what's your pet peeve?

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Lately it's ice. I hate the stuff! Too many family members hovering asking for FRESH ice as my post op is tanking. Or family hovering in general lately. Or, "i don't eat hospital food."

Families literally hovering when I'm trying to provide patient care. If I have to tell you to get out of the way so I can get to the patient, that's too much.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
Co-workers who find the time to take multiple outdoor smoke breaks throughout their shifts, disguised as "bathroom breaks", even though ours is supposed to be a non-smoking facility inside and out. It's not even so much having them off the floor, because most of them are pretty good at tying up loose ends before they walk away, but how they reek of cigarettes when they come back.

Oh my God, yes. We have a respiratory therapist.....A RESPIRATORY THERAPIST.....who reeks so badly of smoke the hallway stinks for several minutes after she goes by. And don't get me started on smokers trying to cover it up by dousing themselves with cologne. That just makes a bad situation even worse.

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

My guess is that the second and third generations are living in the patient's house, and they know that sending back to the LTC on palliative care will mean they're going to lose their ability to live in the house when the patient passes. (They were very involved until palliative care was mentioned -- now it's radio silence.).

I have seen unspeakable things done to a frail elderly patient in the name of keeping that government check coming.

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As a recent patient knowing what RNs are dealing with:

1)hovering family members who are loaded with questions. I'm forever telling my hubby to lay off the nurses and just go home and let them do their job.

2) nurses who follow protocol for the sake of following protocol. They always tape a million of those cloth butt pads to the side rails of my bed because of my "seizure history" even after I tell them my last seizure was 9 years ago when I was off meds. After they leave the room I remove all the pads, fold them up and put them in the closet then no one even notices they are gone. Durrr.

They also put me on a bed alarm because of my low BP even though I tell them a systolic in the 90s is my norm. So, before I go to the bathroom I have to remember to climb to the top of the bed, lean over the bedrail, turn the alarm off, then walk myself to the bathroom. For 3 days straight no one ever asks why they haven't had to take me to the restroom even though I'm freshly showered each morning. Double durr.

LOL! So I assume you never get upset or frustrated with non-RN patients who do the same thing? Pot calling the kettle black...hmmmm.

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No longer doing bedside nursing, but one of my many pet peeves was always- the urinal with urine sitting on the bedside table while the patient was eating! GROSS!

UGH! I see this on a daily basis. I swear 9 out of 10 times when I have a male patient this is the scenario. Or the ones who have three urinals that all have contents in them hanging on the side of the bed. Yuck! I just glove up and get rid of them...and chart the output, because everybody's on strict I&O.

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The "well that's just stupid" attitude. Health literacy in this country is abysmal and yet everyone is an expert.

If I tell someone "sir you need to wear this mask while I open up your catheter for dialysis. If you don't, the gems from your nose and mouth can get in there and travel to your heart. If you get an infection in your heart (because endocarditis doesn't register) it's pretty much fatal. So if you please, I need you to wear this mask"

Well that's just stupid!

Why is it stupid? I just explained it to you in terms you can understand.

I get this aaaaaaaaaaallll the time.

Me: "This is your Lovenox injection. Because of your infection and because you can't get up and move like you normally do, you have an increased risk of developing a blood clot. The doctor has ordered this medication to help reduce your risk."

Pt: "That's nonsense. I've never had a blood clot in my life, so I don't need that. I won't take it."

This pt said he "didn't trust corporations." Um, I am not a corporation, and I recommend not getting blood clots.

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OOH OOH I HAVE ANOTHER.

Patients who don't understand the discharge process, and providers who don't adequately explain it.

"We expect to discharge you tomorrow morning" does not mean you pack your bags and bolt for the door when the sun comes up. It means you wait for the doctor from each attending department to round on you and document a final "all clear", one of them puts in a DC order, I complete your discharge paperwork and instructions, we remove all medical devices and IV accesses, and THEN you can go home.

And that's assuming all docs have done their part with the documentation & DC orders, and I don't get shuffled around while each doc says it's someone else's responsibility to finish.

Patients get mad because they made plans elsewhere at 10:00 am. Doctors get mad because darn it, they have x number of patients to see and they'll get there when they get there! If there's a delay with discharge, it's not usually because of nursing staff.

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Patient's relatives that won't touch or help their relative. Like a daughter that pushes the call light so that you can open her dad's milk. Literally. That happened.

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Specializes in CVICU CCRN.
Patient's relatives that won't touch or help their relative. Like a daughter that pushes the call light so that you can open her dad's milk. Literally. That happened.

Omg. This makes me insane. I totally lose my friendly nurse face at this point.

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Omg. This makes me insane. I totally lose my friendly nurse face at this point.

I took everything in me to remain as polite as possible. Made me so mad though!

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
We just must be in the same ER lately. Whatever I told, nobody could get that 100/60 is my perfect norm. :banghead:

I have to chuckle at "dangerously low BPs" in the hospital... another nurse had a post-op patient last night with a SBP in the 90s, and the hospitalist came and saw the patient, ordered a bolus, wanted regular updates, etc. That's just another day in paradise for me... if I needed to be in the hospital under medical care every time my BP was

Me: "This is your Lovenox injection. Because of your infection and because you can't get up and move like you normally do, you have an increased risk of developing a blood clot. The doctor has ordered this medication to help reduce your risk."

Pt: "That's nonsense. I've never had a blood clot in my life, so I don't need that. I won't take it."

This pt said he "didn't trust corporations." Um, I am not a corporation, and I recommend not getting blood clots.

Or the Type II diabetic patient who refuses insulin because, "I don't want that stuff in my body!"

Oooookaaaaaaay, then, how about we remove your pancreas so you won't have any of "that stuff" in your body and see how that works for you, hmmmm??

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I do home hospice and palliative care.

Last Sunday I got a call that went like this;

Entitled: "Yeah, you need to get someone out here and deliver some lorazepam. I just gave (patient) the last one"

Me: "So......you didn't think to call us when you had, I don't know, six or ten left? You didn't see the bottle going down?"

Entitled "I thought they automatically got sent. Anyway, if you don't get someone out here with those pills he's going to be really upset and go crazy"

I don't get to call my pharmacy on my prescriptions and demand they fill it within the hour as I've taken my last pill, didn't bother to reorder or tell anyone about it. Nor would I think of guilting the triage nurse about how much I'm going to suffer if it isn't done RIGHT NOW.

Still, we do manage to fill and deliver these medications. But the lack of planning and the attitude drives me insane.

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