Things You Can Be Sure Of

1. Your first shift on a new unit will be the busiest day they have ever had.

2. The nurse assigned to orient you will be one who does not like to teach.

3. The doctors will ignore you until they check you out with the senior nurses.

4. The bell that rings at three o'clock in the morning will be at the end of the hall.

5. The patient you least expect will be the one to complain about the nurses.

6. The patient who lives on Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner will complain about the food.

7. After putting everything possible on your med cart, you'll still be missing the one thing they need.

8. The man who told you he quit drinking will finally admit that he only did so the day before admission, and he admits that when the DTs start.

9. The nurse you first saw and thought quite grumpy will turn out to be a wonderful mentor and friend, given the chance.

10. If that bra strap is going to break it will do so while you are doing CPR.

11. The day you arrive dressed as a nun for Halloween will be the day the new handsome single doctor arrives to make rounds.

12. If your heart aches and you think you have hidden it, one of the older patients will pick up on it and you will talk to her/him as you would a therapist. It is human nature.

13. Instruments are not all in multiples of five as you have been told, as there are six of some things, 11 of others, and 18 of even more.

14. The sick patient picks up on everything the nurse does, says, moves, repositions, or touches.

15. Nurses will most likely be the worst patients, best friends, most trusted confidantes, and most amazing practical jokers.

16. In a room of five hundred people, the three or four nurses will find each other although they have never met.

17. Nursing will bring you down, help you recover, and then lift you back up.

18. Whatever you teach a new nurse for the first time she will associate you with for the rest of her career.

19. The family of a dying patient needs you to lean on, talk to, and cry in front of, and it is OK for you to cry too.

20. Nursing is a gift, a talent, an acquired skill, a vocation, and most of all you can count on it being ever changing yet in some ways staying the same.

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