What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

chicookie, BSN, RN · May 19, 2009

They weren't doing it perfectly perfect and that is why they have peritonitis. Assuming PD means peritoneal dialysis, in which case it does have to be perfectly perfect.

Exactly. How can they tell me what perfectly perfect is when they have been doing it wrong? I was taught to hang the bag before connecting the tubing and she just went on a 30 minute rant on how she had to be connected to the tubing first. Does it really matter?

I did it her way the second time. Just so that she would be happy.

SoundofMusic · May 19, 2009

Family members, first and foremost.

Rude ones, demanding ones, those who are in the medical field and are arrogant and demanding to you as a nurse, those who treat you like a servant, those who explode and take everything out on YOU because you are simply on the front line for 12 hrs straight, taking it for the doctor, the dietary people, the testing labs, everything. Those who think it is either their "duty" as the family "leader" to manage everything going on in the room and/or to come up with 50 silly questions everytime your'e in the Room, monopolozing your time and taking away from the care that goes on OUTSIDE of the room -- geez -- don't you people get it -- if you keep me standing here talking, I can't read the chart, can't find the answers, won't get the doc here -- I mean -- LET ME GO!

Families.

The patients I can excuse. They are sick. -My co-workers are also overworked like me, and so are the doctors -- I can excuse all of them. But I can't excuse a family member who has nothing to do but SIT there in the room and make work and life miserable for everyone. I wish they'd be banned from everywhere but at the bedside of the most critical patients, to be very honest.

SoundofMusic · May 19, 2009

Well, let me retract my last statement. I just wish family visits could be limited, say, to an 8 hr period per day or less. And the number of visitors -- defintely should be limited. I feel the noise level is truly detrimental to patients sharing the room, it increases their anxiety and reduces their comfort level while in the hospital. Really awful when there are 20 loud family members on one side and nobody on the other.

~miss_mercy_me · May 20, 2009

Family members, first and foremost.
Rude ones, demanding ones, those who are in the medical field and are arrogant and demanding to you as a nurse, those who treat you like a servant, those who explode and take everything out on YOU because you are simply on the front line for 12 hrs straight, taking it for the doctor, the dietary people, the testing labs, everything. Those who think it is either their "duty" as the family "leader" to manage everything going on in the room and/or to come up with 50 silly questions everytime your'e in the Room, monopolozing your time and taking away from the care that goes on OUTSIDE of the room -- geez -- don't you people get it -- if you keep me standing here talking, I can't read the chart, can't find the answers, won't get the doc here -- I mean -- LET ME GO!
Families.
The patients I can excuse. They are sick. -My co-workers are also overworked like me, and so are the doctors -- I can excuse all of them. But I can't excuse a family member who has nothing to do but SIT there in the room and make work and life miserable for everyone. I wish they'd be banned from everywhere but at the bedside of the most critical patients, to be very honest.

~I think so too!!! Families of patients who try to dominate the staff by calling, demanding, dictating, and my personal favorite... the jounalizing historian :typing I realllllllly agree with "SoundofMusic" that the patients are excused, they are sick! Yup... this is my pet peeve too~

JennyAS, BSN, RN · May 31, 2009

Patients and/or family members who are CNAs and think they know more than the nurses and doctors combined. Case in point:

Lady, you've received Demerol 50 mg and Dilaudid 2 mg IV for a freaking abscess. No you can't have more narcs. Don't tell me "you have to go by weight." You weigh 170lbs! You've had enough.

You can't figure out how you got an abscess? You work as a CNA in a nursing home, and apparently you're an expert on narcotic pain relief. So how have you not heard about MRSA?

Don't tell my critical care tech that she can't use nail polish remover pads to remove that old tape gunk from your skin because she's "not trained to do it." She was trying to do you a favor because apparently you aren't capable of washing it off yourself. And she's trained to do a lot more than you could imagine.

Please don't tell me how to flush your line. Let's compare how much experience we each have working with IVs.

If you're such an expert, please go home, start your own IV, prescribe your own narcs, and I&D that abscess yourself. Because we're tired of dealing with you.

BeckyRN2006 · Jun 1, 2009

My biggest peave is when I, a nurse, go to the doctor and the medical assistants are introduced and referred to as nurses, "The nurse will call you back in a minute." The best was my orientation OB appt 2 weeks ago. It was to be with a nurse. Surprise, Surprise, it was a medical assistant. Surprise, Surprise, I switched MDs.

"The last nurse just pushed the medicine in my IV at once."

"How do you get an STD?"

Ten minutes after being admitted for possible obstruction, and 5 minutes after dilaudid and phenergen, requests jello and to go smoke.

BanoraWhite · Jun 4, 2009

I used to work as a PCA in a Nursing home and we regularly got student PCA's or Nurses come in who told us they wouldn't wipe bums or clean up poo!

Uh..I think your in the wrong course then !!!

karenrussell_rn · Jun 13, 2009

When off service, consulting doctors come to our unit with no identification, in street clothes and get mad when we ask if they are family before giving any pt info!

elthia · Jun 14, 2009

Nurses who don't do care plans on their admits!

It was decided that all ICU transfers need updated care plans, and if any admit did not have a care plan then night shift was to provide the care plan with the 24 hour chart check...sometimes NONE of my pt's have care plans. How I can be stuck doing 6 careplans when I did not admit a single pt, or accept a single transfer still amazes me, then I have to do 6 more for the LPN I'm paired with!

kkluczynski · Jun 14, 2009

I work in LTC one of my peeves is from the transport EMS guys who give you the crazy look when your giving them the report on a 85 yr. old women who is bleeding out and needs to go to the hopsital and shes a DNR. Just because they don't want CPR doesn't mean do not treat. I cant stand that, so irritating.

and im sure not all are so snarky and rude but this is my experience with a certain transport company my facility deals with. No offense to any EMS out there....

sparta802 · Jun 14, 2009

Great thread!

-Families who want to talk to the attending doctor at 8pm- sorry, but the doctor is long gone! Or the patient is fully capable of answering questions but the family wants me to give them info and they think I'm lying about HIPA laws. Or the families who write down everything anyone does like they're just looking for something to sue over.

-Those patients who are very elderly with no quality of life and the family wants *everything* done to them. Why are we putting a Peg tube in a 105yr old practically unresponsive pt. and also giving her PRBCs, etc?? Such a sad waste of everything. Makes advanced directives appreciated!

-Dayshift nurses who in report will say "The pt gets dressing changes daily" but doesn't actually say she did the dressing change. I used to assume it was done and when I check the pt it obviously wasn't done. So now I specifically ask if it was done. It's dayshifts job to do the dressing change since they have less pts so why can't they do it? If they were busy and said they just couldn't get to it, fine, but don't avoid the issue cause you're lazy. If the nurse is reading a magazine when I come in and stuff like that isn't done, it's plain laziness!

-Nurses/aides who don't answer their call bells (and they're online, reading, etc). Just answer it! The pt will get more annoyed if you wait 10mins, the problem won't go away, there might be something really wrong, etc. And some aides are online yet aren't giving baths, feeding pts, etc. I shouldn't have to tell someone how to do basic functions of their job!

-Nurses you're following who don't check/sign off their orders. Why am I having to clarify orders at 6pm that were written at noon?? Or they sign off an order for say a urine sample, they never get one, and never tell you to get one.

-Nurses who can chart before even seeing a pt! Or who don't have a stethoscope but tell you how the lungs sound!

-Some (not all!) of the new grads have such an attitude. They tell me what to do, tell me what they won't do, and are just plain lazy! They act like they're doing me a favor or something when really, it's 100times easier for me to do my job without them. So different from when I was a new grad.

Geez, I could go on forever! haha. To sum it all up: annoying families and lazy workers!!

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Jun 14, 2009

When everything is a competition with the roommate. Especially when you can't go in there for anything without the jealous roommate becoming offended that you're doing some minor, routine thing for the other person. So then they bug you the whole time, trying to get you attention to pay attention to them instead. In this particular instance, the family member is just as bad! I'm passing out supper trays, and Daughter wants to know why Roommate got her tray first instead of Mom. Um... because that was the first tray I grabbed? I wasn't really thinking about it.

Then comes the interrogation about soup. Why does Roommate always get soup, and Mom doesn't? Because Roommate likes the soup! The kitchen knows this. They do this for people all the time. That's why they go out of their way to make your Mom an egg sandwich every single day- because they know she snubs everything else. Would you like me to call the kitchen and order some soup for Mom? I could tell them to put it on her tray every single day, just like Roommate's, if you would like. Then everything would be even-steven. Would that make you happy?

Oh no, nothing will make Mom and Daughter happy, because they turn EVERY TRIVIAL LITTLE THING into a contest. Everything you go in there, the Daughter is "wondering about something." Why does Mom have one less pillow on her bed than Roommate? And why Roommate have extra sugar packets in her bedside table, and Mom doesn't? Why are we taking Roommate's vital signs?

All of these questions are asked in an accusatory, suspicious tone. Meanwhile, Roommate has mild dementia and has no idea she's receiving all this "special treatment" from us. She also doesn't seem to be aware of the snide, jealous comments the other 2 make about her because they're so bitter about the tiniest little things.