You Know You’re an RN When You Take These Nursing Continuing Education Courses

• You’re a nurse everywhere you go, not just at work.
• In fact, you know you’re an RN when you don’t have a gag reflex anymore and have never had a boring night shift.
• Read this article to find out what nursing continuing education courses to take to sharpen the skills you can’t turn off and have a laugh while you do it.

Nurse is not just a professional title that can be taken off like a hat once a shift is over. For people who have said yes to the calling of caring for the sick, hurt, or dying, nursing becomes a part of them, no less changeable than the sound of their laughter. Whether or not that knowledge is appreciated is situation-dependent. It can help save a stranger’s life on the side of the road, or it can annoy your family and friends.

However, a nurse is who you are, and everyone needs skills to pay the bills. Read on to learn more about the nursing continuing education courses that can help with that and see how many times you have been guilty of any of the following.

You Tend to Notice People’s Veins

Your nurse brain doesn’t turn off after a hard day of work, and neither do your eyes. An everyday trip to Target for nothing that’s really needed but must be purchased is where you’re bound to see people’s arms. Whether someone unloads their shopping cart at the checkout register or reaches up for something high on the book aisle, there’s a high chance of seeing someone’s veins without even trying.

You may have thought of telling a stranger they have great-looking veins and should donate blood immediately, but you know the world of retail is no place for medical flattery. Some compliments are just better left unsaid.

If you want to learn more about drawing blood, we suggest taking our Administration of Blood Products nursing continuing education course. If you would like to learn more about giving compliments at the right time, we defer to Oprah.

You Hear IV and Ventilator Alarms in Your Sleep

Wouldn’t it be heavenly to not hear the beeping of alarms at home? Whether these phantom noises interrupt you in the shower, as you drift off to sleep, or when dreaming of being on a well-deserved vacation, it’s not uncommon for these sounds to cling to the mind when you’re miles away from work.

If you would like to learn more about the source of some of those alarms, we suggest taking our Basic Ventilator Management nursing continuing education course. If you need help drowning out these unwanted noises before bed, check out this white noise video.

You’re the Nursing Equivalent of Siskel and Ebert

Does your inner Joan Rivers come out when watching anything medical-related on TV? This type of behavior makes sense because you play a nurse in real life. When they get it wrong on the big screen, it’s almost your sworn duty to give a correction then and there. It may not be connected to fashion, but Joan would be proud of you for speaking up.

If you want to add new material to your television commentary, we suggest taking our Basics of Wound Healing nursing continuing education course. If you would like to laugh at actors trying to portray nurses, check out this list of medical shows.

You Have an Urge to Document Medication at Home

You document other people’s medication all day, so why not do it for yourself? It’s just one more person, right? How do you know when that information will become useful? It makes sense to write it down and pop it on the front door of the refrigerator. Just make sure to keep it up to date.

If you want to brush up on those documenting skills, we suggest taking our Documentation 101 nursing continuing education course. If you need some new writing options for documenting at home or work, read this pen review.

You Can Make Anyone Cringe at the Dinner Table

The dinner hour is a chance to eat a good meal while recounting the day. It goes without saying that any story you tell must include a few less-than-pleasant details and trigger a few people’s gag reflexes. If your family is having a hard time swallowing their meatloaf as you describe a puke, blood, and puss-filled event, you may want to start using code words for any stomach-turning vocabulary.

If you want to keep up on the skills that will continue to gross out your family at any meal of the day, we suggest taking our Drains: Everything You Need to Know nursing continuing education course. If your family is begging you to talk about more dinner-friendly topics, check out these conversation prompts.

You See Going to the Pharmacy As Debate Time

The pharmacist isn’t the only one who knows about medication. After all, you administer it all day. Some people spend their time with the pharmacist making pleasantries. For you, this is a chance to talk shop. Who knows, maybe this person will learn a thing or two.

If you want to increase your pharmacologic knowledge for the next trip to Walgreens, we suggest taking our Oral Hypoglycemic Medications nursing continuing education course. If you have already had one too many battles of the wits with the pharmacist, we recommend learning these jokes.

You Think a Lunch Break is Drinking Your Coffee While It’s Still Hot

Nursing will certainly keep you on your feet and can force you to learn to eat quickly. You may be impressing more people at Denny’s than you think with the incredible speed with which you can devour a pancake breakfast. However, you can’t neglect your needs forever, and making sure that you drink your coffee while it’s still hot doesn’t count as self-care. Burnout can happen if you’re not careful.

If you want to learn how to prevent burning your candle at both ends, we suggest taking our Nurse Burnout nursing continuing education course. If you would like to start journaling for self-care, we recommend using these self-reflection prompts.

Your Sneakers Have Been Confiscated by the CDC

Walking around a hospital all day is not a plan for maintaining pristine shoes. In fact, over a long enough period of time, the bottom of your shoes may start to look like the inside of a petri dish.

No one is coming for your shoes, but if you want to learn more about what could end up on them in a worst-case scenario, we suggest taking our Bioterrorism nursing continuing education course. If you need some sneaker cleaning tips, see what Heloise herself has to say.

You Need Botox from Years of Dealing With Angry Patients

No one can choose patients, and you more than likely have provided care for every personality type, including the upset ones. As a nurse, all patients still get quality care no matter their mood, even if that means premature wrinkling for you.

If you want to learn how to work with people who don’t put their best foot forward, we suggest taking our A Nurse’s Guide How to Deal With Difficult Patients nursing continuing education course. If you would like to keep your skin looking good in spite of stressful work situations, check out one of these moisturizers.

You Live By “Don’t Get Any on Ya”

You come into contact with many different substances at work and more than likely don’t want to bring any of them home. Just because you’re desensitized to most things that would make the common person cringe doesn’t mean you should be exposed to them.

If you want to learn more about how to stay safe at work, we suggest taking our Infection Control and Barrier Precautions nursing continuing education course. If you would like to laugh about being sanitary, check out this comic.

Your Patients Think Web MD Is the Same As a Nursing License

Do you ever feel like the internet has started giving out nursing degrees? If you ever had a patient get into a debate with you over the cause of their symptoms or which medication is best for them, you may have cursed the day Larry Page brought Google to the world.

If you want to be the one to improve a patient’s health literacy instead of a smartphone, we suggest taking our Patient Education Strategies nursing continuing education course. If you need a reminder to laugh at work, read this Abraham Lincoln quote.

You Say “New Number, Who This?” For Patient Information Requests

It’s almost second nature for you to protect a patient’s confidentiality, whether on the phone or in a face-to-face situation. You have gone through many HIPPA trainings and feel confident that refusing to give the wrong person someone’s private information.

If you want to learn more about protecting a patient’s privacy, we suggest you take our Ensuring Patient Confidentiality nursing continuing education course. If you want to learn more about saying no, we suggest reading this Anne Lammot quote.

The Bottom Line on Nursing Continuing Education

You can take someone out of nursing, but you can’t take the nurse out of that person. Nursing is forever, and those values are cemented into the hearts of the people who have been called to this profession. The knowledge you have can be a blessing to a stranger in need or a curse to your kids at dinner time. Keep on taking nursing continuing education courses so your well of knowledge never dries up.

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