I was wondering if anyone else has any "pet peeves" at work. Things that slightly irritate you, or things that irritate you a LOT. Things that do not benefit the work flow/productivity in any way whatsoever, or things that just make your job harder than it already is
1) Alarms. I find them slightly irritating. Especially when a pump alarm is going off, and everyone in the hall except me acts completely oblivious to it. Maybe they need to have mandatory hearing tests prior to becoming an RN?
2) People who answer call lights from the nursing station. Worse, when they don't follow up on them. Actually, it drives me nuts when people answer them from the nursing station period. Especially when the pt's room is right across the hall from the nursing station!! I think this is a holdover from my nursing home days when the call light system didn't allow you to pick up from the nursing station.
3) When patients don't have fresh water in their room . Nothing worse than going to pass meds, hand the patient the pills, and find that their water cup is empty
4) Aides that are nursing students that literally spend more time talking than actually working. Listening to them talk about what an awesome nurse they are or won't shut up about the nursing job they're going to get after they graduate makes me wanna punch babies, trip an old lady, or kick my dog. Guess what? If you're not coming to work on our unit then I don't really care if you're going to the ER, ICU, NICU, Labor + Delivery, or wherever else. Good for you!!! Until you graduate you're still an aide so Shut up and go get to work!!!
I'll think of some more but those are the three off the top of my head.
1. lab techs that don't lower the bed after drawing blood. leaving the pt near the ceiling
2. cluttered rooms with overflowing trashcans.
3. consistently being pulled to another floor to charge because the RN's on that floor are not "as experienced, organized, or capable" and then getting treated like crap by the staff on that floor.
4. isolation carts not being restocked.
5. coming in at 7p with 5 admissions to complete, along with my 6 pt's to assess, charge duties, staffing, etc, yeah I'm going to get all that paperwork done, along with the 9p med pass without having to wake up a couple of pt's at 0100 to get the info for our 12 page admit assessment. Geez thanks, they are really going to think I'm the BEST NURSE EVER.
6. for the love of all that's holy quit calling that darn phone as soon as my butt hits the toilet...sniff...sob....it's bad enough trying to find the time to pee, now with the
Ascom cell phones they can reach you in the toilet....nothing's sacred anymore.....:banghead:
This isn't really work related, but kinda .... since it happens mostly at work.
When I go to get off the elevator and the people waiting to get in just start coming in. Umm, HELLO!! Elevator etiquette (or even just plain common sense) anyone?! Wait for the people to get off. For some reason I just get so annoyed by this ..... I get to the point where I just stand right in their way and let them move. You need to let people OFF before you get ON.
People who don't keep accurate I/O when it's ordered... like don't record the 200 ml of an IV med they just gave the kid,etc. throughout their shift; so it looks like the kid has a negative I/O balance and has to stay another day when they really shouldn't have to.
Biggest pet peeve------ People who don't silence their vent alarm prior to suctioning a pt!!!!
So now I'm wandering through the unit looking for the alarm, hoping to not find an self-extubated pt, and it's just you, in the room, letting that darn alarm go on and on and on!!!
1) 16 patients on floor and one aide, oh there are 3 nurses, one nurse and the aide go to lunch, leaves me to answer call lights for everyone because the other nurse sitting on her butt will NOT answer lights, she's better than that. Even if it's her patient. Not to mention i still have to take care of my patients.
2) Being so busy you can't chart at all, go to collect your I&O's and find out your patient hasn't voided in 7 hours, OMG hello, doesn't anyone think this is important.
Looking for the Vitals the aides take at the beginning of the shift for an hour to find out you have a bp of 212/123 and a pulse of 153. Yeah ok i think thats is something to worry about,and when you say what the heck they said "what"
Helping a fall risk patient to the bathroom and find that the aide forgot to put the bed alarm or personal alarm back on them
Write up's omg you can't smile and you get wrote up, it's insane
1). Liners not pulled up in trashcans in pt. rooms.
2). Other nurses telling you they don't have time to take the full sharp container and place it 5 ft away in the hazardous barrel.
3). The CNA is hiding in a pt room watching tv saying the pt needed their help.
4). The other nurses not counting off their narc drawers but report you to D.O.N. the first time you don't.
5). Getting called at home for things that were left in report that day shift is pitching fit about. Namely calling Family member on new order received in the middle of the noc.
6). The D.O.N. thinking that am shift needs 4 RN's on days, 2 LPN's on evenings and only 1LPN on noc's for the same amount of Residents and the same amt of work.
7). Walking into the hallway 30 min's after bed rounds and the hall smells of bm and urine. The cna swears they did a complete check on everyone but you find the source of smell and it's all over the bed the pt and has been there for quite sometime.
I could go on and on, I work in a LTC facility on Noc shift.
when people carry on animated discussions in a language other than english over a patient while they are doing their care (and the patient is cognitively intact).
Or, for that matter, when people carry on animated discussions in English over a patient while they are doing their care (and the patient is cognitively intact).
Having experienced it from the patient's perspective, I can tell you that there is little more demoralizing than being deemed unworthy of casual conversation, a simple greeting, or even eye contact by someone tending to your basic physical needs when your mind is still operating on all cylinders.
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elthia
554 Posts
1. lab techs that don't lower the bed after drawing blood. leaving the pt near the ceiling
2. cluttered rooms with overflowing trashcans.
3. consistently being pulled to another floor to charge because the RN's on that floor are not "as experienced, organized, or capable" and then getting treated like crap by the staff on that floor.
4. isolation carts not being restocked.
5. coming in at 7p with 5 admissions to complete, along with my 6 pt's to assess, charge duties, staffing, etc, yeah I'm going to get all that paperwork done, along with the 9p med pass without having to wake up a couple of pt's at 0100 to get the info for our 12 page admit assessment. Geez thanks, they are really going to think I'm the BEST NURSE EVER.
6. for the love of all that's holy quit calling that darn phone as soon as my butt hits the toilet...sniff...sob....it's bad enough trying to find the time to pee, now with the
Ascom cell phones they can reach you in the toilet....nothing's sacred anymore.....
:banghead: