Why do you do what you do and DON'T do what you don't do?

79Tango · Nov 9, 2011

Heh? Is that Green Tea or Green Leaf?

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Nov 9, 2011

My head exploded just reading the title.

netglow, ASN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

"oh my sweet patootie, if i never see ob again it'll be too soon. tits and fundi and peri pads and meconium and those whiny b***** with their eight-page birth plans and the mothers and mothers-in-law in the way tripping over all those germy flower arrangements .... yeeck, get me outta here!"

:yeah: ok, made me choke on my snicker's bar.

roser13, ASN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

I DON'T do Med/Surg because all those sicker-by-the-day med patients and those straight-from-the-ER trauma patients who by rights should have gone to ICU were not getting the care from me that they deserved. Not due to my inadequacies but because no one nurse could keep up with the pace of the admits/discharges and deliver adequate, let alone above-average care.

I DO work in a pre-op setting now, taking pre-op histories/assessments over the phone because: I'm good at looking at both the big picture and the nit-picky details. I evaluate a patient's readiness for surgery and work to remedy any deficiences. I get off on lowering my facility's day-of-surgery cancellation rate.

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

I don't do OB. I will have a hand in a wound up to my knuckles without blinking an eye, but afterbirth? :barf01:

I do ICU. People there have a running shot of actually being sick, as opposed to the "hotel patients" we have upstairs who have more insurance than illness. I used to work the floor, and it made me nuts when I'd have someone who was going down the tubes, and I would get a stat page out of a room for a ...pillow. Or I'd have just finished putting a well loved frequent flyer into a body bag only to be B'd out by a walkie-talkie idiot because the ice melted in their water pitcher.

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

I work Peds Critical Care because I love children, I'm detail-oriented, I love technical skills, and I love being able to focus on just a couple of patients. I love coming up with creative ways to get children to participate in treatments, such as blowing pinwheels for incentive spirometry and putting orange soda in a syringe so a toddler learns to take the "orange medicine". I like the diversity of caring for a newborn, a pre-schooler and a teenager all in one shift.

I don't work psych because I had a rather disturbing experience with a psychotic patient on a jail hold in my clinicals. So now psych freaks me out.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

I work with seniors because I genuinely enjoy them, especially my dementia and psych residents. It's a challenge sometimes, but there are many misconceptions about the elderly.

I also love love the OR and PACU. Very interesting, clean, organized, one pt at a time. I hope to return someday.

I would never want to work pediatrics. I don't like other people's children all that much. Just never had an interest in peds. I also wouldn't want to work Emerg. Had a few shifts as a student, and I'm not an Adrenalin junkie. No interest in starting IVs or engaging in code situations every shift.

ErinS, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

I don't work in a hospital because I feel those gentle gray walls closing in on me and bleeding the life right out of me. Also, I was tired of working everyday trying to get patients to do things they didn't want to, so they could be discharged to a nursing home they hated, only to come back in sicker than ever and start the process over.

I work in hospice because of the autonomy, because somedays, like today, I get paid to drive 100 miles to meet a real cowboy from the past who has prostate cancer but is pretty sure he has another 10 years left, and because I truly work with an interdisciplinary team (including the doc) that are working to do what is best for the pt's comfort. And I don't have to worry about whether my pt's are seeking drugs.

AnonRNC · Nov 10, 2011

I don't work with adults because I hate what they do to themselves and I don't like the intimacy with their bodies.

I used to work with Peds, but I had trouble with how they hated me and how varied their diagnoses were. Toddlers hated me at the door. I had to wake up a sweet 6yr old at midnight to restart her IV. I took care of kids with the WIERDEST disorders: Spinal Muscle Atrophy, Maple Syrup Urine Disease, Glycogen storage disease, Epidermolysis bullosa...plus your dehydrated kids, post-ops and former preemies on chronic vents.

Now I do NICU. I am not embarassed to examine and care for their bodies. They don't hate me: I can poke them for an IV and then comfort them. There are a limited number of things that can go wrong with new babies: and I can know them WELL! I don't know a little about a lot of things, but I know a LOT about a few things...I work better that way.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Nov 10, 2011

I work with the elderly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that whatever that generation is made of, I wish I could bottle it. My generation and the generations after it could use some of their endurance, not to mention courage, self-discipline, and determination. And I love the detective work involved in finding out, for example, what's going on with a patient who's suddenly falling a lot, and solving the mystery.

I could never do NICU or PICU nursing---it tears me up too badly to see babies/children in life-or-death struggles. And psych........well, I see enough of that in my dementia patients, but the people who are just plain street-rat, bunny-boiling CRAZY scare me. No thank you please!

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Nov 10, 2011

When I was working, I loved neuro (floor- occasional float to NeuroICU)- everybody was a puzzle. The docs were great about shoving a CT (MRIs not around much) into the lightbox, and asking where the problem was- and what symptoms to look for. Co-workers were great (aside from one, who either sniffed a LOT of something, or never got out of some exotic haze :uhoh21:; make that 2- there was the relic who tried to draw up insulin in a 3cc syringe :eek: ). When I worked LTC/MDS/treatments, I loved that also- great co-workers, different things to do, nifty residents, and generally NICE facilities. When I worked adolescent psych- there was hope for those kids (the parents? Not so much). This was back when they'd stay for months- one was there for 13 months. He didn't want to leave. The kids were treated well- and my co-workers were great (a trend?)

Head injury rehab/coma stim- good to see some improvement, but gave a whole new meaning to gorked. And so many were so preventable. Med-surg/ortho- great co-workers, variety, great docs to work WITH, hospital was fairly decent to their employees (most of my friends are from the LTC and hospitals in that one town- 9-10 years after leaving). Pediatrics- great learning experience; kids were train wrecks; floating to PICU and NICU were "ok", but not the highlight of my life. But, I'm still glad I did - helped to see what went on before we got the kids. Could have gone the rest of my life without the abuse kids. :down: Or cancelled shifts and catty "other" shift. The shift I worked was fun to work with- shift change was a drama festival.

I LOVED alcohol/drug rehab. They're just folks going through a hard time who had the SENSE to get help. The ones who are still on the loose are the problems. I learned a lot from that place- and the patients. Anybody from a homeless guy who drove his bike to treatment to some dude who flew in and had a limo drop him off (yeah- THAT lasted about as far as the curb in front of detox). But it was also a bit of this and a bit of that, since many had a bunch of other diagnoses... and any IVDU is at risk for a bunch of nasty stuff. The alcoholics were walking exanguinators...pop a varices, and they could be toast (we were 14 miles from the nearest hospital).

Never did- never wanted to: OB/L&D (I did have to float to watch over the gyn surgery patients when they got an influx of L&D ladies. Then they sent me in to take one to the bathroom first time up (that didn't go well in school....as in laid out cold on the floor - the patient, not me)... so I take the kid (around 23-24 y/o) to the bathroom, with clots trailing behind her. I asked someone passing by (I knew she worked there, but that was it) if I should be concerned (while trying to sound like I wasn't going to stroke). NOPE- that looks great..... :cool: Uh, yeah- when can I go back to my floor?

I did agency CNA work in school, so knew I didn't want to do home health (in the winter here, it can be a total PITA to get around- not just with snow, but wind chills -20degrees F. Get stuck in that, and you're done. Never had an interest in surgery- though enjoyed the ones I saw- and when I had to drag someone's IV fluids to the OR (some special concoction), seeing the guts laid out on the drape was kinda cool They were nice and pink- so no big deal. I liked them better when they were reassembled, and I got the guy back with nothing dragging behind. :up:

Never did ED... I liked to get to know the person behind the diagnosis. Yeah- having them on the floor could be a PITA, but that was ok. I took advantage of the REAL nursing shortage from 1987-2002 in Texas.... I could pretty well pick what I wanted to do. I learned a lot...saw some really neat people, and some jackwagons- but more that I felt honored to take care of :)