Is there always that one nurse.....?

beeker · Jul 12, 2012

Yep, and your never going to NOT give them something to whine about so stop killing yourself trying. Those people always find something. And for what it is worth, these tend to be the people that leave you a mess and crappy report on their way out the door. Just keep going with your report, and go. Don't respond to it.

amoLucia · Jul 12, 2012

Yep - there's always one! In my LTC, I hated being behind one particular nurse. When her schedule was changed to my reporting OFF to her as she came ON, it was magnified by a gazillion times. No way to keep her focused, questions that were totally irrelevant to activities on 11-7, frequent petty complaints, non-pt issues, etc.

In all my years & years, this one was the ONLY peer to evoke a childish tit-for-tat response from me (my thing was that I would not replace a new nursing note page in the chart if I knew she was coming on behind me, silly & childish, I know!). In all the time AHEAD of me, she never, never, NEVER put in a new page into the chart and she had large, flowery, sprawling handwriting and would leave large spaces at the end of the sentence, which she would draw a mark-out straight line to use up the space. A simple note could take her a half page, and if she were to run short on space, she would squeeze small her handwriting. She'd even finish up the margin edge rather than get a new page. It's just common courtesy to one another that we all should add a new page. Not her! :madface:

But she was my albatross who made my teeth grind. Some others would freq ask questions that WERE appropriate and I have learned from them (and yes, there's always room to learn!).

Oh well, made me feel good to confess my little tale!

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2012

Yes. These types of nurses nitpick about trivial, petty things during report because they need that sense of control that they are lacking in their personal lives.

Aurora77 · Jul 12, 2012

Yes there is. Just like there's always that one nurse whose report consists of "no changes" or "he's doing fine" and then you look at the orders and there are plenty of things she didn't do or just didn't tell you. Not that I have any experience with this, of course. :)

Art_Vandelay · Jul 12, 2012

Yes! I used to work evening shift, and there were a few night nurses who drove me crazy nitpicking everything that sometimes I had to stop myself from saying, "Would you like me to work your shift for you, too?" It was very frustrating. The decent nurses realized how busy we were and either offered to help or said, "don't worry about it."

R!XTER · Jul 12, 2012

ONE?? I can count at least 4 where I work... Although there is one that is definitely the worst. These are people who just love knowing they instill the fear of God in the nurses on the previous shift and make us scramble around for the last 1/2 hour of the shift trying to tie everything up with a pretty little bow to avoid their BS. Yup.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jul 12, 2012

there's always at least one. and there's always one who doesn't want to hear any details, and just stands there with arms folded glaring at you while you're trying to tell her that your patient v fib arrested, he still needs one more unit of packed cells out of the four that were ordered and that the brand new central line is on the left so make sure the np pulls the one on the right.

Queen2u · Jul 12, 2012

Yep - there's always one! In my LTC, I hated being behind one particular nurse. When her schedule was changed to my reporting OFF to her as she came ON, it was magnified by a gazillion times. No way to keep her focused, questions that were totally irrelevant to activities on 11-7, frequent petty complaints, non-pt issues, etc.
In all my years & years, this one was the ONLY peer to evoke a childish tit-for-tat response from me (my thing was that I would not replace a new nursing note page in the chart if I knew she was coming on behind me, silly & childish, I know!). In all the time AHEAD of me, she never, never, NEVER put in a new page into the chart and she had large, flowery, sprawling handwriting and would leave large spaces at the end of the sentence, which she would draw a mark-out straight line to use up the space. A simple note could take her a half page, and if she were to run short on space, she would squeeze small her handwriting. She'd even finish up the margin edge rather than get a new page. It's just common courtesy to one another that we all should add a new page. Not her!
But she was my albatross who made my teeth grind. Some others would freq ask questions that WERE appropriate and I have learned from them (and yes, there's always room to learn!).
Oh well, made me feel good to confess my little tale!

Soooo funny, the nurse I am referring to does the SAME THING with the handwriting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL

Always_Learning, BSN, RN · Jul 12, 2012

there's always at least one. and there's always one who doesn't want to hear any details, and just stands there with arms folded glaring at you while you're trying to tell her that your patient v fib arrested, he still needs one more unit of packed cells out of the four that were ordered and that the brand new central line is on the left so make sure the np pulls the one on the right.

the latter example made me laugh...i gave report the other day on a rather unstable patient and the oncoming nurse acted like i was boring her with report...i almost asked if she just wanted to read the chart, and i could just go home... :uhoh3:

prinsessa · Jul 13, 2012

We had one nurse like that who worked on our floor. Luckily she found another job

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 13, 2012

I suppose it's depressing to read this, but be happy if there's ONLY one.

There were times when I thought it epidemic. Then a new, fresh "good one" would come along and restore my faith in humanity (and nursing) :)

Hang in there.