You know your nurse brain is still at work when....

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You see a curved tube from a broken shampoo pump on the floor and your first thought is "Why is that trach tube on the floor??" :laugh: :sarcastic:

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Specializes in palliative care, medicine, rehab/geri.

When I first started working night shifts, I would come home on Sunday mornings, watch my husband sleep, and count his respirations!

Also notice strangers veins, and sign RN after my name at the bank

Nurses are the only ones I think who can talk about bodily functions at the dinner table and think it's normal.....

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That's hilarious.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
When I first started working night shifts, I would come home on Sunday mornings, watch my husband sleep, and count his respirations!

Also notice strangers veins, and sign RN after my name at the bank

Nurses are the only ones I think who can talk about bodily functions at the dinner table and think it's normal.....

Nope. Not just nurses. Farmers are good at it, too. And my mother worked for an outfit called "Accelerated Genetics" which collected semen samples from farm animals, froze them and then charged for artificially inseminating other farm animals when the time was right. You can imagine the dinner table conversations that ensued when my mother was learning to collect the samples and perform the inseminations!

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Watched Restaurant Impossible last night and kept thinking "I could throw an 16G in those veins from across the room!" Hubby walks in, first words out of his mouth; "Wow that guy's veins are massive." Hubby is also an RN.

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When I dream I started a KPhos drip in a peripheral vein and it infiltrated.

When I dream my CRRT machine was set up wrong when I came on shift and I had to troubleshoot quick to save the patient.

When I dream I get a really unstable CABG back and I have another patient having neuro changes at the same time.

I dream about work waaaaay too much!!! Wish I could quit it!!!!

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Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.

I thought of another one. I volunteer at a cat rescue. At the end of my shift, when the next volunteer comes on, I find myself giving them a "report" on all the kitties. "OK, cage 1, she ate/drank, not used the litter box, came out for play time, Cage 2 has the sniffles so keep an eye on her". The only time I do not get a strange look is when I have a volunteer coming on shift that is a nurse (we have several).

:)

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Keep it coming! :D

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

When you take a wide path as you see a person with dementia walking toward you because that person has already torn the uniform off of a fellow aide.

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Specializes in Med-surg, school nursing..

My husbands ringtone is the same as the charge nurse phone, which usually means an admission.

I twitch a little every time he gets a call.

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
You look for someone to double check the dose of insulin you are giving your cat. When you realize you live alone, you make the cat double check the dose. Because insulin Must! be double checked!!

Or worse, you ask for a double check when you are giving yourself your own insulin. Yes, I did that.

ETA: I too will sign my credentials when I sign for credit card receipts. I answer the phone "Onc/Palliative, this is CG, how may I help you"

Walked into Academy Sports one day (day off) and there was an alarm going off that sounded like a Kangaroo pump: I looked over at my husband and said "Go turn that bloody Kangaroo off before I chuck it in the street". I had just gotten over a 10 day stretch.

When my husband was in the hospital for an AMI, I started pt teaching on heparin gtts. His nurse, who had already given the education materials and explained, looked at me with amusement. He asked "you're a nurse, aren't you?"

And I will assess people in the grocery store for their fall risk.

I am also guilty of assessing vein quality.

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Sometimes I knock on doors before entering rooms in my own house!

I do the " knock, then open without waiting for an answer" thing at home..have walked in on people in the bathroom, etc. :x3:

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Specializes in Cardiac ICU, ER, PICU, Corrections.

When I frantically search for my work keys in my pocket when I am at the grocery store.

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