People really do ask you for medical advice! Wow...

Nursing Students General Students

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So, I have been reading a lot of the posts in the Nursing section, and have seen the part about how everyone asks for medical advice once they find out you are a nurse.

Well, I am a first year nursing STUDENT, and I just had my first experience with it...I just had someone ask me about the burning sensation when they pee. At work. With everyone listening.

Uh. Maybe go see your doctor? I am certain asking a novice in the midst of a group of cubicles filled with your co-workers is probably not the ideal way to get advice about your UTI/STD.

:no:

Specializes in Private Practice- wellness center.

My husband just moved into a house in Texas. My parents moved in and brought my son with them. My husband called me tonight giggling because he met the neighbors across the street. The wife said for him to tell me, and I quote "for the love of GOD, tell her to tell NO ONE on this street she's a nurse! They'll be bringing their sick kids to you at ALL hours of the night!"

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll be making time to change at work once I get moved myself and find a job. HA HA HA

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Neighbor pounding on back door. Index finger got in a fight with the hedge trimmer (and the hedge trimmer won). "Do you think this needs stitches?" Uh, even if it didn't need stitches, you need WAY more wound-cleaning than I'd ever be able to do without a local anesthetic!

Specializes in E.R.


    • I am forever having been asked about medical problem... I liked to resolve the questions really enjoyed answering the query

Lol! I'm glad this thread was resurrected! The stories crack me up!

My favorite is certain family members who call to ask me if their doc is right or not. The problem (other than being beyond my scope) is that they never have their info correct and they start spouting things that make no sense at all. Confuddling, really. If you have such little faith in your physician that you need to tattle on her to me, perhaps it's time to interview a new doc.

My family either comes to me with wild questions like "My stool is neon orange and I've had awful stabbing stomach pains for three days, what should I do?" and then tell me I'm good for nothing when my response is "Go see a professional!" But then I have family members who refuses to believe I know what I'm talking about when I tell them that taking maximum strength tylenol around the clock, cold medicine with acetaminophen, and nyquil in one day isn't the best idea..They look at me like I'm crazy "But tylenol and acetaminophen are different! What do you know, you're just a student!"

Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

I have friends of family who actually came over to the house with their lab results, demanding I tell them what each one meant because "the doctor just can't be telling me the entire story". UGH!

After saying quite a few times that I'm not a doctor and they'd need to discuss it with him, I finally grabbed my lab book and told them to feel free to look everything up. They finally gave up, but not before grumbling to my family that I obviously don't know what I'm doing. :rolleyes:

Whenever someone asks me, I usually tell them they are dying. (they know i have a twisted sense of humor) They don't ask again XD

Specializes in Critical care.

I get this all the time just from having EMT experience. I am noooooowhere near qualified to answer your question about your cancer/STD/drug use/whatever!

Specializes in Informatics, Orthopaedics.

So I'm about to finish nursing school, and in the last year the number of times I have been asked for medical advice has gone up exponentially. I forgot about this thread until running across it just now, and I am sitting here shaking my head with all the stories I have already, and I'm not even working as a nurse yet.

I had a family member come to my house in the middle of the night a few months back banging on my door like I was a 911 operator screaming at the top of her lungs for me to wake up. I open the door and she is standing there with a hand on her eye screaming that she can't see. So instead of calling 911 or going to the ED she instead decided to come to my house to ask me to shine a flashlight in her eye and see if I can fix it. What? Seriously? GO TO THE FREAKING HOSPITAL!

She had a detached retina. You can't make this stuff up. She turned out ok after surgery, but I am never ever going to let her live this down..scared the heebie geebies out of me.

Specializes in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.

Haha...I actually get more the, "What would happen if....?" questions. Like, what would happen if a guy had to have his member reattached after it was somehow separated from his body. We went through all the possible scenarios. Yes, this was a SERIOUS concern amongst my male coworkers for some reason. :eek:

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