My Coworkers are Driving Me Nuts

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There have been some things at work that, as a nurse, I never thought I'd see my coworkers do. It might just be a little thing, but it really gets on my nerves. I'd like to say something to them, but sometimes it's better just to keep my mouth shut.

What about you? What drives you nuts?

Specializes in Public Health, TB.
6 hours ago, Nurse Beth said:

Me giving report: 41 yr old female patient of Dr. Joe admitted with pancreatitis-

Nurse interrupts: Does she have an IV?

 

Me continuing: as I was saying, pancreatitis, and a history of-

Nurse interrupts again: when was her last BM?

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Specializes in Private Duty Pediatrics.

I work private duty home care. My peeve? The nurse who arrives 15 to 20 minutes late . . . every shift!

We don't have enough nurses in home care, and the parents don't want to lose a nurse who at least works part of the shifts. And the nurse doesn't work for my agency, so complaining to my supervisor won't help.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Way back when, some nurses would slip into a patient's room and watch Soap Operas, and would hang there until either they got caught or until a commercial came on. Then the next room they went to would, of course, have the TV set on the same Soaps. Couldn't miss ANYTHING!

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

When you call Pharmacy because the meds were never sent and they say ~sigh~ "We'll send them again"

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Letting the IV pumps beep... and beep... and beep... Not only is it annoying to the patient *and* me, it means they're not getting what they're supposed to be getting! I'll go and fix the pumps when I hear them, but I have some coworkers who I swear don't check on their patients at all, so by the time I actually get there, they're pissed at *me* and have a list of demands ready. Ain't nobody got time for that!

When there's an agitated and aggressive patient that we're all getting beaten up by, and the primary nurse won't do anything about it - like only won't they contact the MD or security, but also won't even help control their own patient. Seems to happen a weird amount on my unit.

Also, having videos or music on with your volume up. I get it, sometimes we're just tryna stay awake, but I haaaaaate listening to other people's stuff.

I'm realizing I just don't like noise. I think I picked the wrong profession.

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On 7/17/2022 at 8:14 PM, Nurse Beth said:

Me giving report: 41 yr old female patient of Dr. Joe admitted with pancreatitis-

Nurse interrupts: Does she have an IV?

 

When calling (full) report prior to transfer, which side is the IV on? So we can have the room set up and pumps ready...... Transport patient, RN MIA, no pumps in room, Charge RN needs full report as she didn't hear the full one you were required to give RN MIA prior to coming so doesn't know anything and you are going to need to wait while we go and get pumps from the stock room.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

When you're assigned to get a patient from ICU at 1400 and the patient comes at 1850

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"Ongoing social chatter while people are trying to concentrate".

This!!

"playing on fb, Tik Tok, etc."

And this!!

I once sat next to someone who was googling a doctor's divorce online!

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Specializes in Dialysis.
2 hours ago, 2BS Nurse said:

I once sat next to someone who was googling a doctor's divorce online!

We have a nurse that looks up a patients fb profile to see "what kind of person they are", and gets upset if they don't have one, or has the privacies locked down. This creeps me out, as it's a kin to stalking in my books. She also does coworkers this way. She got on my case because she can't find mine-I go by a whole different name on there, only someone who knows me very well would ever figure it out. I told her that people like her are the reason that my fb is like that

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On 7/13/2022 at 5:34 PM, JBMmom said:

I try to offer constructive criticism in person and in real time. The people I work with know that I will call them out individually on certain behaviors (like the cell phone use @Hoosier_RN mentioned. But I also try to make sure I reinforce positive teamwork and patient care as well. 

 A while back when I was a newer charge nurse we had a night crew that totally sucked including people sleeping at the nurses station with their feet up on the desk, people watching movies with two headphones in ignoring the bells and the whole unit, and generally putting forth a completely unacceptable image of professionalism on nights. I took the opportunity at shift start huddle to set things straight and I admit I was not too nice about it. Fortunately for me they mostly straightened out, and a couple day shift nurses that I really respected sought me out after that to thank me for standing up to my coworkers for the image they were putting out. I'm okay with letting things slide until it could cause people to question my professionalism, that's not a line I'm okay with. 

So how would you handle this if it is the charge nurse with these behaviors. When I worked nights, there was a charge nurse who slept at the desk all the time (they did not have any patients) and now on day shift, I will see the charge nurse at the desk scrolling thru facebook/phone, etc., while the rest of us are running around.

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Retired two years ago, can't say I miss a lot of it. Professionalism and adult behavior is something of the distant past.

Everybody had a phone and they'd take pictures of me and put it up on facebook or whatever. There was finally a policy initiated but I think they continued to do it.

Working at the computer and someone walks by and hits a key and flips the screen upside down. Oh isn't that soooo funny? I have work to do. In general, pranks are never funny.

Can I borrow your stethoscope? Of course they never return it and I have to remember who took it and hunt them down. The time I asked the person to let me hold their badge, it's like I asked for their child.

One woman was nice and worked hard but her kids, not small kids, would call her over every stupid little thing at home.

In the ER, EMTs do tasks done by assistants elsewhere. A few are reliable but as a group they're the laziest and most unmotivated people anywhere (I suppose that's what you get for $14/hr). Tell them there's a patient that needs transport. "Why don't you do it?" Uh, because you're doing nothing and I'm licensed to do things you can't or won't do. A patient comes in with chest pain, an EKG is automatic, they have to be told. 

Triage stared a big desk with the patient advocates. If they weren't doing anything they'd get loud and get angry when I asked them to quiet down so I could hear the patients. Sometimes the medics would hang out with them instead of returning to service after dropping off  a patient.

Not exactly co-workers, but fire/rescue or ambulance guys who dump patients without report, sometimes dump them in remote areas far from triage. Had a nurse and former medic who was the liaison with emergency services, he loved getting those complaints which ended up in hearings before multiple boards and always ended up with them lying and no action taken. Their reports were usually reliable, the fire/rescue ones more than the privates, but they might describe a patient as very sick when they weren't or say someone was malingering and they ended up intubated. I was presented with one patient, a Spanish-speaking man who was on a drinking binge, totally disoriented and vomiting blood on the wall as I hustled him up to the critical area. They had almost let him refuse transport.

Plenty more but I have other things to do.

 

 

 

 

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, ER, PACU, tele, PSYCH.

Is their skin intact? 

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