Weird, Odd Nurses Behavior.....

weezledawg · Oct 9, 2005

Funny, I also sort things in my kitchen according to category. Main meal items go together, as do pastas and rice, then there's the condiment/accessory food section where the pickles dwell.....

Has anyone else wondered why in the world we are expected to wash our hands before we eat, but the only place to do it is in the bathroom??!! To get out to eat the food, we have to touch the door, discreetly kick it open, or go out backwards, and then our backsides are still contaminated. Why not have a wash area in the main part of a restaurant, or at least alcohol rub?

And as for shoes, well, they are just gross.

I have to rewrite the patient board at work so it's pretty.
I wash my hands before and after I go to the toilet, if I'm at work (even if I haven't touched anything 'patienty' since I last washed my hands); when I'm done I wash my hands again (of course) and open the door with the paper that I wiped my hands with - because I don't trust that everyone else washes their hands.
At work I run the clean utensils and crockery I eat from under boiling water before using it.
Work shoes are the first thing off and the last thing on as I come through the door.
No shoes upstairs.
My work clothes live in a separate chest of drawers than my regular clothes - it a different room (though that's not on purpose).
My regular clothes are sorted by clothing type (eg shirts) then by colour - black, grey, brown, ROYGBIV, pink, white. Everything has to face the same way.
I have different kitchen sponges for different things - washing up, wiping counters, and wiping up the floor. They all get washed in the washing machine, along with the cleaning rags, in bleach and washing powder.
My pantry's divided into different categories - top shelf is junk food (chocolate, lollies, sweet biscuits, savoury biscuits, savoury snacks); the next is cans (vegetables, fish and seafood, milk, fruit, in alphabetical order); condiments (tea and coffee to the left, herbs and spices, jams and spreads, and I cannot for the life of me remember what's on the far right - as soon as I go home I'm going to have to check!); then staples (baking products, lentils etc, dessicated coconuts etc, pasta, cereal). The bottom shelf is drinks (mixers, bottles of soft drink, cordial, pre-mixed alcohol and cider); the bottom of the pantry has bottled water and appliances, the wok etc.
Thank you for helping me realise my inner weirdness!

Squaw · Oct 9, 2005

I would like to thank you guys for proving to me that I am perfectly "normal"! Rest assure that I will use this as testimony if ever I am put on trial for being OCD. I am not the only one and we are perfectly ok and happy.

Works2xs · Oct 9, 2005

About the only germ-related oddity I have is that I won't touch the magazines in waiting rooms. "Hey, can I read that Nat'l Geographic after you're finished sneezing on it?" No thanks.....

As far as on the floor, I compulsively untangle cords on the various roll-around battery powered equipment before I use them. I also coil up the power cords so they don't drag or get tangled around the casters when I'm done. At least the next person won't have to look like capt Nemo wrestling a giant squid in front of the next patient.

It also irritates me to no end when people don't put stuff back where it belongs when they're done using them. Just the cost in lost labor spent looking for stupid crap like dry-erase markers has to be a drag on the Gross Domestic Product!

Teachchildren123 · Oct 9, 2005

You got to be a nurse when you have all these habits!

But, what the heck, yes it is to protect each other after all the germs we know that are around! :devil:

I am just like you!

I carry alcohol get with me at all times. I use it to clean my hands thoroughly after touching ATM machines, public door handles, and I always wash my hands after touching a rented video tape or DVD.

I can't stand finger licking, dog kissing (you know how gross it is to thing that they smell each others...!) Money is really dirty too!

I cringe to see baby's sitting on the floor of the ICU visiting great-great aunt!

I have real issues with the room cleaning in hospital, everything should be sanitized, but we know it is not.

We can always teach others (patients and visitors...) about handwashing! :nurse:

Nurse Valium · Oct 9, 2005

YIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

I knew it wasn't just me!!! Actually, I thought I WAS the only person (adult person) who didn't really want my food touching and prefer to eat everything separately!! I will be forwarding this link to several former roommates & ex-boyfriends So any supporters for my movement to standardize divided plates?!?!?!?!!!!!

Also, whomever posted about the coworker dropping the sandwich on the floor to build immunity - that was the BEST laugh I've had in weeks!!!!!

MarySunshine · Oct 9, 2005

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!
I'm always worried people will think I'm gross when I leave a restroom without washing my hands. The truth is, I prefer to touch as few things as possible in most public restrooms and I always use a hand sanitizer once I have left the area. Give me the benefit of a doubt! :)

RoxanRN · Oct 9, 2005

I'm always worried people will think I'm gross when I leave a restroom without washing my hands. The truth is, I prefer to touch as few things as possible in most public restrooms and I always use a hand sanitizer once I have left the area. Give me the benefit of a doubt! :)
Thank you, sister!!!

DYatesRN · Oct 22, 2005

I share this problem too. You know it is bad when the preschool teacher asks you if you are a nurse. I inquire, "well, yes, I am. How do you know?" The teacher replies your daughter washed her hands about 20 times with the hand sanitizing gel she carries in her pocket and really works up a good lather when washing at the sink...pretty impressive for a four year old :) My thirteen year old daughter was with me the day the teacher inquired about my profession and was quick to say, "see Mom, you really are a weirdo." I guess I join the rest of the "germ" freaks on this thread.

I also carry this gel with me wherever I go and use it constantly after touching ANYTHING anyone else touches!

MS._Jen_RN, ASN, RN · Oct 22, 2005

This is meant in the nicest way: I don't know if you all are more crazy for the weird things you do or the fact that you just let us all know. :)

We all have so many things to worry about in life, organizing our knickers by color shouldn't be one of them.

Kick back, throw a few things on the floor, put your feet on the coffee table, make finger smudges on the windows and live a little.

~Jen

grouchy · Oct 22, 2005

I work with lots of antibiotic-resistant VRE/MRSA/VRSA/ and C diff patients - which means I'm always convinced that I have the first signs of any or all of the above. ;-)

When I get home, I fling my shoes in a special closet, and throw my stethescope, wallet, badge and other "dirty" items into a plastic bin in the same closet. Then, I run downstairs, strip, and throw my uniform in the washer, and 10 minutes in I add bleach pre-diluted in hot water. Then I run up, take a shower. It is only after that that I will unpack and eat any groceries or takeout food that I got on the way home. I may Lysol any doornobs that i touched, if it feels necessary.

i

I have this new skin, and this skin crack stuff that I paint hangnails and minor skin breaks with to prevent contamination.

TeleRN44 · Oct 22, 2005

I am just so dang happy to see I am not the only person who cannot stand for their food to touch!! :chuckle

I don't know about OCD, although I do have friends who've teased me about it. I consider myself more AROC (anal retentive-obssessive compulsive).

A few of my quirks are:

1) I never, ever touch door handles out in public and have trained my 5 and 7 year old not to either.

2) I never sit on public toilets, not even with a butt gasket in place. I hover...and if I have to take my 5 year old, I'll hold her over the toilet too.

3) I wash hands before and after using the bathroom. I flush with my foot in public and I don't touch the faucet or paper towel dispenser after I wash my hands. In fact, I don't touch anything after I was my hands.

4) I have hand sanitizer stashed everywhere. My husband buys it for me at Christmas time as a stocking stuffers.

5) I use different cutting boards for meat and produce.

6) If that leftover isn't gone in three days, down the garbage disposal is goes!

7) I wipe down all the counters before I start to prepare a meal in case the cat has been up on the counter while we've been out.

8) I use separate towels for my face, hair and body after a shower.

I'm sure there are a bunch more, but I'm trying to show restraint!

mstigerlily · Oct 22, 2005

I am an infamous relaxed person when it comes to germs. We live by the five second rule here and my kids eat stuff off the floor all the time, well mainly my 19 month old who is like a human vacuum cleaner. Strangely, he has only been sick once.

I don't have any weird bathroom habits like a lot of women do. I open the door with my hand, sit down on the bare seat, flush with my hand, give my hands a quick wash and open the door. If there are visible stains on the seat, forget it, but otherwise no. I am not bothered by hotels, will sleep anywhere on any pillow or blanket give to me that looks visibly clean. Even pee I'll just wipe off the toilet seat. I don't eat with my butt, so who cares? No hovering over the seat to pee, or kicking the door open with my foot, or opening doors with paper towels. That's just weird. Again, I am rarely sick. I don't use that alcohol gel sanitizer EVER, it dries out my hands.

Since becoming a nurse I wash my hands a lot more, to the point I needed to see a dermatologist actually. And I wear gloves for most patient contact. Oh...AND when I have a drink at the nurse's station I write my name on it with a Sharpie and bend the straw down into the cup. When I get home from work I strip my scrubs off to wash them and give my hands a good scrub. I also clean under my nails with an alcohol wipe because I hear stuff collects there (I have short natural unpainted nails anyway). That's about as weird as my habits get I guess.

Then again, I work in postpartum so not too many nasties there. Just the occasionally bloody pad change and meconium poopy diaper. No MRSA, c-diff, VRE. When I did oncology or med-surg I stripped off my scrubs at the door and ran straight to the shower!

The other night we did have a gyn patient with a horrible code brown, dripped all over the floor, the toilet was completely full, bed and everything. Wasn't my patient but I helped clean her up and cleaned the bathroom up as well. That time I DID flush with my foot, couldn't stand the idea of aerosoling all those particules with that monstrous flush of that uncovered toilet. WHY don't hospital bathrooms have lids on them??

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: