Things you'd LOVE to tell coworkers...and get away with it!

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2011

OK, I just have to add some more after the hellacious day I had:

* I know that you tend to be passive aggressive, and that is fine with me. However, I won't play your game, so when you don't agree with the rationale for decisions that I make when I am in charge, how 'bout you TALK to ME about it and maybe we can work things out sans the drama, Dr. Anesthesia. It is not exactly difficult to get from Point A to Point B. Let's dispense with the ******* contest, shall we?

* No, Dr. X, I did not make the decision to move your case to another room. I fought tooth and nail to have your case stay in the room you have been in all day, as it is logical. So when I have to call you and tell you that your case is moved, please don't yell at me because a. The anesthesiologist running the board made that decision and was not professional enough to call you, as policy states she should. b. If during your rant peppered with all kinds of expletives, you tell me that this always happens to you, why don't you light a fire under the people who MAKE the decisions instead of wasting your time yelling at me? c. Although I understand that you are ******, please don't hang up on me, because the next time you need an extra room to finish your cases on time, you will be the last person I will want to do this for.

* Dear administration: I understand that you have a life outside of work. When I come to your office to ask a question or simply to vent about something that went wrong, I don't exactly want you to entirely ignore my concern AND interrupt me to hear about whose party you went to this weekend and what the menu was. Seriously.

* If you don't have time to set up your room properly, I will be the first in line to bust my butt to help you. But it is difficult for me to muster up sympathy for you when I see you emailing your buddies between cases. Just sayin'.

* No, I am not "playing on the computer". I am CHARTING. The next time you accuse me of this, o dear scrub tech who doesn't have to chart, I am going to use that reamer on your table for something else!

* I know that your home life is a total wreck right now and you are going through some hard times. But please don't take me for a fool when you ask to go home early every single day because your mother/father/aunt/cousin's best friend has had some type of cardiac event. Dude, c'mon man! If you are honest with me, I will make EVERY EFFORT to get you out early. But don't lie to me. Every dang day.

* And to add to the above, if the schedule is so tight that I can't possibly get you out EARLY, please do not throw a tantrum at the front desk and point your finger at me as if I was the Dark Man himself. You are here to work your required hours, and if I can't do the favor of getting you out early, then you need to formally request time off from your manager and get your personal stuff straight.

* I realize that you don't like everything that we are talking about in our professional development meeting, but could you at least pretend to be interested and stop constantly interrupting the meeting with seemingly "witty" comments that take the focus off of what we are trying to accomplish in 30 minutes? And the stomping on the floor and eye rolling contribute exactly NIL.

* Hey Dr. X-I know that your time is valuable and I will make every effort to move your cases along, but I can't help it if your day-op pt ate a full breakfast and now we must call for your inpt and that it takes at least 30 minutes to get them from the floor. I realize that you are pressed for time. I don't need to have a degree in rocket science to get the gist of your angst; you don't have to break it down for me in that completely snotty tone.

OMG! Venting is so cathartic! Guys, I am not usually this negative in my posts, but I have been feeling extremely beat down of late. It seems that if I choose to do X, then I should have done Y. Have y'all ever felt that way before?

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2011

I know darn well you have done X before so don't ask me to show you how to do it just because you don't want to do it yourself.

This has got to be my personal NUMBER ONE biggest gripe of all time.

StudentNurse2011 · Feb 16, 2011

I'm not a nurse yet; I'm still a surg tech. Can I please play along?

To the nurses in my department,

I love you guys. I couldn't have gotten through nursing school without you. Thanks for the support, the impromptu tutoring sessions, and for understanding when I couldn't be at work because of a school assignment. You guys are awesome! I want to be just like you someday when I grow up.

To my charge nurse:

You are the cream of the crop. I can't say enough good things about you. Thank you - for everything.

I love my work family. They're sometimes more my family than my own family is. Yup, we argue and disagree. We're as dysfunctional as they come, but we put the FUN in dysFUNctional. :-)

stimaRN · Feb 16, 2011

It baffles me when you team up with the Intensivist(s) in calling Hospitalists or other practitioners idiots for whatever reason (Yes, Several "smart" RNs in my ICU have made it a habit/hobby)...If an MD has the audacity to call another MD an idiot, what do they think of you and your 2-yr degree dumb-ass....

Vicki29 · Feb 16, 2011

This is the umpteenth time you've played with your smart phone this shift. Put it away and help the rest of us.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Feb 16, 2011

"Why are you a nurse when you obviously hate people - patients, family members, doctors, CNA's, other nurses, etc."

lilaclover · Feb 16, 2011

Please, please , please be nice to us newbies!

Just because you have done your clinicals at this hospital and then proceeded to work here for the last 20 years does NOT mean that everyone else has worked here for the last 20 years and know exactly the way things are done at this hospital. Please dont be rude when us newbies have questions about things you consider to be common knowledge.

LoneWolfRN2010 · Feb 17, 2011

I don't see how this thread is any different to the ones in the student section about things you would like to say to your instructors or fellow students. Really, calm down. It's truly just meant to vent, and there are always going to be times we all need to do that. I don't know anyone who doesn't.

"did you seriously just refuse to help me turn your patient, but then spend several minutes calling the charge nurse to ask where she was and why she couldn't help me? Seriously, helping me would've taken less time!" (this was while I was still working as a student nurse/cna.)

Please don't ignore your call lights. I help answer mine. Our techs have 20 patients to our 5-7

It's just wrong to hunt your tech down to put a patient on a bedpan or clean them up. That is part of nursing too, not just "cna work"

Did you actually even asses your patients? That central line you just told me about was d/c'd two days ago!

How do you chart accurately while talking on your cell to your friends/ boyfriend all night?

And to all the great nurses and cna's I worked with... Thank you. Thanks for teaching me, helping out, and being a friend when I needed one. I'll never forget you, and I'm going to miss you all when I move on to my new assignment. I hope I work with as great a team on my next unit!

OkieMom3D · Feb 17, 2011

STOP pronouncing it O2 stat. You sound ignorant.

Yes, Yes, Yes!! Thank you!

SpEdtacular, MSN, RN, EMT-P · Feb 17, 2011

what i wish i could say would get me banned from allnurses[/quote
I think I'm in the same boat as you...
On the other hand I'd like to thank all the awesome RNs, LPNs, CNAs, Techs, and unit secretaries (and anyone else I may have left out) for being so helpful and patient with me while I'm on assignment at their facilities. When the agency sends me to you I often have no idea what to expect and since every place has its own protocols, procedures, paperwork, and orientation (if you can call it that) it takes time to find my rhythm. It can be hard to get things done right and done on time under the best circumstances but each time I go to another facility it's my first day all over again. Remember how much first days suck? I sincerely hope I'm giving you back all you've put in to me and more. Thanks for making my job great!

lilaclover · Feb 17, 2011

Everybody who reoprts off to me will now make rounds with me at shift change due to the 5 infiltrated IV;s and the one nearly dead pt I found on my rounds last week!
If I see ANYBODY looking at a smart phone on duty while there is ONE call light blinking, they will be reported immediately!

People need to get with the times. I use my smartphone (as do a lot of new Docs, nurses, RT's etc) to look up meds, procedures, etc. I have a fantastic med guide on there called Lexi complete as well as Davis Drug guide and Tabers medical dictionary. This is the only thing I use my smartphone for while at work. Its a lot faster that looking for a drug guide and flipping through thousands of pages to find what I want. It makes me much more efficient to have massive databases of information literally at my fingertips.

So don't "report me" just because you can't get with the times.

LoneWolfRN2010 · Feb 17, 2011

"And please stop braiding your hair! I know you think it makes you look like a cute 50-year old, but neither I nor you have any idea what vermin you may pick up and which may be concealed by your tightly woven locks..

I'm confused, what is wrong with braiding your hair? How is it different from pulling it back any other way? I'd rather see it up/back somehow than down and swinging into sterile fields and lord only knows what else.