Pet Peeves

Nurses General Nursing

Published

What is your pet peeve? With everything a nurse has to deal with in a day, the one thing that gets on my nerves is someone who takes the garbage bag out of the can but doesn't replace the liner. It makes me psycho. How bizarre is that?

Specializes in ER.

Finding the crash cart open at the beginning of the shift, and no one mentioned it.

Finding the crash cart open again the next night, then spending time checking the whole thing, and nothing is missing.

Finding the crash cart open the third night, getting cranky because here we are again and there have been no codes...but an IV tubing is all that was missing...huh?

Writing a polite note in the communication book that if you open the cart to close it.

Finding it open the 4th night, the day shift says the RT came to check their drawer, but they aren't allowed to close it, just nurses. (If they can't close it why can they open it?). Anyway, she closes it and just for fun you open it at 2am and find about 5 things missing.

Being crowned the "crash cart queen" by day staff because you are so darn fussy.

I'm a nursing student working as a PCA/US until I graduate in May. I work on the resource team (float pool) and have been trained on all units that I will ever work.

As a US, it drives me crazy when a new patient comes up with orders/paperwork and I start working on it only to have certain nurses come up to my desk, grab the orders and try to walk off with them. Excuse me, there is a copy on the pharmacy scanner that you can have and write on. I need the original to take off orders, verify meds, and get the chart ready for you to do your admission paperwork. *We used to have signs that said please do not interrupt the US while doing orders, charts, or filing, in order to avoid errors. However they disappeared and the nurses have returned to their taking/grabbing of the orders.*

As a PCA, I am on your unit because somebody called in sick for the day. Don't say you hate working with resource people and blame me for your problems. I'm not the one who called in sick, so talk to your co-workers. Also, just because I'm from the resource team doesn't mean you can 'dump' the worst team on me and never help when asked. *On 2 particular units, when a resource name shows on their list for the day, the charge nurse will go back and redo patient assignments, so the resource person has the biggest team, most total care, and usually at the farthest end of the hallway. I have been told you make more money than our workers, so you can do more than them, such as 8/10 total care patients, split hallway for 2 units, and be told to find my own linen since our workers get their stuff first (on a 7-3 shift which requires all bed linens changed, all baths done, 2 sets of VS, I/Os, 2 meal setups, plus Q 2 hr rounds). Some of these people need to remember if I didn't come to the unit to cover for the sick worker, they would have twice as many patients. So be nice to the resource people, instead of treating them like dirt b/c they aren't one of the regular unit workers.*

As a PCA: Just because I am a nursing student and know how to do IVs, meds, assessments, etc doesn't mean I am allowed to do them while working as a PCA. I signed a form stating I would practice within the PCA scope of practice. So don't get mad at me when I tell you a patient needs meds, IV fluids or IV backpriming, or anything else which requires a licensed nurse.

Most of my other 'peeves' have been mentioned already. These are just the ones I encountered on my regular shifts the last month or two.

Nurse who don't restock supplies.....GRRRRRRRRR! I also hate clutter at my portion of the nurse's station, and it seems that people always use my part of the desk (I believe because it's the only clean part) and they don't put away charts or papers when they're done with them. Then there are the nurses who leave one line of blank nurse's notes or use the last line and don't put in a new blank page. Or someone uses the last copy of some form and doesn't make copies. I could go on and on. But then again maybe I'm just too particular. :smackingf

Specializes in Hospice, Med/Surg, ICU, ER.
Patients who brag about how well "that lab girl" could get blood on the first stick and why can't we call her to start the IV?

It's funny that you say that.

I worked in a hospital as a vampire right after leaving the service, where I spent alot of time as a dustoff medic. This large regional hospital had an IV team. If the floor nurse couldn't get it, the "team" was called. If THEY couldn't get it, I was called. :D The last resort was a cutdown if I couldn't start the line.

My all time favorite is coding a pt and the primary nurse is nowhere to be found!:angryfire

(happened WWAAAYYY too often at my last job.....one of the reasons it is my last job)

I have been watching this site for a while, and I really enjoy it. It is informative and lets me know I'm not alone. I work in a very fine hospital and have one particular pet peeve. I work on a tele unit with high acuity patients, and most are in CHF or have had strokes. We have a 3-11 PCA who does vitals and that's all. She won't tell you if your patient has a very high b/p (last night 215/110) or if a patient is wet, bleeding, dirty, has a critically high blood glucose level. She hides on the other side of the hall, in an empty patient room and talks on her cell phone about her dogs or her house, etc. Last night I had a patient in restraints who was wrestling with security and an admission at the same time, two call lights going off, and she went to lunch. She's union, so she goes at the same time every night, no matter what is happening. She bursts into tears at the suggestion that she might help out, and REFUSES to answer call lights. Because she is a union employee, we have to fill out a lenthy form with paper documentation to prove that we are having difficulty with her. I like her as a person, but as a PCA, she lacks industriousness. It makes everyone's job harder.

What is your pet peeve? With everything a nurse has to deal with in a day, the one thing that gets on my nerves is someone who takes the garbage bag out of the can but doesn't replace the liner. It makes me psycho. How bizarre is that?

That happened to me ALL DAY yesterday!!!!! :devil: I was on the verge of murder if I found the culprit! Nothing like trying to change a pt's poopy brief, and not have a trash can liner in!! I also had to restart about a million IV's yesterday (everyone decided it was pull out your IV Friday) and never a liner!! You're not the only one who has issues with that.

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