What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 26, 2004

Visitors that think that the patient's nourishment station is a free-for-all buffet.

Alnamvet · Mar 26, 2004

Nurses who think that the RN license says we have to dispose of the rubbish

oldiebutgoodie, RN · Mar 26, 2004

Apologies all around. Sorry oldiebutgoodie. I have a habit of shooting from the hip and regretting it later.
After thinking on this, i suppose i'd also be frustrated if someone was feeding me the wrong information and claiming it truth.
I think my frustration stems from experiences with nursing students that put on a set of scrubs and suddenly know everything (not you, i'm speaking of personal experiences)...these same students tend to make know-it-all grads...and then make DANGEROUS know-it-all nurses right out of school. Alot of them get a big shock when they finally come out of their orientation...many of them break down and have at least one big crying spell. This type of new-nurse/recent grad (which the majority are NOT) tend to get under my skin more than a little.
In my personal opinion, a nurse has to put in at least a year of practice before i consider her/him part of the 'club'...thats when i think they've walked a mile in a nurses' shoes...and can complain about it.
Students get exposed to alot of the terminology, pathophys., clinical skills and stuff....but the vast majority of what being a nurse is all about is learned through experience on the job... after graduation. (i think most nurses would agree with this statement)
Again, although i may hold an unpopular opinion regarding new nurses and nursing students, i apologize for being out of line....and didnt mean to attack your post in such a way.

Apology accepted! Actually, the two incidents I was thinking of, in terms of getting bad information from the seasoned nurses, was the patient who did not have cancer but the nurse told me very firmly that she did, and the nurse who did not want to look at a patient with a 70% O2 sat, telling me that the patient must just have "cold hands". (Well, he might have had cold hands, but he also had a 70% sat!)

And BTW, I will be a 51 year old new grad underfoot! So, who gets to spank who??? :rotfl:

oldiebut goodie

ilovetheelderly · Mar 27, 2004

Stupid nurses.
Stupid nurses that're so stupid they don't realize they're stupid. STUPID.
The worst of this breed are the stupid nurses that think they're "..more smarter.." than the rest.(and argue about it...even on these very boards!! )
oh, and another honorable mention has to go to the stupid cleavage-bearing stupids that get by (and even prosper) because they know who to bat an eye at...and giggle with...
..or the classic stupid people that become nurses because they've watched too many episodes of General Hospital or ER or...
These stupids come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and specialties. It's depressing that stupid people can become nurses...
shoot...i think i may be stupid.
(..hmm....anyone got a burn-out pill?)

Thank you for making me laugh!!!I needed this!!! Bless you!!!

heart queen · Mar 27, 2004

1. Next of kin does not mean you have stood NEXT to the "kin' and now expect detailed info.

2. Yes, that limited visitation sign does include YOU too! Imagine that!

3. Don't sit next to ma's bedside reading the paper and ask me to feed her dinner, only to put that silly suprised look on your face when I place her fork in your hand and walk out the door.

4. If you are able to press the call light and tell me your "roomie' has their TV too loud, you're able to speak one decible higher so the roomie can hear you too... DO SO!

5. If you've decided to drink a six pack of Brewski's in the visitors lot, be VERY nice to the BIG surly security guard who then carries you out of the ICU.

6. Telling the nurse you will kick her orifice, follow her home and make her pay for not letting you visit... will lead to the sheriff being called and this nurse pressing charges... yup!

7. If you don't have a patient ID band, you don't get the patient's pillows, blankets, drinks or snacks... don't even think about the telephone where the secretary sits to make your 30 minute personal, non patient related calls.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 27, 2004

sitting in a pt's bathroom (using it) reading a newspaper?!!!!!:uhoh21:
Oh my gosh!! how sorry is that?! I have had to hunt mine down on occasion -- found two making out in the store room once. EEEWWWWW!

Years ago, in another city I was working with an NA who felt the entire JOB was beneath him. (According to him, he had been a physician in Zimbabwe but was forced to leave for political reasons and as soon as someone somewhere got over their grudge against people of his race, he'd be a physician again.) Meanwhile, he was employed (and I use that word rather than the word "working") as a nursing assistant. He used to take his vital signs by ESP. But that's another story.

One night I went to empty a urinal in a patient bathroom, but when I went to open the door, a hand inside the bathroom stopped the door, holding it open just far enough for the urinal to slip through. There was my NA, sitting on the patient toilet, masturbating. I was so shocked, I just stood there, speechless. The hand reached out, took the urinal, emptied it and handed it back -- all without missing a stroke. https://allnurses.com/forums/#

https://allnurses.com/forums/#

NGACAYAN-CORTES · Mar 27, 2004

nurses who work without a heart, nurses who work just like a robot... without any feelings at all. i hate that!!

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 27, 2004

When pt. is a nurse and and when her heart rate is 105, she doesn't say "oh my heart rate is up" she must say "i'm tachycardic, i'm still tachycardic, wish i wasn't tachycardic". You had to have heard it. It was almost like she was trying to show off a big word or something, you just had to have heard the way she said it.

Not to mention that i had to draw a CBC and BMP on her that morning, and while i'm trying to find a place to stick on her arm, she would not shut UP. She sounded like an instructor "First you need to do this, then this then this". Even though i've been doing this for 7 years, i am not that skilled enough to be able to try and stick the world's smallest vein while being "educated".

But i think the biggest nightmare was this scenario: the pt. is a nurse, her husband is a nurse, her daughter is a nurse. I felt sorry for the nurse assigned to that pt. because supposedly they ALL were giving all the nurses a hard time.

KailuaNurse · Mar 27, 2004

LOL! This is a good topic. I remember when I worked in a CCU and had a Head Nurse whose rule it was that nobody sits down to do their charting until every nurse is done with their patient care for the morning. Well, there was ONE nurse who took aaalllll day long just to bathe her patient (yes, just one patient) so the rest of us ended up having to help her finish up so we could chart!

WHAT?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :uhoh3:

gerinurse10 · Mar 27, 2004

#1 pet peeve in long term care are families who could care less about their mother or father. They don't want to take responsibility for anything and feel that they are your problem now. How sad!!!!! :rolleyes:

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Mar 27, 2004

#1 pet peeve in long term care are families who could care less about their mother or father. They don't want to take responsibility for anything and feel that they are your problem now. How sad!!!!!

And THEN gripe about how Mom doesn't have any socks, etc. Hey if you visited more often you might know that she doesn't have a whole lot left.

Or when the family says "i can't stand to see her like that ". So, great idea that they come up with, to just not visit at all. Not being able to stand seeing someone in that sort of "shape" is an "I" statement. I doubt the resident likes BEING like that. And then to know that someone doesn't visit because they can't handle it? puleeze.

smk1, LPN · Mar 28, 2004

kids or other relatives who place their "loved" one in a nursing or assisted living facility just far enough away from them that they have the escuse of it being inconvenient for them to visit often. then said relatives also refuse to write to the resident and we have to watch his face crumple up when the mail comes and he gets nothing but advertisements. (the staff felt so bad we started sending him cards every other week)