ADD/ ADHD nurses- which units do you prefer?

[babblingbrook]

I was just curious in which units do ADD/ADHD nurses prefer. My son was diagnosed with ADHD a while back and I'm slowly realizing that I'm possibly ADD myself (I'm not hyper, but do have trouble staying focused and tend to like to jump around when doing things). I'm not a super anal detail oriented person, which sometimes I think is a detriment, but I am what I am. I try to find ways to make myself stay focused, but is sometimes tough to stay focused on 12 hr days as a nurse.

Just curiuos!

[JustEnuff2BDangerous, BSN, RN]

I think I have undiagnosed ADD :) I'm not hyper but have the inability to sit still for long periods of time (sometimes even short periods of time). I work on a 36 bed medical/surgical floor and am typically in charge of 9-12 patients. It keeps me busy, keeps me entertained, and best of all makes those 12 hours go by like THAT! Most of the time however I have to make a "to do" list, otherwise I'll forget something during all my jumping from room to room.

[Baloney Amputation, BSN, LPN, RN]

I'm not a nurse yet nor do I have ADHD. However, I thought I'd share this story with you:

My oldest son who has ADHD has an awesome pediatrician who is constantly reminding him how much ADHD is a "gift'' that he hasn't tapped into yet. During his med checks, she always tells him that she thinks half of the doctors that worked in ER with her had ADHD and that his high energy and ability to shift to different modes at a drop of a hat will be an asset to him if he decides to go into that field.

We (ADHDers) have heard parents gossip to others that if only our parents would just have disciplined us better or even beat us that ADHD wouldn't exist (I last heard this in my daughter's preschool roundup). I don't know how I kept from screaming, "Can you beat out the really great parts that come with ADHD, too?" That pediatrician your son has rocks!

I personally liked LTC because of the underlying consistency and routine. I knew what to expect when I went to work. It helped with my difficulty in priortizing tasks; I already knew what worked and what didn't with the routine. However, I absolutely cannot stand gossip (one of the better ADHD qualities, I believe), so that was an issue when it came to conversing with quite a few of my coworkers. I am also unable to think on my toes very well unless the emergency was something in which I had substantial experience, so LTC usually worked fine for that unfortunate aspect of my brain. I have loads of the cheery, singing, dancing, happy, easy-to-laugh qualities with my ADHD, and I had many residents tell me they liked that I wasn't a total mopey-butt when I came to work, because apparently there were plenty of those around.

[celclt]

ADD+OCD=ICU!!

[babblingbrook]

Thanks for all the great replies. I was laughing to myself b/c I've worked NICU am in Psych nursing now and am interested in working in the ER. So apparently I was heading down the right path without even knowing it! LOL. I never could figure out how come I hated the idea of going in to med-surg, but makes more sense. I figure at some point I have to go into med-Surg in order to be more marketable. How do you ADD muses handle it?