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."
A lot of people mess with them where I work. I don't think it looks good when patients or families may see you, and there aren't a lot of places where they won't see you. I don't understand what's so difficult about staying off them for a little while. Tapping out an "Ok" to your kid who texted you when he gets home from school is one thing, but people carry out entire conversations with their friends on them. There is always something to do in nursing. Always.
People who just interrupt a conversation when not necessary:
A House Supervisor approaches while I am on the phone with a physician and hears only part of the conversation, but chooses to interrupt anyway. I pause and say, "I will be with you in a moment." She then continues to babble on, so I hand her the phone (the doc was so "impressed with her behavior that he asked me afterward, "who was that person?", and I told him). She stands there at a total and sudden loss for words, then hands the phone back to me.
After I was finished on the phone, I took her aside and advised her to never, ever do that with me again. She then refused to speak to me for at least a few weeks. Ahhhhhh... blessed silence!
Specializes in Cardiac, Transplant, Intermediate Care.
Spot on with the cutesy crud! On my floor, someone began the tradition of printing out seasonal pictures and then putting all the staff's names on them, expecting us all to color them. Whenever the CNAs/Health Techs begin to print and cut out the new seasonal pictures, I am always amused at how they put more importance on this, while call lights are going off around us. They tape them on the wall in the nurse's station, which also makes me cringe.
While we are on the subject- I have to add here that I am increasingly amused at the younger and new co-workers I have who; have facial piercings, leave long hair down in their faces, talk like babies or with vocal fry (basically that low, creaky voice that has taken over our younger female population), their propensity to put their numerous breaks over their job descriptions, and all-around general "me" attitude I notice. Maybe I am just getting older. I recently got the call to take a man for a heart transplant he had been waiting months for, and asked a nurses assistant to find me a wheelchair to take him to surgery, and she told me she was too busy! What do you say to that?
I have always been a firm believer in teamwork, and so it is also amusing for me to watch when some are drowning how others will say, "You doing ok?" or "Let me know if you need anything", when you know they really don't mean it.
I also am very tired of having to answer 10 questions about what I am eating to everyone who comes in the break room while I am having a quick bite. "Oh, that smells good....did you make it?.....what is it?....."
I could actually write a book about non-professional behavior! I am sure my co-workers don't like some things about me as well.
Irritation: Nurses that don't like new employees (*not talking about new grads but just newly employed at the facility), so try to set them up to fail or to prove they are not good enough. Obviously, these nurses that do this have personal issues, but it really is annoying and disturbing to deal with.
For me it is the "cutsey" crud that nurses use to put in cork board for communicating things ugh as flowers or sports themes to try to get "team spirit" up. Many times these boards are in full view of patients, visitors and other disciplines. How professional is that? Professionals don't need cutesy themes to communicate ideas or policies or plans. You don't see see those in doctors conference rooms or even in Physical Therapy rooms. You see this in housekeeping or dietary areas which generally are not licensed professionals. End of rant.
OMG yes. Where I used to work they had a "Spirit Stick" made out of cardboard tube with tinsel attached to the ends that was given to a person each month that displayed the most spirit. It was just ghastly. Then there was "Get on the Generic Hospital Bus!!!" that was a big yellow school bus with each shift's staff names written on it. Getting on the bus meant getting with the policies and using teamwork. It was also a short bus. Cartoon characters, big lurid yellow smiley faces leering out at you on memos. Floral borders on some memos and colored paper cutouts on the bulletin board. It was what you would expect to see in an elementary school classroom that the "teacher's favorite" spent an afternoon on. Too many things management does in nursing seem very childish to me.
This! This is . . . well, more of a pet peeve. One can't say this is an unprofessional attitude at all
I've had a couple of managers that considered sitting still (unless you were obviously charting) as 'slacking'. "You could be sanitizing the nurse's station!"
There's nothing to disagree with here . . . there IS always something to be doing. But dang, feeling guilty about being caught just sitting there? Just adds to the stress.....
I once was orienting to a job in an MD's office that did very skilled work. IV treatments, etc. It was a work filled day. Sometimes, at the end of the day, after the patients left...I might seem to have a few mins. to sit. Otherwise, I was standing or walking ALL through the shift. Well, since I was orienting, every time the nurse in charge saw my butt heading toward the stool, she would tell me something to do. I literally could not sit during the 8-9+ hrs there each day, except at lunchtime for 15-20 mins. She and the other long timer there really needed me. They wanted to take vacations, etc. But yet she treated me like crap. I left. I wonder if she ever got her vacation.
I am one that feels like I'm being supremely lazy if I sit during my shift. I always think it's a hold over from working as a hairdresser and a waitress. In both of those positions, if I was not actively working (had a client in my chair or taking table after table) I was losing money. So I feel really guilty if I am sitting around (even for just a few minutes) and being paid for it.
Probably important to note that i also have a pretty high anxiety level, so I'm sure that plays into my constant worry that I'm not working hard enough despite that fact that I am consistently praised for my work ethic.
OMG yes. Where I used to work they had a "Spirit Stick" made out of cardboard tube with tinsel attached to the ends that was given to a person each month that displayed the most spirit. It was just ghastly. Then there was "Get on the Generic Hospital Bus!!!" that was a big yellow school bus with each shift's staff names written on it. Getting on the bus meant getting with the policies and using teamwork. It was also a short bus. Cartoon characters, big lurid yellow smiley faces leering out at you on memos. Floral borders on some memos and colored paper cutouts on the bulletin board. It was what you would expect to see in an elementary school classroom that the "teacher's favorite" spent an afternoon on. Too many things management does in nursing seem very childish to me.
My biggest pet peeve is when our nurse manager takes herself out of the numbers even though our assignments are already heavy and the previous manager believed it to be appropriate.
Second is when a certain coworker gets an attitude if asked to do anything. Just straight up rude and has gotten into screaming matches with other coworkers. Doesn't care what you're doing either.
Oh, so many things here that irritate me on a regular basis (and now I've been reminded of them on my day off!). Here are mine:
Cosign the many who have posted about the cutesy cartoons and cut-outs that are posted on the walls. Just no. This is not elementary school! I don't want a sticker next to my name - maybe a raise or use that $ to hire more staff?
In my ED:
-I cringe every time the phone is ringing nonstop (we all pick it up) and someone sitting at a computer says "SOMEONE PICK THAT UP!". I always think in my head, (usually because I'm already on the phone), why don't YOU??
-Please don't tell me that you can't help or do something I've asked for a patient because you're doing something ridiculous like stringing Christmas lights, writing out your bills or downloading an app. "In a minute, it's almost done, okay?" Really? REALLY??
-Can we please stop being nice to one another's faces and then start talking about them the minute they walk away? Some of us really don't care. Just stop.
Libby1987
3,726 Posts
This is when I'd rather be eating and peeing..