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? :)

[rogramjet]

You know you've been a nurse too long...when the sight of a full moon no longer brings romantic images, but dread, because you know how crazy it will be at work....

[Nesher, BSN, RN]

You are telling a story about necrotizing fasciitis at dinner in a lovely restarant - three of the 6 at the table are nurses - one of the other guests said' oh these stories make me ill" or something to that effect. She got up at the end of the story to go to the bathroom, passed out -was incont - laying in the lobby of this place in full view of the bar. The staff called 911 and then came to tell us. Two of us kicked into high nurse mode and ran to her side - where I notced she was fine but was pretending to still be out as she was embarrassed.

Now you would think this kind of reaction would stop a nurse from telling that story right?

Ha - now the telling of the story in further embellished by the ending!

Perhaps I have been a nurse too long.

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

You are standing in line at the grocery store and think to yourself about the guy ahead of you "Man, he would be an easy stick! Look at those veins!"

Or when you're holding hands with a cute boy and you find yourself poking at the veins on the back of his hand...

guilty, even though I'm still in school

[bagladyrn, RN]

When you look at the doc coming in to make morning rounds and realize "Ohmigod she's younger than my son!"

[rn/writer, RN]

You know you've been a nurse waaay too long when you--

--write down appointments, meetings and even dinner plans in military time.

--run across someone who's kind of cranky and wonder when they had their last BM.

--stand in line at Wally World and start diagnosing the people around you (and guessing what meds they are or should be on)

--reach in your purse for your wallet and find a stash of alcohol wipes, rolls of tape, and spare gloves you emptied from your pockets after work.

--get to the check out and sign your debit slip, Susie Smith, RN.

[stidget99]

.............when you no longer recognize your own signature or can no longer read your own writing.

[MacNurse]

Ok...still student...but....

.....when you look at people in public places, and estimate how many people it would take to lift them i.e. "Whoa, that person's gotta be a 6 person lift!" or "She'd be an easy transfer"

I do this all the time...is that weird or what?? :imbar

[chadash]

Ok...still student...but....

.....when you look at people in public places, and estimate how many people it would take to lift them i.e. "Whoa, that person's gotta be a 6 person lift!" or "She'd be an easy transfer"

I do this all the time...is that weird or what?? :imbar

Might be, but it sounds normal to me!

[stidget99]

.......you write a letter to someone and they call you and ask you what it really all meant because you used so many medical abbreviations.

[Else567]

another one......when you see an ambulance w/ lights and sirens and, instead of saying a prayer for the person being transported, your first thought "Thank God it's not my admission!!!"

Hello All fellow Nurses,,

Well Barefoot Lady,,,,,

I thought I was the only one who thought that,,,just yesterday,,I saw our local ambulance/transport pulling up to the hospital,& that's the very first thing I thought,,thank god it's not mine,,also,when I see them arriving with a drop off(I also work in SNF as well,,I think the same thing,,thank god it's not MY admission!!!'

Aren't we horrible,,hahahahahahahahahah

Have a Great Weekend All.

Elsie*

[bissie]

Don't know if this was mentioned but....

I've already checked out my 3 children's, my boyfriends and his 2 children's veins....just in case...and to the 2 I know will be hard sticks...pointed out their good ones to them so they will be able to tell their nurse if I am not there!

[lilpoo_1]

.......you can talk about bodily excretions while your eating or compare the color of your food to that of a wound, stool, sputum etc with a group of non-nursing people and not think twice about it but everyone at the table has suddenly lost his/her appetite.

I do this to my husband all the time. I will be talking about something from work and we'll be eating dinner. He'll stop me midsentence and say, "Umm, honey, we're eating right now." I'll look at him and say, "So?" Then the lightbulb goes on that everyone doesn't have a "nurse's" stomach.