What is your biggest nursing pet peeve?

Nurses General Nursing

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Nurses that are brilliant but do not know the difference between contraindication and contradiction! :rotfl:

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Hmmm.. My pet peeve...

#1.. Beings as I am a new grad.. I get tired of people thinking I don't know how to do something, and talk to me like I am 2 years old..

Agreed, also nurses who continuosly insist that nurses as a whole are better than doctors as a whole and then want to give you examples. Or any part of this ongoing silly "us vs them" argument. Can't we just be professional and if we have a problem with A SPECIFIC doc then we can address it. How fair is it for a doc, or any other health care provider like a pharamacist to say, "this one nurse made a med error so all nurses are idiots!???"

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When a new person comes to the unit and someone says they have been

ORIENTATED..... the word is ORIENTED, people!!!

And, in surgery--people who should know better--the retractor is called a WEITLANER, people!!! :angryfire

W-E-I-T-L-A-N-E-R!!!!]

There is no D!!!!! It is NOT pronounced "WHEAT-LAN-DER."

I know I have made this point before, but it bears repeating.....some folks never learn!!!!! :uhoh3:

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My biggest pet peeve is when nurses do not "think outside the box".

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I agree. We are all nurses no matter which degree we have. We all had to pass the same test to get here!!

WE may all pass the same test, but there are different skill levels and abilities to think critically. Pasing a test does not mean one is a competent nurse.

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And it's a PROSTATE not a PROSTRATE!

:)

I guess that could be another pet peeve of mine. How did some RN's make it through a rigorous nursing program and come out not knowing how to spell....even non-medical words or not have a basic understanding of punctuation or grammar.

PARAGRAPHS! Please use PARAGRAPHS!

I'm certainly not perfect, but sometimes I cringe when I read these message boards.

I have to agree here. It's one thing to see a word spelled incorrectly that is obviously a typo, but to see poor grammer and blatant spelling errors really bugs me also. I truly think I do judge people (especially professionals) by how they write.

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I,too, am in OB and it drives me crazy to see someone brought in by ambulance for a labor check (they are usually NEVER in labor), followed by several family members who came by car. When I question why they called an ambulance, they always say that they couldn't get a ride! Hello?????????

How about the nurses on each shift who always have to whine about their assignment the minute they walk through the door?

How about nurse managers who have NO clue what really happens on their unit and therefor, are no help whatsoever? Does the word unsupportive fit here?

Nurses that "don't have time" to help a mother learn to breastfeed.

Nurses who cannot (or refuse) to use their critical thinking skills to "think outisde the box."

In labor, family members who are unsupportive to the patient. If you are hanging around eating pizza, taking no notice of the laboring woman, then you are out of the room.

Friends who stop by to visit_________. When asked her name, they either don't know it or have no clue what the last name is, or say, "......she is_________'s girlfriend." get a clue, visitor! LOL

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When a new person comes to the unit and someone says they have been

ORIENTATED..... the word is ORIENTED, people!!!

Amen and thank you!!

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And it's a PROSTATE not a PROSTRATE!

:)

I guess that could be another pet peeve of mine. How did some RN's make it through a rigorous nursing program and come out not knowing how to spell....even non-medical words or not have a basic understanding of punctuation or grammar.

PARAGRAPHS! Please use PARAGRAPHS!

I'm certainly not perfect, but sometimes I cringe when I read these message boards.

I do too, and thanks for your post!

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Amen and thank you!!

It's orientated if you are British and speak correct English. Oriented is the preferred version in American english. :chuckle

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Wow, I couldn't agree more. Like helloooo, the vent is alarming and your loved one's O2 Sat is 75%, but you want me to fluff the patient's pillow right this very second?! :chuckle

LOL!! Absolutely, this is my BIGGEST pet peeve! I don't even mind answering call lights for others when I have a chance, in fact I would rather pass the time actually *working* than reading cosmo or some other such nonsense that some enjoy. Real work kills time, and the faster my shift goes, the better. But it is soo very difficult for me when I am doing something important and I get family in my face demanding I acquiesce to their demands for pillow fluffs like a hotel concierge or something. And I agree with you, I know it's important to the family member/pt at the time, and they cannot possibly understand that I am involved in something more urgent when it looks like I am just playing with a computer or reading a chart, but it really takes every single reserve of my patience to cordially smile at them and say, "I'll get to it in just a moment," when I want to just scream because there are ten more emergent things I need to deal with!

The public is horribly misinformed about what nurses actually do. And although nine out of ten times I genuinely like my patients and their families, and always enjoy providing comfort to all of them, they just do NOT get priorities, and who can expect them to-- unless they are nurses also?

So I suppose this will continue to be my main pet peeve, because there is nothing to be done about it. Were I in the family member's shoes, even being a nurse, I'd consider my loved one the biggest priority. And man, don't you guys all just treasure those family members who help out in any way they can? Getting ice from the machine themselves for their dad instead of hitting the call light every three seconds? Fluffing pillows, and yes-- even going to the linen cart and getting a blanket instead of calling me? And I pray that despite my irritation at some of the seemingly silly requests, I never lose sight of the fact that these people are only doing these things out of love.

Annoying as it is, I always try to remember that that irritating family member could be me, just as I always try to remember that pt could be my husband or child.

I wonder how many nurses end up needing psych help before retirement? :chuckle

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I have to agree here. It's one thing to see a word spelled incorrectly that is obviously a typo, but to see poor grammer and blatant spelling errors really bugs me also. I truly think I do judge people (especially professionals) by how they write.

Ugh. I am guilty of this too. And you know what is worse? I used to pride myself on my grammar and spelling-- wanted to be a writer. In fact it's still a long-term goal of mine (Have a WIP that I've been playing with for years now), but I've noticed my spelling and grammar going down the tubes lately. It actually began in nursing school. I wonder if it has anything to do with the whole left brained/right brained thinking process? Spelling and grammar used to come naturally to me, but ever since I began nursing, I've noticed a big difference! (I almost had to spell-check that word!) :chuckle

Nevertheless, to this day I notice errors in everything I read-- and I'm never looking for them! I would make an excellent proofreader-- unfortunately minimum wage is just a tad bit less than needed to repay my student loans! :chuckle

I have to agree with you and other posters who say that when another Nurse misuses a word like prostrate for prostate, I secretly question their intelligence. But many times these same people run circles around others in nursing skills and in the end, unless we're writers, editors, or poorly compensated proofreaders--it doesn't amount to squat in nursing. :rotfl:

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WE may all pass the same test, but there are different skill levels and abilities to think critically. Pasing a test does not mean one is a competent nurse.

Sorry Bets, if it seems like I keep responding to all your posts--Actually I agreed with most, but I have to disagree with this one on a technicality. (spell check, please!?) :)

Anyway, I just wanted to remind you that if one passes the NCLEX, one has proven to have demonstrated a "minimum level of competancy expected to practice as an entry level RN." The wording is probably different, but my point is that the boards do make it clear that you must prove at least a minimum competancy level in order to pass.

If you'd said that passing a test (for any other test beside the NCLEX) doesn't make one competant, I could not take exception. But-- *supposedly* if you pass NCLEX (ADN or BSN-- same test) you have proven to the experts to have at least the minimum amount of competency to practice as an RN at a beginning level. So anyone who has passed the NCLEX needs to be given props for that. It goes without saying that the true test of competancy starts on the unit or the floor, but even the brand new RN should have enough competance to access ABC's, and be instrumental as a team member from day one.

If you were strictly speaking of skill levels and critical thinking abilities, then as before, we are in agreement. We all know these things take time and experience. I'm not trying to create a "duh" moment here, just as I know that your post wasn't meant to belittle new RN's. Just taking a minute to remind our new RN's that they are valuable, possess competence and are very much needed!

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