When I graduated from nursing school in 1968, I donned my cap and became "team leader" and charge nurse on a 14 bed GYN unit. We were so busy! We had up to 4 patients to care for...it's a good thing most of them stayed 7-10 days! :) Still, we gave excellent care, which of course included a complete bed bath every day, soaking their feet in the basin water, then a nice long back rub. We read them their mail and took them for walks to the chapel.

My charge nurse was really old...she had to be 50! She lovingly called me BRAT and I lovingly called her POSTEN, which stood for "Poor Old Sick and Tired Elderly Nurse." POSTEN went on and on about how they used to do things in the "good old days."

 

Now it's 2016 I have several friends who are young nurses - really young - they must be 30! And as I tell them about how we used to do things, I realize, I'm POSTEN! I'm that old nurse! And everything has changed.