This is a bit of a vent, but a timely one. I love working with a very diverse team on a busy med/surg floor. As we are now in Spring, we have many new orientees and again I have been asked to bring a few of them along as a preceptor. Every year it just strikes me how more and more irritated I get with some basic professional behaviors that normally don't tick me off this bad, but really get my hackles up when I find myself saying to a new nurse "well, the professional way to handle this is..." Sheesh! I shouldn't have to even have that conversation with a new grad when observing behaviors and interactions with our existing staff! Here are my top two for Spring 2015:
1. Our shifts are 0645 - 1915. I have worked nights and days and still CAN'T STAND IT when it comes to being on time for either shift. If you are coming off shift, I get that sometimes patient care delays being ready for report, BUT when you are the oncoming nurse, there is no excuse. "On TIME" means ready to take report right at 0645 or at 1845.. It does not mean, "I clocked in at 0645, but let me set my bag down in our locker room and get my stuff and fill my water bottle/coffee cup/etc."
2. It is isn't appropriate to have your smart phone out on the floor. I don't care if you were using the calculator function, or the drug look up. Those tools are available on our mobile carts and are provided by our employers (which BTW, you SHOULD be using resources provided and approved by your employer per most P&P!) But let's be honest, there is a different "tap" to being on FB, twitter, or texting than there is to using a tool. As a school teacher friend of mine once said to me, "I tell my students that I always know when they are texting on a phone. It just seems unnatural that you have been looking at your own crotch for that long while smiling, smirking, and laughing."
I'm a nursing student now and an LNA for years. My biggest irritation was and is super loud conversations. If you need to yell, you really need to just walk over to the person.
The other one is seeing the other students in my group sitting around the break table or nurses station during clinical. It makes me very uncomfortable.
I prefer to be seen walking the unit, asking if anyone needs help and answering call bells.
I realize we need to write notes from the MAR and charts for our homework but all 7 of us sitting around just looks bad.
There isn't a scrub top that doesn't cling to my breasts. I'm an HH cup. I would have to wear some sort of sack for a shirt. I don't wear low cut, skin tight scrubs though, if that's what you mean.
I am so jealous!
What peeves me even more than tight tops are tight scrub pants AND when the person bends over you get a peep of crack, or worse, their lacy black thong! Really!!??
There isn't a scrub top that doesn't cling to my breasts. I'm an HH cup. I would have to wear some sort of sack for a shirt. I don't wear low cut, skin tight scrubs though, if that's what you mean.
I'm a 36M and a large fits just fine without being crazy tight at all.
(I have a DD and I wear and Xlarge top. I hate tight scrubs.)
Being a 36 means that I'm not huge in the rib cage so it helps overall as far as things like shirts fitting. If I get XL or bigger then it looks like I'm wearing a muumuu. A large tends to be slightly form fitting but NOT tight. I couldn't stand being in a tight shirt while working a shift - no thank you!
I always know that following certain people will make for a much harder shift because things will be left undone.
Every once in awhile, the hardworking people will not be able to get to something and say so during report "The shift was really hectic, I could not do X,Y or Z." This doesn't bother me because I too have been there, and I know who works hard and who doesn't.
The other one? is lying.
If a patient is on a Q2 turn and unable to prop themselves on one side without pillows, and yet there are no pillows in the room....what have you been using to keep them turned?
Documenting or telling me that you just refreshed someone's ice pack and I go in the room and the pack is hot enough to be mistaken for a warm pack.
My new grad issue is being the new person that everyone runs to to tell the latest gossip to. I don't even know the people being spoken about and it makes everyone seem like a bad person!! I hope they don't talk about me when I leave from work that day.
Being a 36 means that I'm not huge in the rib cage so it helps overall as far as things like shirts fitting. If I get XL or bigger then it looks like I'm wearing a muumuu. A large tends to be slightly form fitting but NOT tight. I couldn't stand being in a tight shirt while working a shift - no thank you!
Speakin' o Professional peeves....jump on over to "I FAILED out of nursing school...Appealed and WON!" Makes me wonder how many P&P's will be circumvented IF indeed NCLEX is passed?
aeris99
490 Posts
I'm a nursing student now and an LNA for years. My biggest irritation was and is super loud conversations. If you need to yell, you really need to just walk over to the person.
The other one is seeing the other students in my group sitting around the break table or nurses station during clinical. It makes me very uncomfortable.
I prefer to be seen walking the unit, asking if anyone needs help and answering call bells.
I realize we need to write notes from the MAR and charts for our homework but all 7 of us sitting around just looks bad.