General Chat

thanks for the memories -it`s not the same nowadays is it ?
Ros xx

It isn't at all. :-)
I am glad I was there (even though back then sometimes I wished I wasn't lol)

I spent the first 3 months in PTS (preliminary training school) - gosh I was terrified.

I started ENG training 1983 then extended training 1990 to RGN. As most said wouldnt want to go back as too much paperwork and like most i prefer patient care. I left 1996 as i had triplets and now work as a teaching assistant in my childrens school

Dont regret being a nurse it was what i always wanted to do

Star

MIL was a trained nurse in the 40's/50;s says you weren't allowed to touch a patient for the first year until you'd learned how to clean the floors first!!
Start from the bottom & work your way up

Is this a myth or a bit of exaguration?

I too remember washing gloves in Theater and testing for holes---and packing drums with dressings ready to go in Autoclaves.
Red rubber tubing in Giving sets before plast ice ones----how did they clean them especially after a Blood drip---the were sterilized and re used!!!!

Lancs Lass---my sister trained 7 years prior to me in the 50's and she can remember scrubbing floors!!! So it's no myth!

It was only in the /19891990, that what ever hospital i worked at we stopped wiping down the lockers/each locker had there own little rubbish bag and every weekend clean the sluiceand general cleaning.

Star.

Why has no one answered my question?

I would love to know if any of you used or even knew about the X-Ray machine.

This has been a lovely thread , but please because I am not a nurse there is no need to ignore me! ;-0(

Deanna X

Sorry Deanna, I wouldn't deliberately ignore you.
(Have felt ignored on way too many posts to count to do that to someone and its just not my nature, but that's the way of these boards I think, judging by the people that feel that way)
I don't remember those xray machines. I have been racking my brain (hard work!!) to try and remember my first encounter with xray machines.
I was a cadet nurse before starting my training (1965-68) and spent a while in xray, but cannot remember.
Maybe there is someone who trained before me with memories of these.
Lyndi xx

OMG I remember those damn needles, and how often there was a 'snag' on the end after re=sharpening. Love the current needles but hate the never-ending waste. Still using my bandage scissors I got in 1963!!
mary

Deanna, no, don't remember the X-ray equipment you mentioned. Do any of you remember washing down the bed frames with carbolic solution after a death or discharged patient, ready for the new admission. Wonder if junior nurses still do that nowadays?

Deanna
Sorry I don't remember those specific Xray machines either.
I spent many a morning when a cadet in 1968 damp dusting the children's ward with another cadet. We also had to wash the thick brown rubber/plastic sheets used to protect the mattresses and using hycolin to soak the nit combs in between children.

I use my experience of the good old days when I Induct new HCSW's as how things have moved on and sometimes not for the better.
Di

I remember-I remember!!

I started nursing BEFORE the NHS!!
I did 2 years as what was called a "probationer nurse" from 16 to 18 at a local hospital but looking back it was "slave labour"!!

I do remember those X-ray machines and we used to try and get the old X-rays and wash them for the clear film to cover things like books etc

When I started my training in 1947,in London,the NHS was just starting and one of the things that has remained in my mind was the really awful things people were suffering from and how grateful they were for free treatment.

Jean,remember the "back rounds" and the stigma of allowing a patient to develop a bedsore?

It was hard work,lots of cleaning.
You had to be resident-another story!!

Our patients were in for longer so we got to know them better.

It would not suit me today but thankfully there are still youngsters who enjoy todays challenges!

Bet

Remember rubbing pressure areas with spirit,
Ros xx

EUSOL, Collodian dressings and BIPP,
Egg white and Oxygen therepy for the treatment of bed sores.
My, how things have moved on.
Joan

I'd forgotten collodian lol.

I remember practising my reverse spiral bandaging, now its a nice easy conforming bandage lol.

Deanna---sorry was trying to remember and now I do

Wow I loved the back round and giving a good old rub---frowned on now of course,and packing with Eusol and Hydrogen peroxide---watching it fizz up.Yes it was a stigma to get a bedsore.
And remember washing down beds with Carbolic.
PTS was a good memory too and going into Block for 3 months

Climbing in through windows at Nurses Homes when you didn't have a late pass----and getting caught by Night Sister

Oh yes, I remember back rounds, and woe betide anurse who let apatient get abed sore. We used either soap, left on to dry, or rubbed with surgical spirit.
When I finished my army service I tried to get in a London hospital, but because I was married they would not take me, they also would have expected me to start at PTS again, despite my army qualifications. We also did our own cleaning and even 20 yrs ago, if a
toilet area was soiled the cleaning staff would not touch it, guess who did! As acadet, we spent time in all departments, X-ray, physio, path lab, library and occupational therapy. It gave us a good insight on how the hospital worked. Jean

I also remember climbing in through the window. Did,nt we have fun Jean

Yes,we did have fun!
I think,because we lived and worked together we had a strong bond with our "set" and looked out for each othe

I also remember "many tailed bandages"!
We had to wash them after use.

Bet