Cra Cra co-workers

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  1. How many cra cra co-workers did you have in your career?

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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.

Specializes in Registered Nurse.
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.

I think I have met this nurse....lol...or at least a similar one or two...or three.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
I can't think of any crazy coworker stories, so does that make me the crazy coworker?

bahaha....ya never know ;)

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Not a nurse, but I have been dealing with an extern that graduates in May. She has NO concept of personal space whatsoever. I was in triage with her recently and she kept leaning over my shoulder. I mentioned to her that I was checking my paycheck, just so she would be aware that looking over my shoulder right then was not appropriate. NOPE, she continued to lean over me until I redirected her. She is also incredibly lazy and frequently "vanishes". I have had "new" ER nurses (had worked in our department, left, then came back) ask if she was allowed to do simple tasks like draw blood, because she said she couldn't. Actually, YES she can. She is in her final year of a BSN program, she can flipping draw blood! I'm hoping that our director doesn't opt to hire her upon graduation...

Good luck on that note...She sounds like she is avoiding her new vocation like the plague! And I hate that disappearing and over the shoulder thing...

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
I worked nights with a CNA that just creeped me out. It was 1Nurse/1CNA per very spread apart unit. He wore scrubs with a trench coat and combat boots. Everyone thought I was crazy bacause I didn't want to work with him. He gave excellent patient care... UNTIL he came to work with his girfriends hand in his pocket one night. He was actually arrested during that shift. I don't care if you google it because the whole case is public record and this was pre HIPAA. The whole thing was a nightmare.

OH MY....I guess your instincts were right on the money...small cancellation! OMG!

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
I would not give a wooden nickel for 90 percent of my coworkers. If I saw them broken down on the side of the road, I would keep on rolling.....I work in a den of snakes.....

I have not had this misfortune of having all my co-workers be snakes, but I have had half of them snakes a few times...I feel your pain!

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Not entirely crazy, but I worked with an aide who flunked out of nursing school years ago, and never made it back in, so she was bitter with a capital B. She always questioned the nurses' judgment on things, and she worked with a group of Filipino nurses who were very docile and they kind of just muttered in Tagalog amongst themselves about her, but never confronted her cause she would've raised hell. The day she quit we practically threw a party. Apparently she couldn't stand the "incompetence" she saw all around her. Good riddance.

one time I got chewed apart on the phone cause a dr was paged and the nurse was one of those disappearing ones. so the dr kept calling back, waited, hung up, called back, waited, hung up, repeat, I'm trying to find her, she's nowhere to be found. Our staff bathroom was in our coat room. So I went to use the bathroom, and I find her sitting behind the coat rack having a chat on her cell phone.

I know it must have been bad, especially with the first person (CNA), but these stories are mostly reading "funny". The 2nd kind...the disappearing nurse co-worker,....I live in fear of those. I wouldn't handle it well!

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
Oh my, yes. I'll preface by saying that the vast majority work in private duty nursing. This specialty includes a percentage of people who clearly are there because they couldn't function in an environment that contained co-workers. They weren't really incompetent, just really weird. Unfortunately the best are so quirky that a disclosure would risk identification, but here are a 3 of the least crazy things.

It's 2300 time for me to go home, but my replacement has not arrived! However, within 20 minutes I hear from the office "the nurse is lost" and eventually converse with the nurse 3 times, because they are lost Not unusual in private duty. When I inform the patient he says "but she's worked here for 5 years!" (and no they weren't intoxicated!)

Then there was the young nurse with very spotty cell phone service who i saw for an entire shift due to being 2 patients in the home that needed care. She didn't get along with one of the relatives and would call the office from outside where the reception was better, and would loudly begin the conversation with things like "I don't show up here every Sunday to be told what a piece of **** I am for 12 hours!" brief pause, second burst of profanity, brief pause, etc.

Then there was the time (same 2 patient household) where everyone was crazy except the patient. I worked with the relative, but got to know her as well. It involved a very rainy night, a leaky roof, a faulty overhead light fixture, a threat to call the Fire Dept, an "electrician", the patient, and her novelas. The place was literally a circus of fire hazards and human drama. This lady's face never changed, nor did she take her eyes off the TV. I finally went in there and said something like, so you're just going to watch this until the roof caves in? She smiled and nodded, looking back at the TV.

Well, you gota love that! :dead: Again, this is reading funny....but I am sure that, in the moment, it was NOT. I especially could have spit when I read, " Then there was the time (same 2 patient household) where everyone was crazy except the patient"

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
I bonded with a coworker when I was fresh out out of school. She took me under her wing and was so sweet and supportive. Then, out of nowhere, the crazy set in. A particular night shift nurse always gave me a hard time during handoff report, which I saw as somewhat normal, considering her personality (that, and the fact that it was I who took her days position she was promised months before I hired in). I wouldn't call it hazing. She just gave me a hard time. Actually, I should really thank her. I learned so much from her. I learned how to get my ducks in a row before shift change and how to give a JAM UP handoff report. Well, my crazy coworker failed to see my POV, and demanded that I report the night nurse for bullying. Demanded. Really.

Why - o - why do some of them just go nuts over this kind of thing!? I hate getting threatened too. Sheet. lol

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
I worked with a nurse that INSISTED I was having an affair with a doctor. Nothing of the sort ever happened, and I don't know what made her crazy about it. She made comments about it every day, but mostly under her breath--she also talked to herself all day, mostly unintelligible stuff. That was about 10 years ago, and I left that job 5 yrs ago. I ran into another coworker recently who told me the crazy nurse is still talking about my "affair"!

hahaha. She had an imagination!

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Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.

I have worked with many nurses that are, well.......interesting to say the least. i worked with one male CNA, a very good CNA, however he continually griped about whatever his work assignmnet was. IF he had one more VS than the other CNA, or one more weight he would gripe and gripe and gripe... one night, I just lost it,, i told him if he ddidn't like his job, there was the door!! He stopped gripng so much after that!!

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Specializes in OB.
I worked nights with a CNA that just creeped me out. It was 1Nurse/1CNA per very spread apart unit. He wore scrubs with a trench coat and combat boots. Everyone thought I was crazy bacause I didn't want to work with him. He gave excellent patient care... UNTIL he came to work with his girfriends hand in his pocket one night. He was actually arrested during that shift. I don't care if you google it because the whole case is public record and this was pre HIPAA. The whole thing was a nightmare.

OK I think this takes the cake!

When I worked in Mother Baby there was a CNA from L&D on nights (aren't they always on nights???) who was almost blind, almost deaf, and a religious fanatic. They had her transport patients from L&D to Mother Baby and she would bang stretchers with fresh C-section patients into the wall because her vision was so bad (they finally had her stop transporting). She was less than five feet tall and looked, well, crazy. Apparently she came from a lot of money and had an apartment on Central Park South, but would occasionally sleep in subway stations to "preach." When it was wintertime, she would wear her ancient, ratty fur coat over her scrubs all shift, which combined with her disheveled appearance really did make her look like a homeless person.

One night they floated her to work in Mother Baby and she went into a patient's room to make rounds, but didn't say anything to the patient. It being winter, she was wearing the fur coat and the patient freaked out and thought there was a homeless person on the loose creeping through the hospital.

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Specializes in Registered Nurse.
OK I think this takes the cake!

When I worked in Mother Baby there was a CNA from L&D on nights (aren't they always on nights???) who was almost blind, almost deaf, and a religious fanatic. They had her transport patients from L&D to Mother Baby and she would bang stretchers with fresh C-section patients into the wall because her vision was so bad (they finally had her stop transporting). She was less than five feet tall and looked, well, crazy. Apparently she came from a lot of money and had an apartment on Central Park South, but would occasionally sleep in subway stations to "preach." When it was wintertime, she would wear her ancient, ratty fur coat over her scrubs all shift, which combined with her disheveled appearance really did make her look like a homeless person.

One night they floated her to work in Mother Baby and she went into a patient's room to make rounds, but didn't say anything to the patient. It being winter, she was wearing the fur coat and the patient freaked out and thought there was a homeless person on the loose creeping through the hospital.

With enough meds onboard, she may have passed for a small bear. LOL :roflmao:

I agree about Conqueror's story taking the cake. haha

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