Odd rituals at work

Published

Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg, ED, Psych.

I have an odd ritual when I come on duty. First, I wash my hands. Then I wipe down my workstation with Sani-Wipes - this includes the telephone, keyboard, chair, call-light speaker, and the soap dispenser. Finally, I place a folded bath-towel on the chair so my butt won't be touching the leather seat itself.

Odd yes - But we all have our own methods for being control freaks - My own is just the avoidance of germs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in multispecialty ICU, SICU including CV.

I think this is borderline OCD-type behavior. Do you have a lot of anxiety? Ever thought about seeing a psychiatrist? Just something to think about.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, peds, PALS, ICU, camp, school.

Most makes sense to me. Phones are major fomites! I think the chair is a bit extreme though but that's just me. Whatever works for you. I couln't do that if I tried. I don't sit too often and it's rarely in the same chair twice. I set all my stuff around an area, do part of my charting, and a resident or dietitian is sitting there by the time I get back from checking an alarm. Hmmm... maybe they would avoid the seat if there was a towel there?

After any immediate needs my pt has I set up my room... grab a stack of alcohol pads and set them on top of my IV pumps- after I stack them straight and snug against each other and rehang all my drips around the pole in the same order the pumps are in. No tangled lines.

Then I check my suctions, readjust the setting, and pull out my shift's worth of VAP kits and arrange them on my table.

I have a specific way of mapping out my meds/treatments/labs due on a post-it.

THEN I can start work.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

XingtheBBB, Ahhhh, you are a drip re-arranger. I have seen this before. As a student I was once precepted by a drip re-arranger. A sight to behold.

Really tho, I got to be a sanitizer, OP, when I worked for an MD who got and gave me some pretty serious URIs. Since I've left him, I no longer get them. I used to wait till he went out to lunch and totally spray his keyboard and wipe his stuff down in his office with the big bad stuff that will eat your skin off. I ALWAYS blamed him when ever I got sick. I remember once I had a stack of charts and I was walking down the hall to his office. He had his door open, and could see me coming. He let out this huge sneeze and I stopped in my tracks, hesitant to go any further. He laughed and said, "So I just have to sneeze to get rid of you, huh?!":lol2: (yeah Doc, that really is all it takes) and.... get this, once when he was really sick with a sinus infection, of course he wore a mask to see patients, and when he was done he came out of the room and walked over to me and said, "I have a mask filled with snot".

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Mother Baby & pre-hospital EMS.

I don't think it's odd. :) Every time I got my phone for the day, I could not use it until I wiped it clean with a Sani-Wipe. You never know what other co-workers have touched before touching the phone. If I was able to obtain a clipboard (we had a few on our unit for the nurses to use), I would sometimes wipe that down as well. I have seen some nurses put clean towels on the chairs they were going to use for the shift. I would have liked to do that too, but I didn't always sit in the same chair my whole shift.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ob/gyn med /surg.
I have an odd ritual when I come on duty. First, I wash my hands. Then I wipe down my workstation with Sani-Wipes - this includes the telephone, keyboard, chair, call-light speaker, and the soap dispenser. Finally, I place a folded bath-towel on the chair so my butt won't be touching the leather seat itself.

Odd yes - But we all have our own methods for being control freaks - My own is just the avoidance of germs.

oh yes .. i always wash down the phone and the nurses station and the computer keyboards...lol... you are not alone !!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, peds, PALS, ICU, camp, school.
XingtheBBB, Ahhhh, you are a drip re-arranger. I have seen this before. As a student I was once precepted by a drip re-arranger. A sight to behold.

Now I feel like a strange animal with unusual plumage on the nature channel, :lol2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Great but where do you find the time to do this.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER.

The hospital I work in now insists on certain route for transferring patients from ER to various floors.

Clinical areas are arranged so that some cannot be reached without walking thru others.

(Yes, I know, someone fire the building planner!)

What makes me laugh is that to reach Area 2 and 3, you can go thru Area 1, but not the other route via Area 4.

Why?

"Infection control policy".

Huh?????

All are standard medical areas, no isolation areas or anything, so why on earth is one route OK and the other not?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

I think if you are able to function and don't feel too anxious...(I am detecting some OCD...)then don't feel so bad...

I am ICU trained...and technically, a total drip-rearranger, and "Purple Pen" labeler--all gtts have to be labeled--very precisely, please....

But I am also ER trained...if there is time to do the above, then my night can be boring and I need it to be boring (see above) to take a break from too many traumas...otherwise my focus is on getting them in and out STAT!

It is my belief that if your behavior gets in the way of you being "normal..", then it is time to see someone for help.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Seems harmless if you have a little obstetric convulsive disoder, but if you're afraid of germs why work in a hospital?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
i have an odd ritual when i come on duty. first, i wash my hands. then i wipe down my workstation with sani-wipes - this includes the telephone, keyboard, chair, call-light speaker, and the soap dispenser. finally, i place a folded bath-towel on the chair so my butt won't be touching the leather seat itself.

odd yes - but we all have our own methods for being control freaks - my own is just the avoidance of germs.

abbaking,

you are not the only one! i do the same thing! the telephone, keyboard, computer, call-light speaker, soap-dispenser, paper towel dispenser, counter where the computer is and also the handles to the drawers around me that i know i will use throughout the day. i even go in the nutrition room and clean the sink and counter, stock and wipe down the counter. alot of the doctors even know i do this, and many are appreciative, especially because they say it doesn't get done when i'm not there! :D

you never know where people's hands have been! i am a germaphobe and proud that i am not the only one! :)

jadu1106

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion