I'm convinced you can tell how long a nurse has been a nurse by their response to this question:
"Do you want to go to lunch?"
The novice nurse will tell you "No, I can't. I have charting/meds/dressing change/admission/discharge to do before I can go to lunch" the first four times asked. Then, after being threatened with no lunch on the fifth time asked, this nurse will develop an apprehensive facial expression and finally hand over a clip board that rivals the thickness of that first med-surg textbook we had in nursing school, give a report so detailed it would allow the covering nurse to publish a biography of each patient, and, after a few more threats, walk hesitantly from the unit.
When asked if he/she wants to go to lunch, the experienced nurse will ask someone to take over doing compressions, throw a crumpled report sheet at the person who is covering, and run from the unit like a bat out of hell.
Now a short quiz:
You return from lunch and the nurse covering for you looks surprised to see you and says "I guess they were okay. Nobody called for anything."
This nurse is:
A. Novice
B. Experienced
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