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

Nurses Humor

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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!

I have a habit of announcing every little thing that I am going to do. I do that with my residents and it is now ingrained in me. :rolleyes:

Specializes in LTC.

I was woken up yesterday around 3 AM by the boyfriend fussing at me.

Apparently I was feeling for a vein in my sleep. :rolleyes:

"Pat down" myself in public

Check out veins (not feeling so stange for that anymore :yeah: )

Signed RN on checks and kids homework

Automatically hit the sanitizer anywhere

Tried to scan my hospital badge to enter the bathroom

Knock before entering doors at home, sometimes I even include, "its your nurse"

After working 3 in a row, being off 1 , and working 2 more I got out of bed and automatically picked out my scrubs for the day...then realized it was my day off.

I attended a local concert; when the lights dimmed and the strobe lights turned on my immediate thought was, "oh god I hope no one has epilepsy" then proceeded to scan the crowd.

I loved the prior poster who said they "have 5 bottles on my bedside table" w/o skipping a beat...

Was reading through this again (after many months) and finally realized something. I recently changed facilities and had issues getting in the doors for the first two months. The old facility had tap cards, now I have to swipe a magnetic strip. Talk about a pain!

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.

I work on a neuro floor and find myself constantly checking people's pupils!

My fiancé has the most amazing veins, I am not very good at IVs so I beg him to let me practice, it's always a no.

It's funny because a lot of you answer your home phone with the unit you work on, I do the opposite! One time I answered "Hello" at work and the person on the other end was so confused.

Specializes in Pediatric Cardiology.
I also try to guess (in my head) the medical condition of people I see out on the street when they don't look "quite right"[/quote']

I do this too!

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

my friends tell me that i use the "we" most of the time for example "are we going to eat today?" " we are going to get a bath" "oh yes we are doing much better" etc. :cool:

I am so guilty about the dream about work thing. I was 3 years into nursing when I was taking care of a patient who was Dx c DVT in her brachial artery. Was also a smoker and we caught her multiple times smoking in her room (do you think we can't smell the cig smoke or see your H.R. go hp from 86 to 118 on the tele monitor when you take a nicotine puff?). Anyway, after the second day of taking care of this lady, I want home and dreamt of running into her at the grocery store and giving her the biggest lecture of her life! ('What the H**| do you think your doing?!? Don't you know you can die! All the work I've just done to save your A$$ and here you are p*^^ing it all away out the window with a smoke!) that was the actual dream quote!?

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

when i'm at a chinese restaurant, i tend to peel & open my chop-sticks like they were a sterile syringe package :cool:

Assessing everyone for mental illness. (In my head, not out loud!)

My conclusion? There's a LOT of people that should be in treatment that aren't. :)

Specializes in med/surg.

I too am guilty.

I palpate my husband's veins and radial pulse compulsively.

I just caught myself signing my son's daycare registration forms with my initial, last name-but caught myself before I actually put "RN"

I tend to use medical shorthand-the p or c or tid or q12h-no, teachers and husbands do not know what this means

I ache for sterile q tips when applying neosporin to any cut (including my own)

I keep some alcohol wipes in my purse "just in case"

I have a well-stocked first aid kit-which includes band aids with angry birds, Dora, Disney princesses, Spongebob, and Spiderman, at all times. Again-just in case.

Hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE

I have to fight the urge to run over and thoroughly assess other people's children when I am at the park with mine and they fall off the slide and start to cry. (I mean, they are crying, so they are probably fine, but still...can I just look at his pupils?)

I am pretty sure that lady I saw at the baseball game is a liver patient

When wrestling with my son (he's 10, and a big guy, but I can still beat him) "If you can talk, you can breathe-tap out!"

Sometimes I think my alarm clock is a telemetry alarm

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