New Grads/New Uniforms

Working the day shift today, I came across a group of cowering, huddling  new nursing graduates, all dressed in white, being taken on walking rounds. I just celebrated my 20th year in nursing and I remember those early days. I began my career on a medical-surgical floor with 6 other new graduates. At that time our orientation lasted 3 months, instead of today’s orientation length of 6 weeks.

For months I remember being somewhat timid, hesitant, and feeling totally unprepared for what was ahead for me. AIDS was the new disease. I recall the first AIDS patient I took care of -- a tall, thin man. Universal precautions weren’t yet developed or implemented. I remember discharging patients with hand-written lists of their medications. Halcion was still the drug of choice for insomnia.

Ironed white uniforms were also the norm. I would come home from work  after an 8-hour day and bleach my uniform. (12-hour shifts had not yet been implemented, although the talk of town was the impending nursing shortage.)  Scrubs were only worn by the OR staff.

I watched these new young grads walk through our unit -- wearing white scrubs, clogs, and printed or flowered jackets. How uniforms have changed over the years. Here I was standing outside a patients’ room wearing a yellow isolation gown -- gowns that we routinely wear over our betadine or blood-splattered scrubs. A patients’ chest had just been opened. The young nurses looked somewhat dazed by all the garbage in the hall.

Yup, another year. Another new group of nursing grads is coming on board.