I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I seem to have a knack for remembering pointless things.
I remember the names of restaurants that I've eaten at on vacations, the servers' names, and other useless information that I will never need to recall in my life again.
This also applies to my time in nursing school, which admittedly wasn't that long ago, but long enough that a lot of the non-vital "nice to know but not need to know" information that we learned has become a little hazy.
The one random nugget of seemingly useless information that I remember from nursing school is what a scleral buckle is and what it is used to treat. It was briefly mentioned in my second semester of nursing school and for some reason it stuck with me. I've never encountered someone that has had this procedure in clinical OR in my personal life and I really have no justification for remembering it, but I do.
Does anyone else care to share a random nugget of information they learned in nursing school that they still remember, but never actually came in handy to know?
I honestly don't remember learning it in nursing school but it may be one of those nuggets you hear and forget.
I'm still wracking my brain trying to remember a random piece of info from nursing school . . . . .
edited . . .wait! My favorite instructor who taught us about personal care of patients was adamant that the linen closet door never be left open because that looked tacky. And there was a special way to put a pillowcase on a pillow without putting the pillow under your chin. Never throw dirty laundry on the floor!!
I still close the linen closet door when I walk down the hallway and see it open. I put pillow cases on at home the way she taught me.
Random and mostly useless info but I never forget.
When we were taught how to make beds, it was drilled into our brains not to shake out the clean sheets. We had to lay the sheets on the bed & unfold them systematically.
Old habits do, indeed, die hard. To this day when I take clean sheets out of the dryer I fold them very precisely so that when I make the bed I just have to lay them on the mattress, unfold them, smooth them out, & tuck them in. My husband just stands there & shakes his head when he watches me!
You never realize how much you actually raise your arms above you head until you're not allowed to do it for a month. I'm glad you're okay now though!
Actually, I saw the ophthalmologist today for my every 6 month check & have to go to the retina specialist tomorrow because there's the beginning of a tear in my right retina. The fun never ends!
If a patient has a colostomy bag, eating a lot of leafy green vegetables will mask the smell of the feces. The chlorophyll from the plants emits a more pleasant odor when broken down in the body.
Wasn't covered in class, was just something that I read at 2am one night studying. Random.
I was a CNA waaaaay back in 1992, and I distinctly remember having a patient that took some round green tablets that smelled very GREEN...almost like kale and spearmint had a baby...and they were to minimize the odors from his colostomy. Worked pretty well. Anyone know what that mystery pill was? I've asked the COBs at work and no one knows what I'm talking about
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
"No pee, no K"
Don't give potassium to someone who doesn't have good output. Never ever had to worry about it because we typically don't give K-riders in OB, but I've never forgotten that.
I was taught, "Never ask the patient's permission to do something if you aren't willing to accept no as the answer." It was in the context of pediatrics and that you are screwed if you say "Would you like your medicine now?" And the tot screams "no!"
In fairness, LOTS of drugs have interactions with grapefruit juice! The grapefruit interferes with an enzymatic process that allows the medications to be metabolized and not reach toxic levels! Handy info for sure! :)
When we were learning to mix insulins I remember reciting to myself CLOUDY CLEAR CLEAR CLOUDY
meaning inject air into the cloudy, inject air into the clear, draw up the clear, draw up the cloudy. Then my lab instructor burst my bubble when she told me that some modified insulins are clear (like lantus that can't be mixed anyway) so I should learn it as modified unmodified unmodified modified but it didn't have the same ring to it.
Of all the mnemonics for the cranial nerves...
poppycat, ADN, BSN
856 Posts
When we were taught how to make beds, it was drilled into our brains not to shake out the clean sheets. We had to lay the sheets on the bed & unfold them systematically.
Old habits do, indeed, die hard. To this day when I take clean sheets out of the dryer I fold them very precisely so that when I make the bed I just have to lay them on the mattress, unfold them, smooth them out, & tuck them in. My husband just stands there & shakes his head when he watches me!