What's your weird quirk?

teeniebert, LPN · Jan 18, 2012

I may be the only nurse at my facility who USES the pull-up flags on the MAR dividers. On some floors there is only 1 flag per divider, so I use a post-it note to flag the 2nd med pass. I just love looking at the MAR and being able to tell how much work I've done and how much I have left. The best thing ever is when there are 4 flags--yellow for abx, red for qshift charting, and the other 2 for med passes.

The med cart has to be set up just so. Some nurses turn the MAR around when they move from one side of the cart to the other, but I can't...I'd have to move the water pitcher, pill crusher, applesauce cups, cans of Ensure, and my clipboard as well. It's easier to just walk around and back.

One I've just noticed recently (but probably have been doing all along) is when drawing up insulin I always rest my pinky on the 'shoulder' of the vial while inserting the needle into the top. Maybe it helps steady my hand, maybe not...but I'm trying to stop doing it. I really don't want to stab myself by accident.

sweet~revenge · Jan 18, 2012

This is really weird because I've never had any cause to do it, but one of my biggest quirks is that I always draw up iv pain meds in front of the patient. Some nurses will draw it up outside of the room, waste the proper amount, then go in the room and administer. I want the patient to witness me opening a fresh vial of pain med, drawing up their pain meds from that vial, and administering it to them. On the other hand, I don't like to waste in front of them because of a secret fear that they're going to think I'm not giving them the prescribed amount. Therefore if I have to waste, I only draw up what I need,administer it, and waste the rest with another nurse outside the room.

I think it has to do with the fact that I worked in restaurants for years while going through college and the restaurant motto is that "perception is everything." For example, if a waiter washed their hands at the back sink before preparing food but a customer couldn't see it, the perception is that the waiter came up and started handling food without washing their hands. Then you get customer complaints about something that isn't true but can cause a whole lot of trouble.

I'm weird, I know :)

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Jan 19, 2012

I can not stand the sound a tooth makes when you pull it.

But I will knock people out of the way to sew somebody up. Or start an IV. Or draw blood. If others can't get it and I can, for some goofy reason it just thrills the stuffing outta me.

Another quirk that I have developed at my new job (we dispense controlled diet meds) is to show the patient the bottle, have them verify the dose, and then open the bottle in front of them and verify that it is sealed. we've had several that have taken half the meds out, then call and complain that the bottle was open and try to get a free replacement.

Neferet · Feb 1, 2012

I pre-prime all my flushes.

When I prime my lines, I cannot stand any bubbles. I will stand there and flick it until there is none. I really hate it when I step out the door and the IV pump is beeping already!

Watching people eat chips in the nurses' station makes me wanna vomit. Oh yeah, and especially after they just came back from a code brown. I seriously have to force myself to eat anything with my hands even in the cafeteria. Most times, I eat things that can be eaten with the fork or spoon, and refuse finger foods. Even though I've washed my hands...sometimes I have to wash them 2 to 3 times before I'll go to the cafeteria.

The ICU monitors right next door drive me NUTS! And I will always keep peek my head out the hall just to make sure it's none of mines.

Nurses who come to work with a cough. What the? I try not to breath, and pretend to be done charting, and walk out. Even if someone sneezes, it's like my nostrils know that there are little germy particles out to attack them.

I don't like standing alone in a room with a dead person. Gives me the willies too.

I don't like shortcuts. I stick to the protocols, and go through the steps. OCD at times...lol.

I wash my hands before using the restroom. Hey, you never know what you'll be wiping yourself with.

Here's a weird one.

I can't stand the smell of some people with Hep C and liver dysfunction. Makes me nauseous. I can smell it in their sweat, breath, skin, and poop. I've seen this in two of my patients, and it's the same smell.

Aurora77 · Feb 1, 2012

[/left]
ha! that's me! if i hang the bag, i know exactly what to program it for so it runs to the last drop. 1050ml! it drives me nuts when other nurses program it for like 900 "so it doesn't run dry." it won't.

that's funny. i can't stand when the previous nurse sets the pump for the exact amount of the bag. it always runs dry, then i have to go get a syringe, back prime all the air into it and then go on. nothing like doing that in the middle of the night to drive me batty. plus, i get the fun of the iv pump beeping which is crazy-inducing on its own.

i also have to have my med cart set up just right. if i float to another floor, i'll find myself reaching for things that aren't there, because the carts are different.

nursefrances, BSN, RN · Feb 3, 2012

My left hand is my "sterile" hand after being washed and I start to eat. If I have to pause, my left hand is sticking up in the air like I'm getting ready to perform surgery.
I wash my hands before going to the restroom.
I ALWAYS have to empty a urinal b/c I can't stand the smell of pee and I can just see it being spilled on the floor.
I clean up everytime I go into a patient's room. I can't stand balled up used tissues/urinals/5 used cups/spoiled food (that the eldery may not realize that's spoiled and may eat) on the bedside table that said person eats off of and doesn't get cleaned until day of discharged....or until I show up.
I smile to stop my gag reflex when emptying a bucket of vomit....the entire time.
Yeah, I'm weird. lol[/quote
Ha..Ha.. I wash my hands before using the restroom too.
When I am at work, I WILL NOT rub my eyes, scratch my nose, or bite my nails.
I can't stand it when someone leaves the dynamap vitals machine on and beeping in the hall, or they are getting report and it is on a beeping and they ignore it. I will ask them if I can turn it off. (How do they not hear it?)
And I am funny about clean hands and eating too. One time a travel nurse who worked in my unit sat at the lunch table with me during lunch. She was eating chicken or some other finger food with sauce and she sucked on/licked her fingers(one at a time-slurp-slurp-slurp..) a few times while eating. It drove me bonkers. ]

rnsrgr8t · Feb 3, 2012

Nurses are a quirky bunch aren't we???....

Here are mine...the mornings I come to work and have office time and do not have patients scheduled, I have the same routine each day.... 1) lock up my purse, check my work email and schedule, go to the bathroom and pee (if I don't I have to pee like 30 minutes later) go down and get a big cup of ice water in the cafeteria, go through all the faxes, review my charts I need to finish/patients I need to call etc. If I do not do it in that order... I feel all discombobulated. If I do not pee, I am up from my desk like 30 minutes later. Now if I have to be in clinic... my routine goes out the window and then for some reason I am fine and can go all morning and not pee. so weird.

We go through a lot of paper in my clinic (the secretaries print up their last visit for us) so I always am swimming in paper by the end of the day. I have to have work area set up in a particular way. Pile of papers I am done with and that need to be shredded to the right of my computer monitor, patient records, labs that have to be scanned in to the EMR to the left of my monitor, my clipboard to the left of my keyboard, cup of water to the right of my keyboard. We have like 6 computers down in clinic but I like a particular one in the corner.

When I give IM shots in the thigh, I always use the left thigh...have no idea why.

When I am cathing an infant, I bring in the 5 french and 8 french kits....always...although I almost always use the 8 but for whatever reason I have to both of them with me just in case.

I have to wash my hands if front of my patients/families. Even though we have sinks and hand sanitizer outside the exam rooms, I want them to see me actually do it.

Hand sanitizer does not make my hands feel clean. Have to use soap and water.

Cannot stand dinamaps...like doing BP's the old fashioned way.

My cat just got diagnosed with diabetes. The thought of giving him insulin without knowing his BG was freaking me out so I went out and got a cheap walgreens glucometer and use it before I give him his insulin. In animals they give shots and sticks without using alcohol and it took me FOREVER to get used to not alcoholing his skin before I stuck. I still have to wipe the insulin bottle with an alcohol wipe before I draw up his insulin...just cannot do it without wiping it down.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Feb 3, 2012

I sympathy cough a lot with a patient that has a good roaring Respiratory infecion.

allnurses Guide · Feb 3, 2012

I absolutely, positively, HAVE to have some sort of coffee or coffee drink prior to starting work, and I must drink it in the car on the way to work. Drinking it before leaving the house just will not do. When I worked only blocks from my house, I drank my drink after I arrived to work but it just wasn't the same. Now I work 30 minutes from home; all is well again. =)

To follow that last paragraph... I must have no less than a 15 minute commute to work, or I just simply am not happy.

Jenni811, RN · Feb 3, 2012

i can't stand a messy IV pole. If there are fluids that have been hanging there, or tubing is tangled i make it my daily mission to untangle the patient's IV tubing. i work in a step down unit, so sometimes we get patients who need two "brains" and there will be 8+ drips going. and i'm ALWAYS labeling each and everyone. No IV tubing will ever cross unless absolutely necessary.

or what is even worse is when the patient is just on Normal Saline and they have insulin hanging for days, dopamine, cardizem, levo, 4 different antibiotics, vit. K, magnesium, protonix and the list goes and and on. (i just made up that list of medications, whatever came to mind!)

joanna73, BSN, RN · Feb 3, 2012

I don't like doing nail care. Something about dirty, misshapen or uneven nails just creeps me out. But I don't mind vomit, poo, phlegm, or blood. Go figure.

DookieMeisterRN · Feb 3, 2012

I always have to recap the used (needleless) syringe immediately after using before I can hook another up to the IV. I absolutely cannot stand to find little plastic caps in my pts bed, floor, bedside table etc. I am a neat freak at work, cleaning my pts rooms, wiping off bedside tables, picking scraps of paper off floors (straw wrappers and tossed gloves are my #1 enemy), untangling IV lines and/or tele wires, wiping out the sink, emptying trash/linen, throwing out used med cups, wiping any splashes off toilet seat, straightening blankets, folding washcloths/towels. It's funny when the pt stinks to high heaven and refuses to bathe but they have the cleanest room.I'm a total clusterf**k unorganized mess at home. My co-workers would be amazed at how orderly I present myself/work area if they saw how disorderly my personal space/life really is.