What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

kinajp · Jul 20, 2009

I HATE those nurses that come to work with a nasty attitude FOR NO REASON. I'm like geesh, it's 7 o'clock in the morning; who could have @*%^#$ you off ALREADY!

MedSurgeMess · Jul 20, 2009

I hate people who call me at home, knowing that I'm a nurse, asking to write me a Drs note because they missed x days of work. Sorry, guys, but I ain't allowed to do that!

nickos · Jul 20, 2009

I hate people who call me at home, knowing that I'm a nurse, asking to write me a Drs note because they missed x days of work. Sorry, guys, but I ain't allowed to do that!

Hahaha..>WHAT? People DO THAT?

*shakes head* :bugeyes:

nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN · Jul 21, 2009

Learning how fragile life is, and how it can be gone in a blink, and then seeing these "demerol and diet soda" q4h drug seekers whining their way thru life about non existant issues, while you've just held the hand of a dying woman, who's only worry was not about the pain from the cancer that was melting her from the inside out, but about her hubby. She asked me, "Please look after my husband, he's not going to take this well. Can you make sure he gets home okay? He's always been such a bad driver, I usually drive..."and she started crying, I'm crying, the CNA's crying. I told her we'd get him home safe. And two days later, we did.

nightshift_CNA · Jul 22, 2009

I haven't worked in about a year, but my last job was as a traveling CNA, I worked 60-72 hours a week driving all over Kansas... There was one hospital that EVERYONE hated to go to because the staff treated us like cr@p because "we were agancy". I would be floating between 3 floors taking vitals, helping patients to the bathroom, etc. when I get a page to go back to the 3rd floor so all 3 nurses could go take a smoke break!!! I was floored! I am a smoker, but I would never have pulled a stunt like that! I hadn't even peed in 6 hours, let alone smoke! But I would go back to it in a heartbeat... can't find a job now and hubby got laid off earlier this month.... would rather be working 5 floors to this...

mykrosphere · Jul 23, 2009

nurses who cant do basic patient care and treat stnas like slaves.

the time it took you to find the stna to ask her to go get a colostomy bag, and then explain the type you wanted, you could have went and gotten it yourself and already applied it.

its really disrespectful.

we( rns and lpns) could mostly not survive without a good assistant.

this horribly peeves me (former nursing assistant, currently an rn)

they are your eyes and ears, and 99 percent of them know more about your patient than you do.

give them some respect, already!

talaxandra · Jul 23, 2009

Bariatric patients who weigh more than 500 pounds who get mad at me because I cannot pull them up in bed alone. Let's see... you weigh 500 lbs and I weigh 138 lbs...sure I can do it. No problem.

Any patients greater than about 50k who think I can move them up the bed on my own. I weight more than husker_rn's 63k but I'm not Super Girl and I only have one back, so no, you have to wait til I can get help.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Jul 23, 2009

I'm 115 lbs and I won't move someone more than 150.

treysdaddy08 · Aug 7, 2009

I should have been more specific. My mo

was an aide fir 25 years in a hospital and was 51. She new what she was signing when she chose to go full code status.

Heogog53 · Aug 8, 2009

I realize that this a very long thread about pet peeves, with some repetition. I've been a nurse for a long time, as well as the family member of dying parents and a chronically ill patient. I'd like to make a couple observations.

As the RN in the family, I went to visit my mom, who was in a very well respected cancer treatment hospital in Boston. When I got there, my dad turned to me with a list of questions. My mom was taken to have radiation therapy, but was so over medicated that when she needed to go back to her room, she couldn't tell the transportation person where she was supposed to go to....

She was on O2@10 liters without a humidifier bottle.

Her IV was labeled with some other patient's name.

The list went on. Not that some of the omissions were huge or criminal, but they were certainly in need of correction. My father went to the nursing unit desk, waited politely, and then got impatient and asked who was taking care of his wife. A group of med students and residents were hanging out at the desk, laughing and ignoring my dad. None of the nursing staff responded either. My father was a business man who expected answers to questions, as well as expected people to do their jobs(same standard he applied to his business and personnel). When no one responded, he became LOUD. The med students, residents and the rest of the staff behind the desk stopped talking. Heads swiveled, mouths dropped opened; how dare he make a fuss?

Finally, a nurse came into to she what was going on.

She ordered a bubbler, stat. She said that the IV was really the correct IV, but the label was wrong. I asked her why hadn't the label been fixed? She had no answer(she probably hadn't hung it, but still....) Mom's IV tubing had expired as well and it needed changing.....

Suddenly, from outside the room comes a deep make voice, very irritated,"Who the **** called me here STAT?" It was the respiratory therapist, a huge hulking man who was used to intimidating anyone who ****** him off. My dad heard the question and when the man walked in the door said,"I'm the ******* person who wanted you here STAT." The guy's face turned very red(not sure whether he was more ****** off or embarrassed). He installed the bubbler and left without another word.

Mom's IV was changed after an exchange of words......

Her stay at the world famous cancer treatment hospital was shoddy care by everyone; the residents who couldn't give a damn, the resp therapist who thought a bubbler was beneath him, etc. As a nurse of over 15 years at the time, I was appalled.

I will say that as a family unit, we only made the complaints once. We didn't interfere, didn't do any of the many rude and nasty things that families do.

Later, as an acutely ill patient, I had tests for two days continuously for an FUO of 104 with "mostly normal tests". I screamed all night after the second day of testing because the pain was over the top unbearable. I'd already been a patient three or four times, and I was never a difficult patient- I was, after all, a nurse, and understood the job. That night, it went out the window and I was the patient that every hated that night, despite giving me lots of pain meds.

I did feel very badly about that, and apologized to all the nurses/aides, etc.

In a 10 day admit, because of the FUO and a very low K+, I was given Vanc and K+ around the clock, which burned out my veins in a hurry. Every time the IV site went bad, I'd call in my nurse, trying to help them find a vein(and did indeed help them find some). I even had a new nurse start an IV on me, keeping my mouth shut as she struggled, suceeded and got my new tubing hooked up. THEN I told her I was a nurse. She blanched, and I told her she'd done a good job, but that she could make the whole thing easier on herself if she did this.....or this...In 10 days, 17 sticks.

I had to have more surgery 10 months later and all Ihad left was a tiny vein that took a 24. Anesthesia said that they'd out in a neck stick after I went to sleep. Man, that was so fine to hear!!! Worked like a charm!

About ten days after that surgery, I had a paralytic ileus and ended back in the hospital, in agony. I told the ER folks that I'd like some dilaudid for pain- because it worked for me. You would have thought that I was some kind of junkie, asking for a specific pain med. They put me in a back burner room and suddenly, I did an Exorcist vomit all over the room(I felt so bad about spraying the room- some poor person had to not just clean it upl but probably had to remove all the stock and replace it, too). At that moment, I got moved into the cardiac bay and was given some Fentanyl- no more attitude about my drug seeking behavior. I also got an HG tube. They realllllllly suck going in awake.

I had one more ileus. Got in, had to wait for about two hours, as soon as I got through the ER doors, the nurse started talking down data and I asked for dilaudid for pain.....again with the behavior. He got an IV in me and then the vomiting started again. Thank God for Dilaudid.

I hate being treated like a crock of ****, like an addict. The fact that I was an RN who'd worked at that hospital, that all my OR records were there as well and available, etc, didn't even phase them- to them I was a drug seeker. The rigid abdomen without any bowel sounds- naaah. I got the attitude that anyone who knew which pain med worked for them was some kind of immoral "thing".

I sincerely hope that I never ever have another ileus again. I did have one, but didn't see any reason to go to the hospital, because of the previous treatment. It took three days, but it passed. I stayed NPO, used a heating pad on my belly, took whatever pain meds I had at home with sips and it went away.

Those are my pet peeves as a nurse, a consumer of health care and as a patient advocate for my dying parents.

Thanks for letting me vent.

CandyGyrl1985 · Aug 26, 2009

originally posted by ns_rn

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

i dont understand why this would peeve you. patients have the right to chose what procedures they do or do not want done. by the way - you have just offended a lot of people that have family members or friends who have a terminal illness and are elderly and want a code. i am sorry but your statement was ignorant and it would be a nurse with your kind of attitude that i would never want to have. sorry if this flames anyone - but honestly it is the truth someones choice of life or death should not peeve other people - especially when it is not your life or your loved ones life. :angryfire it doesnt matter if you feel the person is suffering or if you feel sorry for the person - it is not your choice and being annoyed by their decision to chose life is sick!

talaxandra · Aug 26, 2009

Though I would not go so far as saying they peeve me I do find myself frustrated by full codes in patients who have no chance of surviving it, because it is futile, distressing for everyone involved, and suggests to me that the patient (and/or family) have an unrealistic picture of their situation and projected life expectancy.

This population quite clearly includes patients with a terminal illness, end-stage organ failure, and the aged. In any other era or culture these would not be arrests, they would be an inevitable and often peaceful death.

With the exception of ESRF patients, I have never in 20 years of acute nursing seen one of these patients successfully resuscitated - if CPR brought them then they died in ICU. The one ESRF patient I care for who survived a respiratory arrest died four months later, only three weeks of which was spent out of hospital or rehab - after his sixth admission he pulled out of dialysis.

When I have to do CPR on one of these patient I feel like I am pulling down by their ankles a spirit trying to ascend, robbing them of a peaceful death, and I'm not even religious.