Weird, Odd Nurses Behavior.....

Nurses General Nursing

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As a nurse, and I guess a germaphobe at times, and just generally weird.....I have picked up on a few of my own rediculous behaviors that I guess I have managed to obtain through the years.

1. If drinking from a large open glass on the nurses unit. I cover the glass with a paper towel, put a straw through the top, and bend the straw not up, but down towards the ground..................why..........well, everybody knows germs fall from the sky and into things...like straws.... :chuckle

2. When opening a new can of pop, I wash it under the sink of running water, and then take a paper towel, all smushed up to a point, and go around the rim of the top of the can to get the dirt off, then open it and drink it.

3. I don't let food touch each other on my plate, and I only eat one thing at a time on my plate. I always finish one thing, and then move onto the next.

Anybody else share in this weirdness????????????????? :rotfl:

And I thought I was crazy for having to have my patient cards at work organized perfectly, with their name written (in black sharpie, of course) in the upper left corner and room number on the upper right. They all have to be perfectly spaced and if they are out of alignment I have to fix them even if I am so busy I can't eat lunch!

I have a few things like this relating to work, and if I let myself think about germs too much I can get pretty OCD with the handwashing, but overall I don't consider myself a germophobe.

Since I became a nurse though, I have realized that I no longer eat from anyone else's plate, even my husband and kids; the thought just grosses me out! And if food sits out for even a little while I won't eat it. The thought of what has been growing on that pizza that has been sitting in its box in the break room for 5 hours makes me nauseous, especially when I see co-workers eating it!

OMG... I AM a nutcase!!! :rotfl:

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

I guess I'm a relic from the dark ages. I remember coming out of messy codes and comparing scrubs to see who could identify the most differant body fluids on one uniform! Then they started telling us we needed to use gloves. What nonsense we thought. Just another passing fad.

I'm still alive, never caught any illnesses back in those dark ages, and practice universal precautions now. Maybe I'm taking this thread too seriously, but if you're afraid of germs why are you working in a building where they store all the sickest people? A descent auto mechanic can equal our pay.

As the C&W song says; "never take life too seriously because you'll never get out of it alive."

But I do admit that when I'm triaging patients I ask if they have clean underwear on and threaten to tell their moms if they dont.

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I agree with the person who said they rewrite the board. I used to do that when I was working in the ED. We had a competized patient board, but we wrote the assignments on a dry erase board (along with the schedule for the day) and I would re-write it neatly and update it throughout the day if no one else did (it NEEDED to be up to date :-)

I worked with a nurse once who would strip in her garage and change into "clean clothes" before netering her home. Her scrubs NEVER entered the house, she did laundry in the garage.

At the other end of the spectrum, I worked with a guy in the ER once who one day was eating a sandwich and laid it down on the countertop. DIRECTLY on the countertop! When someone said they couldn't believe he'd do that, he tossed it onto the Nurse's Station floor, picked it back up and took a big bite! "What?" he replied to the looks of horror, "I'm just building immunity."

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My cats run all over the work surface in the kitchen and I only object if they get to my food before I do!

I'm careful about my patients because they are ill, so there is a very good reason.

but I used to let my cat eat crackers out of my mouth when I was a child...I don't do this any more, but I do kiss them on the mouth, and my kids let them sit on the table while we eat--and I have no more colds/flus than the average person. The other over-the-top part of this is that I am allergic to cats--I have more cats now than when I found out about the allergy--total of four!

My pet peeve is watching the other women in the restroom leave without washing their hands--I feel like following them and telling them how disgusting it is...and I always get a dry papertowel to open the bathroom door on the way out!

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i can't eat m&m's anymore since they changed the colors. i always used to save the greens for last because they reminded me of kermit the frog. :D

the kitchen sink is only used for food-related washing. if you come in from outside and need to wash up, do it in the bathroom, not the kitchen sink. (wish we had a sink in the laundry room!)

no food items touching each other on the plate, items eaten one at a time since it's not the other foods' turn yet! though i'm not so bad that i won't eat touching food, i just reseparate with my fork. somehow beet juice doesn't bother me! although maybe it should. . .

i'm obsessed with eating every last grain of rice on my plate, including partial/broken grains. my husband pointed this out to me. it feels like a game to get 'em all!

no rice grains or other debris allowed to remain in my soy sauce dipping container at the sushi bar.

dishes must be washed in order of cleanest to dirtiest (can't wait till we have a dishwasher!) this just seems practical - why goop up glassware with chunks from the pots and pans?

toilet lid must be closed after each use. please drop the lid before flushing to prevent germs from going airborne. :uhoh21:

at work i do the same multiple handwashing routine regarding bathroom use - wash out at the desk before going in, wash in the bathroom, and wash again out at the desk. same for getting food from the cafeteria - wash before going, wash again upon return to the breakroom with my food (before eating.) and wash after eating in the breakroom, and again out at the desk. this is on a day when i actually get a break, and when the cafeteria is actually open!

can't stand to share a drinking glass. though kissing and sharing chap stick is fine!

can't drink from a water glass that's been standing out too long. like the little girl from the alien movie "signs."

yes, i have also disinfected my face with alcohol wipes when contaminated by a patient! shudder!

i clean the mouse and keyboard on school computers with alcohol wipes before using . . .

check out this fascinating article on ocd and various other mental illnesses:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol8no9/02-0204.htm

it proposes an organic infectious basis for many psych disorders. wow!

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
Its funny, we were talking about this at work the other day, about how most of the nurses in my unit have OCD tendencies.

We have a large board with all the pt last names on it, up to 40-45 names at a time. My compulsion is that these names all have to be written neatly. If somebody has sloppy handwriting, I have to immediately erase it and rewrite it. Okay, actually there are only 2 or 3 other people who I will let keep their handwriting up on the board. Night shift never keeps the board up neat, so in the mornings, I erase ALL the names and rewrite them. It's a running joke in the ER, and my coworkers like to scrawl a name on the board in chicken scratch and see how long it takes me to notice it.

My charts are my other issue. We have plastic chartbacks with a big clamp on top to hold everything in. All the papers have to be lined up exactly, without any poking out at an odd angle or heaven forbid the wrong order.

I have issues, but they really help me stay organized.

Yep... that's ME !!! :D I'm ashamed I'm that way, but I am ! I do the exact same things ! A standing joke where I work as well. At least the others have something to brighten their day, as I scurry around straightening things up after them. No WONDER I'm so exhausted when I get home ! Do my own work, then run after my colleagues straightening up on top of it all ! :chuckle

And it doesn't stop there. I keep this up at home as well. 'Til I drop into bed from sheer exhaustion. :rotfl:

But when it comes to "germs"........... nah. Not worried at all about those little sukkers. That doesn't bother me at all. All the excessive handwashing and antimicrobial washes just create even more resistant bugs. My immunity is great. Perhaps because I just don't worry much about "germs".

And yes.. of COURSE I wash my hands at work, as a good nurse always should. But I don't get all crazy about covering drinks, wiping personal items, etc. Not at home, either. Too much "cleansliness" isn't always a good thing, either.... can come back to bite you in the butt. :uhoh21:

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OK, here's my wierdos:

1) I love to read horror and murder mystery books, but I cannot watch a horror movie.

2) Even in the dead of winter in Michigan, I have to sleep with my ceiling fan on, at least on low.

3) I cannot fall asleep unless I am laying on my right side.

4) I have to take report in red pen. Labs need to be highlighted in yellow.

5) When I come home from work in the morning, before going to bed, I have to play 3 games of hand-held Yatzhee.

OK, call me strange. :rotfl:

OK Strange, are you my long lost twin? You sound exactly like me except for #5. Hmm. I'm suddenly feeling an almost uncontrollable urge to go out and buy a hand-held Yatzhee game, but I got off work at 7am and haven't been to bed yet. Don't fret. I'm off tonight. Although according to my fellow co-workers I'm off EVERY night! I have an 'official' medical diagnosis of being weird confirmed with a second Dr's opinion. I don't believe it though. My keyring says, "I'm not weird. I'm gifted."--and I will always take a keyring's opinion over some dumb doc's. It's much cheaper too. :D

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Specializes in Hospice Palliative Care.

just had to add:

"2. When opening a new can of pop, I wash it under the sink of running water, and then take a paper towel, all smushed up to a point, and go around the rim of the top of the can to get the dirt off, then open it and drink it."

this makes perfect sense and is probably a very smart thing to do. When I was in school and worked for a small convenience store, we used to walk all over the pop cans while we were stacking them. I still don't drink from the can directly I usually pour it into a glass. Also I can't share a drink even with my dh, and he bugs me about it continually.

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Specializes in L&D/MB/LDRP.

i push elevator buttons with my knuckles....

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Can one of you PLEASE come clean my house??? If I have a clean towel after my (daily) shower, clean clothes to wear, and clean dishes to eat off of, I consider myself blessed...if the dishes don't come out of the dishwasher clean, they go back in the sink, to be put BACK in the dishwasher till they're clean....

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I'm a big fan of feng-shui, nursing style... By that, I mean all the furnishings have to be parallel (in ICU - the bed must be parallel to the wall, the ventilator parallel to the bed, and so on) - and I mean precisely parallel, none of this 5 degrees either way crap. Not only that, when I'm setting up my workstation/dressing tables/etc, everything must be organised just so. Syringes parallel to saline and drugs, etc. etc. etc. Just like in the movies. That's where I learned to nurse...

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I hate touching the numbers in the elevator; I push the numbers with my knuckles. I open doors with papaer napkins or my shirt ( especially if I'm out in public) I try my best to not hold onto stair rails. This is outside the hospital; I immediately wipe my hands after pumping gas in my car. when eating out and I use the salt/pepper shaker, I always use a napkin to hold it. I want my hands to stay as clean as possible while I'm eating. There are too many people out there that don't wash there hands after going to the restroom.

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