Need to vent (over a very petty issue)

oldiebutgoodie, RN · Mar 12, 2008

This post is little more than a rant, so be forewarned. For those that still want to read :), here goes...
Maybe it's just that I'm in the last semester of NS, HESI is a day away, and my allergies are killing me, but today just seemed to be the Day of the Idiot.
This afternoon in a peds class, my allergies started flaring up again so I had to blow my nose on a few Kleenex during class...I discreetly took care of business, folded up my tissues, and proceeded to listen to the lecture. Then we had a short break. Upon returning to my desk, another student calls my name, states that I need to get up to throw my tissues away, because she has to look across my desk in order to see the lecture notes, and she's just grossed out by my Kleenex. (I realize how petty all this is, yes). This is a girl who routinely displays a very sour, negative attitude; never has anything pleasant to say; and is always just skirting the line when it comes to being disrespectful to teachers. She was just incredibly belligerent and confrontational in how she spoke to me (not so much what she said but how she said it), so I sort of just looked at her, tried to decide how to respond, and then decided NOT to respond as I might say something I'd later regret. So once my back is turned, then I hear "Oh, well, just ignore me. Go ahead and be gross then." I didn't get up, by the way, because class was just about to resume, my tissues were in no way a public health hazard, and I didn't particularly feel like taking orders from this individual. And yes, at the end of class, I disposed of everything and cleaned off my desk area.....
Yes, I realize how silly and petty all this is, but it just GALLS me how some people can be. I just don't see how anyone could possibly be grossed out by a couple of partially-used, folded up tissues; beyond that, why would anyone make a big stinking deal out of it?? It's not like I had green goop smeared all over the classroom. She just found one extra thing that she could make a scene over, and then went to town with her snotty (hah!), belligerent, immature attitude. Sigh. This isn't worth all the energy that I've expended thinking and writing about it, but it feels good to rant.
I can't wait for May. There will always be immpossible people out there, but at least when NS is over, I won't have to deal with this particular one anymore!
Thanks to all who are willing to commisserate with me.

Hahahaha. Wait till she has to clean up poop/pee/vomit/sputum/unidentified body fluids. You could always ask her how she is going to handle stuff like that, maybe in a concerned tone of voice:

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm really concerned about you. I wonder how you are going to handle body fluids in practice?"

Maybe that will shut her up.

Good luck!

Oldiebutgoodie

Shadrach · Mar 12, 2008

And she wants to be a nurse?

MzMouse · Mar 13, 2008

The two previous posters pretty much read my mind. If a rolled up Kleenex is bothering her, she is in for a rough road as a nurse! :lol2:

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Mar 13, 2008

Your problems with petty people will not end after nursing school concludes.

Unfortunately, there will be other nurses who talk and act exactly like the classmate you have described to us. Misery loves company, and these types of coworkers thrive on doing what they can to cause others to feel miserable. Now is the time to conjure up ways to tactfully deal with people like this, since our profession has the misfortune of attracting a few souls with low self-esteems who get their temporary ego boosts by being petty.

Good luck to you, and do not permit petty people to get to your head.

suanna · Mar 13, 2008

You will meet soooo many more like her in practice that some days you will feel like the odd man out. I think you handled it quite well. Good luck when it is your preceptor or the nurse manager of the floor you have just hired to. I'm not sure where these people would come out in in a good psyc. eval. (personality disorder, OCD,...) or if they are just PIAs but there are quite a few in nursing. You are learning a valuable skill in dealing with them in nursing school!

Trophywife81 · Mar 13, 2008

Hahahaha. Wait till she has to clean up poop/pee/vomit/sputum/unidentified body fluids. You could always ask her how she is going to handle stuff like that, maybe in a concerned tone of voice:
"Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm really concerned about you. I wonder how you are going to handle body fluids in practice?"
Maybe that will shut her up.
Good luck!
Oldiebutgoodie

That is sooooo awesome! Why didn't I think of that?

Anybody seen that episode of Seinfeld where George is eaten alive by trying to think of what he should have said to the guy that ticked him off? Now I know what I should have said... :lol2:

Thanks for all the nice words, you guys are great.

pagandeva2000, LPN · Mar 13, 2008

She WILL have it hard as a nurse. Blood, feces, urine, vomit, sputum, infected wounds, etc... I would be happy to see a snotty Kleenex around compared to what I normally see, and that is in a CLINIC. Maybe I'll be echoing sentiments of others when I say that I look to hear of the days when she vomits her own guts out.

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Mar 13, 2008

yea just wait until someone vomits on her... lol .... she's in for a rude awakening

pagandeva2000, LPN · Mar 13, 2008

There are so many rude, arrogant and thoughtless people that work in this profession that it disgusts me daily. We are already working really hard under difficult circumstances to care for patients and support each other that people like this really, really float my goat.

Kymmi · Mar 13, 2008

Nothing much more to add..just wanted to say that as I read your post I was thinking to myself the same thing others have said already.

If she cant handle a few discreet tissues just wait............. :)

catlynLPN · Mar 13, 2008

Well, she better to learn to deal with it.

And GET OVER it.

Let me tell you all what happened to me the other morning......and I had to deal with it and GET OVER it.

I work in a LTC, nights. The hall I'm on I have ONE night aide, and myself.

So early that morning, it's time for the CNA to get people up and for me to pass the early morning meds, @ 6am.

So we're down the hall doing our jobs, and I suddenly have to use the B/R.....{I'm getting old...can't hold it like I used to.}

Lock my cart up and go up to the desk to use the B/R.

The CNA says, "Try to get that lady out from behind the desk if you can, while you're up there."

I say, "Ok, I'll try."

So I go wheeling around the desk and in there where the patient is.....and I swear I did NOT see "IT".

All of a sudden my shoe feels like it's in something "slicky"!

I looked down and she had dropped a pile of you-know-what and I stepped in it!!!!

I call for the CNA...."You gotta get loose and come up here and help me!"

She does, and gets things to clean the floor with, while I hobble over to the shower room to take off my shoe and spray it clean.

YUCK!!!

I get home and take my shoe off OUTSIDE, then go in and throw the shoes in the garbage!!

So your classmate better learn to deal and GET over things.

Her problem with your kleenexes could be a whole lot worse, and believe me,......stay in nursing long enough and you WILL get in that mess that is worse than the one you complained about yesterday.

I didn't like it, but it could have been worse...it could have been on my scrubs, at least I could take off my shoe and spray it.

I have told people about it and laughed it off. Deal. Get over it.