nurse missy

     this last week was my 2 year anniversary at my job as an RN on the "orthopedic trauma and surgical specialties" floor at the university of utah hospital (i know it sounds very intense and, trust me, at times it is!).  most days are so crazy that time flies by, which is actually really nice when your shift is 12 hours long.  i have gotten over the terrified new nurse phase finally and now love my job, although i am still learning something new almost every day i work.  

here is a list of some things i have learned in the past 2 years:

• waking up and being to work by 7am IS possible, but it helps when your commute is only 5 minutes
• difficult and needy patients are great practice for having kids
• as is working night shifts and surviving on only a few hours of sleep
• as is changing an adult diaper because it's 100x bigger/grosser/stinkier than any baby's diaper ever could be
• some people will claim their pain is at "level 10/10" no matter how many pain medications you give them and no matter how minor their injury is
• the most wussy patients i have ever had are males between the ages of 18 and 35 
• a LOT of people break their femur skiing
• doctors may think they know everything, but a lot of times the nurses know more than they do
• sometimes you give enough narcotics to tranquilize a horse and it doesn't even phase an 80lb grandma because of all the meds she takes at home
• having great co-workers makes all the difference in the world
• having your best friend work on the same floor as you is the best thing ever, even though you rarely have time to talk to each other when you work together
• the waffles we consistently make and eat on nightshifts at 2am do not help your waistline
• the most annoying thing is having a patient in pain, and you can't give them anything unless the doctor orders it (and the doctor doesn't return your page for hours and then only orders tylenol)
• people on drugs and/or alcohol + motorized vehicles = bad combination 
• a paper cut is the absolute worst thing ever because you use hand sanitizer 1,000,000,000 times a day
• i am no longer grossed out by anything anymore and have a hard time recognizing if something is not appropriate to talk about while eating
• nursing is 50% taking care of patients and 50% charting what you did
• there is no better feeling than getting a phone call at 5am from the charge nurse saying they are overstaffed and you don't need to come in that day 
• beeping IV pumps haunt me in my sleep, even after i have been home for hours
• the first thing i notice about a person isn't their smile, their hair or their eyes; it's whether or not they have good veins
• even with all the stress my job puts me through, knowing that i helped somebody and hopefully made a difference in their life makes everything worth it