back to the bedpans....
Sue

If anyone (of the oldies) remembers my daughter Kerry being interested in nursing....well she is now at the end of her first year as a 'trainee' nurse. She is studying towards qualifying as a Registered Nurse in Intellectual Disability (RNID). Its a 4 year course over here but she is the youngest in the nursing college at the moment as she passed her exams early and will only turn 18 in June....

If God is good I will hopefully start my training in September!!

love Theresa

What about scrubbing those bedpans with Thomsons cleaner? before disposable ones
Ros xx

What memories we all have of our nurse training days. Glad that I started out in the 1960`s as I would not want to be a young nurse now. My pet `hate` was the noisy autoclave and the steam when using it. I am sure that it only acted up when I was on duty.

Love and Peace
Marianne.

Who remembers boiling Kaolin to make poultices?
Then spreading on swabs to put on a wound . Then someone invented boil in the bag kaolin--LOL
Ros xx

Ummmmm Jean, I wonder if the National History Museum have one ? Hee Hee
I think there is a medical museum over Sheffield way they may be interested.
Joan (back to boiling the bandages and rolling !)

It appears I have a national treasure. I cant be the oldest nurse on here can I? Time I gave up. The pulsometer worked well if you turned it up straight so that the sand fell through properly, and if you wanted to take a pulse for a full minute you just turned it over quickly and continued the count. Jean

Just googled pulsometer and it only came up with steam pumps. I know nursing has changed over the decades but surely not.

I have never heard of a pulsometer either but would like one. I think it is poor common practice to take the pulse or resps for 15 or 30 seconds and then times by 4 or 2 which seems to be a short cut when doing obs.
I was bought a fob watch and scissors when I started my training and the silver buckle when I qualified. Ah, memories.
Joan

Jean
I don't remember a pulsometer either. I got a watch when I started my training.