pay attention!

Back in November I attended a Trauma Symposium with multiple speakers who spoke on an array of topics all relating to trauma services.  One in particular was an ER doctor who specializes in Forensic medicine. The lecture was geared more towards nursing and pre-hospital treatment and less towards doctors. I know I was not just interested because of the speaker, because he was not at all engaging. I was, however, very interested in the topic of Forensic Nursing. This was the only topic I was interested in during the whole 2-day symposium!

So, after the weekend, I started researching forensic nursing. I looked into the kind of education needed to pursue this kind of career. I searched programs online to find out all of this information. I thought I would request information from one trusting program (the program I took my NCLEX prep course). After I filled out the form and submitted it, another, similar form popped up on the screen. I thought I did something wrong, so I filled it out {again}, and submitted. I did this somewhere between 5-10 times before I decided to read anything on the pages. When I finally DID read what I was submitting information to, I saw I was filling out forms to request information for other schools!!!  Those sneaky schools creepin in like that! How dare they!

The next morning the clock hadn’t even hit 0800 and I had already begun getting phone calls from out-of-state schools wanting to sell their nursing program to me! Luckily, I work nights, and I don’t hear my phone when I sleep all day. {And I do mean all day!} For two weeks, I woke up to, literally 12-15 missed calls AND voicemails! These people seem to never go home because they would call at dinnertime, and even late into the evening! I got emails too, but for some reason those are less annoying. {I guess no personal interaction.} The frequency trickled off, but I am still getting phone calls and emails two months later!

Just the other day, I accidentally answered one of the now known numbers. Yes, known. They called so much I knew the number to NOT answer! But I did answer, and this is what I said to the lady on the other end of the line, “I’ll be honest with you, I accidently filled out the form for information because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. I’ve been a nurse for 3 ½ years and was looking into Forensic nursing programs. I’m sorry.”  She was nice and understood. 

Lesson learned: PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT {I'M} YOU ARE DOING WHEN GIVING OUT CONTACT INFORMATION! 

I hope you don't make a similar mistake like I did!