Also, insulin.

And while you're on assessment, don't forget REassessing... you'll be giving drugs that can kill people, so make sure you go back and re-check vitals and blood sugars, and if you give pain meds... sorry, WHEN you give pain meds, make sure you not only check how effective they've been, but document it, as more and more hospitals are requiring you to do so.

While we're on documentation, get good at it- sooner or later, it WILL save your ass.

Don't be one of those nurses who doesn't get a urine sample because the patient "hasn't peed yet". They didn't just bleed into your vacutainer tubes, either, now did they? Sometimes you have to encourage them to give you the gold.

A pet peeve of mine- if someone's lying there naked on a stretcher, close the motherfucking door or at least throw a gown or sheet over him or her. The ER isn't reality TV, but some patients and family members seem to forget that and gawk into other rooms when they see shit happening. As someone who's had the misfortune of being on that side of the stretcher, I can tell you it's utterly humiliating to be lying there, trauma naked, with a bunch of spectators.

Finally, you'll see frequent flyers. Drug seekers trying to manipulate you (my car got broken into and they stole my meds, I'm allergic to Toradol, Ultram, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Tylenol, aspirin and morphine, and the only thing that works is something that starts with a D... ummm... Dilautin? "did you mean Dilaudid?" yeah, that's the stuff!), and people who "can't afford" their asthma and diabetes meds yet can manage to pay for an iphone and smoke $7/day worth of cigarettes and get their nails done... you'll see the homeless, the jobless, the family with four kids they want to "get checked out" because they have a common cold... people who got arrested and suddenly developed incarceritis (typically, chest pain they hope will get them admitted for a day or two so they don't have to go to the county lockup)... you will encounter people you'll like a lot, and people you would rather see boil in oil. If you want to thrive, treat them all basically the same. Show them the respect you'd want a stranger to show you. It's easier said than done, especially when you see SO MANY of your coworkers being nasty to them (it burns me up when an otherwise competent nurse refers to the mentally ill as "scumbags" because the patients are agitated and combative). So don't be that guy/girl.

Good luck to you- the ER is such an amazing place to learn so much about so many different things. The fact that you care about doing a good job says a lot about your character.