Pet Peeves

Nurses General Nursing

Published

What is your pet peeve? With everything a nurse has to deal with in a day, the one thing that gets on my nerves is someone who takes the garbage bag out of the can but doesn't replace the liner. It makes me psycho. How bizarre is that?

Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

relative of patient comes out to the nurse's station on our (36 bed!) unit and says "SHE" wants to get back into bed or wants to know if "MY DAD" has had PT yet. I just bite my tongue, then say "Which Dad-we have quite a few?".

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Have quite a few pet peeves myself:

1. Empty paper towel dispenser, that will still be empty the following night. Ditto on the soap dispensers and TP. :angryfire

2. Beginning my shift with clean-up and bedchange, arrive at the linen hamper only to find no linen bag there. :angryfire

3. The octopus known as IV tubing and electrical cords. Also having to contort yourself to reach the inaccessible plug, you'd think someone would have thought to put them at waist level in an easily accessible spot. :angryfire

4. All of my patients never having water when I do my first med pass. :angryfire

5. The stock room that is not stocked, me running high and low to find what I need. :angryfire

6. Full urinals displayed prominently on every male patients overbed table and the CNA has just done a VS round. :angryfire

7. Patient rooms that are dangerously small, in fact so small that it is a danger to both patients and staff, you cannot open the BR door without it hitting the FOB. :angryfire

8. Patients arriving on the unit, no report, no notification. :angryfire

9. Shoes sticking to the floor, your patient who has been there a week tells you they've never seen it washed. :angryfire

10. Despite calling repeatedly for medication from pharmacy and still not getting it no sooner than 4hrs. :angryfire

Essentially what it boils down to folks is lack of:

1. Professionalism

2. Pride in a job well done

3. Initiative

4. Basic common courtesy.

My God,

it sounds just lkie the UK :chuckle

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I always liked the people that would call, ask to speak to "mom" and would get annoyed when you asked for "mom's" name.

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

We have seperate pieces of paper which we hand write patients notes-:angryfire I hate opening their Kardex to find somebody wrote on the last line and couldn't be bothered to put a fresh sheet in.

Somebody used last photocopy and used the master as well.

MESS and chaos

my pet peeve is when I'm working triage people drive up to the door and say they can't get the patient out of the car-----How did they get in the car??

Very simple! The patient's condition deteriorated during the trip to the hospital.

Specializes in Babies, peds, pain management.

I work OB/NSY. We put the mother's last name on the crib cards of all infants because they are admitted with mother's name. But there is always atleast one father a shift that complains that the baby's last name is "Jones" like his, not "Smith" like the mother's. I try to explain the reasoning, to match baby with mother, but they act like I've personally insulted or judged them for not being married. I could care less.

Also, people call nsy asking about "Michael" or "my baby" like I can recognize their voice and know who they are asking about...and then act like I am stupid when I ask for the last name.

Obviously, I forgot to take the "pyschic" class in nursaing school!

Finding someone in restraints with no doc orders, and no mention in report.

Specializes in long term care.

OK; here are my peeves:

1) IVs that are dry at the beginning of a shift.

2) Med rooms not stocked.

3) Getting report from day shift (I work nights) and being told "Oh, pass that on to days tomorrow" when it was something that should have been handled on their shift.

4) When a call light is going off and someone (RN, LPN, or aide) says "Whose light it that" instead of answering it.

5) When we don't have meds from pharmacy and pharmacy argues with us thinking that we do.

OK, thanks for listening to my ranting. Need to go eat now.

Bringing this one back to the front again.

This isn't Little House on the Prairie....Flush that toilet after you empty the catheter into it!

4) When a call light is going off and someone (RN, LPN, or aide) says "Whose light it that" instead of answering it.

Let's not forget it's "sister" saying: "That's not my patient," I think I may get violent if I hear that one more time. :angryfire :angryfire

Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

Discharging a patient only to find out she didn't know she had diabetes, hasn't eaten much AT ALL for several months (!!) because her doctor told her to "cut out salt" so she has no idea how to cook her food now.

Basically I have to do a mini-assertiveness talk and tell her how to find a "loudmouthed relative" to go with her to the doctor appointments, make a list of questions to ask, and how to either get the care and help you need or find a new doctor.

I apparently have issues with people who don't get the care they need, especially women, because of a myriad of different communication issues that arise between them and their physician. It particularly irked me in this case because I didn't know about these problems until I was discharging her from the hospital. I mean, how's an 83 year old woman going to be healthy if she's afraid to eat? And I'm telling her to "follow an 1800 calorie ADA diet"... what on earth is that to her, when at this point she'd be lucky to get UP to that amount per day- I just wanted to set some lasagna and mashed potatoes down in front of her! Often!

Specializes in ER.

Excellent advice on the loudmouthed relative, I think I'll use that one.

+ Add a Comment