Toxic Healthcare Personalities

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Recently, there was a discussion in this forum about know-it-all nurses, and it got me thinking about all the other kinds of toxic personalities we encounter in the healthcare setting. What is the worst toxic healthcare personality you have ever encountered?

:angryfire:bugeyes:

:yawn::madface::cry:

Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

The bullies, the name droppers, the user friendly and the whiners are enough to have me locked up in an asylum. Oneupmanshippers are another thorn in my side. Oh, and don't forget the perfect nurses....those princesses that claim to never make a mistake, how great they are...the braggarts.

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Specializes in ICU.
The lazy, the stupid, the mean (especially the mean), the threatened, the perpetual victims, all of them drive me crazy.

The perpetual victim, for sure! I know a nurse who constantly comes in for others and then complains about the amount she has to work. Amazing.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
A "none"? Do you mean no one, or a non-nurse? I'm confused.

Or perhaps a "nun"?

I think that the poster meant "no one"...

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
The constant complainers. I swear they would complain when too busy they complain when they are not busy enough. They complain when they have too many patient's. They complain when not enough patients and they are econned... It's as if they have absolutely no social skills beyond complaining. I almost forgot they constantly complain about their co-workers also.

My daddy used to say that people such as you've described would "gripe if they was hung with a new rope". There is a NOC shift CNA at my facility who, to my knowledge, has never said one positive thing in the six months I've been there. She complains endlessly about the stuff my CNAs didn't get done, and if she can't complain about that it's about the day shift staff for showing up late, and if not that it's ALWAYS something else. Some days I just want to :trout: her! But I keep the mood as light as possible and still make my point by saying things like "Well, last time I checked, none of us was able to walk on water" and "that's why this is a 24-hour facility".:D

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Specializes in ICU,CCU,CVICU,SICU.
a "none"? do you mean no one, or a non-nurse? i'm confused.

see? thank you for you candor! :yeah: you could have ripped me apart for this silly mistake.....some would have...

i meant a nun...... my apologies....and thank you for pointing it out to me :D

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The perpetual victim, for sure! I know a nurse who constantly comes in for others and then complains about the amount she has to work. Amazing.

Show her my sig line- lol.

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
or perhaps a "nun"?

see? thank you for you candor! :yeah: you could have ripped me apart for this silly mistake.....some would have...

i meant a nun...... my apologies....and thank you for pointing it out to me :D

caliotter3 is that winner of that one...

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Show her my sig line- lol.

I see! Flo is no joke...bottom line is she is saying do not waste your time trying to impress. :D

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Caliotter3 is that Winner of that one...

I had to go back and reread the original post! Oh, I've got to go somewhere for lunch!

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Specializes in med/surg, ER, camp nursing.

I can't stand the person who is always negative and moans, sighs, groans EVERY time she is asked to take an admit, cover for someone's lunch or even take a phone call. NEVER do I get a "Sure, no problem" response. Very toxic attitude that can spoil the whole mood on a shift.

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Specializes in ICU.
But I keep the mood as light as possible and still make my point by saying things like "Well, last time I checked, none of us was able to walk on water" and "that's why this is a 24-hour facility".:D

OK, I'm not saying this is you. But what you said here at the end is one of the things, I must say that grates on the last nerve ending the lidocaine couldn't get to: The Defender!

This is the person that no matter who you marvel at (i.e., the dayshift nurse that for twelve hours was giving the wrong dose of amiodarone because he couldn't set the pump right, and it was getting in the way of his social time anyway, which is the same social time he used during the lecture in nursing school on dosage calculation), no matter what the atrocity, they always defend them. And then you realize they defend whomever you criticize until you realize that in doing so, they are really criticizing you! It's like whoever is your enemy is their friend.

:madface:I hate the way so-and-so is always late.

:nurse:Oh, she's usually really good about getting here early.

:madface:I hate it when no one restocks the room.

:nurse:Oh, the techs are pretty busy around here.

:madface:"I hate third world dictators who send out troops into villages to torture and hack people to death."

:nurse:"Well, it's probably not that easy to run one of those countries. He must have had some smarts if he became a dictator."

:madface::angryfire:barf02:

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Specializes in Med/Surg; aged care; OH&S.

  • The overbearing know-it-alls (somehow there's a huge difference between genuine co-workers who want to share knowledge and those who want to tell you how to do your job) :bugeyes:
  • The bullies :cry:
  • The nurses who can't handle stress on the job - I don't mean in an obviously stressful, difficult situation which affects all of us at times, I mean the usual day to day things - those nurses are hanging on by a thread I reckon (psychologically speaking)
  • The avoiders/hiders - you know, those people who are hiding in the bathroom when there's an arrest or emergency, or who magically find something else to do when someone needs cleaning up after they've been incontinent :angryfire
  • I worked with an assistant nurse with a severe personality disorder who had no idea what she was doing, was unsafe and openly hostile to the RNs. She had complaint after complaint put in on her, finally my last complaint resulted in her being terminated. Only thing is, in Australia assistant nurses aren't registered, so she probably got a job in another nursing home :down:

Thank god I'm perfect :lol2:;)

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