George Doyle | Stockbyte | Thinkstock + Scrubs
Recently, many of you participated in scrubsmag.com’s “You Know You’re a Nurse When…” contest. Although we were only able to pick four winners, many entries were so good that we wanted to share others.
Many of you suggested ways to know you’re an ER nurse. Here are some of our favorites.
You know you’re an ER nurse when…
1. You answer the phone in your kitchen with “[Name of your workplace], your own name and ‘How can I help you?’”
—Stephanie S., RN
2. You run out of Scotch Tape to wrap a gift and think nothing of using the roll of silk tape you found in your scrub pocket.
—Donna Holt, RN
3. You check out people’s veins when you’re at a cocktail party!
—Sandra Schutz, RN
4. You understand the word “Diahlia” and your patient means “Dilaudid.”
—Kathleen Mefford, RN
5. You know you’re a great emergency room nurse when you can go eight hours without using the restroom despite those three cups of coffee you needed to get through your shift!
—Lori Duncan, RN
6. You open a package of steak to cook a romantic dinner with your honey, and the aroma immediately reminds you of fresh GI bleed.
—Rachel, RN
7. You’re at a big amusement park surrounded by hundreds of people and you are categorizing them by their level of triage.
—Stacey Simeon, RN
8. You can go all day with no food and no bathroom break and still smile at your patients when they complain they haven’t eaten all day, and they have only been there for two hours.
—Sherry Sindle, RN
9. You can talk about brains and blood and EAT SPAGHETTI!!!
—Dawn Kilby, RN
10. You can assist with a finger amputation then have a hot dog with ketchup for lunch.
—Julia Meachem, LPN
11. You’re on the job and you cry because you’re happy AND sad!
—Debra Elmore-Nesheim, RN, PHN, BSN
RN
Registered Nurse
I have used micropore tape to ..wrap gifts, hem pants, fix a seam tear in a shirt at fancy dinner, finish my child’s school project when we ran out of glue. Medical tape in your bag is like a one item fix-it-all!
I use medical tape for everything.
You know you’re an ER nurse when you refuse to switch compressors during CPR because you have to burn off the Big Mac you just ate in 0.3 seconds because EMS was pulling up with the full arrest!!!
RN
Registered Nurse
…you know you’re a real ER nurse when you can eat rice (or anything else) after seeing live
maggots in a leg wound!
You know you are a nurse when on a first date you scare the guy half to death telling him you could start an IV with a 30 guage with no problem!
RN
Registered Nurse
You know your an ER nurse when suctioning secretions is like hosing the flowers in your garden