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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"That's not my patient." Makes me want to rip somebody's tongue out....

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Just so some of you don't think I'm a some kind of snob .....

An example of the sort of behaviour that annoys me ; yesterday I transported a patient to an ortho floor and this is how it went..

I arrive on the floor with the p't and cheerfully say to the two RN's and aide who arrive in the room to receive the p't - ' Hi guys'

... no response, I am ignored.

So after about 3o seconds I try again - ' How are you all today' ....still no response from either RN but by now the aide replies with a smile and 'I'm good thanks'

The p't had already been handed over. So I just help transfer the p't from gurney to floor bed.

All completed ... I say ' Well thanks guys' ( still cheerfully) .... still no response from the RN's and a nice smile from the aide.

This is the sort of ignorance I'm so over

I know what you mean. When nurses in other units/departments do this to me, I say in a VERY loud voice: 'EXCUSE ME! YOUR patient __________ is here, I'd like to give handover now as I have 6 other patients and admits waiting for me'. Then I ask the nearest person - who is usually telling another nurse re her weekend and how hilarious it was - who the shift coordinator is so they know what patient is coming onto the floor. After that they sit up and pay attention.

I don't put up with that crap anymore - and neither should you. Try being more forceful, after all, YOU are as busy as them!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Strangers that find out you are a nurse and start asking medical questions AND expecting answers!

Never tell the lol next to you on a plane that you are a nurse. You can't get away from them when the plane is full! I learned my lesson the hard way not long ago, though she was quite nice and just lonely I think :)

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Specializes in Med Surg.

Some of the phone calls we get at night. A few nights back I made the mistake of answering the phone and it was somebody telling me all about how he had been in the ER at another hospital earlier in the day. They told him he had a UTI, gave him a precription for abx, told him to take Tylenol for the fever and see his doctor the next day. Well, that was a whole 6 hours ago and it still was burning when he peed and his temperature was STILL a blazing 99.2 deg, and did I think he should come in to OUR ER and see if we could do anything for him since obviously the people at the one he ahd been to didn't know what they were doing.

I swear, I think sometimes our EMS guys put people up to making these calls.

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It really bothers me when perfectly good / unused medical supplies get thrown away. My employer has a new policy now that states any medical left over supplies get tossed in the trash once the patient is discharge from his/her room. (Unsused Suction Cansters, Tubing, Unused B/P cuff, Tele leads, Unopened bandages etc.) I can understand throwing away supplies from a patient's room who is in isolation - but for one who is not - very wasteful spending. We should recycle supplies by giving them to the local nursing schools or donating them to 3rd world countries. That's my pet peeve!!!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
The infighting: ADN vs BSN, nurses in specialty "x" are better than those in specialty "y," this department vs. that, claiming all non-floor nurses aren't "real" nurses (ex-managers, nurse educators, etc), new grad vs experienced, the list is endless.

For such a "helping, caring" profession, some devote so much time and energy to infighting it's a real wonder anything else is accomplished.

I could not have said this better! Thank you for stating this.

Some people on here - especially OLDER nurses - think you know s**t all because 'you have only been a RN for 2 or 1 years'. I myself have worked in very hectic, hospital/medical type jobs for 26 years and have done jobs where I could run rings around some older nurses.

If I had posted this, I would have had a message 'reprimanding' me in private, or an older nurse slagging me off 'because you only have 2 years experience and don't know anything'.

Do not judge people by their posts until you get to know them - or email them and find out the REAL story first.

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Specializes in LTC.

It makes my head explode when someone is up to their armpits in BM and the other CNA doesn't want to put them in the shower. Hmmm let's see... we could spend 20 minutes mucking up a TON of linens by pushing BM around all over the person's body, then another 5 rinsing out all those linens... OR, we could pop them on a shower chair, spend 90 seconds rinsing the poop down the drain and then use like, 2 washcloths to soap them up. That whole process would be a lot faster and easier, not to mention a LOT more hygienic, but no, let's just be stubborn about not ever putting someone in a shower if it's not their *shower day.*

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Specializes in Cardiology.

People treating me like I'm incompetent because I look young, and constantly commenting on it. "You look like you're 12... how old are you? Really?? Are you sure you're not a student?" You look like you're rude.

And people always assuming I'm "just scared" because I'm a new grad. I called a REV (RRT, rapid response, whatever) the other day on a patient who was suddenly lethargic and not following commands or responding to me. I called in another nurse and she was also unable to fully wake the patient, who kept whispering "I'm dying, I'm dying". The team got there and he woke up and seemed "fine" again so they said we're probably not going to do anything, and they understand I "just got scared because it's hard being new". Turns out that patient had a massive MI.

Then I asked a tech to try a blood draw for me because I missed it twice and said "thanks for helping out, I guess I'm just having an off day." To which she responded, "You're just scared, that's why you can't get it." I'm not "scared" of a blood draw. Bite me :)

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

Families/patiets who keep asking: when will the doctor be in, what time does he/she get here? When will he come and see me? It's a valid question, but I kept repeatedly saying one night, I don't know, the doctor doesn't tell us when he comes in, in private hospitals, sometimes they do rounds at night, sometimes in the morning & it also depends upon their operating schedule. I felt like saying: I wish I had a Bat Phone and I could ring him whenever I wanted!

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.
This has happened twice this week. Get to work at 1835, not even on the clock yet but off going nurse wants me to go ahead and do the narc count now so she can get out of there and go home. Next morming, same nurse is 10 minutes late, holds up report even more while she gets all her stuff together, them sits talking to her coworkers after report instead of getting her butt out to the desk and doing chart checks. This in spite of a few pointed comments that people who work nights have homes to go to as well.

Do you work at the same place I do? I've GOT to leave by 7:15am (which is the end of our shift for nights)during the week to be able to make it home on time to get my son to school by 8:20am. We live too close to the school for him to take the bus and he is also too young to walk. Very RARELY do things happen at the end of my shift that cause ME to get out late.

I get out late because my coworker takes TOO DANG LONG to give report on ONE PATIENT! SHE TOOK 15 minutes the other day to give report on ONE PT who had been in our ward for over a week!!!! This after the fact that the day babes take their good old fashioned time walking in the ward, getting their stuff ready, etc. Once I give report, I'm OUT THE DOOR! I don't care if they want to sit around the report desk and chit chat. They can hear the phone ringing in the report room. As well as the call bells, tele alarms and IV alarms.

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smoking breaks....5 or 6 times a shift.... for 10 mins........ on top of a 30 min. meal break.... AND THIS HOSPITAL IS A NO SMOKING CAMPUS!!!!!!!

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smoking breaks....5 or 6 times a shift.... for 10 mins........ on top of a 30 min. meal break.... AND THIS HOSPITAL IS A NO SMOKING CAMPUS!!!!!!!

I once told my old boss that I should start smoking so I can get guaranteed breaks. :devil:

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