We currently have had a very seasoned nurse on our cc float team for the past year who transferred from endoscopy back to the units (tele/icu float). She is a knowledgeable nurse, a bit rough around the edges (potty mouth, bossy, and a bit know it all ish) but is funny and quite helpful on the unit.
Just... one... thing
She seems to have a very odd albeit respected hang up about how to be addressed.
So she has a first and last name which both are typically used as first names (for example: Sarah,Kelly, or John, Michael, you get what I'm saying)
Our unit/hospital culture is semi-formal. We address one another mostly by last name as Ms or Mr. so and so but sometimes we also use first names or just call one another by last name without using Ms or Mr.
Well this nurse has a major Hangup about being called her last name without saying Ms. first ???
I believe because she basically has two first names some may have accidentally mixed up her first and last name and called her Kelly, thinking it is her first name as we don't work with her often because she is not regular unit staff. It doesn't happen often as like I said we are pretty formal with addressing one another.
She also doesnt make it clear that calling her "Kelly" is offensive somehow to her and so when someone makes the mistake of calling her so, she gets loud and angry and we've witnessed her saying verbatim "that is disrespectful and low class to call me "Kelly" my name is Ms. Kelly!!!!!!!
So I worked with her recently and we were having a pretty good night (her making jokes and telling her usual stories as most pts were thankfully stable) up until I called to her from down the hall asking for a spare bag of levophed she said I could borrow.
I said Ms. Kelly could I borrow that bag of levophed?. I guess she didn't hear the "Ms" part and reached in her med cart, slammed it shut and handed me the bag of medication while turning bright red and stuttering that she would write the next person up who referred to her as "Kelly" instead of Ms. Kelly??? and stormed off.
It all happened so fast before I even could figure what had happened she had picked herself up and sat at the opposite end of the nurses station and then disappeared to the tele side of the floor for a few minutes and refused to speak to me for the rest of the shift.
It it was so bizarre I had no clue what to do? I've heard her blow up about this before and am very careful to say "Ms." before her last name, but this is borderline ridiculous. She is upset that people can't read her mind and are calling her by her actual last name???
She says it's not classy to refer to her without the "Ms." yet she doesn't hesitate to use profanity when telling her stories or expressing herself and has made unsavory comments routinely. In fact she has had it out with the ADON numerous times even hanging up the phone on her over a policy issues, openly calling the manager an idiot, and being a know it all.
I'm honestly nervous to work with her because of how easily angered she became that night. I've never heard of anyone in this day and age demand ppl be so formal with them (outside the usual reasons) esp with her being quite informal and brash herself.
