Pet Peeves

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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?

My biggest pet peeve during my nursing day is continually being interrupted for trivial reasons during patient care or nursing report. We are there for the patients, and noone respects that. People will interrupt at a drop of a hat and I find that very untherapeutic for patients who need our undivided attention!!

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?
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Very simple! The patient's condition deteriorated during the trip to the hospital.

This is plausable (deterioration in route) in some cases - However, it is interesting to see a majority of these patients that are able to get in their own cars, go to the hospital, then act like they can't get out of the car and on "death's door" on arrival to the ER - walk out within 1-2 hours of being seen with little intervention.

It's just amazing!!! I guess "miracles" happen every day....

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Oh my God do I ever hate that too, I thought I was awful but now I know I am not the only one, and I also hate the one that comes in shaking and the daughter says hes going to pass out on you from the dehydration , how many times has he vomited well once but, ONCE COME ON GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK, :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

Yep - just love the drama!!!

I also find it interesting that when a patient comes in for an "emergent" visit that they have had the symptoms for maybe a year, 6 months - something along those lines. No MD appt to address this, but this "emergent" problem is "emergent" on a Saturday night between the times of 12 midnight and 4:00 am. Then, the patient is demanding to be seen STAT!!!

Or when patients do call their physician's office to see them for a legitimate problem that can be treated in the MD office during office hours - but patient is referred to the ER that is alread backed up with critical patients.

This can really burn a triage nurses. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

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I Agree!

My biggest pet peeve during my nursing day is continually being interrupted for trivial reasons during patient care or nursing report. We are there for the patients, and noone respects that. People will interrupt at a drop of a hat and I find that very untherapeutic for patients who need our undivided attention!!
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Can you cut us some slack? Nurses who use report time to socialize and gossip. If they listened to report and got out on the floor, we could get those change of shift lights taken care of before we leave.

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I work OB/NSY. We put the mother's last name on the crib cards of all infants because they are admitted with mother's name. But there is always atleast one father a shift that complains that the baby's last name is "Jones" like his, not "Smith" like the mother's. I try to explain the reasoning, to match baby with mother, but they act like I've personally insulted or judged them for not being married. I could care less.

Also, people call nsy asking about "Michael" or "my baby" like I can recognize their voice and know who they are asking about...and then act like I am stupid when I ask for the last name.

Obviously, I forgot to take the "pyschic" class in nursaing school!

OMG...LOL! I so agree to all of that!! I also get the same thing when we are doing the baby paperwork and the mom has to sign it all. The dad's get all offended, asking why they don't sign anything, and the explanation that "we know that she is the mom since she gave birth, but we don't know for sure about the dad" definitely doesn't make it easier, :lol2:

I love it when someone comes to pick up their baby from the nursery and asks for them by their first name, we have never put a baby's first name on the crib card, and I am not going to remember them all!

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Can you cut us some slack? Nurses who use report time to socialize and gossip. If they listened to report and got out on the floor, we could get those change of shift lights taken care of before we leave.

There's that and then you have the ones who constantly interrupt you with questions, ya know if you let me finish, I can almost guarantee that you will have extremely few if any questions.

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Parent brings their kid into the ER and says the kid has a high fever. You ask how high it is and they say, "I don't know. I didn't check it, but she feels hot." Then you look at the kid and they have on 4 layers of clothes, a snow suit, and are wrapped in 3 blankets--and the outside temp is 68 degrees! Get that crap off of them!

Parents who don't give the kid any Tylenol before rushing them to the ER with temp of 100 degrees.

Some people should be required to get a license to have a kid. You have to have a license to catch a fish, and taking care of a child is much more of a responsibility than that.

Oh, I also just love the nurse who writes her notes out loud. I have actually found myself writing down what she is saying!

And the veteran nurse of 30+ years, who used to be charge nurse at her former job of many years, who pulls me away from my work because she wants my opinion about whether her patient's IV has infiltrated. The hand is 3x it's normal size and weeping fluid! YES!! IT IS INFILTRATED!!! :angryfire

But my biggest pet peeve is the nurse who is always saying, "Where I came from...". Well, if it was so great there, why the heck are you here?

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AND RINSE OUT the urinal or bedpan!!! :uhoh21:

big megaditto to that :D

and here's some more...

iv tubing that is drooping down and on the floor and/or wrapped around the iv pole

wheels on the way to the pt's last iv site that

already looks infected/ infiltrated/ not taped down securely.

[ and 'they' wonder why it "just 'came out' ".]

iv tubing wrapped around the foley tube.

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There's that and then you have the ones who constantly interrupt you with questions, ya know if you let me finish, I can almost guarantee that you will have extremely few if any questions.

EXACTLY! :idea:

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Specializes in MPCU.

The nurse on the previous shift using tape (opaque over the insertion site) over an I.V. instead of d/cing it. I would prefer they do nothing; removing the tape to discover a bad I.V. takes twice the time. Yeah, it could be an IR, but I have to work another day and the manager says, "how do you know it was out before it was taped?"

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Being told that my patient has an output of less than 200mls over 8hrs, going in to assess that patient, finding that foley cath kinked or positioned UNDER the leg. There is no nursing text that will ever depict a foley cath positioned under the patient's leg. I've only encountered this problem at my present facility.

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