Your Pet Peeves in Nursing..

Nurses General Nursing

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I absolutely totally detest being called, "Honey" or whatever other terms of endearment catches the person's fancy. Please stick to professionalism- I have a name, please use it. Tried to put myself in other's shoes and use the term and it was so foreign and unnatural to me.

This peeve, irks me to no end:uhoh3:.

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I don't mind the "honey" thing. Depending on who it comes from, of course, it can be sweet and doesn't bother me a bit. And I admit to using the "sweetie" thing with the occasional little old lady I come across (who isn't my pt and I don't know her name) setting off the bed alarm as I am walking by her room! I think they like it better than "maam".. or "Mrs What's Your name" as you try and find their bracelet!

What bugs me is when PACU or ER calls up for report during shift change and are told that the nurses are busy getting report and he/she will call back in 5 min.. then they just bring up the pt anyway, without giving report, having no idea what the situation on the floor is! They are often 1 to 1 and always on the monitors downstairs and they bring up pts and leave them in a room alone with no monitor to go off to find a nurse coming on shift in the middle of taking report on 6 pts. How is that in the pt's best interest? Grrr! Don't they care about the pt at all? Then to find out (because we can look in the computer to see how many pts they have in ER or PACU at any time- just as they can with us) that they had NO other pts, that the nurse just wanted to go home!!!:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

It depends on who is calling me "Honey" and under what circumstances. The cute LOL who just wants a warm blanket or some cranberry juice can call me "Honey" all she wants. I can think of other situations where it would not be welcome.

My pet peeves tend to change from day to day. Today, it is the patient who waits until I've already typed up all their DC instructions to ask if the doctor can prescribe something for nausea. Why didn't you ask the doctor when she was just in here two minutes ago? Now I have to track her down and interrupt her work flow to ask her, get the prescription, pull the take home pack out of the Pyxis, re-type your DC instructions to include the new prescription, re-do your vitals since it's now been 20 minutes since your last set and we have to do them within 15 minutes of discharge, and now you want to know what your INR was since you are on Coumadin, but we didn't do an INR since it had nothing to do with why you came here, and you're wasting my time checking to see if we did one since I took over as your nurse two hours into your stay here and wasn't told whether an INR was done or not. GET OUT!!!! GO HOME!!!! This is NOT one stop shopping! Get your INR checked at your next coagulation clinic appointment!!!!!! This is the EMERGENCY ROOM, for Pete's sake!

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Specializes in Cardiac ICU.

interruptions during shift report for ...... a drinking straw and a towel (not the family, but some social worker who darn well knows where the kitchen is)

Some interruptions are OK, like critical events. Most (like straws and towels) are not!!

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My greatest pet peeve is loud mouthed, gossipy, rude nurses (ESPECIALLY when they're your charge nurse) who chat it up all night, play on the internet and have to be interrupted in order for the rest of us who actually care to get any work done. Aren't we all here for the same reason?

Also, I float and cannot stand it when I get the craziest of crazy assignments and am running all night and then see all the other nurses sitting at the nurses station chatting it up or playing on the internet.

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

My pet peeves are the crazy office politics that abound in EVERY single hospital/workplace in the US! Also, nurse managers who don't care. Coworkers who tattle tale to make themselves look better...brown nosers/suck-ups/butt kissers. Oh I could go on and on!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

my pet peeve is staff -- rt, pt, ot, social work, pharmacy, mds, whoever -- who interact with the patient and then either offer the patient something they aren't willing to get for them (and then come get me to get it) or wake up the intubated patient to ask them questions, can't figure out the answers and then come get me because "he wants something" or "he wants the nurse."

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Specializes in LTC.

MDs who don't read their faxes and just sign them without clarifying. Then getting upset because the same fax was sent back AGAIN.

Coworkers who come in to work Vomiting/diarrehea/back pain cause they didn't want their coworkers to work short and then leave 30 minutes after shift starts cause they just feel too bad to keep working!!! :banghead: If you feel ill at home chances are you won't feel any better at work, just stay home.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

I absolutely hate the following-----

-IVPBs that have not been unclamped and the pt didn't get his/her medicine

-dirty cluttered floors; over running trash cans

-foley bags that are about to POP.

-nurses that don't sign off orders

This is just what I can think of off the top, I'm sure more will come later on.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I absolutely totally detest being called, "Honey" or whatever other terms of endearment catches the person's fancy. Please stick to professionalism- I have a name, please use it. Tried to put myself in other's shoes and use the term and it was so foreign and unnatural to me.

This peeve, irks me to no end:uhoh3:.

It doesn't bother me too much if a patient calls me by one of those terms.

However, when other STAFF use such terms when talking to me... :mad:

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Specializes in GERIATRICS AND PRISON.

coworkers who do not clean up after themselves and do not restock what they use. I have to spend my time running like a crazed chicken to catch up.

sick coworkers who come to work sick and get me there bug and now I am sick on my day off.

MD, etc who order something I can not give. Pharmacy has to do it, then I am left in a pickle because the patient is mad and pharmacy is not there to dispense the medication, plus it was not an emergency.

Yes I am sure I have more to write

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Specializes in cardiothoracic surgery.

Calling me honey/sweetheart doesn't bother me unless they say it repeatedly, then it starts to get on my nerves. What has been really bothering me lately is when patients ask me where I am from. I don't know why it bothers me though, because it shouldn't.

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