MrsBelle

SO real talk, ICU nurses are an interesting bunch. I can say that because I spent my first three years of nursing in a SICU with some of the most *charming* humans I have ever met. It was like interpersonal boot camp. I had one nurse who was supposed to precept me walk in and look me up and down then she walked out of the unit. She refused to work with me and I had never met her in my LIFE. I found her after that shift and told her she might not like me now but one day she was gonna love me! My other preceptor gave me pure hell. Its just the nature of the beast. I am happy to report both of those ladies are now some of my closest friends, but it took a good eight months to get there. In ICU you have very strong personalities and then with patients that are at risk of krumping out at any moment, you don't always have time to blow sunshine and rainbows up people's behinds. That was hard for me to get used to, however, I have found myself in critical situations with a baby nurse having to be very firm and direct or just flat out telling them to move because time is of the essence and I do not have time to educate at that moment. I always make a point of letting them know I do not intend to be mean, but sometimes you just have to get things done and dont have time to explain. It does get better. Usually the crustiest of old bats are quite kind once you prove to them you're not a blithering idiot.

Let me preface this with: I am the most clumsy human being God ever created. I used to be really embarrassed about it, but at this point I've accepted it and just laugh along with everyone when I inevitability get tangled in a line or trip over my own feet. My first glorious blunder includes unhooking a bipap to move it to a different location (I have no idea why I was doing this). I picked it up and simultaneously turned (why didn't I unplug anything?) clothes lined myself on the tubing, and inadvertently upended the entire saline thingy onto myself from my chest to my shoes. So I changed my scrubs. The second includes spending half a shift thinking "Man I smell poop!" And reaching into my left scrub pocket to find ... a turd. There was a turd in my pocket. So I changed my scrubs. My third and final glorious blunder for this post involved emptying a JP successfully, placing it on what was apparently a slanted surface, and having blood spill onto my thigh and down into my shoes. So I changed my scrubs. And round the mulberry bush we go.

So I'm in a dual role DNP program to get my FNP/AG-ACNP with a cardiovascular sub-speciality.. how the heck will the titles go? Dr. MrsBelle, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, AG-ACNP or is it MrsBelle, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, AC-ACNP or some variation I haven't discovered?????

It's a southern thing! I was born and raised in the Deep South, everyone has a pet name from "sweetheart" to "darlin". Pet names are so common in that area even my patients I've never met use terms of endearment when addressing me. An example I can think of is a sweet older gentleman who was a post op CABG, I introduced myself as "Nurse Belle" and he said well, I'm not good with names so if I don't remember it can I just call you baby/darlin? I laughed and said that was just fine. I don't think a thing about it when I'm at home, however, I've moved out west and people are a tad different here. Like others have said, it's really a regional thingy

I am THE NJ tube NINJA! I can pop one in in less than thirty seconds, placement will be correct and the patient is like "That wasn't as bad as I thought!"