#Not Cool

Hey, guys! Back with another #advicetobabynursingstudents post. This particular post is about one of my biggest nursing pet peeves. I've found people doing this in both nursing school as well as my career, so I felt that it was important to address. 

Never, no matter how cool you think something is, say "that's so cool!" about a patient's wounds, drains, diagnosis, etc. 

When you're in nursing school, working with wounds or drains for the first time may be cool. You may have never seen a PEG tube before, and learning how it works may be cool to you. You also may have never seen a large wound before, and learning how to dress it could be a cool first experience as a nursing student. What's important to realize, though, is that these devices and wounds are attached to real people. 

Put yourself in their shoes, and imagine someone coming into your room to look at a newly placed PEG tube. You're already slightly depressed about it's presence, and now people are coming into assess it. Now, imagine how you would feel if someone said "oh, that's awesome!" while assessing it. 

You'd probably think, "this is not cool at all". You'd be even more upset, because in your opinion, this tube in your abdomen is not a cool thing to you. That's what I always try to remember when taking care of my patients. I realize that what they're going through can be depressing and embarrassing to them, and so I try not to draw unnecessary attention to those things. It's important to recognize that drains and tubes are there, but not to call them "cool" or "awesome". 

I'm sure there are people thinking "I would never do that!" Or "I doubt anyone actually does that", but I've witnessed two people make patients extremely uncomfortable this way. One was a nursing student, and one an experienced nurse. I wanted to write this post to urge you all to think before you speak to people... Think about how you'd like to be spoken to, and put yourself in their shoes.