Psych Pet Peeve

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Specializes in Adult Acute Psych Inpatient.

What is your pet peeve with staff or patients?

Mine... when on the report sheet or on the board, they write "BPD" to signify Bipolar Disorder, Axis I. "BPD" is the abbreviation for Borderline Personality Disorder, an Axis II Dx, and it drives me NUTS!

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
What is your pet peeve with staff ?

My biggest pet peeve with Psychiatric (and ER) Nursing Staff is the way in which they sometimes relay information on Patient Behaviors.

A lot of Psych Nurses have a tendency to give a report on a Patient as though they were gossiping about some Soap Opera Character. "He/She did this? Do you believe it?" Well, DUHHHH, yes! These Patients are MENTALLY ILL, which means they have an illness which affects their emotional/mental processes. We cannot EXPECT consistent rationale behavior from a Mentally Ill Patient (especially one is treatment non-compliant) any more than we can expect a Patient with Diabetes to consistently have normal glucose levels.

A Psychiatrist once told me, "Expect the unexpected from Psych Patients. If a Psych Patient consistently exibits rational behavior, then they're not Mentally Ill".

Our Psych Units typically recieve a report from Intake Staff, who may or may not be a Nurse, when an admission is being initially processed. Usually, during this initial report, the Intake Staff primarily focus on precipatating factors for the admission: Altered Mental Status or Threat of Harm.

I've experienced ER Nurses who seem to absolutely LOVE retelling the precipating factors. ER Nurses either enjoy giving the reason for admission, or they give the reason for admission with a cold, condescending spitefulness "Holier Than Thou" attitude accenting the report.

Since the Reason for Admission would be redundant information, when I get a call from ER for the "Nurse to Nurse" report, I start off by saying, "Let me give you what I already know about this Patient" which takes care of the precipatating factors for admission. I go on by asking the ER Nurse for VS, Areas of Medical Concern, Lab Results, Treatments, Current Behavioral Status, etc.

This type of Interaction usually tkes the Soap Opera Drama out of the Mix. As a certain Psych Nurse once said, "Save the Drama for your Mama".

Thus Endeth my Pet Peeve Rant. Thank you and Good Night.

Dave

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My biggest pet peeve in psychiatric nursing has to be when a float nurse from a medical unit comes over to our unit when we are short.

0930 in the am, she's only seen her patients once (am med pass), and is hovering the nurses station talking and ranting about how boring psych nursing i and how he/she could'nt imagine working on psych constantly...

just have a real pet peeve for the stigma associated with my job..

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My biggest pet peeve in psychiatric nursing has to be when a float nurse from a medical unit comes over to our unit when we are short.

0930 in the am, she's only seen her patients once (am med pass), and is hovering the nurses station talking and ranting about how boring psych nursing i and how he/she could'nt imagine working on psych constantly...

just have a real pet peeve for the stigma associated with my job..

Don't medical nurses, in general, prefer to stay well away from psych and vice versa?

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Specializes in Psychiatric nursing.

When the bedlist (faxed to not only the acute care team but the community team and ward staff) is filled in with diagnosis such as "substance abuser"- when ACTUALLY the diagnosis is first episode psychosis....

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Specializes in Adult Acute Psych Inpatient.

You would think so, but unfortunately I've had a lot of pool staff that are similar to those that atypical_psych describes. I think they gravitate towards my facility b/c we have 8 hour shifts so they can pick up a lot of overtime as pool, and it seems that's all they care about. :mad:

I had a pool rn giving me report at night when I was coming into work. I asked her, "Is Mr.X still endorsing AH and responding to internal stimuli?" and she said, "Internal what?" ..... :eek:

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Specializes in Psych.

A small pet peeve.. in charting when staff writes 'pt is visible on ward.' Visible doing what? As opposed to invisible?

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

One of my pet peeves is when patients are labelled as "med-seeking." Well, duhhh...if someone is med-seeking, he needs his meds. If he's seeking them too much, then figure out why and deal with it!

grumble

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"Visible on the unit" means they are not isolating themselves in their room. Is there a better way to put it?

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Whenever I've seen "med-seeking" it's narcotic pain meds they are seeking. Some of the "frequent flyers" SEEM to come primarily to get Percocet. I'm new at this and don't know how to deal with it.

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Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

Elizabethgrad09, how about "Out and about, interacting with peers (or not)"?

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Thanks, Whispera, I agree that is much better!

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