What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

Nurses General Nursing

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Nurses that are brilliant but do not know the difference between contraindication and contradiction! :rotfl:

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Specializes in Peds and Well baby.

I still hang my steth from my rear view window; at last count probably got me out of a good dozen tickets. Two days ago, I looked in my rear view to see a State Trooper. I was only doing about 8 miles over on the interstate but... He switched lanes with me twice then pulled along side, smiled and waved. You can laugh at me all you want.....

LOL-the little old ladies who say "I've a touch of sugar"

Those are the people who come in with a BS off the meter, and haven't taken their insulin or anything else in months even though they fill and pick up their prescriptions, and then expect everyone to feel sorry for them when they are blind, legless, and on dialysis.

One mother with an extremely violent child, spanked him twice, and then totally lost her temper, in a room full of people and picked him up and threw him into his chair. He got right out of it, so she threw him again, and again. I went to the desk and told the receptionist that I am a mandatory reporter and wanted the sheriffs dept called immediately. Thankfully I was informed that they had already done so.

Well, this is a sad situation. I feel for that mother, being so overwhelmed by frustration and lack of ability to control this kid. On the other hand, not all rotten kids have rotten parents. No one knows what that mother might go through on a daily basis. And not being able to discipline kids around people w/o fear of reprisal is one reason so many kids are brats in public. Perhaps she should've been more gentle but firm in putting him back, but kids don't always respond to gentleness and consistency, as I learned to my sorrow w/ my daughter. Helen Keller would've probably never gotten out of her dark, soundless life if her teacher had not been firm..even rough with her, because of Helen being overindulged. The methods Annie had to use would be considered abusive by today's standards. Yet Helen was helped by them, learned to communicate, and had a full, rich life because of it.

I know I'll probably be flamed by the 'all children are sweet little angels, it's only their parents who are bad' crowd....but it's just MHO.

There is a difference between gently guiding a child with words and actions, and smacking and throwing them! No wonder this child was violent - who do you think taught him how to act that way, from what it seems?

Have you read stories about people diagnosed with autism, ADD/ADHD, Tourette's, OCD, etc. as adults whose parents and teachers did horrendous things to them to try and punish their behaviors out of them? Some I've seen are absolutely heartbreaking, especially when the parents were well meaning. Example: A teacher with Tourette's whose story recently appeared in "People" magazine whose mom decided one weekend to cure him of his barking by smacking him across the face each time. When he came to school on Monday covered in bruises and with several loose teeth, she almost ended up in jail - and this was in the days before mandatory reporters.

:cry:

The drama queen co-worker who thinks everyone is interested in her soap-opera life, and procedes to drone on about it. I really couldn't care less how she's letting some married-to-someone-else jerk use her.

Almost as bad are the people who are always broke because they do fun things first and pay their bills with whatever's left over, or whose spouses are so worthless, the children are not safe around them (applies to men and women both), or who absolutely hate their jobs but are doing nothing about looking for another, etc. etc. etc.

You will encounter this no matter where you work or what you do for a living.

:banghead:

Specializes in Er/ICU/Med-Surg/Home health.

How about when you take a medical history and the patient denies having any problems. Then you check their meds and they're on all kinds of stuff. "I thought you said you didnt have high blood pressure?".."Oh, honey, I dont as long as Im taking my blood pressure pills." Bless their little hearts...they just dont get it. :chuckle Now, I always check meds first. Its usually more accurate than the pts recall.

Full code patients who are terminally ill , have end stage disease or are over the age of 80!

My mom is full code, and has stage 4 endometrial cancer. She was given 6-12 months to live 15 months ago. She now appears to be on "deaths doorstep" and still chooses to be a full code. Should we tell her that she shouldn't be because it annoys you? She shouldn't want an extra few weeks with her grandchildren before she passes on? She shouldn't want to see her son's birthday wich is just a few weeks away, maybe see her youngest grandchild crawl for the first time? Just tell her, "You're going to die anyways, why not get it over with". Code status is a persons choice and NO ONE should feel like they "have" to go before their ready.

P.S. On your 80th birthday are you changing your code status?

Specializes in long term care, vent/trach,.

When my nursing supervisor interupts me during a med pass just to get me to sign some paperwork that could wait until im finished passing meds. Hello! That is not important!

These young nurses werent raised with the same work ethic I was raised with

These old nurses who are martyrs. Heh heh.

My mom is full code, and has stage 4 endometrial cancer. She was given 6-12 months to live 15 months ago. She now appears to be on "deaths doorstep" and still chooses to be a full code. Should we tell her that she shouldn't be because it annoys you? She shouldn't want an extra few weeks with her grandchildren before she passes on? She shouldn't want to see her son's birthday wich is just a few weeks away, maybe see her youngest grandchild crawl for the first time? Just tell her, "You're going to die anyways, why not get it over with". Code status is a persons choice and NO ONE should feel like they "have" to go before their ready.

P.S. On your 80th birthday are you changing your code status?

I'm going to MURDER my family if they try to put me on full code status at an advanced age. Not that I'm making it to 80. :D

Biggest pet peeve...

When nurses argue with the aide. But are wrong. But won't admit it. Then through out the "I'm the nurse" line. Then get angry when the DON overrides them...

Or when they try to make you go against the doc's order. Ain't going to happen sis! We can lose our certification too!

My pet peeve is when a doctor gets mad at you becuase you don't know who he/she is. I have had that happen to me in the past. I don't assume just because some one is in a white coat they are a doctor.

They are shicked when I ask them "do you know who I am?" when they say no, I tell them see, that is why i don't feel about not knowing who you are.

Doctors need to get a clue that nurses aren't going to know all the doctors that work at their job.

I have to say mine again -- because it's the bane of my existence lately at work -- pet peeeve is nurses who do a LOUSY job of passing report and checking off their charts. Forgetting to mention the pt is on isolation, has cultures due, is a DNR, or whatever.

You, as a nurse, have YOUR work and are responsible for getting the orders done, as much as possible, on your shift. By not doing this, you are pushing your work off on others, as well as allowing a situation to occur in which important patient tests/labs won't be done, because you didn't pass it on to the next shift.

I had a set of blood cultures missed because my day shift nurse, who was begging me to let her leave w/o completing her chart check didn't even pass ON the info to me, didn't get the cultures done which were timed for HER shift, and then I missed it because I was too busy at the beginning of my shift w/ vitals, meds, etc. to dig through the charts and notice the timing.

It's so wrong -- and I'm at a place I'm ready to talk to my mgr about it -- it's just fallen on me too many times this week for some reason.

Specializes in orthopaedics.

when nurses and nurses aides are supposed to take the abuse of pt.s with a smile. if we dare try to defend ourselves or our coworkers we (nurses or nurses aides) are made to be the bad guys.

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