OK, we've weighed in on what we HATE to do at work........now, what do you actually LIKE to do? (Besides make money, of course...)
One of my favorite tasks is, of all things, taking care of post-op patients. I enjoy meeting them, finding out about their surgery, and making them as comfortable as possible, which is often quite a challenge! I also love to see them get better day by day until they're finally ready to go home. They are usually very appreciative of the care they receive, and sometimes I'll run into a former patient in town and they'll say "Oh, I know you, you're that nice nurse who took such good care of me!" Some patients come in for repeated surgeries, and we get to know each other over time....I really enjoy these patients, as opposed to the frequent-flyer medical patients who keep landing in the hospital because of bad lifestyles, addiction, and plain old stupidity (we have one young fellow who comes in roughly every couple of months in hypertensive crisis, who STILL doesn't get it that alcohol and meth are not his friends).
I also really like starting IVs---the more challenging, the better---and precepting students. I've currently got a gaggle of first-year folks who've taken to following me around the floor like little ducks, and I love it! They keep me on my toes, and I find I'm a better nurse when I have to serve as an example. :)
I love getting to know my patients, not just their problems but their strengths, personalities and backgrounds. We can learn so much from others if we give them the time. Unfortunately, I don't have the time I wish I had to spend with patients but I try each and every shift to spend a little time with each - then I rush like crazy to finish up at the end of my shift. Is it worth it - yep! :) I also enjoying teaching, not just patient teaching but staff. I work with a team of aides - they teach me just as much as I teach them some days. As far as technical skills, I love to do dressing changes and the challenge of a difficult IV start.
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
LOL...my utmost fav...code save!!!!! Man I love those! Gets me all pumped up and happy for days!
But besides that...I rarely get to do this, but when I can I really feel like I am doing something! Being with a patient at time of death holding their hand, making them comfortable, and making sure they are not alone during this time!
I recently got a chance for a patient I cared for very much, he post severe stroke and was a respiratory secretion nightmare really...had to wipe him up every 2 mins or so and you knew he was just so very uncomforable (even if he was rather non responsive unless noxious stimuli). I was fortunate enough not to have caregivers calling me every few seconds on my walkie (I am one nurse to 160 residents in assisted living), or other patients demanding the nurse right NOW...no, I was able to spend his last few hours with him giving him as much comfort as I could, cool cloth for his head, repositioning, just talking to him! His family could not be present (out of state) so I was it for him...and I was so thankful I had the opportunity to make sure that this one patient left with as much care I could give to him...made me feel very helpful, needed, and even though he didn't speak...appreciated! (oh man I am tearing up here now...).
I also love to teach student nurses. They are so eager, so willing and sometimes bring a laugh when all seems lost mid shift. Teaching students for me is not an annoyance, as I find some of my co workers are not as enthralled...It is a joy to see the light bulb, or to let them practice in front of someone less intimadating than their teacher!
That is SO nice to hear! As a student, I sometimes feel in the way of the nurses and that I slow them down. I do truly learn so much from the nurses though and every one I have "leached" onto for information has been wonderful. And YES! I LOVE it when I have a nurse go with me when I try out a new skill instead of my instructor. They give great tips, aren't rushing to get to the next student, and even say I do a good job! Thanks!!!
My favorite part so far is the chance to give a backrub or a squeeze of the hand during a visit from a doctor with bad news. I always hold my patient's hand if they allow me and speak directly to them even if they can't respond. I like the feeling that I am caring for their whole person and not just hanging fluids and shoving meds. Any little thing I can educate patients and their family on is a fun thing for me too.
drawing blood (from a central line, of course!, you almost can't ever miss!)
hanging chemo too (as long as i'm not rushed and the orders actually make sense).
explaining/teaching things i know a lot about (and seeing that confused ;ook disappear from their faces)
talking to kids about something other than chemo, shots, mouthcare, and meds. i like to see them when they talk about about 'kid' things, and they often look surprised or excited when i start singing along to the wiggles or dancing like a fool.
It's great when you finally get to extubate your pt. and actually get to talk to them for the first time....especially when you've taken care of them for awhile...you never know who they really are until then.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I'm another one who feels honored to be present when a patient leaves this earth, knowing my being there made him/her more comfortable during this final passage and helped the family begin the process of letting go.
My very first patient death was a 53 YO woman with pulmonary fibrosis who had been sent to my nursing facility to live out her last days on hospice. During the weeks that I cared for her, I got to know her and her family well, and as her death drew nearer I learned how a strong spirit can overcome a weakened body. Her faith, which I learned had always been important to her, grew daily as her respiratory function deteriorated, and finally, on a hot August evening she declared to me that the medications weren't working for her anymore and that she was ready to go. Not long after this, she started exhibiting symptoms that even I as a new grad knew signaled the beginning of the end.
I called the family and her friends, who came to the facility and gathered in a circle around her bed to pray and sing. Somewhere down the hall, a radio softly played "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" as she took her final rasping breaths.....and I remember thinking I could indeed, as the group invited me to pray and sing with them, and then one woman put her arm around my shoulders as I listened to the patient's heart slow down, and then finally was still.
I usually do not go to patients' funerals, but I did this one time to honor this woman and her family, and to thank them for including me in their celebration of her life. I will never forget the love that literally lit up that dark, sad room where Joslyn had lived her final days in dignity, and from which she fled when it was no longer possible for her to do so.
That's why nursing, it is said, is a career measured not in years, but in moments. :)
It's great when you finally get to extubate your pt. and actually get to talk to them for the first time....especially when you've taken care of them for awhile...you never know who they really are until then.
Yes, I enjoy surgical ICU settings too because it IS fun the day 'after' extubation when you enter the room and the family says 'This is the great nurse who managed your postop care yesterday and explained things to us'. And when I speak the patient lights up with a smile...remembering my voice if nothing else.
Knowing I did my best and that the family rested easier because of my skilled interventions and care is a good feeling. None of us went into this field without a caring spirit thats for sure...or we couldn't survive all the 'stuff' that makes our jobs difficult.
I like the feeling of knowing I've supported my coworkers and vice versa through a difficult shift...I gain a lot of satisfaction out of working with likeminded nurses who believe in a team spirit on the job. I am looking for that environment of care again now...I KNOW there's one out there somewhere...LOL!!
Specializes in CCU (Coronary Care); Clinical Research.
It's great when you finally get to extubate your pt. and actually get to talk to them for the first time....especially when you've taken care of them for awhile...you never know who they really are until then.
This is one of my favorite things....I really enjoy getting to talk an extubation through with a patient (mine all happen to be post cardiac surgery) and finally get that tube out!
I too like the adrenaline of a code (though I never like it when my patients code). I don't mind taking over a rocky patient or admitting a coding patient...but I hate when my "stable" patient goes down!
I enjoy teaching as well...both patient's, families, and new nurses or persons to the unit...
I like learning new things, new techniques, better ways to do things, new research--anything that makes patient care easier and better for the patient!
I like the staff that I work with--they are like a second family (most of them anyway)
I like a good IV start or solving a complex problem to make a patient (or nurse) feel better about a situation.
lovinghands
168 Posts
I love getting to know my patients, not just their problems but their strengths, personalities and backgrounds. We can learn so much from others if we give them the time. Unfortunately, I don't have the time I wish I had to spend with patients but I try each and every shift to spend a little time with each - then I rush like crazy to finish up at the end of my shift. Is it worth it - yep! :) I also enjoying teaching, not just patient teaching but staff. I work with a team of aides - they teach me just as much as I teach them some days. As far as technical skills, I love to do dressing changes and the challenge of a difficult IV start.