Roll Call - Who's Been Around the Longest and Your Accomplishments

Nurses General Nursing

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Our staff was discussing you, our members. While we all like to remain anonymous, we are all proud of our accomplishments. We'd like to do a roll call of honor. Who has been on AN the longest? Who has been a nurse the longest? What is your greatest nursing accomplishment? Tell us, come on, brag a little! You deserve this recognition.

Specializes in Critical Care.

I think I joined AN back in 02. I've been a nurse for 25 years totally amazing to look back on all I've experienced and the people I've met. There have been a few times I have saved a person's life by catching a problem quickly and alerting the Dr to the situation and making sure the patient got the right care. There have been special patients and families that I felt connected to and also I've taken care of family friends, neighbors and classmates over the years. I've experienced the six degrees of separation and what a small world it is and it has been an honor to care for the many appreciative patients and also my own family and friends at home unofficially. I share my experience and knowledge with the new grads and all my peers. We work as a team. I'm constantly learning new things from medical journals like Medscape and from fellow coworkers and doctors.

AN has been a refuge thru the struggles and stress over these many years and invariably I find I'm not alone and others are going thru the same thing and all the same hospital gimmicks like bedside report and mandatory flu vaccinations. I feel safe and supported here and can speak my mind openly in a way I could never do at work. Thank you AN for all you do for nurses and thanks to the support of all my fellow AN peers.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Going further with this:

Whats the best piece of info you have gotten from AN?

Thanks.

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Specializes in nurseline,med surg, PD.

Been a working RN since 1971. Graduated with ADN, immediately started on BSN. I'm glad I did, I only wish I had gotten an MSN. I have never been a big shot, pretty much just a worker bee. I spent many years working nights, weekends, holidays. I worked hospitals, nursing homes, an L TACH, corrections, public health, private duty, telephonic nurse, you name it. I appreciate all the experiences I have had and all the people I have met. I can remember patients I had in the 70's and 80's. Now working PD, can't run up and down hallways like I used to, but I am happy to still be working. I think my biggest asset is perseverance. I have been fired from a few jobs, but I just kept on working. I managed to raise 4 kids as a single mom, so I am grateful for my degree and my salary. I only wish AN had been around when I first started working. It has been educational for many nurses.

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Who has been around the longest... as in, here on AN? If so, I shouldn't even be posting, because I'm only a member for a year!

But I do have a unique accomplishment I think.

I left to raise my kids after just 7 years working...for 23 years!

Now I'm back! Just passed the one year mark.

I'm forever grateful to my wonderful co-workers who've been so encouraging and supportive. And to AN as a great resource.

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The best piece of info I've gotten here was that it's normal to feel like an idiot and want to quit during your first year as a new RN/new to the unit. I knew it would suck but having so many other professionals here to validate it made life that much easier. I also really love reading about what nursing "used" to be like-Before insane amounts of inundating charting and chronic short staffing. I missed out on those good times so it's great to live vicariously through all the stories everyone shares here.

Thanks to all of the long-time nurses for their great stories and wisdom!

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Definitely nothing wrong with posting a LIKE when it is deserved. So many times --- in all areas of life --- people take niceness, good service, kind acts, etc for granted. Sometimes a simple "Thank you", or smile, or "like" is all it takes to make a person feel as if what they did was worth it. It could also be done at just the right time when that person really needed that unexpected bit of niceness......you never know. So keep on saying LIKE as much as you want. You never know when your timing could have been just right.

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There have ALWAYS been "insane amounts of inundating charting and chronic short staffing" in nursing -- a lot depended on where you worked. And sometimes you may feel like giving up. Whenever that hit me, I would remember one patient that I had helped in the past -- and what type of difference I made in his/her life. The warm feeling I had from those thoughts helped me go forward once again.

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I passed the one year mark here on AN in September 2018.

I've been a RN for a little over 15 years. Sometimes it feels like a life sentence & other times I can't figure out how that time passed so fast.

I think one of the bigger accomplishments I've had is more of a personal one. I've come to realize -for the most part- that I cant save everyone from themselves. Unfortunately I already wrecked one marriage before I realized what was happening. I love my patients but despise most of my co-workers.

I don't know what the best piece of advice I've gotten here on AN is. I don't comment frequently but I am always on & I always take with me a bit of something from the most experienced to the newest of the newbies.

I'm so glad I've found y'all. ❤️

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I have only been on AN for a few years now. But I graduated in 1985, went to hospital nursing for several years, then went into Telephonic Case Management Nursing. I worked for a small company, so I had an extremely wide variety of learning experiences while I was there. I researched all new diagnoses in detail, so I learned not only the latest treatments for the more common diagnoses, but also saw how many rare illnesses there were ---- for newborns all the way through to the elderly. I learned how to draw out patients and family members on the phone, so I could identify their most urgent problems, and provide them with the services they needed. I helped many patients and family members during that time, and have many good memories from those years.

And if you think that a purely telephonic job is "lonely" you would be incorrect. Not only did I become as close to many of those long-term patients on the phone as can occur with hospital or field nursing, I also made friends with nurses I "met" at another job. The next job I eventually moved on to was also telephonic. It was a new department at a large insurance company. Our team covered the general Central Florida area. We were trained for several weeks in a virtual classroom. There was also a "whiteboard" that was put up for breaks and lunches, and we would write messages to each other, as well as draw rabbits, clouds, trees, etc on it. We were all pretty chatty too, so we could launch some interesting topics during our training. And the most unusual -- and fun -- part of it all, was when we decided to meet outside that virtual classroom. So a central location was picked where we had a VERY long and entertaining dinner [Rain Forest in the Disney Village area]. It was at a very, very, very long table and we had spouses and children included in this real-world party. Everyone had plenty of pictures to later share back in the virtual world. I guess you can say that our group went the limit on making sure we had a great "work-life balance"................

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

I left to raise my kids after just 7 years working...for 23 years!

Now I'm back! Just passed the one year mark.

What a leap! A lot has changed in 23 years!

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
Whats the best piece of info you have gotten from AN?

The BON is not the nurse's friend.

It's probably one of the most frequent pieces of advice I give as well.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

*waves at everyone*

Hey all! Soooo... I've been on Allnurses since about, 2003?

I've been a nurse for fifteen years... I think I joined AN just a few

months after I graduated with my ADN!

Been in healthcare since 1999.

About two years ago, I got asked to become an AN Guide, which I

thought was MEGA cool! I'm not sure why I was asked to become

a Guide, though I do remember a thread posted wayyyyyy back,

by TNButterfly... something about, What changes could be made to

Allnurses? One of my suggestions was, to give more users the

opportunity to become Guides. So, I SUSPECT that that is why

I was eventually invited to become one, though I'm not sure!

Biggest accomplishment of my career... heck, making it to 15

years! Also, becoming a Certified Med Surge RN (though that has

actually lapsed!). Also, picking myself up by the bootstraps after

my career as a Graphic Designer failed miserably... and getting

myself back in school, and getting a nursing degree!

Most important thing I've learned from AN... probably to appreciate

a good job when I've got it, because there are some HORRIBLE

places to work out there!!!!

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