“Ohhhhh you’re a Nurse Practitioner I have a cousin that is like a medical assistant that’s like the same thing right?”
“So I am like taking this medicine and it makes me feel a little itchy can you tell me if *insert various drug* would do that to me?”
“Can you write prescriptions?”
The answer to that is yes
“Will you write one for me?”
*I also follow this one up with “you’re older than 18….I only deal with little people” (like Pediatrics little people just to clarify)*
“Do you know Sara Smith….I think she’s like basically a doctor too but she works in Dermatology”.
Yes because that is such a rare name and everyone in healthcare knows each other
“Ohhhh I have this really funny rash can you take a look at it?”
“Do you want to see this gnarly gash I got the other day?”
“Do you think this is blood in what I just coughed out?”
“So I’m taking this medicine it’s for a sinus infection” *wrong* (I know it’s for something else but okay I’ll play along) “and it says I can’t drink on it…..like does that mean like not at all or just less than I usually do?”
My personal favorite is when people start talking about something that they clearly have no business talking about related to a various health condition. I usually don’t poke the cage because I’m not interested in furthering the conversations but once in a while I can’t help it and feel the need to gently correct inform them.
I once had someone show me a picture of something that should have been immediately flushed and wanted to know if I thought something was wrong with it. What the???? Honestly!
Last thing. You thought the man cold was bad….trying being in the healthcare field. The symptoms are exponentially worse.
In all fairness I absolutely love my job. I honestly love going to work (I mean I miss my bed don’t get me wrong). I have a great team that I work with and 98% of the time my patients are kiddos are great. Plus if you give a sticker to a kid you are now their best friend. Oh and kids will tell you everything! I had one tell me the other day his chest was hurting because he was carrying the beer out of the boat for his parents #busted
They will also make you sweet chevron bracelets like this.
So does this happen to you? Do people find out what you do and then the onslaught of questions come? My other healthcare peeps what are the most gross or annoying things people have said to you once you opened Pandoras box and told them what you do?
Don’t forget about the linkup tomorrow!!!! xoxoxo
I have a friend that works in the pharmacy and I am always asking her random things like she is supposed to know the answer ha ha. But in her defense, she usually does. It probably drives her nuts that I go to her asking questions though ha ha. I did work at the hospital cleaning ER rooms once (obviously nothing like your job), and a male prisoner was brought in screaming and moaning. I seriously thought he was dying. Turns out he was severely constipated.
First comment! HA HA! ;D
One of my friends is a nurse, but I never ask him anything ’cause I don’t want to bother him and I also don’t want all my friends knowing all my medical business!! Hahah I can’t imagine the disgusting things you get shown x).
Haha oh my best friend is a nurse and she gets these questions all the time. At least you get some cute kids to work around and say funny things!
Since I have some chronic conditions, people who talk to always think that they’re doctors. And since my condition is rare, but has common symptoms (like neck pain), people always give me BAD advice. Like herbs that would interact with medication that I’m on, etc.
I work for the government so I always get questions that I’m not allowed to answer or people’s uninformed opinions about what I do!
SO TRUE!! I get asked this stuff all the time except more geared toward nurse stuff haha! My grandparents are always calling asking for medical advice! There’s a reason there isnt a MD behind my name!
http://www.madeintheshadeblog.com
People try to show you their bowel movements??? Ewww! The not drinking or just drinking less is hilarious! Stupid, people can be amusing.
I mean I could have written this about being a lawyer. “Oh you are a lawyer? I have an aunt who’s friend’s cousin’d sister’s half brother is in trouble ……” Oh do you now ….
Haha I love that someone asked you if you knew someone in a completely different field – it’s like asking if you knew so and so at UF…my answer ummmm we had 54,000 people there, so probably not!! My biggest pet peeve isn’t with question I get asked it with watching tv shows about lawyers…like you can’t practice every single type of law – not possible, but also not fun in lala land!! I did sadly ask a girl that is a pharmacist in my barre class which biotin I should take…I hope she wasn’t offended!
Lol! I just work part time in a bakery so usually I get you must love this job, etc. Or can you make me a cake(on the side)? Or the odd guy who asks me How do you stay thin working in a bakery..then stands in front of me and watches me work…It is more awkward than you can imagine! hahaa! Or people that want me to write a paragraph /book on a super tiny cake. But these are more work related problems lol. My sister just became an RN so I will let her know what she has to look forward to! XO
ewwwww!! cant believe this actually happens haha.
something that should have been immediately flushed. EW!
people dont ask me regarding my field, but no joke when people find out I’m from Australia 9 times out of ten the next thing out of their mouth goes something like ‘Oh, I went to x place’ me: never been there. or ‘Oh, I had a cousin’s wife’s sister named Jane who lived in x place’ me: yep, don’t know her. ‘You know a John Smith?’ me: yes, I know a John Smith but it’s probably not the same one. Australia is not a small town.
Anywho. Funny post lady, love the chevron bracelet! KC’s students make those for me, but they always make them too small haha. Guess I have fat wrists.
Absolutely yes! I work healthcare but doing the backside of things (degree in health information technology) I still get asked things. It’s like yes I work in healthcare but I’m not a provider of any sort, I do computer things. People are crazy!
hahaha it happens all the time. they find out i work for a huge telco and they suddenly start complaining about their bill etc. i’m like, dude, i work in IT; i can tell you the system that generates your bill but i can’t fix your bill or apply discounts for you. still, they just don’t get it.
-kathy
Vodka and Soda
These are hilarious! Sounds like stickers are your secret weapon!
Hahahahahaha I’m dying right now because I get almost all these questions all the time except I’m not even a nurse or doctor, I work in imaging no I don’t know anything about your weird rash or your medication! Ask me about a lump in your boob or your balls and I might be able to give you some ideas, but um ya you need to go to your dr!! The worst with me is I do ultrasound (but I don’t scan babies, I use to though) but everyone always is like OMG you do ultrasound?! Can you see if I’m pregnant?! Yes let me whip out my invisible machine and scan you in the middle of this restaurant!
<3 Shannon
Upbeatsoles.blogspot.com
They had a photo of their business on their phone and showed it to you?? Really? Nonono. I work at a law school. I’m not a lawyer. I’ve never sat in a single class. And my dad, of all people, starts asking me what so and so should do about her divorce…. um, sorry, I have no idea!
Hahahah! Love it. I’m thinking about going back to school to become a Medical Assistant. Thoughts?
~Ashley @ A Cute Angle
acutelifestyle.blogspot.com
Love all of the questions you get, I’m totally guilty of asking my med school (and vet) friends those sometimes. haha! I work in politics so you can imagine the crap I hear from people who know absolutely nothing about anything they are saying. SO so annoying. I avoid anything partisan because that just starts an argument but I do hate when people quote “facts” that are anything but!
Haha, guess I should be expecting this pretty soon too once I start med school in August lol. and kids really do tell all the business. I teach Sunday school for preschoolers and the things they tell you are hilarious. I once had a kiddo tell me “my cousin’s friend has a baby, but he don’t have no wife!” adults don’t think they’re paying attention, but they will tell all your business. “my dad smokes, but he doesn’t want my mom to know.” lol.
Oh my! I feel like all member of the medical field get questions ALL THE TIME! And I sincerely try my HARDEST to never ask questions, because I know it’s no fun for them. I do admit I have asked a PT friend and another dr friend a question, but I was so appreciative afterwards, so hopefully they didn’t hate me.!
Oh my gosh, Brian gets the same freaking questions non-stop. I feel kind of bad for him…. but admit since I’m a hypochondriac I’m always asking him about rare diseases I’ve diagnosed myself with. Whoops… haha note self: stay off wedmd
This is awesome. I have so much respect for what you do. I always wanted to get into the health care field but I get woozy just being in hospitals. Nurse practitioner is so incredibly legit, but sadly I feel like not many people know the difference between medial assistant, nurse’s aide, nurse, nurse practitioner etc…
When my grandpa passed in the hospital, the staff there were so incredibly caring, kind, helpful and just all around fantastic to us. You impact the lives of so many people and you probably don’t even realize it sometimes. That was back in October and I still think about the staff at that hospital and how good they were at their jobs.
My good friend is a nurse and is wrapping up school to be a NP. Our other friend is a vet. My almost-NP friend gets so annoyed when the vet friend tries to give us medical advice! It is NOT THE SAME.
It drives me nuts when someone with no medical knowledge start talking about something they think they know about but have no clue and then tell me I’m wrong when i try to correct them. So I’ve learned to just stay out of it. One of my nursing instructors said that she got so tired of ppl asking her medical stuff she started saying “I’m not that kind of nurse.” That’s my go to phrase now too! I go back and forth about going to NP school. I only have my ADN so it would be a lot of school. What do you think?!
This post couldn’t have come at a better time – I can 100% relate to you! My husband is a pharmacist, so a fellow health care worker, and the second we drop the bomb about that to people, it’s just an onslaught of “can I take that?” “does XX cause these symptoms?” so on and so forth. My grandparents have even called us at the butt crack of dawn to ask him a medical question. I’m like really? When he’s not at work, maybe he doesn’t want to talk about pharmacy or medicine! And, it doesn’t help that it’s all my in-laws ever discuss when we are together, except for whatever reason, they are obsessed with his salary and get annoyed that we don’t disclose our financial situation to them. Don’t you think that’s just rude? I digress …
Oh Lordy… pictures? That’s taking it to a new limit.
I do photography so of course everyone asks, “What camera should I get?” – like that’s going to make you a great photographer… geez…
hahaha seriously love the pictures to go with all the common questions you get
Xo
Brittani and Katie
http://www.pleasantlypetite.com
OMG. LOL @ “Do you know Sara Smith?” I was like is that someone famous I should know?? My brother-in-law is an ER doctor and I have to admit we call him constantly to ask him about different things- I’m sure we drive him crazy! haha
Funny thing is this can be applied to many different jobs. The thing where people ask if you know so and so is my biggest pet peeve bc I work at NASA with thousands and thousands of people!
Too funny! I can only imagine the stupid questions you get. Oh and the man-cold… SO serious!
Yeah, people can be pretty much the worst. Boundaries, anyone?? Hah I love that people ask for prescriptions like that. Geniuses, really.
I’m a writer, and I get questions like: “So have you written a novel?” (because apparently that’s the only way one can be a writer/every writer wants to be an author), “Like, really?” / “Like, for real?” / “At like a real job?” (yes, really. Some people do do it as an actual job, ya know.) “Can you look at this thing I’ve written and give me a full page of edits and some feedback and let me know how to query it/submit it and basically do everything an editor or agent would do?” (This happens pretty much always. Yes, I do freelance edit, but I *charge* for it. It’s a job. Would you ask your dentist to give you a cleaning for funsies while out at a bar?!) But my favorite is when people ask me to write something for them/their business or project for free. Yes, because I have all the time in the world and I have no bills to pay. Sure! Again… would you ask that of your dentist??
I’m not a nurse but I know many people who are and I hear what they complain about. I feel bad for you guys sometimes.
When I was a juvenile probation officer, I would get comments all. The. Time. People with no knowledge about subject matters should seriously keep their damn mouths shut.
Someone sent you a picture of their poop to see if it was okay?
HAHAHAHHAHA
I very rarely tell people what I do. I work two jobs (one full time, one part time) and People LOVE to give me their thoughts on both places. And well, people can be down right MEAN about it. So, I try to keep what I do on the DL and I never blog about it. and no, I’m not in the FBI or the CIA. HA!!
Best, Mree
Haha omg, do you really get people asking you these questions?!? I’d be so annoyed! And kinda weirded out. Either that or I’d just make a side practice of charging people to look at their scrapes and “boo boos” and then just tell them to put some Neosporin and a Bandaid on it. ;) I always get people telling me their life story and why they think they deserve to get paid more for a post or sponsored thing. Everyone has a sob story LOL! It’s almost the weekend girl!! We got this!
<3, Pamela
sequinsandseabreezes.blogspot.com
Thankfully since I deal with the billing side of healthcare I don’t get shown gross pictures, but people are always asking me questions about billing and if they really need to pay that much *insert eye roll here*
“like Pediatrics little people just to clarify” BWAHAHAHHA!
Well, when I was in healthcare (as a clerical minion), most of my stuff was done on the computer. SO PEOPLE THOUGHT I WAS I-FUCKING-T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Can you kick so-and-so out of this chart?” “Why isn’t this showing up on my screen?!” So glad to be DONEZO w/ that! :)
Hahaha I can only imagine girl! Love that bracelet they made you, so cute and sweet. I kind of get questions but nothing like you do. My job is hard to explain. I make plat books for counties in the state of Oklahoma, yeah it’s not fun to explain…
haha I get these all the time and I DON’T work in healthcare! My dad is a pediatrician and I just know a lot from years of being around it.
oh lord, i don’t know how you put up with some of these questions! especially when they show you things like rashes. stay away!
People are the worst. Except for cute kids that give you amazing/trendy jewelry and love stickers. They can stick around ha.
haha i ask my nurse friend ALL the time to diagnose the weirdest shit for me. i only do this because she’s been my best friend since we were babies :)
solo gross! Just flush it! yuck! Go all Dr.Google on yourself, I mean webMD is never wrong. I’m a school social worker and prior to worked mental health, so all my friends with kids (and my friends’ friends) all ask me about everything! I want to start charging them!
Tyler’s mom and sister are both nurses, his sister works in the trauma ward and always has the most ridiculous stories. I find it hard enough telling my own doctor my medical issues, no way I’m going to get into it with my boyfriend’s family!
Okay so I TOTALLY feel like a dumb ass because I didn’t know that you were a NP and here I am basically pushing all these damn buttons in our conversation last night/today! WTH!!! You should have told me to lock it up! :) In all seriousness though… some of these things I would totally cringe at too! I work at a financial institution and SO many people ask me the stupidest questions! And they don’t even have the same bank so I’m supposed to know ALLL the bank rules?! I think not! :)
So I guess I shouldn’t email you the picture of this thing on my foot….hahaha jk! Gotta love kiddos that just give you ALL of the info!
Haha, my day job is a music producer in the advertising industry – so people ask me things like:
-Can you sign my band? (I do not work for a label)
-Do you think they would use my songs on a commercial? (it’s hard to sell death metal to the masses)
-Can I sing a jingle, here, listen to me sing this song! (Please just send me your demo and I’ll let you know)
And on and on haha – it’s kind of funny :) Except when people break out in song in the middle of a bar. I do get to go to concerts for free sometimes though – that’s fun!
This is hilarious, but terrible you have to listen to/look at gross things people feel inclined to share with you. My brother is a doctor, and I’m always asking him stuff:)
My Dad is a dentist and he used to make jokes about people opening up their mouths and reaching in to point at some problem and ask his opinion at cocktail parties. He had a whole repertoire of impersonations that all started ” hey doc I got this tooth back here…” My brother and I thought it was hilarious!
My sister in law is graduating from nursing school in August. I plan on making her my on call when I have no idea what I am doing with the baby :) So really she should just be available every second of the day ;)
Some people..overs share way too much! A picture of their poop?!?!?! Ew. No!
I have been in the real estate field since I graduated college…I get a lot of ridiculous questions about how much I think their house is worth, and I am CONSTANTLY asked what new businesses are coming in because I used to have the hook up on that knowledge a few years ago but I dont really anymore…
hahah! I love this post!
This is hilarious! Dying over someone sent you a picture of things in the toilet!!! Who does that?! I do event management so I get all questions wedding related – nothing like this though!
I was literally snorting with laughter over this, obviously because I can relate 150%! My favorite is when people send me pictures or FaceTime me so I can see various rashes/bumps. I work in a cardiac ICU, i do not care about your prickly heat. Or when people ask me if I know Jen Smith who works at CHOP….um, you realize CHOP basically has it’s own zip code, right? I have a friend who I worked with in the Cardiac ICU call me and ask me the dose of Tylenol for her daughter. Um…. ARENT YOU A NURSE?!?! Also, I haven’t worked in over two years, why would anyone trust me? (10-15mg/Kg… BOOOM! Hahaha)
I’m so jealous of you. I always said I would go into the healthcare field when I was growing up, but for a number of reasons, never did. Well, I sorta did, but I don’t think wiping old ppl’s asses and drawing blood, etc counts! Ha! Something about the gross factor of healthcare always fascinated me. Is that weird??
I harass my nurse friends constantly too. Like “my rheumatologist wants me to inject….is this normal?” Or “is this prednisone making me fat?” Lol Tou know, serious questions. ;-)
Also, DYING to see your dress!!!!!!!!! Wish you could insta that shiz!!!!!
My mother in law is in school to be a nurse…. and boy is she gonna hate me when she graduates. I am a HUGE hypochondriac… it gets worse with age. So I know for a fact I will be asking her stupid questions. But on the bright side… I won’t have to google symptoms anymore and see graphic photos and convince myself that I am DYING!
HA!
Bahaha…I can’t even imagine the crazy things you get asked! If someone had shown me something that needed to be flushed I would have puked! Can’t stomach stuff like that!
OMG I feel your pain!! I am an attorney and so everybody and their brother wants to run their legal problems by me. The worst was once I was at a Patient First on a Saturday night with a sinus infection so bad that I couldn’t drive because I was so dizzy, but the intake receptionist still felt the need to tell me all about her legal troubles and ask for my advice the second she found out I was a lawyer, ahh!!
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