What is your crazy?

[mikethemurse]

So my father, an nurse for 38+ yrs always says, and I believe it to be true that we in order to be able to do this job have to be just a little neurotic...that being said what are your crazy little things that make you a good nurse? Here are some of mine:

1. I'm a bit of a control freak, I have to know what is going on at all times in my medical dept.

2. Pen collector (thief)

3. I have to have my things organized, and if someone "helps me out" and does it (wrong to my standard) I go back and fix it. Ex: If someone sets out my diabetic supplies but doesn't line up the etoh pads in the right rows or amounts.

4. I make check boxes for tasks during my shift, and check them off as they are completed. (god save the person who thows that list in the trash) also use it for report.

and there are so many more...but I want to hear yours, mostly so I feel less crazy.

[amoLucia]

On The Learning Channel/AE Hoarder shows, they show hoarders who collect barrels and barrels of pens.

[VampyrSlayer, CNA]

My husband is a pen collector, too. If he goes to a conference where freebie pens are given out, God help us all! He will come home with a BAG full. I hate it. I am an neat freak and whatever the opposite of a pack rat is. I probably give a quart sized ziplock bag full of pens to Goodwill twice a year. It frustrates me but makes me laugh, too. Whenever I know he is going to a conference I beg him not to bring home anymore pens. I tell him that there is a household moratorium on free pens. Don't even get me started on the little bottles of hand sanitizer that he gets at those conferences.

Why don't I just throw them out? Well, that brings me to another thing that is one of my "crazies". I get anxious when I throw away non-biodegradable items. I MUST recycle anything that can possibly be recycled. I have been known to carry used plastic bottles/cans home to put them in my recycle bin if I can't find a recycle bin to throw them in. I will put the smallest little bits of paper into the recycle. If I have an envelope with the little plastic windows, I will tear the little window out so that I can put it in the recycle bin. I wash out Starbucks cups so that I can recycle them. If I think about landfills I get super anxious!

I do the same thing! I'm forever bringing home bottles and cans if there are no recycle bins around

[CathRN]

Oh my, it seems like I'm OCD and share traits with most of the posters here. Even though I don't work in the hospital setting, my brain sheet is a MUST! I can't function without it. And yes, I catch a lot of "flak" about it.

[GodIs082010, ASN, RN]

I like this post. One of my things is , if I lose a pen cap I no longer use / carry the pen. This is why I like clicky pens. I hate pens that no longer have its proper top lol. I know weird!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

'Clicky' ballpoint pens for me too; no capped ones.

But you know what? In spite of the things I do that I've posted here that I do, I don't consider myself to be OCD !

I'm just a nice person that does a few things that need doing; I'm glad to help people out in a bunch of little ways.

I can live just fine by adapting, without a lot of anxiety. It's cool.

If I have certain preferences, or prefer to do things a certain way, that doesn't make me OCD.

I'm just a human being , and as many people as there are in the world, that's as many ways as there are of doing things.

[wanderlustnurse88, RN]

I can't stand if the desk is messy. If the doctor has written orders on a whole bunch of pts, I check to make sure it isn't a stat order and then out the chart back and work on them one at a time. I may have papers over my section of the desk, but it is organized and I know where they are.

[CamillusRN, BSN]

I tend to get anal about unlabeled/tangled IV lines and equipment cords. IMHO, it all comes down to basic patient safety, but others seem to think it's fun to sort through the jungle vines to find the appropriate port for a highly interactive STAT IV push...

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I tend to get anal about unlabeled/tangled IV lines and equipment cords. IMHO, it all comes down to basic patient safety, but others seem to think it's fun to sort through the jungle vines to find the appropriate port for a highly interactive STAT IV push...

My facility requires us to label EVERYTHING - you'd like it. A line has to be labeled with what it is right where it connects into the IV/another line. The line has to be labeled again at the top near where it connects to the bag with when it was put up and when it expires. The IV bags have to also be labeled with when they went up and when they expire.