Emergency nurses are a truly special breed. Armed with a “unique” sense of humor, bladders that confound the laws of nature, and personalities that are anything but shy — ER nurses are hard to miss in the hospital crowd! Here is a list of ten more telling characteristics, written by an ER nurse.
You know you’re an ER nurse when…
10. People come up to you in the grocery store and say, “Remember that problem I had down there? It’s better.”
9. You use a graduate to drink water when you can’t find a cup.
8. You talk on the phone, take verbal orders from the MD and answer questions from nurses all at the same time.
7. You can finish eating your slice of pizza after cleaning up puke and think nothing of it.
6. Eating out of an emesis basin is no big deal.
5. Patients call to ask if you’re working.
4. Giving a bed bath entails picking out maggots from between the patient’s toes.
3. You put a tube in every orifice and the biggest Jelco in an obnoxious, passed-out drunk who’s puked and slobbered on you for the last hour.
2. In triage you ask, “And when was the last time you gave this child Tylenol/Motrin?” because you know it wasn’t given at all.
1. A patient comes in and thanks you for saving his life last week.
This list is by Timmie Yastremski, RN.
