Do you talk about work at home?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Do you talk about work at home?

    • 53
      Yes, frequently
    • 40
      On occasion
    • 11
      Never, I leave work at work.
    • 4
      I would, but there's nobody to talk to :(

101 members have participated

Hey all, wondering what the general trend is here.

My question is, do you talk about work when you're not at work?

The reason i'm asking is this: I'm a nursing student, my sister is an RN. She and I will always be talking about the hospital, patient conditions, latest things at work, latest rapid response (HIPAA naysayers can leave now), latest wild ABG (pH 7.06, CO2 140) :wideyed: . Etc.

A friend / classmate of mine has two sisters in nursing, but they NEVER talk about nursing when outside of the hospital. I am wondering if this is common?

To me, nursing is more than a job, it is a lifestyle.

(Obviously there are times when you won't be talking nursing, but if you're younger sibling, niece, nephew etc is studying nursing don't you think you'd talk about it once in a while?)

Potential bias on this forum, seeing how most people online right now are not at work, so are a little more into nursing than your average Jane.

Specializes in ER, ICU.

My GF is a nurse and we talk about work all the time. It is an interesting and challenging career so for me it is not just a job. We also learn a lot from each other.

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Specializes in RN.

Thanks for taking my post the proper way. I re-read and it could be taken offensively. We're all different :-)

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I generally leave work at work and home at home, if that makes any sense. It's not that the stuff isn't interesting, it's that I would rather not drag all that stuff around with me, and my wife doesn't find what I do at work to be interesting, primarily because she can't relate to it. I do engage in "shop talk" all the time with people that can relate to the work... but when I do, I respect the HIPAA.

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My husband is a police officer and we both understand we need to talk about traumatic things in order to process them. We never use identifying characteristics, and we both are comfortable enough to tell the other, "I'm sorry, I can't listen to this," when it's something pretty awful. We also tell each other the funny/awesome things that happen too.

A lot of people don't get that cops are first responders to medical emergencies too. I think he's done more CPR than I have. He'll sometimes ask me questions about what he could have done differently, and as I am not an ED/Acute care nurse, his care during a medical emergency is pretty much exactly what I do, BLS and first-aid until the medics get there.

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Rarely. I'll usually wait to ambush some innocent third party at the gas station.

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You sound like my husband. While he is not in healthcare, whenever I ask him about his day I always get the same answer "it was boring" or "I can't really explain it let's talk about something else.". I tease him that he knows what I do all day and I have no idea what he does all day at the office

My boyfriend is like this as well, but we've compromised for each other :3. I tell him the things that can be easily related to somebody who has no medical background but still finds the weird things the human body does somewhat interesting. He tells me bits about his day, even though he says he finds it uninteresting. I think I'll have better stories to tell him when I'm actually a nurse. Right now, I just regale him with tales of the things I learn in class.

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I do. Thankfully, my cat is a good listener as long as I'm rubbing his chin.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
I live alone, so I do not talk about nursing at home because I'd be talking to myself.

Same here, although there are times I talk to my four-legged children.

I try to leave work at work to preserve my sanity.

I also try to leave work at work, but there are those truly awful days that just can't be kept inside and just have to be talked out.

I do. Thankfully, my cat is a good listener as long as I'm rubbing his chin.

My cats aren't such good listeners. My dog, on the other hand, just seems to know when I need her to listen.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I have a sister that works on the same floor as I do and my daughter is in nursing school. Guess what we talk about MOST of the time? lol

I live alone so the dog, the rabbit and the cats get to hear about my day.

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Sure do! Haha. That's how me and my husband bond, complaining about our day. Me and my nursing buddies do the same.

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I keep my job life and my home life in two separate boxes. I don't really like to talk about nursing, unless I'm chatting with a co-worker during my shift. It's just less stressful to keep nursing at work -- otherwise I find myself bringing difficult patients home with me, and that's not really how I like to spend my days off.

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Specializes in Pedi.

I live alone so I don't talk about it at home but I do talk about things with my nurse friends. I have one friend from nursing school who I'm still fairly close with though we only see each other a few times a year... but when we go out, we'll spend 4 hours at a restaurant discussing all our nursing horror stories since the last time we met up. I talk about my frustrations in my current job (like spending 3 days trying to track down a patient) with my friends who also work in home care.

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