Weird little things you do as a nurse

10 Hello AN people,

I am in private duty home health and I assist with my patients with all sorts of odd things as part of being their go-to gal in their home.

This weekend I had a blast assisting a patient make a Facebook page.

It really did warm my heart because this patient is extraordinarily isolated due to medical and psychological issues. He is learning to use a communicator to reconnect to the world around him, and one of his first forays into new territory is to make a Facebook page. Suddenly all the junk info I knew about Facebook became useful, and this patient made a stride in coming out of his shell.

What sort of weird little things you have done as a nurse? Stuff that made you go, "I'm doing this on the clock? Really?"
I don’t think that is weird or little at all. You should change the little to what are nice things that make a big difference.

Go to a vending machine on a different floor for Cheezits. It wasn't a busy night...

I gave money to a going-off-duty diet aide to go to a grocery store and bring back a certain special brand of ice cream. It was the pt's favourite and he was having his chest tubes changed on the unit while I pushed IV morphine. The morphine was not adequate but hopefully the ice cream was a mitigator.

We watched the movie "Jumanji" on a night shift. We'd pause it, do our rounds, then come back to the movie. And the best part was we had our manager's blessing to do it.

Bought a Snuggli for a LOL at the nursing home during out LTC clinical. I would sit and watch Golden Girls with her and she would always be so cold but she needed her hands to play cards and stuff. It was almost Christmas and she was alone had no visitors or family. I had the staff give it to her on Christmas because our clinicals were over.

I like to tape people's cell phone charger cords so they don't fall down behind beds. Guess that doesn't take up much time though... I've heffed myself all over the hospital in search of cranberry juice

Used my own $ and went to the hospital gift shop to buy a sweet LOL replacement hearing aide batteries as hers were dead and she had no one to come visit her...she was so grateful and was begging for my address to send me a check for it when she got out...I refused...it was nice to actually be able to talk with her without yelling

I collected some junk computer parts to make a computer for a rheumatoid arthritis patient who could just about only move 2 fingers on each hand. I got it so he could talk on Skype to his family in his home town over 90 miles away, but he ended up writing his biography, playing the lottery online, and all kinda stuff on that piece of junk! That's one of the best freebies I ever gave away

Before I finished nursing school and was just tech'ing, hospital needed someone to sit 1 on 1 with a PEC... Spent 2 16 hour days watching TV with that guy. Ironically, the show we watched was Psych! Lol

When I worked private duty in-home care with a child, I went w/mom to the kid's doc appts. Once we stopped on the way home to go shopping at a mall, and she let me try on some dresses for an event I was going to! I bought the perfect dress that day!!When I did visiting nurse home health, I occassionally brought my patients some fresh fruit.But that was many years ago.

I've painted fingernails, blown bubbles, made strawberry milksakes, braided hair, had my hair braided, colored pictures, and played nintendo games. Those are my favorite days. Sometimes those simple things make so much more difference to the kids then all the nursing tasks I do everyday.

I'm in LTC, an although it gets a bad rap (sometimes from myself) I do love working here. Geriatrics are great fun. I also work weekends, so I'm here for longer days, and there's no meetings or administration to drain your time. I've gone out in search of strawberry icecream, have done mini makeovers, went and had my hairdresser teach me how to do LOL hair, begged donations from businesses, bought clothes, and this year, the weekend CNA's and I have personally ensured that every person on our hall has a present under our tree. Even had to go and drill a local Rabbi about Hanukka because we didn't want our two Jewish residents to feel left out. It's not like this every day, but hey- some days are slow and you've got to do something with your time.