what is your biggest pet peeve while at work?

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Its okay, spill and let it all out!! ;)

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

People who assume I'm an aide because I'm (relatively) young. People who automatically ask for the other evening nurse (a 50-ish LPN) when they need a nurse, even if she's not working. The "RN" on my nametag means something!

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Walking onto a unit and finding the nurse sitting around, doing nothing, who says "All's well, it's been a nice quiet day", only to find after taking over that half of the residents have been ringing for a pain pill for 2 hours-and "that damned nurse never showed up!", and that there are 5 baggies with lab specimen containers and an order for UA/CS-straight cath, of course-and the orders have been in there since 10 am.

I guess I'd have a "nice quiet day" too if I didn't DO anything!

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My biggest peeve here recently is having to deal with "know it all" nurses who are given the responsibility of training me for the new unit I was hired into. One in particular walks around like she is God's gift to nursing and when you ask her questions she doesn't answer them directly. I am not new to nursing so it is a blessing that I know what I know because she doesn't seem to share much about the specialty unit I have been hired onto. I am learning through observation and osmosis. LOL! Feedback sessions with the education nurse have been great because I spill all the beans and she can't believe that this is the orientation I am getting. 2 more weeks to go and I will be free.

My other peeve is...nurses who love drama and chaos on the nursing unit. They create havoc when they are working and the work atmosphere is tense. When they aren't working you can notice the change in how the unit flows and how people actually don't mind working together.

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Specializes in 12 years exp in corporate healthcare.

Tattle-Tales!!

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Specializes in ..

Nurses who don't like students and make a point of it. (Yes, I'm a student.) Just because I'm still learning, doesn't mean I'm stupid.

At work - nurses who don't keep kids gastro boxes (with their tube and syringe for tube feeds) WITH THE CHILD. Our facility is a sixty bed hospital with large community areas. Where the hell am I going to find time to look for missing gastro boxes when I have five kids to care for, and half of them need oral feeds?

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Nitpicky management who add more paperwork every week and want you clocked out on time. Sometimes I go home thinking I've achieved the unachievable and some nitpicky twerp finds that I didn't put a circle on a behavioral sheet, or missed the last check mark on an hourly check.

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Specializes in Acute care, Community Med, SANE, ASC.

Ungrateful family members who have NO IDEA how much I do for their loved one and how much I care but still they find something trivial and stupid to ride my butt about--leaves me flabbergasted every time.

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Yeah, newohiorn, like the ones who visit once every 3 years and complain about the missing teeth, when we've contacted them several times to tell them, and gotten no response. And they're the ones listed in the charts for contact!

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Specializes in ICU, cardiac, CV, GI, transplan.

Being told that a patient had no TF residuals for day shift, only to get 6 hrs' worth of residuals when I check.

When a pt has been intubated for 3 days and nobody has cleaned up the orders to change the PO meds to something else (especially for enteric coated meds that can't go down an OG tube), then the doctors look at me like I'm crazy when I ask them to fix it.

When pts get annoyed and start refusing ridiculous things like temperature checks and lung auscultation. Listen, I know you are tired and don't feel good, but when you're in for pneumonia or sepsis I need to know if you're starting to show signs of infection again!

When I look at past vital signs and somebody charted the DP and PT pulses as bilaterally present on a patient with BKA.

When somebody reports skin breakdown to me, but it's not mentioned anywhere in the charting. If the first time it's mentioned is in my assessment at the beginning of my shift, and I'm the one who got the ET consult and did an incident report (which are both hospital policy), and the patient has a stage 2 decub, then you're going to look pretty negligent if anybody cares to audit the patient's chart.

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Hi all-biggest pet peeve is trying to show :heartbeat to the co-worker who "...doesn't need training in that..." even though she's never stepped foot in a NICU before!! Gah!!! Am always happy to help anyone who asks for it, and don't hesitate to ask for myself if need be.....

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

my co-workers talking on their cell phones. I just want to flush these things down the toilets.

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The little annoyances that individually are not to bad, but when they pile up...

The pharmacy didn't deliver the antibiotic

The PYXIS drawer failed

Someone took the last feeding bag and you need to order more

The doctors finished rounds and left before you could ask a couple of questions

Where is that respiratory therapist?

Where is the chart?

and the thermometer malfunctioned.

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