Cra Cra co-workers

[NursesRmofun]

I know you have had them. Ones that drove you crazy, acted off kilter, and just made things either more interesting or more difficult. If you can write about them without IDing them, go ahead.

I had one several years ago....omg...I would get to work and had some time between duties. She had a different position, but she also had some seat time. I sat near her and she told me how her meds. weren't working and her whole personal history in a matter of just a couple work days. Then, at some point, I know she was gossiping how *I* was sitting and doing nothing but talking to HER. My mistake was I sat near her. I changed seats after that...to another sitting area all together.

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

One of the outstanding weird characters of my career was an agency RN assigned to my AIDS unit for the first time

I think that probably is a good guess as to why she was acting *so* strangely. You can't make up fictional stories as "entertaining" as the truth is sometimes.

[24gaDalek]

I have had quite a few nutty coworkers in the NICU.

I work NOCS, so there is a lot of "anything goes" type of stuff going on because parents aren't typically there and neither are any of the bigwigs.

One particular nurse uses the foulest language when talking to the babies. Just imagine these kinds of things being said in a sing-song cooing kind of voice: "Oh my God! You stink sooo bad! Did you just sh** yourself, you nasty little thing?" or "Oh man, you are one ugly little motherf*****, yes you are! I bet your parents are ugly too, just like you!!!" She also has been known to randomly mutter curse words under her breath after talking to other nurses, but just quietly enough that you know she is saying something nasty but you can't really make out exactly what it is. I walked by her cursing in the parking lot loudly one morning at 3 am. Just walking around cursing.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Yup - like the old "Strange but True" comic strip in the Sunday papers back in the day.

Over the years I have twice had to deal with nurses undergoing acute psychotic episodes while at work. Not entertaining - more like heartbreaking. All we could do was to get them to an ER and hope they could get the help and safety they needed.

But speaking of disappearing nurses, I once had to give 7AM report on my hospice IPU to a temp whose main experience was in critical care. It went on forever because she kept questioning why we weren't doing ICU-level work ups on our patients. She just didn't get the hospice concept at all.

When I came back at 7PM, I got the whole sad story: she apparently drove the doc crazy for a couple of hours, demanding all kinds of labs and diagnostics. She didn't stop until she found out that a corrections inmate she knew was a patient across the hall on med/surg. She spent the rest of the shift over there. Turns out that the inmate was ordered for no contact/no info due to concerns over gang violence. She decided that this violated his rights and proceeded to inform his family of his where-abouts.

Word to the wise: don't mess with corrections. She was arrested and, I believe has lost her license.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Well, I was about three nights into my first nursing job when the charge nurse asked me very loudly in front of everyone if I used to be a cutter. I couldn't say no without looking nuts because my arms are clearly covered in self-inflicted scars. So I said yes but my scars were 10+ years old. I FELT crazy although in retrospect she was just being tacky.

I would have said I was a tiger wrestler or something equally as ludicrous. Stupid questions get crazy answers.

I've done this. Sad part is apparently my delivery credible and they believe me. I had some intrusive questions about my son so I said he was immaculate conception they took a cell from my arm skin, straightened out one of the X chromosomes into a Y chromosome and fertilized it to an egg hence why my son looks like a male version of my clone down to the exact same unique eye shade. More than one nut not only believed me but also continued to spread the tale. I was spoken to by management to stop entertaining myself by the vulnerability of my coworkers. I said it's not my fault they failed to pay attention in science and health classes.

I've seen an acute psychotic break of an RA in college (right around the age where it's a common manifestation) and it was heartbreaking as we tried to get emergent help not have campus security arrest her assuming it was an illicit drug episode. The lack of compassion was frustrating.

Disappearing coworkers on night shift in an inpatient clinical research unit (healthy normal volunteers) always interesting if I was on call to fix crises and had to search the facility for the employees needed (they didn't think I would really be called by the alarm company or charge nurse depending on the situation).

[heron, ASN, RN]

Disappearing coworkers is a thread of it's own, I think.

So, do y'all think nursing tends to attract people with certain kinds of mental or emotional challenges?

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

I have had quite a few nutty coworkers in the NICU.

I work NOCS, so there is a lot of "anything goes" type of stuff going on because parents aren't typically there and neither are any of the bigwigs.

One particular nurse uses the foulest language when talking to the babies. Just imagine these kinds of things being said in a sing-song cooing kind of voice: "Oh my God! You stink sooo bad! Did you just sh** yourself, you nasty little thing?" or "Oh man, you are one ugly little motherf*****, yes you are! I bet your parents are ugly too, just like you!!!" She also has been known to randomly mutter curse words under her breath after talking to other nurses, but just quietly enough that you know she is saying something nasty but you can't really make out exactly what it is. I walked by her cursing in the parking lot loudly one morning at 3 am. Just walking around cursing.

This is sad, bad, but still sort of hysterical....I can just picture this! Amazing and odd! If you think something, I guess somewhere in the world it may be really happening.

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

Disappearing coworkers is a thread of it's own, I think.

So, do y'all think nursing tends to attract people with certain kinds of mental or emotional challenges?

I don't think it attracts the crazies anymore than most other professions, but we definitely have our share! haha

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

Yup - like the old "Strange but True" comic strip in the Sunday papers back in the day.

Over the years I have twice had to deal with nurses undergoing acute psychotic episodes while at work. Not entertaining - more like heartbreaking. All we could do was to get them to an ER and hope they could get the help and safety they needed.

But speaking of disappearing nurses, I once had to give 7AM report on my hospice IPU to a temp whose main experience was in critical care. It went on forever because she kept questioning why we weren't doing ICU-level work ups on our patients. She just didn't get the hospice concept at all.

When I came back at 7PM, I got the whole sad story: she apparently drove the doc crazy for a couple of hours, demanding all kinds of labs and diagnostics. She didn't stop until she found out that a corrections inmate she knew was a patient across the hall on med/surg. She spent the rest of the shift over there. Turns out that the inmate was ordered for no contact/no info due to concerns over gang violence. She decided that this violated his rights and proceeded to inform his family of his where-abouts.

Word to the wise: don't mess with corrections. She was arrested and, I believe has lost her license.

She sounded like she deserved what she got...she was pushing all the limits that night!

As for sending a nurse to the ER for a breakdown...that is sad. Never had that happen..."knock on wood".

[R!XTER]

When I was on orientation they put me with the craziest nurse I have ever had the misfortune to meet. Mean doesn't begin to describe her. She was a crazy stickler for the rules but had zero compassion for patients or colleagues. She would scream And yell at anyone and everyone. She would spend all day scaring the pants off of me about the many ways I could lose my license and get fired. She would also have no problem going on about her many sexual exploits and why she was able to keep a man while other women couldn't -- did I mention she was divorced? Anyway, she got fired for sleeping with a co-worker, who claimed she had assaulted him.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

I can't think of any crazy coworker stories, so does that make me the crazy coworker?

[DowntheRiver]

Well, I was about three nights into my first nursing job when the charge nurse asked me very loudly in front of everyone if I used to be a cutter. I couldn't say no without looking nuts because my arms are clearly covered in self-inflicted scars. So I said yes but my scars were 10+ years old. I FELT crazy although in retrospect she was just being tacky.

Let me preface this by saying that I wear my scars as a badge of pride. I have multiple scars on my neck, shoulders, and chest as a result of my cancer. Multiple biopsies and then a huge scar where they inserted my port and took it out. Whenever people see these scars, they always ask about them. I'm really open about my past history but I love to mess around with people. I usually deadpan this statement, "I got into a knife fight, and I won. The other guy, not so lucky." Then I usually turn around and walk away. I've actually had quite a few people believe it; in fact, there was a rumor about it at my last job. I did nothing to quash that rumor.

[Emergent, RN]

I was working in a 60 bed nursing home in a small mountain town. We seemed to get a lot of fly by night, questionable staff. One woman drove up an hour from small city an hour away, one with many more nursing opportunities. She had been a corrections nurse, and that's where she met her wonderful husband, whom she had married while he was a prisoner.

Then he got out of prison. But, now he was back in the slammer, the victim of a bad rap! She was standing by her man! The injustice of it all.

She boasted of her extensive experience. Her first night on the job she 'dropped' a morphine ampule by 'accident', while getting something else in the locked narc drawer. No other nurse around, so it had to be 'wasted' with the morning nurse. LOL, she lasted less than a month.