OK, let me start out by saying.... I'm not "really" and airhead... I just have a very bad short-term memory. I'm worried about how that will play into me becomming a nurse.
For instance.... my husband called today because he forgot his laptop (which is totally unlike him) and he wanted me to bring it to him at work (downtown 30+min drive).... I agreed. I got ready, packed up the kids.... got in the car... started to drive out of the garage.... and realized I had forgotten the dumb computer too.
This is just one example of hundreds.... I don't know if I get too distracted, or if I have so much going on in my head I can't keep things straight... or if it's the fact that 3 kids sucked the all the brain cells out through my uterus....
I have a GREAT long term memory. Unfortunetly it is good for mostly useless things that don't matter .... ie: what my little one wore for her 2nd birthday party, all the phone numbers and addresses from the 20 different places I've lived in, old calling card numbers or pin numbers...
I just can't remember stuff from 30 seconds ago. Ugg
Anyway, I'm wondering if this is something that other people struggle with... and if so... how do you train yourself to work through it? I was a waitress (lasted a month) and someone would ask me for a refill.... yeah, you guessed it...they never got it...
I'm worried a patient might ask me for something and it will slip my mind... or worse.... it could be something crucial and I'll foul it up...
Thanks for your advice in advance... I hope I'm not the only one if I am just whop me one!!! :lol_hitti
Edited to change too from to in the title because well, ummmm, I'm an airhead! LOL
I'm a total scatterbrained airhead ditz. I am forever going into a room only to have to leave to get some supply I forgot. Then I get to the supply room and stop "what am I here for???".
Just just have to work with your strengths and hope for the best. LOL
I'm an airhead, too. In fact, I will be in midsentence talking to a patient or nurse and totally lose my train of thought and I'm standing there with a blank look on my face and I have to apologize.
I blame it on brain overload. It's not natural for most people to be as overwhelmed as we are today. I've got three children. I always go through all three names when calling them even though I'm talking to only one. My husband is very demanding (it's like Archie and Edith at my house) Add that to working full-time as an LPN and going to RN school for a couple of years and what else could a person be but an airhead??? Our brains have turned to mush!
I do the same thing with the naming of the children! haha Sometimes I'll even throw in my niece or nephews name too! It must be brain overload... the only reason my husband doesn't have any problems is because he only thinks of one thing at a time... I just can't do that! Ugg
(makes sense too because he forgot his computer ((for the first time ever)) yesterday and he has just started a new position at the corporate office and he has a lot on his mind) I give it 3 weeks and he'll be back to normal and maybe I won't be worried as much! I need his sanity to help me stay grounded!
I have found it very difficult to do the most tedious job (wash dishes) effectively with my kids constantly distracting and nagging me. However, once they're safely tucked into high-quality daycare I suddenly become a hyper-efficient genius...
I'm sure the same is true for you. Your mind hasn't been destroyed by motherhood, your brain cells are just hiding from your kids.
Have you heard this one, raising children is like being pecked to death by ducks.
I think a lot of us feel the same way. When I was floor nursing (I'm in the ER now) I carried a clipboard and wrote down everything, much like geekgolightly. The first thing I did each day was make a list of what each pt. needed -- lab result to be pulled, dressing or IV site changes, discharges, permits, the works. It really helped me to stay organized. And eventually my mind got into the habit of holding onto that stuff so that I didn't need the list so much. I'm in the ER now and am pretty good at keeping up with what needs to be done. And honestly, if a patient asks you for something and it slips your mind, tell them that and apologize "Oh, Mrs. Smith, I am so sorry I forgot your glass of water. I got called away and it slipped my mind! Let me get it for you now." Something as simple as that can go a long way toward making things right.
Oh, that is so me! That is exactly why I left floor nursing and went back to ER, where the brain's ability to leave one thing and leap to another in the space of a second is actually considered an asset. The only way I could keep myself half straight on the floor was to write out my brain with one of those pens with 4 colors that you can change by pushing down the little stick in the color you want. Demographic stuff like name, age, and dx was blue, meds were green, and anything with a time issue, like a repeat troponin, was red. And even then I forgot stuff!
So many nurses are borderline ADD that I have come up with a theory: I think that they put so much stuff in our heads in school, then another ton at our first job, that there is just not much room left in there for new information. Whenever a new piece of info comes in, another goes out. Unfortunately, we don't get to choose which information stays and which leaves. Makes me feel better, anyway.
Tweety, BSN, RN
36,248 Posts
I'm a total scatterbrained airhead ditz. I am forever going into a room only to have to leave to get some supply I forgot. Then I get to the supply room and stop "what am I here for???".
Just just have to work with your strengths and hope for the best. LOL