things I didn't learn in nursing school

NurseFife · Dec 9, 2004

I read everyone reply to what did not teach in nursing school.

I laugh at most of them.

I have found out with my expereince as nurse most things we learn at school is gone ot the window.

I do believe school help but experance is our best teacher.

Jay-Jay, RN · Dec 9, 2004

A few from the homecare front:

Your flashlight is your best friend, especially when catheterizing a female in a dimly lit bedroom, or trying to read your Perly's map book after dark.

Learning how to juggle your cellphone, your coffee, your patient list and your map book while driving will give you a new appreciation of the term 'multi-tasking!'

Doctors are NEVER available on Fridays after 12 pm, which will be just the time you need to reach them regarding a patient with a brewing wound infection or a dodgy heart rhythm.

The day you planned to get off early will be the day all h*** will break loose.

Every experienced homecare nurse carries extra supplies in her trunk and her bag, despite TBTB being afraid this might transmit infection from home to home. This is guard against the moron who put together the dressing supply order for the new skin graft, and left out both the Jelonet and the tape. (I once resorted to taping a dressing on a pilonidal cyst using Scotch tape. I was on the 22nd floor of a high rise, running badly behind with my calls, and it was pouring rain outside...)

When a patient doesn't have a PICC line, the duration of a course of antibiotics often depends more on availability of veins than on anything else.

The world is not going to end if your patient misses a dose of antibiotic due to a leaking IV site, or a malfunctioning CADD pump.

The first most common cause of CADD pump malfunction is nurse error (oops...did I remember to open that clamp after flushing the line?? :imbar )The second most common cause is the patient fooling with the pump.

If you call all your patients the night before to tell them what time you'll be there, the morning will bring 2 new admits and a couple of cancellations that will TOTALLY change your schedule. Just to add to the fun, the patient that MUST be seen at 8 am will be on the far side of your territory.

If supplies get delivered on time on evenings, it is a miracle. Usually, it is safe to add an hour to the time the delivery is SUPPOSED to arrive.

Learning to deal with less-than-friendly animals is an important skill. I know of more than one nurse who has missed work due to a dog bite. Cats are generally not a problem, though they do like to supervise dressing changes, and play with IV lines.

UnchainedFever · Dec 10, 2004

A person can have a bowel movement that shoots 10 ft across the room.
(Go-Lytely, go figure)

It's amazing.... the human body has that ability.

ICUnowOHN · Dec 10, 2004

ALSO KNOWN AS CODE BROWN (hint, hint: run the other way :)

A person can have a bowel movement that shoots 10 ft across the room.
(Go-Lytely, go figure)

UnchainedFever · Dec 10, 2004

:chuckle :chuckle :chuckle
And a lugi can be coughed out of a trach at warp speed, making it impossible to dodge. But, the incident gets played back in your brain in slow motion.

I can do almost anything, if it's for the comfort of the patient. But, a lugi will take me down almost every time. I just can't seem to delugi my mind. :chair:

KVlivin4JC · Dec 10, 2004

ALSO KNOWN AS CODE BROWN (hint, hint: run the other way :)

Lol...one of the nurses where i used to work called a code brown over the intercom one night and at least one CNA from each of the 6 floors came running to our rescue equipped with trash bags, soap, towels, toilet paper, and air freshener. lol it was hilarious!

-Kristen

ICUnowOHN · Dec 10, 2004

LOLOLOL

Lol...one of the nurses where i used to work called a code brown over the intercom one night and at least one CNA from each of the 6 floors came running to our rescue equipped with trash bags, soap, towels, toilet paper, and air freshener. lol it was hilarious!
-Kristen

jett01 · Dec 10, 2004

If you can help it, don't bother doing a dressing change on a surgical patient until after the surgeon has rounded. If you do the change, the surgeon will be there in about 5 minutes to rip it off-almost guaranteed.

Nursing care plans are not what drives patient care. There's no time to mess with them much anyway.

You can't please everyone. Some days you can't please anyone.

The saying that people don't care what you know until they know that you care is mostly true.

Often the most significant things you do for people (and what they remember most later) is the "little things".

Even on the worst days, what you do matters, a lot. You will change lives, including your own. You probably won't even realize it most of the time until someone tells you.

Some of the best lessons you learn will come from people who don't even know that they're teaching you. Watch what others do, good and bad. Adopt the good.

Going to the bathroom is less of an issue if you don't stop to eat or drink.

There's a lot of healing in laughter if you use it appropriately.

Stay away from the desk.

The doctors with the worst handwriting complain the most when you call to clarify orders.

rdhdnrs · Dec 10, 2004

The only people who will really understand what you do all day will be other nurses. Not your family, not your friends.

Some days on your way home after work you will wonder "Did I really do that today?". When you need to debrief, call your preceptor.

allnurses Guide · Dec 16, 2004

When in real life you can whip out a care plan without even thinking about it, is the day when you no longer need care plans because you already do it without even thinking about it.

The 5 rights never go away, you always always do the 5 rights on meds no matter how long you've been a nurse, or how many care plans you've "forgotten".

nursemike, ASN, RN · Dec 16, 2004

As Sam Cooke might say (if he was a nurse):

Don't know much about Anatomy

Don't know much Physiology

Don't know much about my Med-Surg book

Don't know much about the drugs I took

(Meaning Pharmacology, because I wouldn't actually take drugs, except for caffeine, a small amount of alcohol, and, in moments of weakness, nicotine)

But I do know I'm almost through

And if I can pass NCLEX, too

What a wonderful world it will be

(Oh, and aspirin. Lots of aspirin. Not all at once, though. So far.)

Is it just me, or is the main point of nursing school to show you just how much you don't know?

Kiwi Nurse 2 Be · Dec 16, 2004

I absolutely love the Sam Cooke song you just created, Nursemike!!! :chuckle