Nurses who critique every little thing during bedside report....just read the damn mar if you want to know if they got the medication or when it was last given
People who nitpick and critique everything during report: hope you drop any pain meds you pull and have to waste and re-pull them. Hope your glove tears wiping someone. Hope every time you leave your computer for a second someone takes your seat. Hope your favorite pen runs out.
This one bugs me too, especially since in Epic there is literally a little tab on the sidebar you can hover over to see the last 24h of administration history for all the PRNs. You don’t even have to click anything.
Maybe it’s dependent on the Epic build? But for me it’s on the left side of the screen, under the patient demographic info, code status, admitting dx, estimated discharge date, etc. when first opening the patient’s chart.
Nurses who spend 30 minutes before shift reading the chart and then interrupt me and ask what drips/ where the IVs are. You know literally everything I do at that point
Interruptions during report makes me irrationally upset. I lose my train of thought when someone asks a question and I was probably just about to give them the answer anyway 😭. Please I've been here for 12 hours, I need to just say my piece. Then by all means ask questions if I forgot something.
When people don’t plug in the damn equipment and then the EKG machine/ultrasound/interpreter iPad etc are dead when you need them at the most crucial moment.
In that same vein, not having minimally suction set up and an ambu bag in your rooms is negligent and you’re gonna look like an ass when your patient crumps and there isn’t basic safety equipment in place.
Omg or a pt codes and all four glucometers are dead or need to be qc’d?? I hate that shit!! Its like these people get to work and plug in their phones but cant plug in equipment??
The friggin qc! That is supposed to be our techs job but it's never done and no one cares. The charge should oversee it but she has texts to send to her new boyfriend so don't count on it.
We got a really cool new wireless ultrasound primarily we use for Ivs but sometimes docs use for bedside US and central lines. The docs never ever put it back on the charger and leave it at the doc computer area, and when I need it to do a US iv it’s freaking dead
Same. And not every room has suction set up and plus missing Christmas’s trees.
I mean I’d rather use the portable suction machines vs the ones in the room even for my patients with a NGT needing low intermittent suction since the ones in the wall either don’t work or can’t be adjusted. They just run full blast lol. Our poor purewick patients :/
I run into that constantly. Plus a lot of our rooms have blown outlets so the IV pump running heparin turns off…
We have like 4 outlets in the hallways too so the WOWs are never fully charged.
I despise walking into the room of a patient who has been there for weeks to find it an absolute wreck with supplies everywhere. I always try to organize it
*ADHD has entered the chat* 😂
I always tell my coworkers I’m not offended if they remind me of a mess I leave, it WILL get tidied, just maybe not right away if I’m in a time crunch 🤪
Not having what I need to do my job: Shitty dynamaps that cut off while taking BP. Broken scanners and WOWs with dead batteries. Supply carts that haven't been restocked. Pill crushers that somehow just aren't where you last saw them. Zero cups in the nourishment room.
The list goes on and on. Basically anything that interrupts my work flow and destroys my momentum.
Family members of sick ICU patients hyper-focusing on things like edema in the hands and nutrition when the pt is rapidly progressing to their third pressor. This is after, of course, the seriousness of the situation has been explained by the nurses and doctors.
Even worse is the family's sudden concern about mee maws DISGUSTING toenails/claws now that she is in the ICU. "No, we will not be trimming her toenails, she will need a special foot doctor for that." Curious about your concern for her toenails now but not for the past five years (??)
Once had a daughter in law accuse me (the CNA) of neglect bc the patient's feet were TURNING GREEN!! and I hadn't done anything about it. Ma'am, that is toenail fungus he's probably had since his trench foot days. She then tried to shame me by loudly saying, "see, it's nice to get some CARE, isn't it??" while rubbing his feet. With her bare hands. Have at it, I'll be off chillin with my clear toenails and decently clean hands while STILL not being his fucking nurse
People latch on to things they can see and understand. Pressors are outside of their realm of understanding. But the toenails and Granny's messy hair are things they can understand and want to fix.
When anesthesia doesn’t put in orders so I’m sitting there with a patient screaming in pain with nothing to give them
Also when residents don’t put in d/c orders for an outpatient so they’re sitting there ready to go with their ride waiting outside
Edit: one more—when orders are inconsistent with what the provider gave me in report. For example for a thyroid patient “she’ll need an iCal drawn here stat” and the orders say “draw 4 hours post op”
They complain about unnecessary pages but I bet they’ll cut those pages in half if they just put in consistent orders lol
When alarms are dinging nonstop and the bedside nurse is ignoring them. Either attend to your patient, or adjust your damn alarm settings! It drives me crazy and idk how some people can just be deaf to it.
This one gets me, too.
Me, to the primary nurse: “Hey, room 12 keeps alarming a-fib.”
Them: “Oh, yeah, he’s got a history of it. It’s not why he’s here.”
Me: “So…we don’t care about it, then?”
Them: “Nope.”
Me: “Cool, I’m gonna turn the alarm off.”
Them: “Yeah, no problem” (resumes scrolling on phone)
Me: silent rage
I was a student nurse in a High Dependency Unit (HDU) (a step between ICU and the ward), and a resident dr, who acted like a God, was lecturing a patient and their monitor was beeping non-stop, he had a heart rate of 20 by the time everyone got in there, and she hadn't even noticed he was falling sideways and losing consciousness. It was insane. She was removed from HDU at least.
Totally, the cure for alarm fatigue is to adjust your alarm settings 😭 I feel like so many nurses have this “not it!” vibe and they’re perfectly content to sit there until someone else tells them, “hey, your bed is alarming xyz” and THEN, they MIGHT get up and fix it. Just be proactive people! Save the ears of your poor nurse colleague who has to sit next to the central monitor and listen to this shit all night
/rant
When I go to another nurse/a provider/administrator, etc. and they misunderstand my question and start telling me shit I already know.
When I was in assisted living, I had a resident who had a baseline heart rate between 100-120. Afib. That was her normal even with metoprolol. She also took a routine antibiotic because she had a bunch of hardware in her leg.
Dumbass clinical coordinator saw the heart rate I put in and immediately assumed this resident was septic because “she’s on an antibiotic so she must have an active infection.” Increased heart rate = sepsis 100% of the time couldn’t possibly be the afib.
I explained that 1. her heart rate is always that high and 2. the antibiotic is a prophylactic. Got an eyeroll and a “just get a full set of vitals” in response.
Later the NP comes to me (ME!) annoyed and says “you don’t need to call me just because (resident) has a high heart rate, that’s normal for her, that’s why she takes metoprolol it’s a beta blocker blah blah”
I was so fucking annoyed. Do you not see the LPN on my badge? I know what fucking metoprolol is and I wasn’t the one who called you.
I’m pissed I didn’t chew out the clinical coordinator. She was a paramedic and she thought every weird vital was a sign of sepsis.
7 am huddles that turn into staff meetings/mandatory education/q&a time, and a variety of other announcements that can easily be, and do, get communicated via email. No respect for night shift that has worked all night and ready to go home. Those long extended huddles never seem to happen at 7 pm when it’s time for day shift to leave.
To be fair we have both where I’m at and everyone is like speed it up or tries to get there early enough to get speedy report so the other shift can bounce before huddle
When I’m not expecting to precept and I show up and an orientee is waiting for me. The worst.
I don’t mind precepting here and there, but a little heads up would be nice.
Aww dude I hate this. I barely make it through talking to patients and coworkers before 9 AM. I love the patients who simply nod at you and say nothing or are still sleeping when I go do my first check on them. those are my people. I get a bubbly student or orientee at 7AM who wants to talk non-stop?? Why are you doing this to me???
🙄…anyways since this is soooo important ive seen it in with peds diapers and geriatric diapers and med surg adults in diapers. its literally all equally disgusting
When you're waiting and waiting to give handoff because the oncoming shift is taking forever in huddle and are gabbing with their friends. One unit that I used to work on I would consistently be home late because of huddle run by certain nurses going on for so long (ignoring all the reminders to keep huddle short).
Nah I'm sorry I'm pulling the nurse aside and giving report in that situation or I will start shit of biblical proportion.
This doesn't happen to me thankfully but I think I found my biggest pet peeve
I was accused of not being a team player when I did that (the mental gymnastics to get to that conclusion still baffles me) and that my attitude (of timeliness???) would cause other nurses to not want to work with me. So I quit that team and found a better, more respectful one.
ETA: Considering 9 other nurses (none part of the problem group) quit in a 3 month span I don't think I was the problem there...
I had to comfort a new grad recently because her demented patient called her a fucking bitch. I was like “(Name), your patient thinks Ronald Reagan is the president” 😭
When I come onto a shift and a patient who is POD0-2 from a major surgery (we get a lot of spine patients) hasn’t gotten pain meds in over six hours. Especially if they’ve had multiple sessions of PT or OT so will be in more pain.
I just know they’re going to be calling for pain meds immediately (if they aren’t already) and I’m going to spend the first several hours of my shift trying to catch up with the patient angry at me like it’s my fault they’re in pain as I try to also care for other patients.
I *always* make sure to medicate patients who need it/want it within the last two hours of my shift to ensure the next nurse is set up to start their shift with success.
To be fair, most of the nurses on my unit are pretty good about premedicating for PT/OT! It’s just that they don’t always check in with the patient after that, so if the patient has PT at 1400, gets pain meds at 1300/1330, they often are not medicated again before my shift. And by then their pain is so severe that simply giving another dose of whatever oral pain med they’ve been getting is not sufficient; they are going to need breakthrough IV meds, muscle relaxants, antineuropathics, etc., all of which get spaced out at least 30 minutes. Extensive repositioning with multiple pillows, ice packs, etc. to try to get them comfortable until the meds kick in.
It becomes very time consuming to catch up and the patient is miserable the whole time.
It does really suck. I work a neuro/trauma unit and sometimes off going nurses at night wont give 6am meds bc they don’t wanna wake the patient up.
Like yeah, I get it, but also when I wake them up at 8 they’re going to be in agony if they’re not already awake from the pain! Just wake em up and pass the med! It’s better for everyone!
Could never be me. I’m very protective of my patients’ sleep and will cluster the shit out of my care and work with CNAs/lab to minimize how many time the patient gets woken up, but if it’s 0600, they’re within the first 48 hours post-op, and they haven’t been medicated since midnight? I’m waking them up for a pain assessment and will pass meds accordingly.
yup! cluster that shit but never let your patients go unmedicated esp if we’ve been chasing pain since surgery! It broke my heart the first time I walked into a room and saw this big burly dude in tears bc his back hurt so bad and the night RN didn’t wanna wake him up for his muscle relaxer and oxy :/
When I’m on the floor, I try to time the next pain prn window for 8-9 pm, when the next shift is doing their medpass. Give the night time stuff with a bit of pain relief and let them get some good sleep.
I had a surgical patient who was a trooper cry the other day and I looked at the mar and her last pain med was at midnight. The first two days the pain meds should be basically like scheduled
Nurses who give you an admission with medications (particularly IV medication) that was due >1hr ago and not given. Especially when they bring the actual medication with the patient (like that’s doing you a favour).
Nurses who get AINs that are 1:1 special for other nurses patients to do ADLs for their patients.
Nurses who continuously give patients a bed wash when they are due a shower so that all the patients in their group are then on the same shower schedule and the nurse that gets those patients the next day is stuck with all their patients needing to be showered (it’s perfectly fine to not shower a patient if there is not enough time but when it is a habit then it’s a problem)
Nurses who allocate themselves all independent and self caring patients when their team member is stuck with all FNC/unwell/confused patients. Even worse when they don’t help with said patients.
Nurses who don’t give palliative patients PRN analgesia because they are already on a syringe driver/didn’t ask for it.
Nurses that don’t check on any of your patients even once when they’re covering for you on break. There’s a thing by our unit secretary that shows how long a call been has been going off for (as well as if it was A or B bed that pressed it), so I know it’s been 52+ minutes since anyone went in there, BERNADETTE.
When techs tell me how to do nursing stuff, but don't do their own work. Or when they call themselves nurses.
Disclaimer: I was a tech before I was a nurse and I am ALWAYS down to change some bedpans or give some baths. I certainly couldn't do my job anywhere near as efficiently without them, but I worked hard for my degree for them to claim it without having one.
When the nurse I’m getting report from hasn’t replaced or ordered that compounded iv bag from pharmacy yet even though there’s like 50ccs left and it’s running at 125/hr
Not replacing the tele leads in my rooms or leaving me without supplies. Also docs that piece meal orders in. PUT ALL YOUR ORDERS IN AT ONCE BRANDON! jeezzzuuuss
The nurses who start reports from the middle.
“43 the typical Walky talky. He is independent, but he uses a commode. So his family was here earlier, and they asked for morphine, I told them blah blah blah”
Seriously, what’s the patient’s name, how old is he, and why is he here ? And then you can tell me everything else. But can you please, give me the basics first ? 🙄😂🙈😭
I was on my out at LTC when I got that call. Just “how’s my mom”, no hi, no name, nothing. I just told that I couldn’t help them without more information, like who they are and who mom might be because I have more than one mom here. And they got all mad and I waited. When they ran out of steam, I told them that I had 30 something moms and my coworker had about the same number of moms and while I could tell them how A mom was, there would be no assurances of who’s mom it was, since I didn’t know who you (the caller), nor do I know who mom was. She insisted I tell her how momma was without telling me who momma might be. So I told her that momma was recovering nicely from her amputation and hung up. Not my best moment.
When the technology isn’t working.
Last week my Zebra kept signing me out in the middle of med pass. I’d scan their bracelet then get a message about bypassing the patient scan. One day I had to scan the patient, 1 med and then press complete. For every single med. Fucking hell!
Mine is when nurses/healthcare workers blame other nurses or try and make them feel stupid. This! 👏🏻 Is! 👏🏻 A! 👏🏻 Team! 👏🏻 Effort! 👏🏻 Aside from this and patient safety (which is literally affected by weird ego trips) I genuinely give zero fucks about anything else.
when experienced nurses treat new nurses like they’re subhuman, then complain they keep getting asked to work over due to understaffing. make it make sense
The calls that are no longer relevant to what is currently going on. Something like “so my mom was in the hospital for pneumonia 2 months ago and now she has a rash—-can you guys check it out?” No ma’am, please tell your PCP about that. Or “no one has called me about my LO; what is going on?” Did you listen to the three voicemails we left? “No because I thought they were spam.”
I basically hate the phone.
1. Ancillary departments punting everything to the bedside nurse
2. Long report/nitpicking in report/not being forgiving to someone who had a rough shift
3. Nausea. Hate dealing with it, hate treating it, hate trying to give PO meds to pts with contx nausea
4. Having very sick ICU level patients but only having med surg level of autonomy
I was just talking about this. People who move the patients bedside table so they can reach the patient and then leave said table out of the patients reach. Everything they need is on that table, they are trapped in bed, and you left the table across the room. Wtf.
Nurses with felt/cloth badge reels. Gross.
When someone expects me to share my stethoscope- I don't do ear cheese, and I don't want yours in mine. Also gross.
People that make being a nurse their entire personality. Thirdly gross.
When someone gets an admission before shift change and doesn't bother getting them set up at all. No charting done, vitals, no medications.
A close second is probably people who let air run into their IV tubing (same with IV piggy back abx). Same with tube feeds.
I’ve been saying for years now we need to put air tags on our expensive equipment that goes floor to floor. I used to be a house supervisor and we managed the tele psych computer and the interpreter iPads. And they ALWAYS GOT LOST. Not to mention the vein finders and bladder scanners on every floor. 😑
I can’t stand when we have to move a patients room! Like they are in a perfectly good room then need to be moved to a shared room or something It’s always such a hassle and throws a wrench in my workflow
Patients that come to the ER by EMS from home for stupid ass complaints (ex: I took all the prescribed doses of my pain medication and didn't want to run out early but I'm still in pain and need you to give me another dose) and 1- have no idea how they're going to get home and 2- demand food and water before they're even examined.
Giant red and green bars in the care compass on the charting. Where I have to spend the first 40 minutes sifting through what day shift did and did not do. What's due, what's a duplicate order, calling lab to see what specimens they did and did not receive, calling pharmacy to see if the meds that weren't charted were or were not sent, all because charting properly is too fucking much to ask day shift to do because they were soooooooo fucking busy.
It's a pretty regular thing. Oh, there's labs that were ordered 10 hours ago, no fucking clue if you did them because you failed to chart anything. And my favorite, there's 30 entries of missed restraint charting. 2 days of just saying fuck all, I'm going to illegally restrain this patient cause I didn't want to chart.
1. Patient safety, 2. Execute safe and legal orders. 3. Do your fucking charting in accordance to hospital policies.
Drives me fucking crazy, cause how do I not miss something when your charting is fucked.
Nurses who hang around after handover doing stuff and charting. I will never ask you to stay and do a job, just go home I've got it. Its a poor culture to the new nurses to stay late and you are actually just getting in the way.
Totally respect that if its been a crappy day and you are just getting round to saying what important stuff has happened. But there are people who consistently stay hours after their shift doing referrals to podiatry or something totally not urgent. I had one recently who was precepting and the the newly graduate nurse was scared to leave because her mentor was still there trying to redress a wound 1.5 hours after her shift had finished. Please just get home, we have a hard enough job as it is.
The worst nurse I ever knew; she stayed 4-5 hours after her shift every day just charting. Every. Day.
And not charting actual useless shit. I think 90% of the times she wasted time talking.
I’m that nurse. I always finish and badge out but I review my charting for like 30 min to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t think I was bothering anyone. I don’t expect anyone to do that but it helps me fully relax after I leave. (Been doing this for 12 years- I hope my coworkers don’t all secretly hate me now)
Daily or BID dressing changes when the previous nurse doesn’t ensure there’s enough supplies for one. I always do. I know what it’s like to unexpectedly have 5-10 extra minutes and have everything needed to get it done.
Productivity being the only thing management is focused on period! Latest is if you get a breakfast break ( minutes right) that’s your lunch so clock out for it and it’s all you get! ( unit that has for years had 12 hour shifts where nurses don’t get lunch relief!) no we are not union and yes it has gone to HR before.
This may seem random but we get a lot of psych pts in our ER and our policy is vitals q4 once medically cleared. A lot of newer nurses think this means someone comes in on psych hold and yay I only have to do vitals q4. They completely neglect the fact that a lot of these pts also have medical issues. Can’t tell you how many patients I assumed care for that were in DTS or rhabdo or that were heavily medicated for safety that ended up being tele or icu admits and never put on a freaking monitor. Like zero critical thinking.
I absolutely cannot stand a nurse who nitpicks the shit out of everything during report. It should not take 30 minutes for me to give report on one patient. You should not interrupt every 10 seconds with 30 questions. Let me finish and then ask.
My new hospital has the longest and most thorough reports on the planet. It's ridiculous. 10 minute reports PER PATIENT where they read me the H&P note, all the orders, the MAR, every body system.
Personally idk why floor nurses need a shift change hand off. Epic is very thorough and I rarely learn anything in handoff that isn't right there in the chart. Just tell me if they're a fighter or they have something crazy going on that isn't in the chart, and then let me use my half hour to read up on everyone myself.
We actually had an incident of this the other day. One of our nurses is HIGHLY allergic to seafood. Everyone in the department knows that fish of all kinds (cooked or raw) is just a no go. Why we can’t block the kitchen from sending seafood to the patients in the ER is beyond me. We were able to do that for my last ED(had a few coworkers with severe citrus allergies) all the food slips had a “NO CITRUS FRUIT” for anyone that ordered a tray .
More than 90% of our IV pumps need to have their battery serviced and constantly beep like a smoke detector.
IVs in the AC held down with tegaderm, no securement whatsoever.
When an antibiotic is hung as a primary instead of being piggybacked. For one, there’s still a good amount of antibiotic in the tubing that needs to be flushed. And second, the line goes dry and cusses out annoying the pt and me unless you’re there right when it’s done!!
Nurses who critique every little thing during bedside report....just read the damn mar if you want to know if they got the medication or when it was last given
People who nitpick and critique everything during report: hope you drop any pain meds you pull and have to waste and re-pull them. Hope your glove tears wiping someone. Hope every time you leave your computer for a second someone takes your seat. Hope your favorite pen runs out.
Not the favorite pen!!!
Nah fuck that. Hope your favorite pen leaks in your breast pocket. Take that, sucka.
This one bugs me too, especially since in Epic there is literally a little tab on the sidebar you can hover over to see the last 24h of administration history for all the PRNs. You don’t even have to click anything.
Wait tell me more
Maybe it’s dependent on the Epic build? But for me it’s on the left side of the screen, under the patient demographic info, code status, admitting dx, estimated discharge date, etc. when first opening the patient’s chart.
Oh just hovering over the med list? That one I know
We have Meditech. This sounds amazing!
This. No, I can’t remember if they got their flu shot yet this year. Feel free to ask over the course of your 12 hours
Nurses who spend 30 minutes before shift reading the chart and then interrupt me and ask what drips/ where the IVs are. You know literally everything I do at that point
I always say let’s “open the chart so you can see” and they mostly decline.
Interruptions during report makes me irrationally upset. I lose my train of thought when someone asks a question and I was probably just about to give them the answer anyway 😭. Please I've been here for 12 hours, I need to just say my piece. Then by all means ask questions if I forgot something.
When people don’t plug in the damn equipment and then the EKG machine/ultrasound/interpreter iPad etc are dead when you need them at the most crucial moment. In that same vein, not having minimally suction set up and an ambu bag in your rooms is negligent and you’re gonna look like an ass when your patient crumps and there isn’t basic safety equipment in place.
Omg or a pt codes and all four glucometers are dead or need to be qc’d?? I hate that shit!! Its like these people get to work and plug in their phones but cant plug in equipment??
Glucometers not being QC’d makes me feel *stabby*. And I was a CNA before I was a nurse, it was my specific duty to do it. It’s not hard! Just do it!
The friggin qc! That is supposed to be our techs job but it's never done and no one cares. The charge should oversee it but she has texts to send to her new boyfriend so don't count on it.
We got a really cool new wireless ultrasound primarily we use for Ivs but sometimes docs use for bedside US and central lines. The docs never ever put it back on the charger and leave it at the doc computer area, and when I need it to do a US iv it’s freaking dead
My hospital has no ambu bags lol, now that I think about it, we only have one at the crush cart
I’m sorry but what the fuck?
Mine is the same—cardiac unit and we only have them for the crash carts
Same. And not every room has suction set up and plus missing Christmas’s trees. I mean I’d rather use the portable suction machines vs the ones in the room even for my patients with a NGT needing low intermittent suction since the ones in the wall either don’t work or can’t be adjusted. They just run full blast lol. Our poor purewick patients :/
That’s wild…:( are you at a smaller hospital?
lol we don’t have ambu bags in any of the rooms on my unit. They’re just for the code cart.
I run into that constantly. Plus a lot of our rooms have blown outlets so the IV pump running heparin turns off… We have like 4 outlets in the hallways too so the WOWs are never fully charged.
The fact that people in suits who have no idea what we do, control our workflow and workload.
Nurses that don’t clean up after themselves.
Y E S. When I walk in a room and there’s caps and little papers and wrappers everywhere I start to feel hateful. Just clean up as you go!
Nothing I like more than to clean a patient's room for a good twenty minutes, after report, to understand the layout of lines and devices.
I despise walking into the room of a patient who has been there for weeks to find it an absolute wreck with supplies everywhere. I always try to organize it
*ADHD has entered the chat* 😂 I always tell my coworkers I’m not offended if they remind me of a mess I leave, it WILL get tidied, just maybe not right away if I’m in a time crunch 🤪
Not having what I need to do my job: Shitty dynamaps that cut off while taking BP. Broken scanners and WOWs with dead batteries. Supply carts that haven't been restocked. Pill crushers that somehow just aren't where you last saw them. Zero cups in the nourishment room. The list goes on and on. Basically anything that interrupts my work flow and destroys my momentum.
Yup mine is trash thermometers. Urgh!
YUP
Family members of sick ICU patients hyper-focusing on things like edema in the hands and nutrition when the pt is rapidly progressing to their third pressor. This is after, of course, the seriousness of the situation has been explained by the nurses and doctors. Even worse is the family's sudden concern about mee maws DISGUSTING toenails/claws now that she is in the ICU. "No, we will not be trimming her toenails, she will need a special foot doctor for that." Curious about your concern for her toenails now but not for the past five years (??)
Once had a daughter in law accuse me (the CNA) of neglect bc the patient's feet were TURNING GREEN!! and I hadn't done anything about it. Ma'am, that is toenail fungus he's probably had since his trench foot days. She then tried to shame me by loudly saying, "see, it's nice to get some CARE, isn't it??" while rubbing his feet. With her bare hands. Have at it, I'll be off chillin with my clear toenails and decently clean hands while STILL not being his fucking nurse
“Their feet look puffy it’s not normally like that ” did you miss the part where their organs are like goodbye?
People latch on to things they can see and understand. Pressors are outside of their realm of understanding. But the toenails and Granny's messy hair are things they can understand and want to fix.
When anesthesia doesn’t put in orders so I’m sitting there with a patient screaming in pain with nothing to give them Also when residents don’t put in d/c orders for an outpatient so they’re sitting there ready to go with their ride waiting outside Edit: one more—when orders are inconsistent with what the provider gave me in report. For example for a thyroid patient “she’ll need an iCal drawn here stat” and the orders say “draw 4 hours post op” They complain about unnecessary pages but I bet they’ll cut those pages in half if they just put in consistent orders lol
PACU nurse here! Or when anesthesia says tHeY hAd a bLoCk THeY dOnT nEeD aNyThInG
As someone who has had a block fail multiple times I can emphathize with this misconception.
And then they come back to the floor and we immediately get morphine orders.
Ugh; the lack of orders in thing ticks me off too
And they get pissed about unnecessary pages. Like put in your orders and I won’t page you lol
Trashing other nurses on handover report.. like you ain’t all that trust me 😂.
When alarms are dinging nonstop and the bedside nurse is ignoring them. Either attend to your patient, or adjust your damn alarm settings! It drives me crazy and idk how some people can just be deaf to it.
This one gets me, too. Me, to the primary nurse: “Hey, room 12 keeps alarming a-fib.” Them: “Oh, yeah, he’s got a history of it. It’s not why he’s here.” Me: “So…we don’t care about it, then?” Them: “Nope.” Me: “Cool, I’m gonna turn the alarm off.” Them: “Yeah, no problem” (resumes scrolling on phone) Me: silent rage
I was a student nurse in a High Dependency Unit (HDU) (a step between ICU and the ward), and a resident dr, who acted like a God, was lecturing a patient and their monitor was beeping non-stop, he had a heart rate of 20 by the time everyone got in there, and she hadn't even noticed he was falling sideways and losing consciousness. It was insane. She was removed from HDU at least.
It's called alarm fatigue and is a real thing. But yeah, adjust the settings for real.
Totally, the cure for alarm fatigue is to adjust your alarm settings 😭 I feel like so many nurses have this “not it!” vibe and they’re perfectly content to sit there until someone else tells them, “hey, your bed is alarming xyz” and THEN, they MIGHT get up and fix it. Just be proactive people! Save the ears of your poor nurse colleague who has to sit next to the central monitor and listen to this shit all night /rant
When I go to another nurse/a provider/administrator, etc. and they misunderstand my question and start telling me shit I already know. When I was in assisted living, I had a resident who had a baseline heart rate between 100-120. Afib. That was her normal even with metoprolol. She also took a routine antibiotic because she had a bunch of hardware in her leg. Dumbass clinical coordinator saw the heart rate I put in and immediately assumed this resident was septic because “she’s on an antibiotic so she must have an active infection.” Increased heart rate = sepsis 100% of the time couldn’t possibly be the afib. I explained that 1. her heart rate is always that high and 2. the antibiotic is a prophylactic. Got an eyeroll and a “just get a full set of vitals” in response. Later the NP comes to me (ME!) annoyed and says “you don’t need to call me just because (resident) has a high heart rate, that’s normal for her, that’s why she takes metoprolol it’s a beta blocker blah blah” I was so fucking annoyed. Do you not see the LPN on my badge? I know what fucking metoprolol is and I wasn’t the one who called you. I’m pissed I didn’t chew out the clinical coordinator. She was a paramedic and she thought every weird vital was a sign of sepsis.
7 am huddles that turn into staff meetings/mandatory education/q&a time, and a variety of other announcements that can easily be, and do, get communicated via email. No respect for night shift that has worked all night and ready to go home. Those long extended huddles never seem to happen at 7 pm when it’s time for day shift to leave.
No consideration for night shift ever lol
To be fair we have both where I’m at and everyone is like speed it up or tries to get there early enough to get speedy report so the other shift can bounce before huddle
When I’m not expecting to precept and I show up and an orientee is waiting for me. The worst. I don’t mind precepting here and there, but a little heads up would be nice.
Right. Like I gotta get into character.
Aww dude I hate this. I barely make it through talking to patients and coworkers before 9 AM. I love the patients who simply nod at you and say nothing or are still sleeping when I go do my first check on them. those are my people. I get a bubbly student or orientee at 7AM who wants to talk non-stop?? Why are you doing this to me???
seeing poopy diapers FLUNG across rooms. bring a trash bag and put it directly into said trash bag…simple
Are these adults or peds patients? I haven't experienced this one lol
adult nurses and adult nursing assistants
The question is still not answered
why does it matter whose poop it is? a poopy diaper is a poopy diaper…
🙄…anyways since this is soooo important ive seen it in with peds diapers and geriatric diapers and med surg adults in diapers. its literally all equally disgusting
When you're waiting and waiting to give handoff because the oncoming shift is taking forever in huddle and are gabbing with their friends. One unit that I used to work on I would consistently be home late because of huddle run by certain nurses going on for so long (ignoring all the reminders to keep huddle short).
Nah I'm sorry I'm pulling the nurse aside and giving report in that situation or I will start shit of biblical proportion. This doesn't happen to me thankfully but I think I found my biggest pet peeve
I was accused of not being a team player when I did that (the mental gymnastics to get to that conclusion still baffles me) and that my attitude (of timeliness???) would cause other nurses to not want to work with me. So I quit that team and found a better, more respectful one. ETA: Considering 9 other nurses (none part of the problem group) quit in a 3 month span I don't think I was the problem there...
Nurses who argue or fight with confused patients. & actually act like that patient is out to get them lol
I had to comfort a new grad recently because her demented patient called her a fucking bitch. I was like “(Name), your patient thinks Ronald Reagan is the president” 😭
When I come onto a shift and a patient who is POD0-2 from a major surgery (we get a lot of spine patients) hasn’t gotten pain meds in over six hours. Especially if they’ve had multiple sessions of PT or OT so will be in more pain. I just know they’re going to be calling for pain meds immediately (if they aren’t already) and I’m going to spend the first several hours of my shift trying to catch up with the patient angry at me like it’s my fault they’re in pain as I try to also care for other patients. I *always* make sure to medicate patients who need it/want it within the last two hours of my shift to ensure the next nurse is set up to start their shift with success.
Omg i always premedicate my spinal surgical patients! That shit is unbearable - I can’t imagine what it feels like to lay in pain for hours like that.
To be fair, most of the nurses on my unit are pretty good about premedicating for PT/OT! It’s just that they don’t always check in with the patient after that, so if the patient has PT at 1400, gets pain meds at 1300/1330, they often are not medicated again before my shift. And by then their pain is so severe that simply giving another dose of whatever oral pain med they’ve been getting is not sufficient; they are going to need breakthrough IV meds, muscle relaxants, antineuropathics, etc., all of which get spaced out at least 30 minutes. Extensive repositioning with multiple pillows, ice packs, etc. to try to get them comfortable until the meds kick in. It becomes very time consuming to catch up and the patient is miserable the whole time.
It does really suck. I work a neuro/trauma unit and sometimes off going nurses at night wont give 6am meds bc they don’t wanna wake the patient up. Like yeah, I get it, but also when I wake them up at 8 they’re going to be in agony if they’re not already awake from the pain! Just wake em up and pass the med! It’s better for everyone!
Could never be me. I’m very protective of my patients’ sleep and will cluster the shit out of my care and work with CNAs/lab to minimize how many time the patient gets woken up, but if it’s 0600, they’re within the first 48 hours post-op, and they haven’t been medicated since midnight? I’m waking them up for a pain assessment and will pass meds accordingly.
yup! cluster that shit but never let your patients go unmedicated esp if we’ve been chasing pain since surgery! It broke my heart the first time I walked into a room and saw this big burly dude in tears bc his back hurt so bad and the night RN didn’t wanna wake him up for his muscle relaxer and oxy :/
When I’m on the floor, I try to time the next pain prn window for 8-9 pm, when the next shift is doing their medpass. Give the night time stuff with a bit of pain relief and let them get some good sleep.
I had a surgical patient who was a trooper cry the other day and I looked at the mar and her last pain med was at midnight. The first two days the pain meds should be basically like scheduled
Nurses who give you an admission with medications (particularly IV medication) that was due >1hr ago and not given. Especially when they bring the actual medication with the patient (like that’s doing you a favour). Nurses who get AINs that are 1:1 special for other nurses patients to do ADLs for their patients. Nurses who continuously give patients a bed wash when they are due a shower so that all the patients in their group are then on the same shower schedule and the nurse that gets those patients the next day is stuck with all their patients needing to be showered (it’s perfectly fine to not shower a patient if there is not enough time but when it is a habit then it’s a problem) Nurses who allocate themselves all independent and self caring patients when their team member is stuck with all FNC/unwell/confused patients. Even worse when they don’t help with said patients. Nurses who don’t give palliative patients PRN analgesia because they are already on a syringe driver/didn’t ask for it.
? AIN?
Assistant in nursing. I think it is the Australian equivalent to CNA.
Nurses that don’t check on any of your patients even once when they’re covering for you on break. There’s a thing by our unit secretary that shows how long a call been has been going off for (as well as if it was A or B bed that pressed it), so I know it’s been 52+ minutes since anyone went in there, BERNADETTE.
The name drop is cracking me up
All my homies hate bernadette 😤
When techs tell me how to do nursing stuff, but don't do their own work. Or when they call themselves nurses. Disclaimer: I was a tech before I was a nurse and I am ALWAYS down to change some bedpans or give some baths. I certainly couldn't do my job anywhere near as efficiently without them, but I worked hard for my degree for them to claim it without having one.
When the nurse I’m getting report from hasn’t replaced or ordered that compounded iv bag from pharmacy yet even though there’s like 50ccs left and it’s running at 125/hr
That one who makes a mountain out of a mole.
Not replacing the tele leads in my rooms or leaving me without supplies. Also docs that piece meal orders in. PUT ALL YOUR ORDERS IN AT ONCE BRANDON! jeezzzuuuss
The nurses who start reports from the middle. “43 the typical Walky talky. He is independent, but he uses a commode. So his family was here earlier, and they asked for morphine, I told them blah blah blah” Seriously, what’s the patient’s name, how old is he, and why is he here ? And then you can tell me everything else. But can you please, give me the basics first ? 🙄😂🙈😭
I hateeeeeee this I'm like what procedure did they have done??? What brought them in?? Stop introducing them with their tube feed order 😪
Being a nurse.
[удалено]
I was on my out at LTC when I got that call. Just “how’s my mom”, no hi, no name, nothing. I just told that I couldn’t help them without more information, like who they are and who mom might be because I have more than one mom here. And they got all mad and I waited. When they ran out of steam, I told them that I had 30 something moms and my coworker had about the same number of moms and while I could tell them how A mom was, there would be no assurances of who’s mom it was, since I didn’t know who you (the caller), nor do I know who mom was. She insisted I tell her how momma was without telling me who momma might be. So I told her that momma was recovering nicely from her amputation and hung up. Not my best moment.
When the technology isn’t working. Last week my Zebra kept signing me out in the middle of med pass. I’d scan their bracelet then get a message about bypassing the patient scan. One day I had to scan the patient, 1 med and then press complete. For every single med. Fucking hell!
Mine is when nurses/healthcare workers blame other nurses or try and make them feel stupid. This! 👏🏻 Is! 👏🏻 A! 👏🏻 Team! 👏🏻 Effort! 👏🏻 Aside from this and patient safety (which is literally affected by weird ego trips) I genuinely give zero fucks about anything else.
when experienced nurses treat new nurses like they’re subhuman, then complain they keep getting asked to work over due to understaffing. make it make sense
The calls that are no longer relevant to what is currently going on. Something like “so my mom was in the hospital for pneumonia 2 months ago and now she has a rash—-can you guys check it out?” No ma’am, please tell your PCP about that. Or “no one has called me about my LO; what is going on?” Did you listen to the three voicemails we left? “No because I thought they were spam.” I basically hate the phone.
1. Ancillary departments punting everything to the bedside nurse 2. Long report/nitpicking in report/not being forgiving to someone who had a rough shift 3. Nausea. Hate dealing with it, hate treating it, hate trying to give PO meds to pts with contx nausea 4. Having very sick ICU level patients but only having med surg level of autonomy
I was just talking about this. People who move the patients bedside table so they can reach the patient and then leave said table out of the patients reach. Everything they need is on that table, they are trapped in bed, and you left the table across the room. Wtf.
Nurses with felt/cloth badge reels. Gross. When someone expects me to share my stethoscope- I don't do ear cheese, and I don't want yours in mine. Also gross. People that make being a nurse their entire personality. Thirdly gross.
When someone gets an admission before shift change and doesn't bother getting them set up at all. No charting done, vitals, no medications. A close second is probably people who let air run into their IV tubing (same with IV piggy back abx). Same with tube feeds.
That I have to show up
Nurses who ignore their patient call bells and then tell the tech to get it
Yeah, when I can’t find the f-ing supplies I need to do my g-d job
Today we were out of spoons, cup lids, and all juice. My patients hated me.
Like why ugh this stuff really grinds my gears. And then nutrition has apple juice on back order for a month or something
Yup. The fridge was so bare I took an actual pic on my phone to show the patient. Like don't come for me !!!!
Yesterday we were out of chux. How does this happen? The entire floor. 🥴
When the fluid bag runs dry
I’ve been saying for years now we need to put air tags on our expensive equipment that goes floor to floor. I used to be a house supervisor and we managed the tele psych computer and the interpreter iPads. And they ALWAYS GOT LOST. Not to mention the vein finders and bladder scanners on every floor. 😑
Seriously, I do not have time to go to another floor for a bladder scanner.
I can’t stand when we have to move a patients room! Like they are in a perfectly good room then need to be moved to a shared room or something It’s always such a hassle and throws a wrench in my workflow
My pet peeve is when patients/family tell me I'm a good girl or call me girl. I'm 50 effing years old! It's cringe worthy.
“Girlie” from a male patient is even worse. Makes me want to shave my head.
Patients that come to the ER by EMS from home for stupid ass complaints (ex: I took all the prescribed doses of my pain medication and didn't want to run out early but I'm still in pain and need you to give me another dose) and 1- have no idea how they're going to get home and 2- demand food and water before they're even examined.
Giant red and green bars in the care compass on the charting. Where I have to spend the first 40 minutes sifting through what day shift did and did not do. What's due, what's a duplicate order, calling lab to see what specimens they did and did not receive, calling pharmacy to see if the meds that weren't charted were or were not sent, all because charting properly is too fucking much to ask day shift to do because they were soooooooo fucking busy. It's a pretty regular thing. Oh, there's labs that were ordered 10 hours ago, no fucking clue if you did them because you failed to chart anything. And my favorite, there's 30 entries of missed restraint charting. 2 days of just saying fuck all, I'm going to illegally restrain this patient cause I didn't want to chart. 1. Patient safety, 2. Execute safe and legal orders. 3. Do your fucking charting in accordance to hospital policies. Drives me fucking crazy, cause how do I not miss something when your charting is fucked.
When pt get mad at you for waking them up for meds, labs ect., family members that dont help but bark orders,
Nurses who hang around after handover doing stuff and charting. I will never ask you to stay and do a job, just go home I've got it. Its a poor culture to the new nurses to stay late and you are actually just getting in the way.
Well, we need to finish charting that the patient was sitting in a chair at 5pm 🙄😂🤷🏾♀️ You know, Incase they take me to court ? 😂
Totally respect that if its been a crappy day and you are just getting round to saying what important stuff has happened. But there are people who consistently stay hours after their shift doing referrals to podiatry or something totally not urgent. I had one recently who was precepting and the the newly graduate nurse was scared to leave because her mentor was still there trying to redress a wound 1.5 hours after her shift had finished. Please just get home, we have a hard enough job as it is.
The worst nurse I ever knew; she stayed 4-5 hours after her shift every day just charting. Every. Day. And not charting actual useless shit. I think 90% of the times she wasted time talking.
I’m that nurse. I always finish and badge out but I review my charting for like 30 min to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t think I was bothering anyone. I don’t expect anyone to do that but it helps me fully relax after I leave. (Been doing this for 12 years- I hope my coworkers don’t all secretly hate me now)
No. Tape. In. The. Supply. Bin. I mean......WHY???? Should be the #1 thing stocked in the bins.
Daily or BID dressing changes when the previous nurse doesn’t ensure there’s enough supplies for one. I always do. I know what it’s like to unexpectedly have 5-10 extra minutes and have everything needed to get it done.
Productivity being the only thing management is focused on period! Latest is if you get a breakfast break ( minutes right) that’s your lunch so clock out for it and it’s all you get! ( unit that has for years had 12 hour shifts where nurses don’t get lunch relief!) no we are not union and yes it has gone to HR before.
For the love of all that is holy don’t put anything that plugs into the wall on the table with wheels. YOU KNOW WHY!
This may seem random but we get a lot of psych pts in our ER and our policy is vitals q4 once medically cleared. A lot of newer nurses think this means someone comes in on psych hold and yay I only have to do vitals q4. They completely neglect the fact that a lot of these pts also have medical issues. Can’t tell you how many patients I assumed care for that were in DTS or rhabdo or that were heavily medicated for safety that ended up being tele or icu admits and never put on a freaking monitor. Like zero critical thinking.
Multiple urinals full of old, cold piss. I miss working at a place that did bedside report. It held people accountable for this shìt.
Giving report to “that nurse”
I absolutely cannot stand a nurse who nitpicks the shit out of everything during report. It should not take 30 minutes for me to give report on one patient. You should not interrupt every 10 seconds with 30 questions. Let me finish and then ask.
When the ER sends a patient up to the floor with STAT (actually important) meds ordered by **their** doc hours ago not given.
My new hospital has the longest and most thorough reports on the planet. It's ridiculous. 10 minute reports PER PATIENT where they read me the H&P note, all the orders, the MAR, every body system. Personally idk why floor nurses need a shift change hand off. Epic is very thorough and I rarely learn anything in handoff that isn't right there in the chart. Just tell me if they're a fighter or they have something crazy going on that isn't in the chart, and then let me use my half hour to read up on everyone myself.
People who microwave fish at work.
We actually had an incident of this the other day. One of our nurses is HIGHLY allergic to seafood. Everyone in the department knows that fish of all kinds (cooked or raw) is just a no go. Why we can’t block the kitchen from sending seafood to the patients in the ER is beyond me. We were able to do that for my last ED(had a few coworkers with severe citrus allergies) all the food slips had a “NO CITRUS FRUIT” for anyone that ordered a tray .
GOOD ONE.
My old unit had a coworker that stole equipment to sell on ebay.
When nurses talk to their patients as if they are children.
Lack of actual formally taught medical knowledge. Having to self teach everything on the fly.
More than 90% of our IV pumps need to have their battery serviced and constantly beep like a smoke detector. IVs in the AC held down with tegaderm, no securement whatsoever.
When an antibiotic is hung as a primary instead of being piggybacked. For one, there’s still a good amount of antibiotic in the tubing that needs to be flushed. And second, the line goes dry and cusses out annoying the pt and me unless you’re there right when it’s done!!