What is your crazy?

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So my father, an nurse for 38+ yrs always says, and I believe it to be true that we in order to be able to do this job have to be just a little neurotic...that being said what are your crazy little things that make you a good nurse? Here are some of mine:

1. I'm a bit of a control freak, I have to know what is going on at all times in my medical dept.

2. Pen collector (thief)

3. I have to have my things organized, and if someone "helps me out" and does it (wrong to my standard) I go back and fix it. Ex: If someone sets out my diabetic supplies but doesn't line up the etoh pads in the right rows or amounts.

4. I make check boxes for tasks during my shift, and check them off as they are completed. (god save the person who thows that list in the trash) also use it for report.

and there are so many more...but I want to hear yours, mostly so I feel less crazy.

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Specializes in PACU, presurgical testing.

I work in PACU, where we have patients in bays rather than rooms. I HAVE to line the bed/stretcher up straight or I get antsy. Not sure if it is OCD or necessity!

We do joke with our LNA about his OCD, but that's why you can reach blindly into ANY supply drawer and find exactly what you are looking for--they are that precisely arranged and stocked.

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I used to be crazy OCD at work when I was a young nurse. Before I could start my shift I had to clean off and organize my med cart...restock all the drawers, empty the built in trash bin, etc. When I had down time (not too often), I'd take my cleaning and organizing to the med room and the stock medication cabinet as well as the supply room. My coworkers made so much fun of me (in a fun way). All the items on the nurse's station desk had to be placed just so. The med techs would tease me by bumping something out of place ever so slightly and saying, "looook Lt. phaniea69! The phone is out of alignment. You know this is bugging you!" And it did, ha,ha. I'd spend 30 mins. straightening a pt.'s room.

I'm no longer very OCD. I do have a ridiculous brain sheet that I created to keep track of med times, I's&O's, and what I've charted. It works for me but looks really complicated and busy. A few people have made fun of me about it and have been a bit condescending. I will also confess to carrying White Out to use on my sheet if I write something in the wrong place. I always look around before I whip it out to make sure no one sees me.

I think when I was a new nurse, controlling my physical world made me feel calmer since I had no control over the chaos of the floor I worked on.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I have a thing about twisted up phone cords!!! I mean BIG-TIME! I'll go around and un-twist them as I find them. Not just on the nsg unit, but ANYWHERE I find them. I'll also straighten out crooked pix hanging on the wall. Again, ANYWHERE.

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

I'm like both phaniea69 and amoLucia!

When I worked at a hospital, I kept a worksheet just for me and labeled it "NSIME's Brain". The way the facility worksheet was 'organized' (as if!) by patients, didn't work for me at all! My co-workers thought I was just creating MORE work for myself when I'd put the info together at the beginning of my shift, but mine was sequentially arranged by time, and made my shift run more smoothly and assured me I wouldn't forget things. Yes I checked them off, too. It was not unknown for me to arrive in a patient's room saying, "Did I leave my 'Brain' in here?"

And I am also a phone cord untangler and a picture straightener; in addition I de-hair brushes and wash combs. Have also been known to go up to a person and say, "Excuse me, I need to wash your eye-glasses." as I remove them from the person's face.

And this may sound gross or dangerous, but one time on the subway in Boston, I got up from my seat and went to a complete stranger sitting across from me and said "Excuse me" and removed something that was stuck in his beard. Well, it was a totally different place and time, what can I say? I just knew he would walk around like that all evening and no one would tell him it was there.I don't remember now what it was, but it wasn't, like, a bodily item. Anyway, he just smiled at me and said "Thank you!"

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

1. I'm a bit of a control freak, I have to know what is going on at all times in my medical dept.

Me too! I am quick to jump in and say, "what's been going on?"

2. Pen collector (thief)

I loose pens all the time. But have a obsession with quality pens so I spend lots of money replacing them!

3. I have to have my things organized, and if someone "helps me out" and does it (wrong to my standard) I go back and fix it. Ex: If someone sets out my diabetic supplies but doesn't line up the etoh pads in the right rows or amounts.

I'm always going back and fixing stuff someone else didn't do correctly.

4. I make check boxes for tasks during my shift, and check them off as they are completed. (god save the person who thows that list in the trash) also use it for report.

I have a list of to do items, which I check off during shift, also. It's the only way I go home without feeling guilty.

.

I'm a new nurse, about 6-9 months in, and thought these OCD traits would fade with experience. Based on your post, I guess they might not.

I hope your dad is correct and these things will make a me a better, more competent nurse!!

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Specializes in retired LTC.

Dear No Stars - this is scarey!!! I do eyeglasses too and straighten out the top drawer on the bedside nite stand when I run a comb or hairbrush thru a pt's Wildman/woman hair.

I also developed my own cheatsheet that I made up new each nite. But I copied the details from my "master" pencil copy that I updated nitely. I kept it in a plastic sheet protector and after a while, all the staff would look for it when they arrived to make up their own cheatsheets. But then I noticed they were all starting to to format their sheets just like I did - like I had just designed a new form.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Pen "collector" as well.

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

There is a guy here in town who owns a car dealership who is SUCH a pen-hoarder, and he locks up the multiple mugsful of pens before he leaves his office for the day. If you borrow a pen from him, he always makes sure he gets it back! I told him once I was thinking of making him something like those beaded doorway coverings, only using pens instead of beads, and he actually LOVED the idea.

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I have many but my biggest thing is tubes of ointments, creams, etc that have been squeezed in the middle. Always have to straighten them.

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Specializes in Emergency, ICU.
I have a thing about twisted up phone cords!!! I mean BIG-TIME! I'll go around and un-twist them as I find them. Not just on the nsg unit, but ANYWHERE I find them. I'll also straighten out crooked pix hanging on the wall. Again, ANYWHERE.

Me too!!! Nice to know someone else is feeling it :)

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My husband is a pen collector, too. If he goes to a conference where freebie pens are given out, God help us all! He will come home with a BAG full. I hate it. I am an neat freak and whatever the opposite of a pack rat is. I probably give a quart sized ziplock bag full of pens to Goodwill twice a year. It frustrates me but makes me laugh, too. Whenever I know he is going to a conference I beg him not to bring home anymore pens. I tell him that there is a household moratorium on free pens. Don't even get me started on the little bottles of hand sanitizer that he gets at those conferences.

Why don't I just throw them out? Well, that brings me to another thing that is one of my "crazies". I get anxious when I throw away non-biodegradable items. I MUST recycle anything that can possibly be recycled. I have been known to carry used plastic bottles/cans home to put them in my recycle bin if I can't find a recycle bin to throw them in. I will put the smallest little bits of paper into the recycle. If I have an envelope with the little plastic windows, I will tear the little window out so that I can put it in the recycle bin. I wash out Starbucks cups so that I can recycle them. If I think about landfills I get super anxious!

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