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!

[kxvc]

I check out everybody's veins. I thought this was normal, guess not.

I knock on pt's room doors as I leave the room (embarrassing).

Every time I go fill a prescription I look at ppl and think...omg, I wonder when I will come across them in the ER?

On days when I am exhausted from work I have found myself thinking I have to document something I did even when I am not at work anymore...for example: my dog's BM or me taking an ibuprofen.

[sairin8]

Another one, I've looked for the chart to record my own BM (blasted Bristol stool chart)

[noreenl]

I have signed my name with the RN after it on credit card receipts and checks and then get.. Oh your a nurse! I have this pain......

[lylenrn]

I must confess I am also a vein admirer. If the person is a family member I will actually palpate them.

My children have assured me this is a new habit. I am thinking it is because of the added stress on my unit.

Recently my NM has started to show a side of her personality that staff is not accustomed to. It has caused many to change depts, find other employment or retire suddenly. It would be an understatement to say the staff that is left in our unit is stressed. I am stressed and the kids have noticed that I hold whole conversations in my sleep, sometimes saying very unflattering things. Guess i can chalk that one up to not being able to verbalize these feelings while awake if i expect job security.

[teeniebert, LPN]

I usually catch myself before signing 'LPN'--my name just has a weird squiggle at the end sometimes.

Walking into the grocery store one day, I put my car keys into my left front pocket...they fell on the ground with a spectacular jingling crash...I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which don't have pockets in the same place as my scrubs!

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

Count another one for checking veins. I've also unthinkingly given 24-hour values for time requests in public, which nearly always elicits a confused "huh?" from people and a very embarrassed "Oops!" from me.

Thankfully I haven't done the signing-RN-in-public bit yet, though I have caught myself trying to log onto my home computer with my hospital ID number...

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Oh yeah, I sign my name with RN at the end! I used to knock on the doors at my house before entering a room. I look at someone with an unsteady gait and run through a list of diagnoses. I wash my hands all the way up to the elbows. I look at scars on people and can tell immediately what kind of surgery they had. I inspect my dog's poop (the neighbors think this is weird, but my husband is a paramedic, and he asks me for a detailed description). I bring alcohol pads with me to the movies to wipe down the 3D glasses. I have to stop short of autoclaving my shoes after a particularly bloody case. I use military time. When I am eating string cheese, I open it like a sterile package. When it snows, I wonder how many gamma nails I will be doing on old ladies that were bound and determined to walk down the steeply graded driveway to get the mail. When I hear a helicopter, I wonder if I will be doing transplants or traumas when I get to work.

[NewAggieGrad09]

I'm still a new nurse (only have 7 months of experience under my belt), but I have done some stuff out of habit LOL.

I, too, have put RN at the end of a signature...not on a check, thought....yet! lol

I am practicing how to place IVs and do peripheral vein blood draws, and yes, I do look at people's veins. I am having a hard time with the sticks, but my friend has GREAT veins, and I made my first successful stick on her.

I have a habit of washing my hands or using sanitizer a lot (which isn't a bad thing).

I work in a peds hospital, so everytime I see a child in public, I feel the urge to get on bended knee and introduce myself to the little terror...I mean....prince or princess :-)

I have the habit of checking for capillary refill...on myself, my mom, my newborn god-daughter....as well as her newborn reflexed and her fontanels.

Lastly, I have developed the habit of checking in on people while they are asleep to make sure they are still breathing without waking them....something I learned to do on night shift for those toddlers who will not keep their monitor leads and pulse ox on, and will easily awake even if my stethoscope lightly taps the siderails of their cribs :angthts:

[NewAggieGrad09]

I also hear the beeps of monitors and call bells well after I have left work....it drives me batty.

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I also hear the beeps of monitors and call bells well after I have left work....it drives me batty.

HAHAHA! I forgot about that one! I used to work in PACU, and I can STILL hear those daggum monitors!

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

I inspect veins

I holler at medical shows on TV

I have answered my phone, "ICU, this is tvccrn, how may I help you?"

I hear beeps in the night and wake up looking for the IV pump

My husband has a good knowledge of medical info from listening to my nighttime ramblings

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

I HAVE answered my phone at home, "Recovery room, hello?" And I have also woken up at night and reflexively checked my husband's breathing...