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 also love seeing patients long after recovery/remission. One leukemia pt still comes to see me after 10+ years remission - she is now in nursing school!
Now this one may sound really odd. It's a bittersweet favorite. I feel honored when a family wants me with them as they say their final goodbyes to their child. Not just when I'm on duty. I consider those last moments so sacred that for the family to want me with them means more than I can say.
You guys can have your IV starts. Give me a port-a-cath any day of the week!
Love to suction. Nothing like that satisfaction of hearing that airway get cleared.
I love it when my patients look at me and say things like "thanks for being so good to me.". Usually it happens when I'm at my craziest and I really need to hear it.
I still get a big thrill out of accessing a PICC line for blood work. It's just the coolest thing for me and the patient's always happy not to be poked.
i like watching/helping the MVA head traumas "wake-up." it's utterly amazing to watch someone go from a comatose state to alert. bathing them, getting them up to the neuro chair, harassing them into lifting a finger all seem like such small things, but those are the things that wake them up. it's amazing.
I love palliative care. I work in LTC and I love to be with families at the bedside of someone who is dying and encourage them to talk about memories, tell me things about the patient-laugh and cry. Sometimes families are surprised that there can be joy at the end of life. I feel amazing when I know I have done that well.
I also love to include non-nursing staff-eg. when I work on the Alzeihmers unit I sometimes see annoyed housekeeping or dietary staff, I love to educate them about why patients do the things they do, it teaches them tolerance and compassion and I find they suck up new knowledge like a sponge. They come to expect that I will teach them something new everyday.
I also love to intervene in a crisis and cool down a hot situation.
Jamesdotter
464 Posts
Teaching, esp. one on one