Bad Habits Nurses Develop

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I don't know about you, but out in the "real world" I've seen a lot of things that would not fly in school! Here are a few:

Pre-popping pills

Not using MARs on med pass

Not washing hands/using sanitizer between patients

CNAs not wearing gloves to clean up BM

Not wearing gloves to do fingersticks

Like I said, these are just a few. Can anyone think of anything else???

Yep, I check the obits - watch for the full moon - and run the other way from sick looking people in public.

Never touch any body fluid w/o gloves if I can help it! Just started at a LTC where they weren't using gloves for fingersticks - just mentioned that I intend to, so the next nite they wore them.:)

I've never seen a CNA touch poop without gloves, but I have observed them not gloving for urine.:uhoh3:

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I know this will make some people upset, but, I hate it when there are certain RNs who think they are totally better than LPNs. Yes, granted you have had more education etc... but it doesn't mean that we LPNs are not nurses! I've seen quite a few RNs who have developed the habit of "It's below me to answer a call light, a TABs alarm, clean up urine...." etc... the list can go on and on... When you treat others as if your job is more important than what theirs is, and that you are "better", well... time for a reality check!

Sorry, this may have not been the right place for this, but it's a bad habit that I've seen way too many times from some RNs... and also some LPNs

:(

Don't blame you, mickey! The last LTC I worked, we were all equal, which is how it should have been. I was an RN with a lot of acute experience, but NO LTC experience, and believe me, there was a certain amount of culture shock on MY part.:lol2:

BUT there was one LPN there that would listen to nothing I said, and would argue with me about everything - but then I learned that she did it with everyone.

This new LTC I'm starting at seems like a good place, except that they seem to have a certain amount of 'RNitis' - it's hard for me to explain - but when the other nurses find out I'm an RN, not an LPN, they start acting different - and that's the first question most of them have asked - 'Are you an LPN or RN?' What difference does it make? We're all responsible for the same work.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
pulling caps off tubing and needles with my teeth :uhoh3:

I do this, during codes, when i don't have the extra arms i need.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

And, yes, the moon plays a part in what kind of night we will have.

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I do this, during codes, when i don't have the extra arms i need.

I've done that too . . . .

steph

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Eating so fastttttt and 30 minutes later can not remember what you did eat!:lol2:

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilities, LTC.
I do that too, but then I always wonder - where are we supposed to put them? Any suggestions are welcome - our hospitals have linen bags in the hall that are shared between 8-12 pts. During am care or hs care it is not practical to take the bag out of the hall. Let me know what you all think.

This is an old post, so I hope I'm not wasting everybody's time by responding to it, but, the best way I've found to dispose of dirty linens is to throw a clean incontinence pad on the floor and then just toss all your dirties onto it. When you're all done, pick up the incontinence pad with the dirty linens on it and toss it into a linen bag.

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Couldn't have said that better myself!

Though not in the context of this thread, this also reminds me of years ago if the super heard you refer to a pt as "room 662" she would have wore your ears out on being so impersonal. Now, with HIPPA you are not alolowed to say their name! Talk about turn around. Same as the impersonnal use of gloves. Wearing gloves for personal care, at one time, was the same thing as telling the pt they are gross.

However, now-a-days there's aids, mrsa, cdiff, etc. Wouldn't catch my fingers in it without gloves! However, I do start some IVs and do some finger sticks without, depends on pt cooperation, Dx, etc.

That is what I was taught. Not to wear gloves when, for example, emptying someone's colostomy bag so the patient would not feel offended. I was disgusted by it then and am so glad we can now protect ourselves. No, I don't think I'd do unprotected rescue breathing. I'm sorry, but my life matters, too. That said, I keep a protective airway on me at all times and gloves, too.

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That is what I was taught. Not to wear gloves when, for example, emptying someone's colostomy bag so the patient would not feel offended. I was disgusted by it then and am so glad we can now protect ourselves. No, I don't think I'd do unprotected rescue breathing. I'm sorry, but my life matters, too. That said, I keep a protective airway on me at all times and gloves, too.
I remember the days in LTC when the supervisor rationed out gloves to the shift in a lunch baggie,claimed the facility was spending too much on gloves.:trout:
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oh gosh I always dread the full moon. there's one coming up and I'm already not looking forward to work..too much craziness.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilities, LTC.

I used to work with severly developmentally disabled pts. Many of these pts were in vegetative states (non-verbal, non-responsive). They can't make decisions for themselves, but whenever I walked into their rooms, I always had one-sided "conversations" with them. "Good morning________! Ready to get up now? What do you want to wear today? How about this shirt? Okay, time to roll over...time for supper...ready for bed now? Okay, sounds good to me..."

After a few months, I realized I had started talking to myself - out loud - this way at home! "Okay, Jessica, time to put your shoe-sies on..." I live alone, so...yeah, this was me actually talking to myself :argue:

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.
I have seen staff NOT wear gloves when changing briefs. Yuck. The only time I don't wear gloves for changing a soiled mess is on my own baby.

I am guilty of sometimes given OTC meds not ordered... But only after asking the pt if they have an allergy or SE related to the meds. AND I KNOW they had the meds ordered last time they were admitted, if it were a short time ago. (Small rural hospital- we get the same pts over and over again.) The docs encourage this on mid-night shift (all but one) so we don't wake them during the night. They tell us to just write the order and they will sign it in the morning, DO NOT wake them for an OTC if it was ordered in the past. However, I ALWAYS pass it on it report if I gave something that wasn't ordered.

On my unit there's a couple of docs who would rather sign orders in the AM for OTC's but I have to be careful. I don't do that unless it's a doc who has personally chewed me out for the act of picking up the phone at 3 am. Plus we have to be careful to not hand milk of mag, etc. to a renal patient. Our most common OTC's would be milk of mag, maalox (which isn't floor stock anymore darnit), tylenol. I can not help but wonder why in the name of peter, paul and mary, would a doc admit a patient for "chest pain" and not have the gamut of GI drugs ordered along with the nitro and morphine. In my hospital, "chest pain" has been known to be the universal translation for "I ate too much turkey and my leg hurts!" The one night I got an admit with naught but a bottle of mag citrate ordered, I did a happy dance as the doc was ordering it!

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