Anyone else the QUIET nurse?

[Newgrad_STAT]

New nurse here...

started my orientation on a medical floor. (I'm part of a float team so I will be floating to all different floors areas).

The first day went alright- my preceptor wasn't bad... I thought she would have shown me a bit more but oh well.

Anyways, I'm usually always pretty quiet and shy. It's just my personality and I've accepted that. I don't always mesh well with people who are loud and love to hear themselves talk. However, when I'm around people who I am really comfortable with I definitely am more outgoing.

But I knew coming on the floor for the first day... I'd be pretty quiet.

and I noticed many of the nurses are very obnoxiously LOUD... gossiping and everything.

I don't mind chatting but I don't want to be apart of gossip.

During break the charge nurse even said to me "You're not normally this quiet are you?" and then she said "Oh boy" and I was thinking I'd rather be quiet than be like you.

Of course everyone is going to have a different personality but wow.

I'm also orientating with another new nurse from the float pool... and she is pretty outgoing... I don't think it makes her a better nurse than me... but I wonder if people think this.

I guess that's the good thing about being part of the float team... always changing.

I don't necessarily mind being quiet... I'm a really great listener, I pick up on tons of things people miss and it's me.

Anyone else in my shoes?

There are a few other nurses on the floor who pretty much kept to themselves. (one was also from the float pool).

[Wishinonastar, BSN]

Or pull the cord or whatever the usual method is. Yelling does not help anyway. But I can still start CPR and say "Help, I need help!" without telling the whole world every thought in my head or every personal thing about my family. Sometimes I am downright shocked at the boldness of people. They tell me all about their sex lives and everything else. I guess because I am quiet enough to let them go on and on or maybe because they know I am not a gossip. Truthfully I know a LOT more about most people than I want to know, because I am quiet.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

In some hospitals the button on the wall only turns on a light over the room door. Doesn't that delay help?

[RainMom]

I'm also a quiet person. But you can believe that I can be loud when I have to be. My second week on nights, I went to assess a fresh post-op at the far end of the hallway to find him lying on the floor near the bathroom & there was so much blood everywhere, it looked like a murder scene. "I NEED HELP NOW!"

It was all from pulling out his IV....thank God!

[buytheshoes11, MSN, RN]

I'm pretty quiet until I get to know people better - then they get to see the talkative and silly side of me.

In general, I like to listen more than I talk though...I learn more this way and hear things others don't!

[yourstrulyjmc]

*Raises hand*

[jwha]

I've been a pt a few of times, & my fave nurses were always the quiet unassuming ones who just got the job done, then got out of the room to let my have some rest. The loud chatty outgoing ones with tons of questions about who I am, where I'm from, what I do etc exhaust me, cuz being sick, the last thing I wanna do is chit chat. I imagine many pts (of course not all) feel the same way. I myself am a quiet polite nsg student (not a chatty boisterous one), & my preceptor's happy with my pt rapport/bedside manner.

However, the main problem I have (like you), is connecting with the other nurses on the ward. At the staff room during lunch break I'm quiet as a mouse, cuz I'm very shy & don't like talking to a roomful of people. One of my classmates made a snide comment about that, & my response to her was "well you've just got an opinion on everything, don't you?" - & what I meant by that is that she's constantly gossiping & criticising people, including pts (eg comments on an obese pt: "I just don't get how anyone let themselves get that way, does he have no self-respect?? blah blah blah")