10. Start your new diet off right by not eating for an entire shift! (Although it may be balanced out by the fluid you retain by not being able to visit the bathroom!)
9. The rare opportunity to counsel patients on making resolutions based on their complaint, current orientation to surroundings, and tattoos.
8. Everyone is so frazzled, so next to them you look fabulous! (And that’s not even looking at the patients!) And did we mention how good you’ll smell compared to “ETOH ON BOARD COLOGNE” – the scent everyone’s wearing?
7. Think of what a challenge it will be to your nursing skills to run a Code without a Crash Cart because they are all being used! How much can you remember from Nursing School?
6. The special musical treat delivered by a waiting room singing their own unique version of Auld Lang Syne.
5. The winnings you’ll collect betting on the winner of the inevitable fist fight that breaks out after everyone from point #6 argues about what the lyrics exactly are — and what they mean.
4. The marvel of discovering what people consider an emergency on one of the busiest nights of the year, which happens to be a full moon besides…
3. The thrill of dealing with surly volunteer EMTs who resent having to go on calls on a holiday. You, of course, don’t observe New Year’s Eve. Or Christmas. Or Thanksgiving.
2. The way residents who are clearly not drunk, no sir, no way they’re celebrating, answer their pages…or have their significant *something* answer them!
1. It’s the PRIME TIME to collect war stories to tell the newbie nurse next year, when she’s working it for the first time and you’re there again!
