Pet peeves!

Nurses General Nursing

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I am sure this has been addressed along the way, but what are your nursing pet peeves?

A couple of mine:

How many times have you been taking a medication history on a patient, only to have them tell you they have no idea why they're on a particular med. Hello?! It's kind of an important thing to know :banghead:

Or, when a patient calls on the call bell asking for the nurse to "come here" and I ask if there's anything I can bring with me (trying to save a few steps and a little time) and the patient says no and then get to the room and they give you a laundry list of things they want. (this will almost always happen when you have five other things you're trying to do at the same time..) :smackingf

Okay, I need to quit now..I can actually feel my BP rising...LOL. Any others?

Specializes in Almost everywhere.

1. doctors that are clearly upset about another situation not even involving you however you get the brunt of their wrath!

2. minimal security assistance when meth addicted pts et others with other similar issues are coming off of their "stuff" and you are getting your butt kicked and threatened. the general feeling of being unsafe and then having the worst happen...you know what i mean.

3. the floor has 6 non-invasives and only 1 seems to be working and/or not mia. yes, i can take vitals the old-fashioned way, but when you can't even find that equipment in working order either??? and the broken and/or missing equip has been reported to management and biomed.

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Specializes in LTC, med-surg, critial care.
or doenst takea shower - ( sorry - when im sick i dont takea shower either - who the heck feels like it when sick)

I personally love taking showers when I'm sick. I hate feeling greasy, dirty, sweaty and grimy (and any other adjective I forgot).

My pet peeves (I've only worked LTC and subacute)

1. Double briefing to prevent the sheets from getting wet. How about you just do your rounds? Or double briefing so you can just remove the inside one on your last shift.

2. Putting a brief on someone with a foley. I asked why and the CNA told me "Well, they have big BM's" Isn't that what the pads for? I mean, this person is non-responsive on a vent, they aren't digging or moving around.

3. Bulging foley drainage bags.

4. When I ask the aide to "float" a patients heels off the bed and when I check the heels are resting on the middle of a pillow.

5. When I changing the feeding for a GT, I come back and the tubing has a ton of air bubbles throughout. I changed six feedings the other day and two of them ended up being full of air bubbles. Drives me nuts I never know how to fix it.

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What about teamwork, or the lack of? I hate it when I couldn't find someone to help me with a 2 person transfer in the LTC, because none of them were willing to take 2 minutes out of their time,:angryfire and I really hate the fact that some other CNAs have hurt their back and dropped the two person transfer resident, all because of no help, and people maybe telling them they could do it themselves, so the new CNA tries it and gets hurt, and drops someone.:nono:

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my biggest pet peeve has to be patients who drive from Scotland to Yorkshire approx 400+ miles with persistent crushing cental chest pain which they've been having on and off for 2 days but they didn't want to bother the hospital there because they needed to get home. they arrive in A+E with a ST elevation MI in progress, BP in their boots and in crashing failure, then they promptly arrest and it's all your fault because you didn't telephone the family:angryfire never mind you have just spent the past 2 hours stabilising them so they can live to see their family. then when you try to health educate them to stop smoking, change their diet, etc they look at you as if you have lost your marbles, " but nurse it wasn't that bad, smoking didn't cause it, it was stress.

this is closely followed by GP's who don't quite understand the importance of "acute MI suspected, please initiate thrombolysis if appropriate" when it is written accross the ECG of a patient who complained of chest pain, so when he arrives in A+E 3 weeks later with acute inferior MI and you say when did you have your previous MI and the patient has a vague blank look in his face, you realise you have just made a big mistake, then you ask the patient if he has had chest pain before and he produces this ECG which shows an acute anterior MI dated 3 weeks before, and he tells you the GP told him it was indigestion:devil:

that was my week on nights this week:uhoh3:

that's my moan for this week, thanks

cara

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Specializes in ACHPN.

My biggest pet peeve- a patient is admitted with a 3 day hx of vomiting and diarrhea. You don't even have them off of the cart from the ER, when the family begins to continuously chant "she hasn't eaten in 3 days" implying that I should run right to the kitchen and whip her up a 4 course meal. Hello...she just got here.... I don't think we've cured her yet!!! I haven't seen her chart, and I can guarantee you that she is going to be NPO or maayybee clear liquids!!!!!

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Specializes in Internal Medicine Unit.
My biggest pet peeve- a patient is admitted with a 3 day hx of vomiting and diarrhea. You don't even have them off of the cart from the ER, when the family begins to continuously chant "she hasn't eaten in 3 days" implying that I should run right to the kitchen and whip her up a 4 course meal. Hello...she just got here.... I don't think we've cured her yet!!! I haven't seen her chart, and I can guarantee you that she is going to be NPO or maayybee clear liquids!!!!!

:yeahthat:

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Not close to the 'biggest' pet peeve category but still annoying: Nurses in the breakroom before start of shift, eating their breakfast, who totally ignore a 'good morning' greeting directed to them. A polite response, acknowledging the presence of a coworker, takes little to no effort, is normal in other work settings outside of hospitals....makes me wonder, didn't their mothers teach them proper manners???

Another pet peeve: Why is it nurses in meetings (nurse practice council etc) always have FOOD in front of them?? Chips, cookies, candy and other junk food seems to prevail. Crunch, crackle, chomp. How unprofessional can one get? Professionals in other settings I've experienced have at most a beverage, what gives with nursing?

4ZBrds

still wondering after all these years

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My worst pet peeve as a nursing student is the treatment received by some of the staff at our clinical sites! I am currently assigned to a maternity unit that covers everything from antepartum to postpartum and also handles the surgical aspects of c-sections. I know these nurses are highly skilled and are very busy, but they treat us like absolute dirt. The first night on the floor we all walked by and said hello....their response was to stare blankly at us, then grumble very audibly, "Oh, nursing students." We are trying our best to get the most out of this experience, but it is a very small unit and we are sometimes double assigned to a single patient because they are so hard to come by. The nurses treat us as if we are only interfering and are not willing to explain things to us or use us to lighten their load. I just wish they would try to remember what being in school was like and how exciting it was to get to work with a nurse who goes out of her way to show you the ropes and give you opportunities to learn.:monkeydance: :monkeydance: :monkeydance: :monkeydance:

This is what I'm terrified of.....

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I get really frustrated when people approach me in the grocery store (theater, restaurant, park, etc) wanting to know what the doctors in the clinic recommend for whatever happens to be bothering them. It's also annoying to have people approach me where ever to ask why someone from the clinic called them three days ago, what their lab or x-ray results were, or when their next appointment is. I make an average of 200 phone calls a day...I rarely remember who I called and for what three days ago...and I couldn't remember someone's labs if I tried (unless there is something really unusual, but sometimes not even then).

It also frustrates me when patients call the clinic and want to speak to a nurse and leave five minutes after they call. Today, I had a patient call at 1000, the receptionist brought me the chart at 1005, and I called back at 1007...the patient wasn't home. At 1630, she called and was angry that no one had called her back (we tried 4 times). It also drives me nuts when people call five minutes before they are leaving town to request refills, allergy meds, etc. We are supposed to have 48 hours to call in refills, but most of the time we get them called in within a couple of hours...too long for some people.

And I really hate it when patients approach me in public and think that I should let them go ahead of me in the grocery line or help "mother" to the bathroom in a restaurant, or ask me to carry their groceries to their car. It really really makes me mad when they say things like, "I'll bet Dr. ******* would expect you to help "mother"...she is your patient, you know!" It happens...

The bad thing with the clinic I work at is that the owner firmly beleives that the patient is always right. He does expect us to talk to people in public, he does expect us remember labs of people who approach us in the grocery store, he does expect that we will help "mother" to the bathroom when we are eating in the same restaurant. :(

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
The bad thing with the clinic I work at is that the owner firmly beleives that the patient is always right. He does expect us to talk to people in public, he does expect us remember labs of people who approach us in the grocery store, he does expect that we will help "mother" to the bathroom when we are eating in the same restaurant. :(

I tell people I'm "off duty", and not doing anything "professional" just now.

Ask your doc if he is going to pay you for the time you spend on HIS patients at time and a half, plus bonus since you are not in the office, for doing it. That will put you on his payroll, and incidently, his ! :lol2:

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you know the more i read ( not ust these ones) but heck i hope i never have a friend or relative come work with the ones who are whining here - my pet peeve - nurses who are so inconsiderate and uncompassionate towards their patients regardless of wether they have family along ( to me thats great - good support system at home) or is concerned about about how and what of what will be after they leave therwe ( ever think they are scared crapless and need an gentle ear or maybe they have noone else to listen ) or doenst takea shower - ( sorry - when im sick i dont takea shower either - who the heck feels like it when sick) besides we are as you aid professionmal and itsounds pretty unprofessional and selfish a lot of the compliant on here. that is my pet peeve –

wow - i am really begining to woinder are some of you in nursing for the great privalage of taking care of others? i love when families check up on me - often they will then praise to the boss and if not the boss at least to me and that makes me feel good. and dang - if the woman wants water she shoudl frigging get it - we get paid to carew for these folks - i assume many of you hae never had any sort of traing in dealing with people - i can only imagine what kind of impression the folks get out of your attitudes - and yes attitudes carry over even if ya dont say it they feel it. makes me sad for the patients –

Where is your patience, what if that was you Mom or Aunt, memory problems start around age 50 and not everyone is medically oriented or organized

i thought you were nice, being a cat person and all. People aren't necessarily dumb, they're just not all nurses.

my pet peeve. people who lecture other posters about their vent, like 'how dare you get tired of that!'

Other nurses who post to a Pet Peeve thread and tell the rest of us that we are whining and sniveling. As one who posted earlier said, this is THE place to vent. By venting here, we can "be nice" to our patients -- so that our attitudes don't "carry over" to them

can i get an amen?

to people who do this, try this is quick exercise:

arrange your family and friends along a hallway. allow them each to bring two friends.

along the hallway, place two wheelchairs, a toddler, a linen trolley and a meal tray.

standing at one end of the hallway, load your arms with three charts and a full bedpan, and begin pushing a VS machine.

as you move along the hallway, have your family and friends shout that they have dropped their pen/would like some warm milk/can't reach their tissues. one of their friends should begin timing your response from the moment they start shouting, while the other should persue you attempting to find out 'how so-and-so really is'

when you've almost made it down the hallway, have someone sound the fire alarm.

if, after this, you still think posters are awful for complaining about stuff like this, by all means start an anti-venting thread!

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-I hate it when the off going nurse gives you a crappy report saying report was called and the pt is ready to go up to the floor. You find no report given and pt needs a new IV or is incontinent and has a whole slew of other things needed to be done before they go up.

-Nurses who draw lab from a pt and do not get any extra, when it is an intern ordering it. I.e no blood cultures on a pt with pneumonia, no type and screen for a pt with lady partsl bleeding. You know they are going to figure out they need it in a couple of hours now you have to restick the pt

-MDs who decide to work a pt cardiovascularly when they come in for abdominal pain 6-8 hours after they arrive just before they are ready to be admitted to the floor.

-Off going nurses who have no problem leaving early but the same nurses come in every morning late.

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