Life's little irritations...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

The best excuse I have heard today from more than one nurse for "why I couldn't give my co-worker their flu shot and sent them all over the building to find you specifically" (as I'm responsible in my facility for compliance)...

"I didn't know what dose to give."

A.) They're individual-dose syringes. There is very little room for error there.

B.) Even if they were not, there are printed instructions on both the box and the syringe itself.

I'd be more sympathetic to "it was one more thing I had to do in my day and I'm just too busy," honestly, except that the unit in question is pretty low census right now and staffing (for once) is far, far better than usual. Or even just, "I don't want to," but at least own it.

Also, if you genuinely didn't know what dose, and didn't even LOOK at the box/syringe...you couldn't have asked someone?

Yes, I'm aware this is a minor irritation; I certainly don't mind giving the shots. I'm pretty dang good at it, if I do say so myself... But if one more frustrated staff member practically pounces on me the moment they see me today...

So, the psych nurse in me wants to make this group therapy. SHARING TIME. What little things are rubbing YOU the wrong way today?

Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

There's a doc on my unit that completely ignores me. Acts like I am completely invisible. I am the only, and I mean ONLY, nurse he does this to. .

As we say in the school nurse forum- What the Focalin??

Are we in junior high here, people? (It's rhetorical for a school nurse. Some of us still are.)

I'm sorry, Pixie. Hang in there.

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Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

Everything is annoying me lately. My coworkers have been commenting on my heavily pregnant self... "where is she? Must be waddling somewhere." "When are you going to start exercising again?" Etc. Would like to tell them nunya...

Again....what the Focalin? You've been very restrained in not telling them a lot worse than "noneya"!

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Specializes in school nurse.
Oh! Oh! I have one.

It's actually really upsetting me, to be honest.

There's a doc on my unit that completely ignores me. Acts like I am completely invisible. I am the only, and I mean ONLY, nurse he does this to. He's quite the social butterfly with everyone else.

When I am charge nurse and he has a question, he will ask it to the air. If he has a question regarding my patient ... he will ask another nurse first. If he has to resort to asking me, he won't use my name, won't make eye contact, and disappears .... quickly.

Odd thing ...we used to get along very well. I have no idea what happened, or what I did.

It's embarrassing and makes me feel like I'm not worth anything. Being invisible is such a dehumanizing experience.

On the bright side, you can use your invisibility to make faces at him and give him wedgies without consequences...

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Specializes in ED, psych.
On the bright side, you can use your invisibility to make faces at him and give him wedgies without consequences...

Ohhhhh, I like this.

It's better than taking Audrey's flu shots and stabbing him with one.

You guys are great ❤️. After another evening of ghostly behavior, it's good to laugh again.

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Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.
Ohhhhh, I like this.

It's better than taking Audrey's flu shots and stabbing him with one.

I mean, from an infection prevention standpoint, it wouldn't be the WORST idea...

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Aww, Davey ... you just made me bust out laughing for the first time in days ❤️!

Yeah. I don't think that's it. His wife also works with him on the unit.

I'll keep an eye out for dry heaving, though.

Actually, my first thought was: Does he have the hots for Pixie? The presence of his wife notwithstanding? And he's a decent guy so he doesn't know how to handle it?

And Davey, maybe you need to stock up on some anti-pheremone spray.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Davey, maybe you need to stock up on some anti-pheremone spray.

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Specializes in NICU/Mother-Baby/Peds/Mgmt.

A couple jobs ago we had these big laundry bags in a metal holder. When you filled one up you were supposed to take it out of the holder, put it on the floor for laundry to come get and put a new bag in. Days would just put dirty laundry on the cover for nights to do, cuz "they were busy". Nope, not when you're sitting in the break room or on FB when nights comes in ....

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Specializes in Surgical, Home Infusions, HVU, PCU, Neuro.

Does this same excuse work when not giving the patients their flu shot prior to discharge?

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@pixierose I have coworkers who treat me like this. I feel your pain. I figure it's different coming from a doctor and can't help you in interpreting that case.

When it comes from my peers/equals, I figure it means they just don't like me because I don't fit in thier box, and can't really relate to my peers as CNAs. Let's just say I'm a minority in that title and am working my way out of this as fast as I can. I used to be proud of my job, but now that the welfare office trains people to do it for free, the quality of people I find myself surrounded by has gone down drastically over the years and its a pool I no longer want to be part of. This is putting it politely -_-

I'd like to imagine that if I bust my tail hard enough, I'll be able to work in higher quality environments and find myself surrounded by people I can see eye to eye with, who share my enthusiasm for a true scientific and humanitarian calling. For now, I'll just have to tolerate being invisible in the break room, and excluded from the conversation while everyone else whines about how hard thier job is, all 3 of thier baby daddies skipping out on child support this month, or gossiping about the Kardashians. ::eyerolls audibly::

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Are we in junior high here, people?

It's a good day if we're in junior high and not preschool ;). There are days I'm convinced I don't work in healthcare but in preschool.

All joking aside, I love my coworkers. Most of them are wonderful. They just - have days sometimes that make it more difficult than others.

And Pixie - I'm so sorry for what you're dealing with.

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Specializes in Psych, Peds, Education, Infection Control.

I feel y'all. We've got drama at work out the yazoo right now, and junior high might be a bit advanced for some of the individuals involved. Literal things like making it extremely clear who is and isn't involved to so-and-so's holiday party...and other people planning their own parties to counter those parties. Some of our adolescent and child patients act a lot better... We've got some big changes taking place at my facility, so I keep trying to tell myself it's just people reacting badly to stress...but, boy, am I about done with it.

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