Bad Habits Nurses Develop

shopgal, RN · Mar 15, 2005

This is gross and I get on my CNAs all the time, but they wear the same gloves for the roommate if they are doing cares for one and then they just turn around and start cares on the other pt. EW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To solve the problem, I've gone on rounds with them and "babysat" to make sure that they are changing gloves and washing their hands. I think that one of the best lessons was when one of the aides contracted C-Diff. The problem still goes on, but not as rampant.

kadokin, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

Complaining too much!!
Hey, life could REALLY suck: we could be working at 7-11 for minimum wage.......... :uhoh21:

Amen, Sista!:biggringi

kadokin, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

Look here, Toots. I don't call not gloving for a quick cleanup "bad medical care." Either you're not a nurse or you haven't been one for very long.
If you were or had you read anything about the history of nursing and/or infection control in healthcare, you'd learn that it's only been since the "Age of Aids" that we were able to use gloves at all for anything but sterile procedures. We were formerly taught that gloves were too impersonal and their use would offend the patients.
Quite a debate raged about how to use protection without offending the patient. We then went to Universal Precautions. Now it's "Standard" Precautions and offending the patient is not even factored in.
Some people find that horrifying, considering the messes that we have to clean up. It's hard for me to imagine that back then I recall ASKING to use gloves--and being refused because except for sterile gloves, there were NONE in the building!
PS The next thing we touched was the sink to wash our hands.

My, how times have changed! :uhoh3:

kadokin, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

throwing dirty linen on the floor...a personal bad habit I've slipped into, and trying to decrease the incidence of...

I have never understood the problem w/throwing DIRTY linen on the floor. What are we supposed to do? Carry it in our arms, against our clothes that will be bumping into the next pt? Put it on the bed/bedside table/chair where it can contaminate another surface? Hey, it's dirty, it is on its way to being sanitized. What is the big deal? IMHO, this particular bugaboo needs to be thoroughly researched and re-examined. Much like the "never leave a pt w/out both bed rails being up". This edict is hx now thanks to research that shows pts are more likely to injure themselves w/bedrails up, etc., than if they are able to safely exit the bed at will. I didn't understand the "never put dirty linen on the floor" thing even when I was an ingnorant student nurse. Where are you supposed to put it?

:uhoh3:

My head is spinning.

kadokin, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

I put a lable on my pens, I come to work with a blue or black one and a red one, if I don't have my name on it, I make a lable with our lable maker for it. That way everyone knows who's pen it is. If it gets misplaced or lost, I just ask everyone to empty their pockets, usually someone has picked it up in passing or while charting and forgot to leave it. It saves me $$$ on pens, and I don't loose my favorite pen that way! Oh a little side note...some of the other nurses have started to put name lables on theirs too!!!

Your unit has a label maker? Wow, you guys are totally high-tech!:biggringi

kadokin, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

I can remember when nurses still smoked at their station. (Bad habit)
I recall a nursing instructor saying "As students, you haven't earned the right to cut corners. When you get into the real world and know what you're doing, then you may not be so quick to judge other nursing performances."
I constantly remind myself that no one is perfect. The only time I really concern myself with the nursing habits of someone else is when they are actually creating a life threatening situation for a patient.
Two bad habits I have noticed recently: eating nachos at the med cart and never ever stocking it for the next shift. :)

:lol2: :lol2: Eating nachos @ the med cart! :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

flasandy42 · Apr 23, 2006

NOT WEARING GLOVES????? OMG that is truly disgusting. I would not want to get care there!

Believe it or not, back in the early 60's when I started as an aide, we didn't wear gloves and they weren't available in the rooms. It was considered an insult to the pt to do colostomy care and use gloves. Hard to believe isn't it? I think some go overboard with gloves though. I don't use them just to pull a pt up for dinner unless they have something contagious or draining fluids, but a lot of the aides do.

blue49 · Apr 23, 2006

oops...didn't need two of the same...

flasandy42 · Apr 23, 2006

I'm always amazed at the number of staff I see during clinical starting IVs/doing venipuncture with no gloves on... but then I'm just a student still, what do I know? :chuckle :chuckle

I've seen them use gloves and STILL get stuck. Needles DO go right through gloves. For me, it was difficult feeling the veins through gloves on 80-90 yr olds. I always start with them on but have been known to get frustrated and remove them.

blue49 · Apr 23, 2006

school is one thing, real world nursing a whole nuther world. personally i would like to see more nurses worrying about our own practice vs looking so much at other's.
so...imho,a bad habit nurses develop is thinking they have a right to overly engage in critiquing each other. starts in nursing school unfortunately and is likely part of why new grads feel 'eaten' when they turn out.....they 'critique' the wrong person at the wrong moment.....chomp.

i would like to share what *critiquing other nurses* has done to me.....

i have almost 30 years experience, and no that does not make me

anything but experienced......but the co-workers i have been with for

1.5 years decided about 6 months ago that they were going to critique my every move......that resulted, much to my surprise, in my verbal/written warning and then after i thought everything was cool

i got another written warning with suspension, that caught me more

by surprise...........sorry about *hijacking* this thread, but if

more nurses, regardless of experience would do their own jobs and

only report gross malpractice of nursing and use only their good

habits work places would be less stressful.......now for my bad habits

that i will admit too.......uncapping with my mouth, and u think

getting stuck years ago with the flimsy tubex toppers would have

stopped me, but no.....lol...finding a mess when turning a patient or

repositioning and not gloving except for bm.....and i have never had

a shortage of soap and water at work.....i try to keep the linens on

the bed, but why change the patient if u might get what u are

cleaning up right back on them????.......in a small area like er or pacu

drag the dirty linen receptacle with u to the bedside.....and i still cannot start iv's with gloves or draw blood or do fingersticks....none of us are without fault, and we must be able to pay the consequenses if needed. :uhoh3:

flasandy42 · Apr 23, 2006

Look here, Toots. I don't call not gloving for a quick cleanup "bad medical care." Either you're not a nurse or you haven't been one for very long.
If you were or had you read anything about the history of nursing and/or infection control in healthcare, you'd learn that it's only been since the "Age of Aids" that we were able to use gloves at all for anything but sterile procedures. We were formerly taught that gloves were too impersonal and their use would offend the patients.
Quite a debate raged about how to use protection without offending the patient. We then went to Universal Precautions. Now it's "Standard" Precautions and offending the patient is not even factored in.
Some people find that horrifying, considering the messes that we have to clean up. It's hard for me to imagine that back then I recall ASKING to use gloves--and being refused because except for sterile gloves, there were NONE in the building!
PS The next thing we touched was the sink to wash our hands.

Thank you! I thought I was the ONLY nurse that remembered those days. It was really difficult for me to get in the habit of using gloves for anything else but cleaning up BM, which we didn't even HAVE back then!

Geeg · Apr 23, 2006

Starting evey sentence with "I'm sorry but............."