What do you bring home with you?

[Stitchie]

I just had to laugh -- today I noticed that there are piles of alcohol packets from work all over house.

Then I noticed that I also have an IV end cap rattling around on my dresser.

I have also brought home: 2X2's, a tourniquet, unlimited tape rolls, 10mg of Lasix (half tablet), butterfly needles, and once, to my husband's utter horror, a 16 gauge IV catherter.

If I didn't work insane hours in an ER, I'd think I had some odd form of kleptomania, but I guess it's just a bad habit of not cleaning out my pockets before I leave work.

What else gets brought home? Besides the c-diff and VRE, of course!

[RN_Amy, RN]

I just checked around, I have alcohol wipes, pen lights, and a green "Christmas tree" (oxygen thingie you connect the nasal cannula to). :)

Aren't they called oxygen nipples....?

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I have a few bottles of heparin rattling around my house and car.

[Elenaster]

All the usual stuff already mentioned, but also hemostats, those little pink NS bullets used to irrigate ET tubes, MRSA... :uhoh21:

I have developed a system of taking it back to work though. I have this little plastic box with a snapping lid that I keep my 900 pens, calipers, good scissors etc., that I only keep in my work bag. I've finally made a habit of putting all the "loot" from my pockets back in that box and taking it back to work with me.

[leslie :-D]

hmmmm, does anyone bring thems home 'accidentally on purpose'? i have taken gloves to pick up the dog poop in my yard.....anyone else?

[nursebedlam]

hmmmm, does anyone bring thems home 'accidentally on purpose'? i have taken gloves to pick up the dog poop in my yard.....anyone else?

yes l'm guilty have them in the car, handy when checking the motor oil as l don't like to get my hands dirty

[Stitchie]

hmmmm, does anyone bring thems home 'accidentally on purpose'? i have taken gloves to pick up the dog poop in my yard.....anyone else?

My husband will thumb-wrestle me for those gloves! And surgical masks -- when you're painting something with those pressure painters, or putting in more, more, more insulation, those surgical masks are a godsend.

Yes there are things that I bring home that I don't mean to, always 900 pens and ETOH wipes. They're great for cleaning off the keyboard though!

MRSA, VRE, whatever else drags itself into the ER, begone!

[Betty_SPN_KS, LPN]

More than once I went home with a resident's hearing aide in my pocket.

[rjflyn, ASN, RN]

Aren't they called oxygen nipples....?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3rdShiftGuy

I just checked around, I have alcohol wipes, pen lights, and a green "Christmas tree" (oxygen thingie you connect the nasal cannula to). :)

I'd bet 99% of RT and most of people i work with call them Christmas trees and would know what you mean.

Rj:)

[Monica RN,BSN]

Yup.... Christmas Trees... If someone asked me for an oxygen nipple, I would probably say "What??"

I tooo... the normal alcohol preps, tape ect ect ect.

But the little prefilled NS "fish" as well call them, are great for saline eye gtts.

when your eyes are dry and tired..

[Shotzie]

I had to laugh at all this.

My first job was in a very busy, very large ICU. I seemed to always end up working in the isolation rooms and I was concerned about bringing home the "ickies" to my husband. I developed the habit of walking in my front door, taking off my uniform, rolling it inside out and walking in just my "nothings" to the back of the house to the laundry room.

One day I did just that, walking down our long hall to the back of the house when the back door opened and my husband and two of his closest friends walked in. There was no place to go and nothing I could say that would make this better so I just continued my walk, passed them by, said "Hi ya'll", kissed my husband and went to the laundry room. I refused to come out until after they left.

My husband and I had started on an intense workout program about 6 months before that and my 23 year old body was in great shape. My husband and I were laughing about it later and he said all the two guys said was something along the lines of how great exercise really is...

...Whoever would have thought that the body I hated in my twenties would be the one I desired in my 40's...?????????

[tattooednursie, LVN]

lol I always have a pocket full of pens, and folded up paper that I had been using for notes.

[BRANDY LPN]

All the usual stuff mentioned, once when out to lunch with my brother I was digging through my purse and pulled out alcohol pads, a syringe, two needles, a tourniqet, a handful of those little packs of KY, and an empty Heb B vial, I would pay good money for a picture of the look on his face LOL.