your very own personal crusade

Nurses General Nursing

Published

i think everyone has a personal little cause - that little thing that's really not a big deal, but is a huge deal to you - and i want to know what yours is.

mine's pads. pads, not nappies.

only babies wear nappies, and i think that saying an adult wears a nappy takes away so much dignity! it's not that hard to just call it a pad and let the person have that one little bit of dignity. i mean, heaven knows if you're in hospital in need of a great big pad, you probably don't feel that dignified, without being popped into a nappy like a little baby!

i used to work in disabilities, where i helped out in a group home with some profoundly disabled teenagers. they basically needed full assistance for all care, but it was so important that we were support workers, not carers, and they wore pads, NOT NAPPIES!! it just makes sense to me. i mean, you play down stuff all the time to save people's feelings - the lady hurling up her guts is 'feeling a bit off', the man covered in poo is 'in a mess' and just needs 'help to clean up', people who die slow painful deaths miraculously 'pass on gently' when their family ask if they suffered. i don't care if the person in front of me needs a big-mama super absorbant nappy-type creation, i'll still say 'i'll just grab you a pad' every time.

see - smallest thing to everyone else, huge deal for me! what's yours?

There are more than one brand of disposable briefs but we call all of them attends. I get so upset when I hear one of the other employees call them diapers. It also bothers me when they call them, "baby or grandpa" or other things. They have a name so use it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTC.

My pet peeve is giving meds crushed in applesauce and then leaving the resident to the bitter aftertaste without offering a glass of water to swish it all down. Its such a simple little act, and a perfect chance to give them their much needed fluids.

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Paper pants! I love it! Think that's what I'll start calling them.

My pet peeve: my coworkers who think that it's okay to put our elderly ladies' hair into little kid hairstyles. We're talking pigtails with little plastic barrettes. *I* wouldn't wear my hair like that; why the heck would a 90 year old woman want to? I notice it's always only the ones who can't speak up to say "get that crap out of my hair!"

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatric, Behavioral Health.

My pet peeve is following after a nurse who passed meds and leaves the med on the patient table for the patient to take, walks away and charts it as given. Lo and behold, I come on and the med is still sitting on the table. Bad, very bad. :nono:

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I have a few "minor" crusades, but a couple of things that make me cringe....many of our younger (and some older!) CNA's/RN's call our patients "Honey" or "Sweetie"....sounds so disrespectful! From CNA class I was taught to always call patients/residents "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Ms." so-and-so.....and 13 years later I still do until the patient tells me different. I also hate it when they just call the patient by their first name without permission. Now, I'll do if I have an 18 year old patient (I'm 33), but some call people in their 80's and older by their first name!! Especially if the patient is confused. Just doesn't seem right to me.

Ditto on the names. A friend of mine, in her 40's, was hospitalized for several weeks and had one nurse call her "babydoll." (The least of this nurse's offences.)

I complained on her behalf to the charge nurse and the offender was not assigned to my friend again.

SJ

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My pet peeve is following after a nurse who passed meds and leaves the med on the patient table for the patient to take, walks away and charts it as given. Lo and behold, I come on and the med is still sitting on the table. Bad, very bad. :nono:

Absolutely. Very bad practice to get into. I chart in the MAR "LD not taken" and document when they did take it.

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

Not as a patient, but I am a bit older than most of my coworker and I have been called baby, miss priss and others, but I alway felt these were terms of endearment, and they always came from the sweetest people. It may be a cultural thing, cause I think it was said with the kindest intentions.

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Dirty O2 tubing/ mask and nebulizer mask drive me nuts!

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

It drives me nuts when a tech will come and ask me to call Respiratory for a patient who's having trouble breathing. Then I come into the room and find the patient all scrunched up at the end of the bed.

How's he gonna take a deep breath in that position?

So I'm always about bugging everyone to reposition the patient before calling Respiratory. Sometimes that solves the problem.

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Specializes in Critcal Care.

You've hit on a real education gap regarding geriatric assessment. Families and many practitioners don't understand geriatric syndromes. They need to be told repeatedly that the elderly person is not just an older version of what he/she was 25 or 30 years ago. An older adult presents with signs and symptoms that cannot be interpreted correctly within the younger or middle adult context. The elderly just don't automatically become confused, constipated, incontinent, delirius, and prone to falls simply because they are old. If i see an elderly person who has become incontinent, i consider any of the following: delirium, depression, restricted mobility, infection, impaction, polyuria from meds. Another example is when the elderly begin to fall. Changes in liver/kidney function, weight loss/gain, can all cause their meds they've taken for ages to be metabolized differently and can cause them to fall. But NOBODY looks closely at meds! SO yes, "They _________because they're old." just grates on my last nerve. We could keep many older adults functioning longer and more independently if we were to just pay a little more attention and ask "why?" more often. It will be interesting to see how the baby boomer generation deals with being so summarily dismissed. I think that many will not "go gently into that good night" LOL

I totally agree on the diaper thing. They are always refered to as 'briefs', or for my more confused residents they are 'underwear'

Hmm so far I think that the only crusade that I may have is that fact that I am sick of the excuse "Well that just their Alzheimers." Yesterday they were completely find and today they are lethargic/can't walk/complaining that they're 'sick'/etc.... and that's just Alzheimers. Then when the family starts asking questions and getting concerned the resident ends up in the hospital, or has a couple of labs run and is back to their old self again in a week.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

And another one,,, WHY is it that when people are in the hospital bathtimes arent guided by patients habits at home?

If i hear someone complain one more time because not ALL the baths werent done on DAYs im gonna scream. Face it,, some people sleep better if they bath before bedtime, some like to bath in the AM. As far as im concerned that should be part of the admission interview,, When do you prefer your bath while here? or,, Do you bath regularly in the morning or before bedtime when at home? Then follow the patients lead!!!! If they dont have a problem that warrents bathing frequently, why not let the patient decide?

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I really get irritated when health care folks talk to the patients and tack, "Okay?" onto the end of whatever they're saying. "I need to check your blood pressure, okay?" "We're going to start you on a new med, okay?"

You hear this especially with kids and older people, but it's far too common at all age levels.

What really adds fuel to my fire is when it's said in a little voice that ends up sounding like the speaker is talking to a baby. On some of the medical shows on Discovery or TLC, you hear this over and over and over.

One of my objections is that tacking on, "Okay?" implies a choice that often doesn't really exist. What are you going to do if you say, "Okay?" and the patient says, "No." This happens to my grandson who has spina bifida all the time. We've asked the nurses to simply tell him what needs to be done and leave it at that.

"Okay?" has become a reflex for some people, short hand for, "Did you understand what I just said? Are you okay with it. Are you going to resist?" etc. But when you hear it at the end of sentence after sentence, it starts to sound patronizing.

I wish health care people would just say what's what and make an actual inquiry now and then instead of the running okays.

"I would like to listen to your heart and lungs and then I'll help you turn on your side. How does that sound?"

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