You know you've been a nurse for way too long when...

[jalvino1]

...Somebody calls your friend an SOB and you start assessing his respiratory status.

ok. so that one's a joke, but everybody's gotta have one of those stories when, for example: I instant messaged my friend "you need to have some patients. Oh, uh, I mean patience!

so what's your story? :)

[Straydandelion]

You don't go to the doctor until to are 1 foot in the grave because, you don't want to see one on your day off.

Definitely!!!

Or when you do go, you try hard not to be too obvious in telling him what to prescribe yet get him to prescribe what you need!

[cre8tivRN]

When you are shopping in Walmart or the grocery store and you hear the "beep...beep" before an over head announcement that sounds exactly like your code blue alarm bell at the hospital, and you stop your cart or tilt your head to listen for the "code blue announcement" to come, only to hear...... "clean up,.......isle 5" :chuckle

[NurseBranch]

I went to the movies a couple months ago and there was an add for a local department store that had a picture of a woman in a dress and the words PROM 2005 written out. My first thought? .... Premature Rupture of Membranes.

I can relate...but as a CNA, i think of passive range of motion :rotfl:

[rjflyn, ASN, RN]

When your old enough to be the new grads father/mother.

[rondafan]

You know both your parents are nurses when your kids are "triaging" a bicycle wreck & telling them "it's just a little blood.....you'll be fine" & coming to the house for sterile water,4 X 4's & tape.

[SheriLynnRN]

When you are shopping in Walmart or the grocery store and you hear the "beep...beep" before an over head announcement that sounds exactly like your code blue alarm bell at the hospital, and you stop your cart or tilt your head to listen for the "code blue announcement" to come, only to hear...... "clean up,.......isle 5" :chuckle

This happens to me almost every time a visit my local Target.

[rn/writer, RN]

You know both your parents are nurses when your kids are "triaging" a bicycle wreck & telling them "it's just a little blood.....you'll be fine" & coming to the house for sterile water,4 X 4's & tape.

Your post made me think of when we had young kids and also had teenage foster daughters. Out three oldest kids were all girls--maybe four, five and six years old at the time. I didn't realize how much foster care had influenced our lives until I heard our oldest delegating the roles for playing house. Pointing to her sisters she said, "You be the mom and you be the kid and I'll be the social worker."

[suebird3]

When the neighbor calls you to assess his elderly mother's status instead of calling her doctor.

When one of the kids comes in bleeding and you attempt to take vital signs before checking the wound.

you fall asleep in the easy chair in your scrubs.

all your shoes look like work shoes.

All my shoes ARE work shoes!! Standard Reeboks.

[DusktilDawn]

You get home from work exhausted, lay down on the couch, fall asleep, only to be awakened by a "call bell." You awaken only to realize that your having auditory hallucinations and that you are at home, safe from all call lights.

[t2000JC]

1. Your instinct when your answer any phone, even if it's at home, or cell, is to say your name and the unit you work on

2. if you ever glance at the clock at home at a certain time, say 10am, or 12noon, and you think, OOh! I need to give out meds! Or reset my pumps!

3. you feel the need to don gloves all the time...t.

[chadash]

you know you have been around too many nurses for to long when:

watching House the other night, and they showed a rash, and before I thought, I heard myself saying "looks like petechiae..."

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

You know you've been a nurse too long when you get very excited when your surgical patient lets out a big noisy fart ! :wink2: