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. :)
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
CLOCKING OUT! Seriously-there is mothing like the feeling I get at the end of my shift as I review the day on the way to the time clock...I get a great feeling of satisfaction If I feel that the residents under my care all got the care they deserved from all of us.If I know I made some little difference on someone's quality of life it was a good day...That can mean getting meds ordered for a "comfort care only " in keeping with the palliative care ideal or resident or a call to the kitchen to request a banana on a residents tray every morning...Also=sometimes just keeping the cna's calm and on task is the biggest challenge.But it is nice to add another perspective there too-often the full time charge nurses don't have the time to really dedicate to that kind of problem....
Specializes in ER, PED'S, NICU, CLINICAL M., ONCO..
I enjoy doing exactly what I do, when I am allowed to work in freedom. When I am free to follow my heart, which not always advise me to follow the easy road.
At the end we are nothing... but nurses.
[being there for the birth of new families as a baby emerges. It's the most powerful, emotional, electric feeling in the world.]
I really enjoy going to the high risk deliveries, and the baby comes out with Apgars of 9/9 and I hand them off to the L&D nurse and leave. I really enjoy discharging the 25 weekers who go home on room air with no neurological deficits. .. and I really enjoy a really loud belch by the fussy infant who never seems to burp after a feeding and then wont sleep.
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I'm finding out I really enjoy ICU nursing........all that one-on-one time with the patients, the titratable drips (I've got insulin gtts down to a science now), and even that adrenaline rush when something hits the fan all of a sudden. I'm primarily a med/surg nurse, but I float to the OB-GYN/peds unit and ICU as well, and I'm thinking I might just be a great critical-care nurse at some point in the future.......The truly wonderful thing about nursing is its variety, if you don't like one area, there's ALWAYS something new to try! :)
It might sound silly, but I love doing case management! I think it is a very challenging field. So many rules with medicare, medicaid, and insurance co. Been doing bedside nursing for a while, kind of burnt! I'm looking into going back to school...however,:) I don't have the time to go to school with 2 babies now, so learning/doing case managment, I learn something new everyday!
Hey, don't feel silly about that...I just started doing it fulltime too, and absolutely love it. I still work prn at an ICU a weekend a month, but was really burnt out on the bedside. And with kids, you can't beat the hours. There is so much to learn. I get great satisfaction from knowing that I got an insurance company or medicaid to cert an additional day for a patient.
We are actually treated like professionals at this job..something I hadn't experienced in the 15 years of bedside nursing I did.
People say I'm the best NT suctioner around. I love to suction.
Wish you had worked with me on several occasions, Tweety, I can handle lots but suctioning is NOT one of them....eww snot...as a result I'm actually kinda anal about keeping airways clear...I hate SNOT.
ktwlpn, LPN
3,844 Posts
CLOCKING OUT! Seriously-there is mothing like the feeling I get at the end of my shift as I review the day on the way to the time clock...I get a great feeling of satisfaction If I feel that the residents under my care all got the care they deserved from all of us.If I know I made some little difference on someone's quality of life it was a good day...That can mean getting meds ordered for a "comfort care only " in keeping with the palliative care ideal or resident or a call to the kitchen to request a banana on a residents tray every morning...Also=sometimes just keeping the cna's calm and on task is the biggest challenge.But it is nice to add another perspective there too-often the full time charge nurses don't have the time to really dedicate to that kind of problem....