Confess! Whats the craziest force of habit you've done in the "Real World"

[vhern246]

I have heard some of the craziest things nurses have done out of force of habit in the "Real World". Aka out of the hospital.

I've heard that some sign their checks with first initial, last name RN.

Someone ran to aisle four in the grocery store because of a "code blue! clean up! Code blue!"

Knocking on the door before entering, any door, your front door.

Answering your cell phone "Nurses station"

Admiring someones veins.

Holding your invisible steth when leaning over.

Wheres the weirdest place you've fallen asleep?

Confess!

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

This is a great thread. I am guilty of signing first initial last name sometimes instead of my "real" signature, I catch myself before I write "RN". Even before I was a nurse I could tell when some have thyroid troubles/graves disease from working with an ophthalmologist for years. I have had to stop myself a few times from asking someone if they see a doc for their thyroid. I have been at disneylad in the bathroom and waved my hand under the towel dispenser waiting for the paper towel roll to automatically spew out a paper towel and it is an old fashioned dispenser with folded pieces of paper towel. Boy, did I feel stupid. I always look at strangers veins especially when they look like an easy stick then wonder if they are a "roller". I assess people in the grocery lines, especially legs, swollen ankles or discoloration. I always notice pupil sizes, uneven pupils, droopy eyelids (ptosis), bells palsy. Again, from years of working "eyes". Especially on my first day off I will be a little harder on my lap top, tapping buttons harder (I didn't notice this at first, my hubby had to remind me one day to be easy on our brand new lap top because I was slapping down on the enter button) I also have pushed F11 or F12 key instead of the enter button or if I wanted to go to the last screen. Of course, it didn 't work and I think, Duh! When my son was little and forgot to flush, I would assess before flushing. I auscultate my family's and even my own breath sounds when sick. . I pour pills in the cap and don't touch them when giving to my hubby or kids. Also guilty of yelling at the TV when medical shows aren't acurate. That's all I can think of right now. I am sure there are more.

[Rhi007]

Even though I'm not a nurse yet I always perve on people's veins!! I carry hand sanitiser with me EVERYWHERE. Places I have fallen asleep are bolt upright at the library, curled up on the tiled kitchen floor (it was hot and the floor was cold), upside down and on a show ride.

I also tend to document and do a mini handover when I'm sick ( I still live at home with mum) so if mum isn't awake but I am I'll go into her and tell her something like this:

At 0200 I had 2x panadol and 2x neurofen

Temp: afebrile

HR: 70bpm

Resp: 15

Clear fluids PO

[opdahlamber]

I have answered the phone at home "This is Gina, can I help you?"..especially if I see "Wise ICU" on the caller ID. It triggers something. Otherwise..I have woke up listening for call bells thinking I have fallen asleep on the job(my personal biggest fear-never done it-never want to), I have signed checks and permission slips and report cards with my work signature. I have tried to log i at work using my ID from home or my pw from my home email. I have knocked on doors in my own home while I was the only one home. I have (inadvertently) taught my kids to diagnose and treat certain illnesses and conditions. The teacher at school asked my 9 year old about hypothyroidism...and she told her(but she IS hypothyroid) My kids treat wounds and handle trauma cases on the playground. No one in my house gets squeamish at the sign of blood, though, I am the only one who can observe poop and finish swallowing what I was eating.

You realize...we don't work as nurses....we become nurses. That's who we are and it is deeply ingrained in us. Consider also, though, there is some reason we sought this. There is some part of us that needed this to fulfill who we were to be. For some of us, it was a child or parent who needed medical care, and we thought, "I want to do that" or "I can do that". For some, it was a family member who did this, and that person was an inspiration to us, and we wanted to be like them. For some, it was an ideal. A distant faint image of who we believed we wanted to be int his world. For some, it was simply providence. We are all here doing this for a reason.

Don't let the bad days get to you...you were put here to do even the bad days. It HAD to be you.

You have hit the nail right on the head! I loved this!!!!!

[hrmcquiston]

I work on locked psych wards, and have tried to use my work keys to open my front door

Also have to catch myself from signing LVN to the end of my checks.

[fakm]

I used to work overnight phone triage for hospice, returning calls after families had called the answering service. Not knowing who would pick up, I would call and say, "Hello, this is the nurse, how can I help you?" On the rare occasion when I had dialed or been given the wrong number, I was inadventently making the most weird 3 am crank calls to people not enrolled in our program!

[NurseJay85]

I will occasionally put LPN after my name on non nursing paperwork out of habit. I knock on every door when I'm tired (one morning i was really tired and knocked in the closet door and waited for someone to say come in) and have answered my cell phone at home and off duty with "A station this is Jay, how can I help you?"

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

I run the timeclock / scoreboard / scoresheet for my son's hockey games. There is more than one scoresheet out there that is signed, "brillohead, RN"!