What grinds your gears about your coworkers?

Red Kryptonite · Jan 18, 2015

People whose gears are grinded by the idiosyncrasies of my nursing practice grind my gears.

You're throwing off the groove.

BD-RN, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

I absolutely HATE it when a pt is NPO and my coworkers document "0" as the oral intake labeled "NPO". Seriously? Just unnecessary.
What grinds your gears?

I got dinged for that in a chart audit. The auditor said I needed to write 0 for PO intake and make a comment about NPO. Seriously?! Maybe at the beginning of my shift, but not every four hours! The MD is going to understand why the patient had 0 PO intake! At least, I would hope so!

jojo489 · Jan 18, 2015

I can't say I hate any of my coworkers, because I don't. What I do hate, though, is that they see me as lazy and incompetent and try to point it out often because I'm half their age and I choose to work 11-7. I often find notes that I leave thrown away, and get half questioned and half accused of whether I'm doing my assigned things at night. Which really bothers me because I'm not lazy and I'm definitely no incompetent. I'm also nowhere near a liar so I'm certainly not signing for things I've not completed.

But I kind of walked into this job expecting this because I know the stigma of 11-7. I've worked all shifts so...ya know.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

Coworkers who try to wiggle their way out of doing work--for one excuse or another. They "didn't know" is a common excuse. But when someone tells them what to do, they still don't do it! The real reason might be they are lazy!! But they hide behind saying things like they won't do it until a supervisor tells them. I hate to call any nurse lazy, but d@mn!!! I stopped telling people what the procedures are and just tell the supervisor.

I'm just waiting for the sh@t to hit the fan after a bad outcome.

Seems the (new) supervisors don't want to write anyone up or have direct conversations with them.

I'm just trying to cover my orifice....and the orifices of anyone who at least tries to do their due diligence.

As far as the others....... I have to just sit on my hands and close my mouth and duck my head down so I can sip my tea like Kermit!! Cuz what they don't do is "none of my business"

Nurse_Lily, RN · Jan 18, 2015

I'm still curious as to why you HATE when your co-workers chart a "0" under intake on NPO patients. Does it cause a difficulty for you or is it just that it's not the way you would do it?

I find it redundant and unnecessary. Like I posted originally. Not the way I would do it. We are entitled to our own opinions and entitled to rant/vent, are we not? Then I think I'm allowed to post a vent, like a pp has stated. Thanks for caring!

I got dinged for that in a chart audit. The auditor said I needed to write 0 for PO intake and make a comment about NPO. Seriously?! Maybe at the beginning of my shift, but not every four hours! The MD is going to understand why the patient had 0 PO intake! At least, I would hope so!

Wow. No way? I understand charting a 0 when we are monitoring output such as N/OGT, JP, hemovacs, wound vacs, etc, and there's literally nothing coming out. Or maybe when the pt isn't NPO and they refuse to eat anything (which would warrant a notification to MD at least). That's crazy that you were dinged for that. I enter NPO under diet with my assessment. We just switched to EMR in November so I wonder when we will get comments on auditing.

Nurse_Lily, RN · Jan 18, 2015

People whose gears are grinded by the idiosyncrasies of my nursing practice grind my gears.

:cheeky:

anon456, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

OP-- I will often document zero under I&O if a patient did not go to the bathroom. This is especially true for diapered patients. It shows I checked their diaper (hygiene needs) and it was dry (I&O). I will also chart "checked diaper, dry" under hygiene to show I didn't just let them sit in it for two more hours.

I do not agree that you should be required to chart 0 PO intake for someone who is NPO. That seems to be insulting to the intelligence of the nurse.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

It grinds my gears when I have a vented patient and a non-vented patient, and day shift chose to bathe the vented, sedated patient. So, if I bathe the vented patient at 0400 nobody gets woken up, but the day nurse decided it makes more sense to wake up a sleeping, non-vented patient in the middle of the night instead. Sleep is my pet peeve because I have such bad insomnia myself. I only wake sleeping people at night when I have to. A bath is not an emergency. It should not be a reason to bother people who are trying to sleep.

edmia, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

1. Dirty rooms: yes, add me to that list.

2. When people copy the previous assessment without actually checking the patient and incorrect information is charted for 5 shifts in a row before I come along and chart reality.

Sent from my iPhone -- blame all errors on spellcheck

Red Kryptonite · Jan 18, 2015

It grinds my gears when I have a vented patient and a non-vented patient, and day shift chose to bathe the vented, sedated patient.

I'm a night shifter too, and when all the A&O's get left for me to bathe, it gets me pretty upset, mostly because I know I'm going to get crap in the morning about why more baths weren't done. A&O people want to bathe in the daytime and usually refuse when I ask or try.

When I worked in the hospital the rules clearly stated that the confused and less responsive patients were to be bathed on night shift. One thing where they showed some common sense.

anon456, BSN, RN · Jan 18, 2015

I'm a night shifter too, and when all the A&O's get left for me to bathe, it gets me pretty upset, mostly because I know I'm going to get crap in the morning about why more baths weren't done. A&O people want to bathe in the daytime and usually refuse when I ask or try.
When I worked in the hospital the rules clearly stated that the confused and less responsive patients were to be bathed on night shift. One thing where they showed some common sense.

In my peds hospital the infants get bathed at night and the bigger kids get bathed during the day. Same principle.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jan 18, 2015

We're in the middle of RSV season in the Peds ICU world - and every darned night I start my shift by emptying an overflowing hamper jam-packed with used yellow isolation gowns. Arghhh.......