Habits you picked up from work...

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What are some of the habits that you pick up from work?

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Specializes in LTC.

I opened a new bottle of ibuprofen at home yesterday and without even thinking I grabbed a Sharpie and wrote the date opened on it!

After constantly being on call I wake up at 3am to see if I have any missed calls from work on my cell phone.

@ktwlpn

If I dont make a list of all I have to do I panic that I am forgetting something really imortant since I normally write everything I have to do. Just to be mean my husband hid my list and I spend 2 hours looking for it when he finally gave it back:( to me !

Almost answering my home phone with "Hi. This is___ from ____ unit. How can I help you?" Also hearing phantom call lights and/or tele monitor at home... signing "rn" after my signature and using short hand at home like the "c" sign for with and "s" for without when I leave notes or even in my personal journal when I feel super lazy....and being more used to measuring things in mLs here in the States! I do not like using ounces..

Oh and ditto about the veins! I admire from afar...

Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

When I signed my morgatge documents my broker was so suprised that my signiture was identical on every line. Well that what happens when you sign it 100 times a shift.

Lists I LOVE them. as a manager now I have 3 or 4 going at once over different things. so satisfying to strike lines through them.

I don't take meds from the bottle ..... I shake them in the cap and then into my hand.

Looking for stuff in my pockets...............when I am home and have no pockets.

My Charge nurse walk. Being 6 ft tall female may account for some of it but it is rapid and directed. No stopping to look at things. Drives friends crazy because I do it when I have had a few drinks as well and am half way down the block before them.

hospital corners (can't blame nursing for that one. I worked in housekeeping as a teenager!)

My belief that most things can be fixed with a good Bowel action. nausea, lethargy, boerdem!

super sonic hearing and also the ability to ignore noises............I can hear a pump the length of the ward but when I hear the NIC phone ring I am suddenly busy.

Super sense of smell............usually not a good thing!

using short hand at home like the "c" sign for with and "s" for without when I leave notes or even in my personal journal when I feel super lazy....and being more used to measuring things in mLs here in the States!

When I made my original post I totally forgot my habit of signing LPN after my name on anything I sign.

Little Mouse your post reminded me of my habit of using medical shorthand when writing notes etc. I wrote a note to my daughters teacher and sent it in. She called me later in the day laughing and said, Mrs. Pixie can you decipher what you were trying to tell me? Oh, and I had no idea you were a nurse...your signature gave it away". I didn't even realize I had written the note with medical shorthand.

Specializes in pediatrics, orthopedics.

Ditto to the trying to badge in anywhere there is a door!

Specializes in pediatrics, orthopedics.
Don't we all critique the medical senarios on tv shows or in the movies? (Why is everyone always yelling "STAT!"? Why is the ETT never taped? Why aren't the sidrails up?) I drive my family up the walls with that!

Oh my gosh yes! The worst show for me is/was(?) HawthoRNe. My two favorite scenes:

1. Teen girl in labor, fetal heart monitor in the background. Fetal HR drops to 30 for a sustained period. This goes completely unnoticed by everyone and is not addressed.

2. Patient needs emergency surgery, but surgeon doesn't want to operate because he's too hypotensive. Monitor in the background again, BP is 110/67.

Hello. I appreciate the desire to make things more realistic by having monitors, but at least make them accurate!

Specializes in family practice and school nursing.

Staring at veins, hospital corners on the beds, good handwashing, and critiquing medical shows

Sometimes I open napkins a fast food places like I'm setting up a sterile field, if they're folded right.I like to do dressing changes as quickly as possible, so I set everything up before hand - a piece of plastic for the old dressing, pre ripped and dated pieces of tape, vaseline guaze opened, presoaked guaze, creams uncapped, tools laid out. And now when I put on makeup or cook, I lay everything out - eyeshadow open, brushes preloaded, mascara wand on a piece of toilet paper...I wish my constant cleaning at work would carry over to home, though. No luck so far.

Specializes in Wilderness Medicine, ICU, Adult Ed..

I sometimes notice people glancing at me in the bathroom when I wash my hands. If asked, I just say, "Ahhh, old habit” and slink away.

Really, if our instructors succeeded in beating one habit into us, it was hand washing. If nursing was a religion, hand washing would be a sacrament.

I sometimes notice people glancing at me in the bathroom when I wash my hands. If asked, I just say, "Ahhh, old habit” and slink away.

Really, if our instructors succeeded in beating one habit into us, it was hand washing. If nursing was a religion, hand washing would be a sacrament.

People find it odd you wash your hands after using the bathroom?? I'd be looking at them sideways if they DIDNT wash their hands after using the bathroom.

I don't know, my Mom taught me from the age of a toddler to wash your hands before eating and after using the bathroom. Didn't need a nursing instructor to beat it into me :)

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