I pretend to suddenly develop a hearing problem. Sorry, what did you say " What...what, can't hear you? Can you speak up? â€
Has to be done with a straight face!
I also mimic whatever they are doing. That depends on the Dr of course. Some idiots simply haven't got a sense of humor.
Psych consults are the best. They're intimidated by medical jargon and think medical nurses are crazy anyway, so you can get away with murder sometimes. Ask them a good cardiology or metabolic D/O question or autoimmune and watch them flounder. You don't even have to know the answer.
Ask them about hearing voices and pretend you've just heard one. Did you hear that ?"
one doesn't go around for an entire shift inducing jocularity. I'm not a comedian and it isn't a Monty Python skit. These are episodic occurrences, when appropriate. We are professionals after all except my software wasn't written by Steve Jobs.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Maybe I'm missing something here. I have a reputation for having a sense of humour, but acting like an annoying 12-year-old isn't it. Real humour doesn't annoy. Since you used the word "annoy", your idea of humour is obviously different from that of many of us.
Heron, I trust no one without a sense of humor or someone who cannot take a joke, ever!! The alternative in my experience is someone who is anal and wound up and will never have your back. Inflexible rigid people are that way for a very good reason. A personality disorder. Hospital environments are ever changing, pt sxs vary and I have a license to protect. Therefore, I want calm, flexible, non obstinate, non dogmatic people who are open to suggestions and are creative around me.
I don't want people who are afraid of being wrong and then will defend that position at the expense of everyone to prove that they are right. I am interested in completing each shift optimumly, with my license intact, not worried about being stabbed in the back if something goes wrong.
I have yet to work with a shift where every situation was predictable. Using humor is a good way of evaluating personalities. Anyone who cannot laugh at themselves, I eliminate from my circle.
Life is too short to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde, I think !
You didn't give any examples of you laughing at yourself. You were laughing at other people. I don't trust anyone who tries to justify deliberately demeaning others as "just a joke".
Yes, humiliating someone can certainly be funny, especially when the target is pompous and self-important. But as a general rule, such humor has more to do with dominance than with camaraderie.
If ridicule is your thing, by all means have at it ... but you don't get to dictate what other people find funny, so I suggest you proceed with caution. Being "in your circle" has nothing to do with being competent at one's job. You might just wind up cutting yourself off at the knees.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Or, start humming a popular tune and pretend that you can't get it out of your head. Stop.. and then start humming again. Sometimes louder or really low.
1986. Or '87. While working as a second scrub on an ortho surgery, I did this. When I started up again, the lead surgeon told me to leave the room. He said, "I like you, Dave, but I asked you to stop, you did it again, so leave..." This surgeon was known for being, as you put it Avid Reader, "irritating".
The assistant supervisor had talk with me shortly thereafter and said that I needed to follow the surgeon's simple request.
I had a great amount of respect for her, and she said it in such a way, that I curbed my behavior.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Here's a story that I posted in another thread some time back which, again, occurred in surgery with an irritating doc:
I initially began my Nursing career working in Psych in a Community Hospital. When an opening came up in OR for a Scrub Nurse in the same Hospital, I bid on, and got, the Position.
I had known one of the Surgeons years before. He was from Argentina and was a Friend of my High School Honey's Father.
Whenever I would scrub in on one of the Surgeon's cases, he and I would playfully bicker back and forth. During one surgery, the Surgeon asked me, in reference to my previous Position working in Psych, "Why don't you go back to where you came from?!" "Well, Sir", I replied, "Why don't you go back to Argentina?!" The Surgeon merely glared back at me.
The bickering was all done in Good Fun and at the end of just about every case, before he left, the Surgeon would slap me on the back and say, "Good job!"
Sometime later, a Nurse new to the OR was to First Scrub with the same Surgeon on a Carpal Tunnel Release. I was to assist the Surgeon and give cues to the new Nurse. The Assistant Supervisor of the OR requested that I not bicker with the Surgeon during the case, as our typical behavior might make the new Nurse nervous. I agreed and said that I would conduct myself accordingly.
During the surgery, the Surgeon chided me, complaining, for example, that I was not holding the retractor correctly or some such other complaint. I would respond with something like, "Yes, Sir" or "Sorry, Sir". The Surgeon glared at me, but I also saw a question in his eyes.
The Surgery went well, but at the end of it, I received no "Good job!".
Thereafter, the Assistant Supervisor approached me and informed me that the Surgeon had waged a serious complaint against me. "What was his complaint?" I earnestly asked.
"Well", the Assistant Supervisor said, "During the surgery, the Surgeon said that you harassed him!"
Davey, I respect your comments always, however if by now we're unable to distinguish when to and who to joke around with, then we are in the wrong profession. It's the reason this country is so polarized, because everything is taken so literally.
Apparently, I spend all my working day making fun and ridiculing people. I literally have no interest in changing those folks minds or actually care about what they think. I am actually extremely selfish about my own piece of mind because I have 15 employees dependent upon me to acquire contracts that pays their wages, that keep their bills paid and children happy.
I only employ creative individuals who must have a sense of humor so they can work well with others. No blaming! They have to be able to take a joke because 40% of the contracts we pitch for are scuppered despite all the hard work creating the pitch.
I get maybe three shifts a month, which I use for my sanity and to keep me grounded. Nothing does that better than working your ass of for 10 hours at something you can control.
We deal with all types of personalities and we are frequently disappointed. Thin skinned and inflexible, we do not want!
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
I am pleased the Commuter saw it fit to move this thread to the nursing humor forums.
I gave Avid Reader a like, as per my routine, because she spurred such a lively discussion. However, I am one who disagrees with her premise.
I have truly enjoyed reading some of these posts from people of principles and integrity. Practicing principles in all of our affairs buoys us through stormy seas like dealing with irritating docs.
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Davey, I respect your comments always, however...
Thank you for your respect, Avid Reader.
With the same respect let it be known that, IMHO, everybody has an agenda and I sense yours is to be one of stirring the pot, kicking back to be entertained by the reactions, and then fueling the fire for more.
Avid reader
175 Posts
one doesn't go around for an entire shift inducing jocularity. I'm not a comedian and it isn't a Monty Python skit. These are episodic occurrences, when appropriate. We are professionals after all except my software wasn't written by Steve Jobs.