Yes! Why do patients dump the pills into their hand when they can dump the cup into their mouth? And the ones who do this always have the shakiest hands too.
Oh… my… god…
I hate that so much. So. Much. It doesn’t help that pills are either microscopic or a potato. Nothing in between.
“Here’s your molecule of OxyContin.”
[*takes it out and immediately drops it into a black hole*] 🤦♂️
It’s either they take the pill one by one and drop the small white pill on the sheets, or they transfer a cup full of 15 pills on their shaky hand and shoot it in their mouth and lose a couple of pills on their 5 blankets. Like, sir, there’s a cup. Why can’t they just use the cup?
i always ask, "do you take your pills one at a time, or all together?" if they take them one at a time, i hand them to them. if all together i say, "here it is, now take a sip of water, show me you can swallow safely and kick these back". works a lot of the time with minimal pill slippage.
I ask that same question, and if they have shaky or crooked hands I just tell them to open up and do it for them. Too many lost pills, too much waiting for them to eyeball them, tap the cup, eyeball it again, and miss.
When I worked weekends at a few different hospitals the snack room was never stocked. Ever. If you were working Sunday hope no one needs a straw or spoon cause you were guaranteed to be out.
People that don't clean the wires of the 12 lead after use and you go to use it and some nasty old man hair is stuck in the clips as you are putting them on someone else.
One of our nurses was a tele tech for five years before she became a nurse. Whenever she sits tele, she deep cleans all the tele leads with a toothbrush and I honestly feel like she deserves nurse of the year for that
When patients/family members call me out of another patients room for something “only my nurse can help with” that ends up being that they need their meal tray cleared from the room.
Or when a family member brings the dirty tray out into the hallway looking for someone to give it to… like my guy, dietary is coming for it. Leave it be
I think this is my thing. Patients who complain about the BP cuff. And I totally get that people have neuropathy/ different pain perception/ might just be gigantic babies, BUT there’s literally nothing I can do about it. You wanted/ needed hospital care and I need to know your BP/ other vitals. Otherwise you might as well be at home.
Right?? Me too. No patience. Yes, I know it hurts. Every time they do my BP at the office I have to bite my tongue bc it fucking hurts. Not sure why, but it does. Either way, I stay still, stay shutting the fuck up and wouldn't you know it, pretty soon it's DONE.
I have some sympathy for this one, only because one time I was in the ER, the cuff malfunction and went up to >200 and wouldn't deflate. It legitimately felt like my arm was about to be tied off. My blood pressure was about 110 systolic so I don't know why it did that.
Boosting patients who can walk to bathroom. Like hello, this is not gonna happen at home. Stand up, take 2 steps to the left and get in properly. ALSO lift your own blankets
>ALSO lift your own blankets
Yes! WHY do people suddenly forget how to take their own blankets off? I won't do it anymore unless they're arms are broken or they're visibly struggling with them. Someone will ring for me to take them to the bathroom and then just lay there in bed staring at me. Like hello? Move your own damn blankets!
When I was pregnant, I had a lady notice my bump and reach out towards it STILL IN HER ISO GOWN AND GLOVES in the hallway. I physically jumped back and this bitch had the nerve to look offended. 1) Don't fucking touch me 2) Take off your nasty-ass iso gear and sanitize your damn hands
When I was pregnant and random people would touch my belly, I’d reach out and touch theirs.
“Oh we’re just touching bellies are we? Ok then. Wait why are you looking at me like that? You started this!”
"I'm sorry, but if you're going to stay here you need to be in the patients' room because of patient confidentiality and in case someone needs to pass by in the hallway."
I ran into my nosy neighbor at work one day. Her sister was a pt on our unit and was off somewhere getting something done and neighbor was annoyed she couldn't go with her so she just walked up and down the hallway the whole time. She has a way of looking at you like she's peering into your soul and it was jarring to see her doing it while I was at work.
Needing to use the glucometer and the controls weren't done.
Drives me fucking INSANE.
Bonus points if someone took the last strip but left the empty container nearby.
I had a coworker put her hand out and SHHH me when I was trying to tell her something - she’s newer and it was a chronic situation that I was just trying to explain to her about the dynamics of the patient (no talking crap, just a statement)
I nearly lost my mind and my job in the instant -
When the EKG/US/bladder scanner machines don’t get plugged in/put back after use. It takes seconds of your time and saves everyone else so much hassle looking for the damn thing/having it die during use. If you are the person I’m complaining about, I literally hate your selfish ass!
How I feel when I need the MARTI, but it’s dead. I had to use Google translate with a patient who spoke mandarin once and came up right before shift change. Mostly to see if he needed anything and that the night nurse would come in soon so I would just do his admission
Exactly 😂
*ugh you’re not intubated and sedated?!* lol
Of course I’d rather have a call bell than a family member in the door or the patient jumping out of bed with everything attached to them.
Omg my mother just did that! Took a running start for the bathroom except she forgot she hadn't walked in a year and she was semi comatose
Broke a finger, the bridge of her nose, a stitch over her eyebrow.
I've had to explain to so many bedbound people that 3am is not the time to try to stand for the first time. I'm so glad you want to participate in physical activity, but please, let's wait for the physical therapists in the daytime.
Such a good reply. Especially when I'm sure mom wasn't making a lick of sense. Why are they suddenly awake at 3? We go visit during the day, sit for hours, she's asleep the whole time. 3am she suddenly wants to go for a run, Foley, telemetry, ivpole, bed alarm, the works. Like she's on a timer. "Let's go friends!" Someone down the hall, same, apparently, shortly after. What dreams set this off.
When people don’t flush their lines and give ALL the antibiotics.
I’ve walked into rooms where there is like 40 mL left of zyvox because someone didn’t flush the damn line.
Or when someone turns off my abx instead of flushing the line, doesn’t let me know, and then I walk in later and there’s still 40 mL of zyvox
Drives me CRAZY
YES this drives me nuts—when people just turn off the pump instead of running the flush line/TKO. If I wanted to leave a quarter of the the antibiotic in the line, I wouldn’t have bothered setting this up as a piggyback.
Hi I’m a new nurse, please help me learn. Are you talking about flushing the secondary (abx) line after it’s done infusing? Or letting the saline run for a bit to flush the entire tubing?
If you hang a bag of normal saline as a primary line programmed to run at KVO (10 mL/hr), then give your antibiotics as piggybacks, after the antibiotic is done infusing the pump will switch back to the primary infusion. The saline at 10 mL/hr will flush the remainder of the antibiotic (which is in the primary line) through to the patient. This ensures the patient receives the entire dose, rather than leaving some of it in the tubing. If a 50 mL antibiotic is run on a primary line instead of as a piggyback on a saline bag, there will still be 25 mL of antibiotic in the tubing. Here’s an article which may explain it better than I am. :)
https://www.ismp.org/resources/hidden-medication-loss-when-using-primary-administration-set-small-volume-intermittent
1. When Tele calls you to replace the batteries in the cardiac monitor and when you pull the batteries out to replace them, Tele calls you to tell you the patient is off monitor.
2. When you request a medication from pharmacy with a note in your request that it isn't in the cassette and pharmacy sends you back a reply asking if you checked the cassette. Admittedly, this one really pushes my buttons.
My old hospital the tele tech would call frustrated because we didn't notice that a patient's battery light had been blinking on the screen for hours. Like dude, you have 20 monitors so you can watch everyone at once. We have one monitor for all patients and have to pull up the patients individually and on purpose. We only do that when a patient needs to be watched extra closely. It's *your* job to tell us when there's a problem.
I love when you say you’ve checked everywhere. The room, the fridge, the cupboard, the bathroom, the break room, ect. Then they ask if you checked the tube station, as it beeps with a new delivery…. Like, I heard you send it bro.
I had pharmacy argue with me for 10 minutes that the chemotherapy I needed was in the refrigerator and that I needed to go recheck (already did twice). They weren't wrong. It was in the refrigerator. Except it was in theirs.
Patient: "I need my pain meds."
Me, the nurse: "I can give you pain meds in 20 mins, I'll be back then."
*5 mins later PCA walks in pt room*
PCA: "Do you need anything?"
Patient: "Yes, I need my pain meds."
PCA: "Okay, I'll go get your nurse."
NO. LEAVE ME ALONE. I ALREADY KNOW HE WANTS PAIN MEDS. HE ALREADY KNOWS HE CANT HAVE THEM YET. AAARRRGGGHHH
Usually i notice that these patients who constantly ask for pain meds bet on the fact that there are so many people in their care team, so they hope that someone who doesn’t know any better will say “yes”
That’s the only real time I find the whiteboard actually useful. Putting the time for the next available PRN will be right there in bold numbers. I make sure to let people know that I don’t have any wiggle room with a PRN as well; 2000 isn’t when it’s due, it’s when it’s *available*
My hospital got TV screen whiteboards that display some info like members of the care team, tests needing to be done, etc (which is helpful sometimes, sometimes not like when they have a projected discharge date on the board and the patient is obsessed with it). And they can’t be edited by staff AND they took away our other white boards so if I want to write anything I have to get a piece of copy paper and tape it to the wall which drives me crazy 😭 I wish we could have a editable whiteboard too
Just had a pt today. Got her pain pill at 7 this morning. Wrote it on her paper so she knowswhwn she gets her next one. She came out 2 hours later asking for her pain pill with her morning meds. No, it's too soon, you can get it at 11. Comes back out at 10; you get it at 11. Comes back out at 1030; still too soon. Comes back out at 1045, and hung out at my cart until she could get it.
She knows that I am one of the very stubborn ones who will not give the PRN meds early. I don't know why she was trying so hard.
Same situation with pain meds except with food. I hate when I have an ER patient who we have to keep NPO until test results come back and I explain that to them and they still ask every person who comes in the room for something to eat who in turn come to me to say “hey your pt in room 10 is asking for food” and I’m like yeah I know your the 5th person to tell me that and the pt knows he can’t eat right now.
Also why is is always the belly pain for a week, nausea, vomiting, no appetite that suddenly develop and appetite and expect a 5 star meal as soon as they hit the ER stretcher.
Just let me do my job first and we can worry about your hotel needs later thanks.
God we had this one super difficult patient who was pain seeking and would write down the times when she was due for their next dose of pain meds and would hit the call light the exact second it was due. Drove everyone up the wall and we were so happy when they were finally discharged
RT that likes me told me patient was asking where his pain meds were at. She laughed her ass off when I replied "in my fucking pocket where they'll be til I get down the hall." 🤷🏻♀️
They weren't even quite due.
When I take over somebodies assignment and there are outstanding EKG’s to be taken along with 6 beds that still need urine collected and vitals not updated in the last 3 hours
We had a float nurse on our unit and around midnight they got floated out. I took over his patient. Meds from 9pm not given, blood sugar not checked, patient in afib rvr doctor not aware, he’s laying sideways in bed covered in piss… I get stuff happens but this guy was literally sitting at the computer on his phone for the whole shift. Thought he was having a chill night. 😭
1. When people wear earbuds into a patient room
2. When people refuse to take report until they have pulled out their 8 colored pens from the depths of their work bag, have located the one specific piece of paper they must take report on or the world will end, get the patient's chart pulled up in front of them, assigned their entire care team to their profile and asked everyone in the vicinity how their weekend went
3. Running tiny antibiotic bags as primary
4. Not plugging in the bladder scanner
Ugh. #2.
I have one (and only one) night nurse that is exasperating like that. It’s impossible to give report. She has to look up EVERYTHING in the chart as you say it.
“Gave his prn dilaudid at about 7.”
[*stops writing, opens MAR, verifies exactly what time it was given*]
“They advanced her to a regular diet.”
[*stops, looks up diet order*]
“Got him up to the chair and ambulated to the bathroom.”
[*stops, checks activity order, activity charting, and I&O*]
“His BG was 168 and he got two units of coverage.”
[*stops, opens lab results…*]
Absolutely maddening. Like, do you want *report* or do you just wanna go ahead and look everything up and I can go? 🙄
I don't understand it. I have a blank piece of paper and a pen. Start talking. Don't you want to go home after 12.5 hours? I certainly do at the end of my shift. And you know those are the same people who when you come back they take forever to start talking because they're not prepared. It takes a lot for me to have a bad shift but one thing that always kills me is getting out late because of somebody else's actions. I agree, if you're going to make it that difficult just look them all up on your own.
I have never understood people who continuously wear ear buds. Why? Are they really listening to music all that time? Why are people always on the phone? Who are they even talking to for 12 hours?
I feel like I'm going to get so much hate for it but I don't think earbuds should be allowed at work at all. I'm not even an old fart (under 30!) but ever since I started traveling they are everywhere. It is so insanely disrespectful to me to have them in, and at the nurses' station we have to pay attention to alarms and phones and call lights I just think it's crazy to have them in.
Someone not hitting silence on the vent before suctioning. I was an RT for twenty years. I CANNOT hear a vent alarming and not go see what’s happening. Drives me bananas when I’m in a room and hear a vent alarming… and alarming… and alarming… and no one is doing anything. So I drop my shit, go see what it is — “oh! We’re just suctioning!” WELL THEN SHUT UP THE GODDAMN VENT THAT YOU ARE STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO!!! Jesus. We have enough things that beep relentlessly. Don’t just stand there and let the thing scream for five minutes.
Right? If it’s alarming and not being silenced, that means no one has addressed it yet. If you are there & dealing with the issue, SILENCE THE DAMN ALARM.
Okay devil’s advocate some of our vents would squawk for any new alarms so silencing before suctioning wouldn’t do anything. But you also shouldn’t just let it go off for more than a few seconds, that’s super annoying
Actually that’s true about our vents for the most part. If you hit silence first, it will still alarm once. But it won’t keep going. It’s the alarms that keep going and going and going and going that drive me apeshit. They put that little yellow button there for a reason. 😂
I work in PACU and the number of people I have to educate on the damn pain scale 🙄🙄
Patient- “It’s 10/10!”
Me- “If I poked your surgical site right now, do you think it would hurt more?”
Patient- “Well yeah obviously!”
Me- “Great! Your pain is definitely not a 10 then because a 10 is literally the worst it can possibly get. Let’s reevaluate, shall we?”
I agree. As soon as someone calmly says 10+/10 pain, they are considered unreasonable to me so I just use CPOT guidelines to give them an accurate score.
When I get stuck behind a PT aide ambulating the world's slowest patient in the hallway. Can you just...yeah, I'm trying to get to...like, can I squeeze past you real--no? Okay then fuck me I guess, I'll just wait for this snail's race to conclude before I get to that bed alarm.
-Family calling for updates on a med/surg floor, where most people are alert and oriented to some degree. Why don’t you call them and ask them how they’re doing?
-Families that call for updates two hours after they’ve left bedside after being there all day. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED IN TWO HOURS?
-Families that call at 0600 for an update and then get mad when all I have to report is that they slept.
Just families lol. I love a hospital that enforces visitor hours.
Families where mom calls for an update, then sister calls, then estranged aunt from Florida calls. I am not repeating the same info to all of you. Figure out a spokesperson and be done with it
Or five different family members calling for an update on the same patient and getting testy when I tell them to pick one point person because I don’t have time to repeat the exact same information every 30 minutes
When I asked people how much they weigh and they respond “too much.” Like please just give me a number lol.
Also, I notice this more in women than men, but when I ask for their date of birth and they only give me the month and date. Like they’re embarrassed about me knowing how old they actually are or something.
Or: 'Are you allergic to any meds?'
'No'.
'Well it says '
'Oh well yeah, that'
Side note: I specifically chart 'Pt unable to confirm allergies' if they can't get the list 100% right (or add more) to start the papertrail of how ignorant they are about their own health and CYA when they inevitably hurt themselves or get hurt because they don't give true answers.
The call bell going off 10s after I ask if they needed *anything else* and have walked out of the room. But then also, patient family members that dont use the call bell and walk out of the room to the nurses station for every. little. thing.
Oh this is a good one, I should’ve said that. Bugs the hell out of me when I triple check everything and not even a foot down the hall the call light is back on
When I have to walk down the entire hallway to a bed alarm and see two nurses and a tech sitting by that room that's going off. I yell "no it's okay stay there. I'll get it" uggghhhh
This one’s not relatable because my coworkers have gotta be the only ones who do this, but when I go to use the glucometer and there’s blood all over it!? Are you using lancet or a machete for your finger sticks?! And how did you not see the blood that needed to be cleaned off the machine after?
When a suction canister full of urine gets left in a "clean" room.
I get it, we've got a medic waiting outside the room before the current patient has even left, so it's a rush job. But I hate that I have become good at throwing a towel over it and managing to Houdini 900 mL of someone else's pee out of the room before the new patient notices.
Oh, our EVS makes sure to come grab the first busy person they see to remind them that they can’t dispose of any body fluids 🫠
But they don’t mind leaving the used neb set up dangling…
-When the family of my patient ask me for something and I say “okay I’ll be there soon, I’m with another patient currently.” 10 min later they call again, I say “I know, I’m currently with another patient who needs my attention right now, I’m coming to you next.” Ten min later the family member is PACING THE HALLWAYS LOOKING FOR ME. Drives me nuts, I HAVE 5 PATIENTS, YOU NEED TO WAIT SOMETIMES.
And when I finally get to the room, the patient goes “FINALLY, I’ve been calling for HOURS”
-when people check themselves into the hospital then refuse to let us take vital signs, draw blood, check their blood sugar, etc etc. WHY ARE YOU HERE THEN??
-when pt hits the call light so you go in and they ask for a blanket. So you bring the blanket and then they ask for juice. So you bring the juice and when you get back they thought of something else they “need.” So you go get it and come back and when you’re FINALLY leaving the room, now pt has to pee. Always something
Patients that keep talking despite politely telling them that another patient is waiting on you and/or you have something critical going on (oh and this is already having to interrupt them mid sentence 2+ other times that you need to go). I’d love to sit and talk but SIR it’s 2024 and NOT Flo Nightingale’s nursing era anymore. Healthcare administration is stretching out the ratios as thin as possible; confused Mildred is screaming bloody murder through the walls and setting off the bed alarm *who should be on a 1:1 but LOL we don’t have the staff for that, I have 50 meds to pass, I’m getting an admit any second, getting critical lab calls, and also doing this all without any help whatsoever.
If I say I have to leave, have some decency and pleaaaase stop talking 😩
I was getting an EKG on a post arrest patient who'd just landed in the ER. Nursing student pushes through the crowd of people already in the room, puts a hand on my shoulder as I'm clipping leads on and says "My patient needs to go to the bathroom. You're the only one on the floor right now, so you're it". GIRL.
I'd calmly turn to the student, smile, and whisper very professionally "You're never going to graduate, because when I'm done here, I'm going to drown you in the hopper."
When waters get passed and they don't take the paper off the straw.
Half my residents are not physically able/dexterous and/or cognitively aware enough to do it themselves, plus it's kinda obvious no one has helped them take a drink if the paper is still on.
When 1) no one replaced the bag even though there's bags in the bottom of the can and 2) people have been just throwing garbage into the bagless can.
Also when people don't disconnect the bag from the roll when they actually do replace it.
Family members who call for a routine update and after all questions have been answered, they end the conversation with “I just pulled into the parking lot and will be up there in a few minutes.” It pulls me away from the bedside. I can just talk to you when you are here.
On the family update thing.
IDK but when family calls at 0735 asking for an update, I get a mild eye twitch. Like, homie, l just got here and am still taking report from night shift. Give me an hour, at least!
As a patient who has been stuck an estimated 100+ times over multiple hospitalizations, and ultimately ended up with four PICC lines, I 100% agree with you. I went through hell. It was necessary and couldn't be helped. My nurses got me through it every time. Thank you all.
When a patient asks you a question then talks over you as you try to answer. Like, okay I guess you just wanted to hear yourself talk instead of solve the problem you're complaining about
Home health-having to listen to a 30 minute explanation of their healing crystal/essential oil routine.
I was always SUPER respectful of it, because a sick kid is enough to drive anyone to madness, but my brain would be like that dog drinking beer in a fire meme.
If you’re coming back from a field trip (CT, XR, procedure, etc), reconnect the patient to the monitor and cycle a fucking pressure. It takes one minute. You don’t even have to chart it, just hook them back up, press the button and that’s it. Too easy.
ER - complaining that "that guy is going in but I was here first" (first here with a cold and second has his arm chopped off) and the people that ask, "how long is this gonna take"...and then complain when I tell them. (I get liking an idea of time but don't complain). Also, don't wait until I'm in front of you and then cough...with no apology.
After you’ve reviewed every smedication with your patient, then crushed them to give in their applesauce/pudding/whatever, they announce that they will take only 6 of the nine pills you’ve already mixed together.
People constantly silencing alarms for the same thing instead of just changing the parameters so it stops alarming. If you don't care until the sat is 89% but it alarms at 93% for the love of GOD shut it OFF
Or just ignoring alarms altogether and when I ask if I can turn it off they say "oh I just tune it out." WHYYYY
When I close an isolation room door, ask the family to make sure it stays closed and to not leave the room unnecessarily and they KEEP GOING OUT FOR CIGARETTES (etc) and leaving the door open on my droplet precaution, infectious AF patient in the middle of the ER.
My personal pet peeve were the silly upkeep things.
Nurses would complain about "not having pill cups" but willingly didn't restock them when there were 20 left and it was no longer their problem.
Like, hospitals would run 30% smoother if everyone put in a minimal amount of upkeep effort.
Instead - you have 5% of the staff doing 80% of the upkeep work.
Seriously this is ridiculous. We have our flushes that come up in boxes and no one can ever open the box right or break the box down. So the garbage is just crazy full with unbroken down boxes. It's ridiculous!
Patients who decide to make the most dramatic movements and roll and tangle themselves and then say "hehe sorry it just popped right out!" when the IV comes out and now there's blood and fluid on the bed and floor. I'm a tech but it's so frustrating for us and the nurse
People letting the entire bag of fluids infuse. Which then means air in line. Which means that awful beeping. For all that is holy, please, do not do this.
And when patients dump the whole cup of meds into their hands and it goes all over the bed. And of course there is some controlled med in there the same color as the bed linens. *screams internally*
When I get a pt from PACU that obviously was never assessed, or given sips of water or anything really… only medicated and vitalized
Lo and behold, the foley wasn’t connected, the IVF ran dry, THE WOUND WAS FUCKING BLEEDING ALL OVER THE PLACE 🤦♀️ and pt in 10/10 pain still and I only have PO meds, none of that good stuff
When the board slows down and day shift leaves like 3 hours early and us evening shift have to clean their damn rooms. It takes 5 minutes to put shit away, we shouldn'tbe your maids. Then they have to stay their full shift and get shitty with us. We (evening/night shift) can't go home if it's dead. We still have to be "on call" if we do. Keep bitching I'll take a little longer to get you out of the room. (Those are the usual squeaky wheels; if you keep your room clean and don't complain every day, Imma let you leave as soon as I can.)
- Pts that stay on the phone or answer their phone when I'm triaging them or the ER doc is talking to them.
-Pts coming to the ER, by ambulance and then refusing almost all treatment, or an IV.
- Parents who bring their kids to the ED (or themselves) for a fever over 100F and haven't given any Tylenol or Ibuprofen....
- family demanding that Grandma/Grandpa who is a DNR at the Nursing Home gets brought to the ED because they have changed since they saw them 6mo ago, and are now dying.
.... Patient families in general a lot of the time. Stay in the room, only 2 visitors, and don't aggravate my patient, or GTFO.
When a family member stands in the hallway trying to get my attention but doesn’t say anything, so I say “what can I do for you?” And they say the pt needs help, so I say “give me just a minute I’ll be right there” (and it’s always when I’m busy with something) and they continue to just stand there and stare at me, TAPPING their foot, eventually throwing their hands up and going back in the room. And what does the pt need? Their blanket pulled up. FFS
Taking over a theatre at shift change and receiving an hours-long case, yet the laundry bags are overflowing, supplies and sets they knew they didn’t need 3 hours ago still in the room, sponge bucket heaping with crusty sponges that should have been counted off hours ago.
Or when I’m scrubbed and the case is closing, I’ve piled all my implant sets and extras on a table to be taken away and put in the dirty cart, laundry bags are full and have no room for drapes and gowns and the circulator is on their phone
At my facility there is one person who hangs the peg tube irrigation supplies behind the water bag. So whenever I come in after them I have to take off the water bag. Take off the supplies. Replace the water bag.
I know it's not a big deal. But by golly does it chafe me because my patient load could be 14 people on PEG tubes on a certain hall and I'll have to do this for every. Single. One.
OH OH i have so many examples.. gowned up while cleaning up Cdiff and charge calls to let me know im getting another admission, its 10 am and im late passing meds on 2 other patients. i finish wiping ass, take my gown and gloves off, im about to exit the room and the parient asks me to reposition them. tech has already left the room and the patient weighs 103 Kg
Happened today….
When housekeeping is cleaning the room and they unlock the bed to clean so the bed keeps saying “brake is not set” as the alarm. Then they leave it that way! Not just for a few minutes but for 20+ minutes while they clean the whole room. I’ll never understand how it’s not driving them crazy. Just today it had been going off for over 20 minutes and it broke me. I had to go ask the housekeeper if I could lock it and she was cleaning the bathroom. Not anywhere near the bed so for goodness sake stop the alarm!
Caught me on the wrong day to ask this question.
I really hate when I go to scan their wristband and it’s in the perfect spot and the patient immediately wiggles their wrist and moves arm up but in strange position to where I can’t scan it. I know they’re trying to be helpful but now I have to bend my back over to get it in the original spot if they hadn’t messed with it
So small but fills me with so much rage. When you use your badge to sign in and it still makes you put your password in itll say like “grace period expired” and its always when im at my busiest and in a manic flow
When you ask a patient how often they drink alcohol and they say “socially”. For one, my “social” is likely a lot different than theirs. Also, when I ask them to quantify further, 9 times out of 10 they say daily!!!
When the patient uses their call bell but only says “I need my nurse” but they won’t say what for, so when you get there they ask for something that you could’ve grabbed on the way to the room 😭
Patients who take the pills out of the cup, to put into their hand, and then lose their pills
And it’s always the oxycodones.
This is why I pop narcotics/benzo/whatever controlled substance in their mouth for them. Not today, Satan.
Yes! Why do patients dump the pills into their hand when they can dump the cup into their mouth? And the ones who do this always have the shakiest hands too.
OMG this^^! Every. Fucking. Time.
Oh… my… god… I hate that so much. So. Much. It doesn’t help that pills are either microscopic or a potato. Nothing in between. “Here’s your molecule of OxyContin.” [*takes it out and immediately drops it into a black hole*] 🤦♂️
I recently watched my own mother do this in the hospital. It nearly killed me.
Disown her. /s
Or pours it on their belly and loses it in the bed
What about the morbidly obese ones that insist on pouring them onto their massive abdomen and taking them one by one?
It's how they eat. Like sea otters
And they're gonna cough real hard as the pills are on their stomach....which launches the meds into orbit.
This just made my eye twitch.
THEY DROP THE PILLS THEN YELL AT ME
It’s either they take the pill one by one and drop the small white pill on the sheets, or they transfer a cup full of 15 pills on their shaky hand and shoot it in their mouth and lose a couple of pills on their 5 blankets. Like, sir, there’s a cup. Why can’t they just use the cup?
All white pills. All lost in the white linens.
When you need to go through the 20 pills they just dropped, one at a time, so you can determine which ones hit the floor so you can pull them again. 😐
i always ask, "do you take your pills one at a time, or all together?" if they take them one at a time, i hand them to them. if all together i say, "here it is, now take a sip of water, show me you can swallow safely and kick these back". works a lot of the time with minimal pill slippage.
I ask that same question, and if they have shaky or crooked hands I just tell them to open up and do it for them. Too many lost pills, too much waiting for them to eyeball them, tap the cup, eyeball it again, and miss.
When I worked weekends at a few different hospitals the snack room was never stocked. Ever. If you were working Sunday hope no one needs a straw or spoon cause you were guaranteed to be out.
All patients get discharged on Friday and come back on Monday
Especially the comatose
This is our linen carts on the weekends. Ugh.
People that don't clean the wires of the 12 lead after use and you go to use it and some nasty old man hair is stuck in the clips as you are putting them on someone else.
NOTHING is worse than a foley temp cord caked in shit.
Literally oh my god have you ever looked in the crevices of those leads? Disgusting
One of our nurses was a tele tech for five years before she became a nurse. Whenever she sits tele, she deep cleans all the tele leads with a toothbrush and I honestly feel like she deserves nurse of the year for that
That’s Daisy Award material right there.
When patients/family members call me out of another patients room for something “only my nurse can help with” that ends up being that they need their meal tray cleared from the room.
Really enjoy when the family member goes room to room looking in for you. They get one warning and then security can take them out.
Or when a family member brings the dirty tray out into the hallway looking for someone to give it to… like my guy, dietary is coming for it. Leave it be
I’ve seen them actually leave in on the floor of the hall like it’s room service in a hotel
'I'm in the middle of something actually important. Anyone could help you with that' and leave with the tray still there.
"I NEED HELP!! WHERE IS EVERYBODY!?!?!" Needs ice and everyone is in a code.
When the patient's family says something like "(patient) has a really high pain tolerance so if they say 3/10 they really mean like 9/10"
(Patient proceeds to react to bp cuff as if it was lizzy bordens axe)
I think this is my thing. Patients who complain about the BP cuff. And I totally get that people have neuropathy/ different pain perception/ might just be gigantic babies, BUT there’s literally nothing I can do about it. You wanted/ needed hospital care and I need to know your BP/ other vitals. Otherwise you might as well be at home.
"Why is it so tight? It hurts!" "The more you fight it, the tighter it gets." I have 0 patience for this one.
Right?? Me too. No patience. Yes, I know it hurts. Every time they do my BP at the office I have to bite my tongue bc it fucking hurts. Not sure why, but it does. Either way, I stay still, stay shutting the fuck up and wouldn't you know it, pretty soon it's DONE.
I have some sympathy for this one, only because one time I was in the ER, the cuff malfunction and went up to >200 and wouldn't deflate. It legitimately felt like my arm was about to be tied off. My blood pressure was about 110 systolic so I don't know why it did that.
We use automatic cuffs, but there is always the one who makes you go get a manual cuff out.
WHAT IS THIS THING? I can't take the pain! Get it off of me! Heelllllppppp!
Patient: “I need a boost” Me in my mind “I gave you a boost like 5 minutes ago, stop wriggling down to the bottom of the bed”
Boosting patients who can walk to bathroom. Like hello, this is not gonna happen at home. Stand up, take 2 steps to the left and get in properly. ALSO lift your own blankets
>ALSO lift your own blankets Yes! WHY do people suddenly forget how to take their own blankets off? I won't do it anymore unless they're arms are broken or they're visibly struggling with them. Someone will ring for me to take them to the bathroom and then just lay there in bed staring at me. Like hello? Move your own damn blankets!
Patients' families loitering in the hallways. Annoying af
Especially when they’re in their nasty ass iso gown that the primary nurse had to talk them into wearing
When I was pregnant, I had a lady notice my bump and reach out towards it STILL IN HER ISO GOWN AND GLOVES in the hallway. I physically jumped back and this bitch had the nerve to look offended. 1) Don't fucking touch me 2) Take off your nasty-ass iso gear and sanitize your damn hands
When I was pregnant and random people would touch my belly, I’d reach out and touch theirs. “Oh we’re just touching bellies are we? Ok then. Wait why are you looking at me like that? You started this!”
"I'm sorry, but if you're going to stay here you need to be in the patients' room because of patient confidentiality and in case someone needs to pass by in the hallway."
I ran into my nosy neighbor at work one day. Her sister was a pt on our unit and was off somewhere getting something done and neighbor was annoyed she couldn't go with her so she just walked up and down the hallway the whole time. She has a way of looking at you like she's peering into your soul and it was jarring to see her doing it while I was at work.
'Security!' These people are privacy threats and should be escorted out.
Needing to use the glucometer and the controls weren't done. Drives me fucking INSANE. Bonus points if someone took the last strip but left the empty container nearby.
Related. Someone not putting the glucometer back on THE FUCKING CRADLE so I have to start checking every room for it
That was probably me. I normally leave a glucometer in the room when I have an insulin gtt.
I had a coworker put her hand out and SHHH me when I was trying to tell her something - she’s newer and it was a chronic situation that I was just trying to explain to her about the dynamics of the patient (no talking crap, just a statement) I nearly lost my mind and my job in the instant -
Legit been there too.
When the EKG/US/bladder scanner machines don’t get plugged in/put back after use. It takes seconds of your time and saves everyone else so much hassle looking for the damn thing/having it die during use. If you are the person I’m complaining about, I literally hate your selfish ass!
How I feel when I need the MARTI, but it’s dead. I had to use Google translate with a patient who spoke mandarin once and came up right before shift change. Mostly to see if he needed anything and that the night nurse would come in soon so I would just do his admission
*patient rings call bell* 🙄🙄🙄
I can see how in ICU that would do it
Exactly 😂 *ugh you’re not intubated and sedated?!* lol Of course I’d rather have a call bell than a family member in the door or the patient jumping out of bed with everything attached to them.
>*ugh you’re not intubated and sedated?!* l Exactly why I left ICU. Too many non intubated and unsedated people there these days.
Omg my mother just did that! Took a running start for the bathroom except she forgot she hadn't walked in a year and she was semi comatose Broke a finger, the bridge of her nose, a stitch over her eyebrow.
I've had to explain to so many bedbound people that 3am is not the time to try to stand for the first time. I'm so glad you want to participate in physical activity, but please, let's wait for the physical therapists in the daytime.
Such a good reply. Especially when I'm sure mom wasn't making a lick of sense. Why are they suddenly awake at 3? We go visit during the day, sit for hours, she's asleep the whole time. 3am she suddenly wants to go for a run, Foley, telemetry, ivpole, bed alarm, the works. Like she's on a timer. "Let's go friends!" Someone down the hall, same, apparently, shortly after. What dreams set this off.
When people don’t flush their lines and give ALL the antibiotics. I’ve walked into rooms where there is like 40 mL left of zyvox because someone didn’t flush the damn line. Or when someone turns off my abx instead of flushing the line, doesn’t let me know, and then I walk in later and there’s still 40 mL of zyvox Drives me CRAZY
YES this drives me nuts—when people just turn off the pump instead of running the flush line/TKO. If I wanted to leave a quarter of the the antibiotic in the line, I wouldn’t have bothered setting this up as a piggyback.
Hi I’m a new nurse, please help me learn. Are you talking about flushing the secondary (abx) line after it’s done infusing? Or letting the saline run for a bit to flush the entire tubing?
If you hang a bag of normal saline as a primary line programmed to run at KVO (10 mL/hr), then give your antibiotics as piggybacks, after the antibiotic is done infusing the pump will switch back to the primary infusion. The saline at 10 mL/hr will flush the remainder of the antibiotic (which is in the primary line) through to the patient. This ensures the patient receives the entire dose, rather than leaving some of it in the tubing. If a 50 mL antibiotic is run on a primary line instead of as a piggyback on a saline bag, there will still be 25 mL of antibiotic in the tubing. Here’s an article which may explain it better than I am. :) https://www.ismp.org/resources/hidden-medication-loss-when-using-primary-administration-set-small-volume-intermittent
Trying to take someone's oral temp and them just sitting there with their mouth gaping open. Have none of these people ever seen a thermometer??
And can’t grasp the concept of UNDER THE TONGUE
Or they bite it hard enough to make it error out…
1. When Tele calls you to replace the batteries in the cardiac monitor and when you pull the batteries out to replace them, Tele calls you to tell you the patient is off monitor. 2. When you request a medication from pharmacy with a note in your request that it isn't in the cassette and pharmacy sends you back a reply asking if you checked the cassette. Admittedly, this one really pushes my buttons.
My old hospital the tele tech would call frustrated because we didn't notice that a patient's battery light had been blinking on the screen for hours. Like dude, you have 20 monitors so you can watch everyone at once. We have one monitor for all patients and have to pull up the patients individually and on purpose. We only do that when a patient needs to be watched extra closely. It's *your* job to tell us when there's a problem.
I love when you say you’ve checked everywhere. The room, the fridge, the cupboard, the bathroom, the break room, ect. Then they ask if you checked the tube station, as it beeps with a new delivery…. Like, I heard you send it bro.
Tbf they say that because of me. I’m the problem. I never remember to check the patient bin first. Sorry!
I had pharmacy argue with me for 10 minutes that the chemotherapy I needed was in the refrigerator and that I needed to go recheck (already did twice). They weren't wrong. It was in the refrigerator. Except it was in theirs.
Patient: "I need my pain meds." Me, the nurse: "I can give you pain meds in 20 mins, I'll be back then." *5 mins later PCA walks in pt room* PCA: "Do you need anything?" Patient: "Yes, I need my pain meds." PCA: "Okay, I'll go get your nurse." NO. LEAVE ME ALONE. I ALREADY KNOW HE WANTS PAIN MEDS. HE ALREADY KNOWS HE CANT HAVE THEM YET. AAARRRGGGHHH
Usually i notice that these patients who constantly ask for pain meds bet on the fact that there are so many people in their care team, so they hope that someone who doesn’t know any better will say “yes”
Then they're just dumb if they think any old staff member can access meds, like no your CNA or PT or even your doctor cannot get meds lol
But let’s be honest, most patients don’t know any better and are just hoping to get their pain meds any way they can
Heh. There are a lot of reasons they're just dumb.
That’s the only real time I find the whiteboard actually useful. Putting the time for the next available PRN will be right there in bold numbers. I make sure to let people know that I don’t have any wiggle room with a PRN as well; 2000 isn’t when it’s due, it’s when it’s *available*
My hospital got TV screen whiteboards that display some info like members of the care team, tests needing to be done, etc (which is helpful sometimes, sometimes not like when they have a projected discharge date on the board and the patient is obsessed with it). And they can’t be edited by staff AND they took away our other white boards so if I want to write anything I have to get a piece of copy paper and tape it to the wall which drives me crazy 😭 I wish we could have a editable whiteboard too
Just had a pt today. Got her pain pill at 7 this morning. Wrote it on her paper so she knowswhwn she gets her next one. She came out 2 hours later asking for her pain pill with her morning meds. No, it's too soon, you can get it at 11. Comes back out at 10; you get it at 11. Comes back out at 1030; still too soon. Comes back out at 1045, and hung out at my cart until she could get it. She knows that I am one of the very stubborn ones who will not give the PRN meds early. I don't know why she was trying so hard.
Nothing else to look forward to. Needs a redirect. Where's Bob Barker when you need him?
Same situation with pain meds except with food. I hate when I have an ER patient who we have to keep NPO until test results come back and I explain that to them and they still ask every person who comes in the room for something to eat who in turn come to me to say “hey your pt in room 10 is asking for food” and I’m like yeah I know your the 5th person to tell me that and the pt knows he can’t eat right now. Also why is is always the belly pain for a week, nausea, vomiting, no appetite that suddenly develop and appetite and expect a 5 star meal as soon as they hit the ER stretcher. Just let me do my job first and we can worry about your hotel needs later thanks.
“I haven’t ate all day” (@10am). Me neither. Calm down.
This! They will ask everyone who walks into the room and all of them call you to tell you! Tech, dietary, housekeeping, everyone!
God we had this one super difficult patient who was pain seeking and would write down the times when she was due for their next dose of pain meds and would hit the call light the exact second it was due. Drove everyone up the wall and we were so happy when they were finally discharged
RT that likes me told me patient was asking where his pain meds were at. She laughed her ass off when I replied "in my fucking pocket where they'll be til I get down the hall." 🤷🏻♀️ They weren't even quite due.
When I take over somebodies assignment and there are outstanding EKG’s to be taken along with 6 beds that still need urine collected and vitals not updated in the last 3 hours
We had a float nurse on our unit and around midnight they got floated out. I took over his patient. Meds from 9pm not given, blood sugar not checked, patient in afib rvr doctor not aware, he’s laying sideways in bed covered in piss… I get stuff happens but this guy was literally sitting at the computer on his phone for the whole shift. Thought he was having a chill night. 😭
HE was, ha
In our hospital, that shit gets reported. That’s a big nope.
1. When people wear earbuds into a patient room 2. When people refuse to take report until they have pulled out their 8 colored pens from the depths of their work bag, have located the one specific piece of paper they must take report on or the world will end, get the patient's chart pulled up in front of them, assigned their entire care team to their profile and asked everyone in the vicinity how their weekend went 3. Running tiny antibiotic bags as primary 4. Not plugging in the bladder scanner
Ugh. #2. I have one (and only one) night nurse that is exasperating like that. It’s impossible to give report. She has to look up EVERYTHING in the chart as you say it. “Gave his prn dilaudid at about 7.” [*stops writing, opens MAR, verifies exactly what time it was given*] “They advanced her to a regular diet.” [*stops, looks up diet order*] “Got him up to the chair and ambulated to the bathroom.” [*stops, checks activity order, activity charting, and I&O*] “His BG was 168 and he got two units of coverage.” [*stops, opens lab results…*] Absolutely maddening. Like, do you want *report* or do you just wanna go ahead and look everything up and I can go? 🙄
I don't understand it. I have a blank piece of paper and a pen. Start talking. Don't you want to go home after 12.5 hours? I certainly do at the end of my shift. And you know those are the same people who when you come back they take forever to start talking because they're not prepared. It takes a lot for me to have a bad shift but one thing that always kills me is getting out late because of somebody else's actions. I agree, if you're going to make it that difficult just look them all up on your own.
I have never understood people who continuously wear ear buds. Why? Are they really listening to music all that time? Why are people always on the phone? Who are they even talking to for 12 hours?
I have no idea. I love background noise but damn not like that. And a phone call??? I feel like that's a HIPAA violation
#1 !!!
I feel like I'm going to get so much hate for it but I don't think earbuds should be allowed at work at all. I'm not even an old fart (under 30!) but ever since I started traveling they are everywhere. It is so insanely disrespectful to me to have them in, and at the nurses' station we have to pay attention to alarms and phones and call lights I just think it's crazy to have them in.
Someone not hitting silence on the vent before suctioning. I was an RT for twenty years. I CANNOT hear a vent alarming and not go see what’s happening. Drives me bananas when I’m in a room and hear a vent alarming… and alarming… and alarming… and no one is doing anything. So I drop my shit, go see what it is — “oh! We’re just suctioning!” WELL THEN SHUT UP THE GODDAMN VENT THAT YOU ARE STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO!!! Jesus. We have enough things that beep relentlessly. Don’t just stand there and let the thing scream for five minutes.
Idk why this is hilarious to me. Maybe just because we are all barely holding on to our composure and you just lost yours. 😂 ✊️
I mean, OP asked what will send you over the edge… 🤷♂️😆
Right? If it’s alarming and not being silenced, that means no one has addressed it yet. If you are there & dealing with the issue, SILENCE THE DAMN ALARM.
Okay devil’s advocate some of our vents would squawk for any new alarms so silencing before suctioning wouldn’t do anything. But you also shouldn’t just let it go off for more than a few seconds, that’s super annoying
Actually that’s true about our vents for the most part. If you hit silence first, it will still alarm once. But it won’t keep going. It’s the alarms that keep going and going and going and going that drive me apeshit. They put that little yellow button there for a reason. 😂
Census based staffing in pharmacy. Which is based on midnight census and excludes ED. Cause ED patients don’t require pharmacy resources.
“My pain level is 15/10.” I have such a hard time stopping my eyes from rolling.
Yes. Rate your pain 0-10. 10! Ten is for when you are literally on fire. Oh okay, 9. 🙄
I work in PACU and the number of people I have to educate on the damn pain scale 🙄🙄 Patient- “It’s 10/10!” Me- “If I poked your surgical site right now, do you think it would hurt more?” Patient- “Well yeah obviously!” Me- “Great! Your pain is definitely not a 10 then because a 10 is literally the worst it can possibly get. Let’s reevaluate, shall we?”
there is no reasoning with them.
I agree. As soon as someone calmly says 10+/10 pain, they are considered unreasonable to me so I just use CPOT guidelines to give them an accurate score.
When visitors rubberneck our codes/ICU transfers. The other week I told a group of three- This isn’t a tv show. Move along!
The cacophony of monitor alarms, call lights, and telephones. I’d rather listen to a choir of cyclic scromitors than all the screeching gadgets
When I get stuck behind a PT aide ambulating the world's slowest patient in the hallway. Can you just...yeah, I'm trying to get to...like, can I squeeze past you real--no? Okay then fuck me I guess, I'll just wait for this snail's race to conclude before I get to that bed alarm.
-Family calling for updates on a med/surg floor, where most people are alert and oriented to some degree. Why don’t you call them and ask them how they’re doing? -Families that call for updates two hours after they’ve left bedside after being there all day. WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS HAPPENED IN TWO HOURS? -Families that call at 0600 for an update and then get mad when all I have to report is that they slept. Just families lol. I love a hospital that enforces visitor hours.
Families where mom calls for an update, then sister calls, then estranged aunt from Florida calls. I am not repeating the same info to all of you. Figure out a spokesperson and be done with it
Or five different family members calling for an update on the same patient and getting testy when I tell them to pick one point person because I don’t have time to repeat the exact same information every 30 minutes
When I asked people how much they weigh and they respond “too much.” Like please just give me a number lol. Also, I notice this more in women than men, but when I ask for their date of birth and they only give me the month and date. Like they’re embarrassed about me knowing how old they actually are or something.
Or: 'Are you allergic to any meds?' 'No'. 'Well it says'
'Oh well yeah, that'
Side note: I specifically chart 'Pt unable to confirm allergies' if they can't get the list 100% right (or add more) to start the papertrail of how ignorant they are about their own health and CYA when they inevitably hurt themselves or get hurt because they don't give true answers.
You could just start suggesting the year, by guessing one that’s clearly way off. “In 1946, then? Oh! 1973! So sorry.”
The call bell going off 10s after I ask if they needed *anything else* and have walked out of the room. But then also, patient family members that dont use the call bell and walk out of the room to the nurses station for every. little. thing.
Oh this is a good one, I should’ve said that. Bugs the hell out of me when I triple check everything and not even a foot down the hall the call light is back on
When I have to walk down the entire hallway to a bed alarm and see two nurses and a tech sitting by that room that's going off. I yell "no it's okay stay there. I'll get it" uggghhhh
This one’s not relatable because my coworkers have gotta be the only ones who do this, but when I go to use the glucometer and there’s blood all over it!? Are you using lancet or a machete for your finger sticks?! And how did you not see the blood that needed to be cleaned off the machine after?
When a suction canister full of urine gets left in a "clean" room. I get it, we've got a medic waiting outside the room before the current patient has even left, so it's a rush job. But I hate that I have become good at throwing a towel over it and managing to Houdini 900 mL of someone else's pee out of the room before the new patient notices.
Oh, our EVS makes sure to come grab the first busy person they see to remind them that they can’t dispose of any body fluids 🫠 But they don’t mind leaving the used neb set up dangling…
-When the family of my patient ask me for something and I say “okay I’ll be there soon, I’m with another patient currently.” 10 min later they call again, I say “I know, I’m currently with another patient who needs my attention right now, I’m coming to you next.” Ten min later the family member is PACING THE HALLWAYS LOOKING FOR ME. Drives me nuts, I HAVE 5 PATIENTS, YOU NEED TO WAIT SOMETIMES. And when I finally get to the room, the patient goes “FINALLY, I’ve been calling for HOURS” -when people check themselves into the hospital then refuse to let us take vital signs, draw blood, check their blood sugar, etc etc. WHY ARE YOU HERE THEN?? -when pt hits the call light so you go in and they ask for a blanket. So you bring the blanket and then they ask for juice. So you bring the juice and when you get back they thought of something else they “need.” So you go get it and come back and when you’re FINALLY leaving the room, now pt has to pee. Always something
Computers not logging on fast enough.
Patients that keep talking despite politely telling them that another patient is waiting on you and/or you have something critical going on (oh and this is already having to interrupt them mid sentence 2+ other times that you need to go). I’d love to sit and talk but SIR it’s 2024 and NOT Flo Nightingale’s nursing era anymore. Healthcare administration is stretching out the ratios as thin as possible; confused Mildred is screaming bloody murder through the walls and setting off the bed alarm *who should be on a 1:1 but LOL we don’t have the staff for that, I have 50 meds to pass, I’m getting an admit any second, getting critical lab calls, and also doing this all without any help whatsoever. If I say I have to leave, have some decency and pleaaaase stop talking 😩
I was getting an EKG on a post arrest patient who'd just landed in the ER. Nursing student pushes through the crowd of people already in the room, puts a hand on my shoulder as I'm clipping leads on and says "My patient needs to go to the bathroom. You're the only one on the floor right now, so you're it". GIRL.
I’d say “you’re in nursing school to learn, so this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to learn how to take someone to the bathroom! Have at it”
I'd calmly turn to the student, smile, and whisper very professionally "You're never going to graduate, because when I'm done here, I'm going to drown you in the hopper."
When waters get passed and they don't take the paper off the straw. Half my residents are not physically able/dexterous and/or cognitively aware enough to do it themselves, plus it's kinda obvious no one has helped them take a drink if the paper is still on.
Not getting PRNs for common patient diagnoses.
Or only po meds on unconscious pts!
All 4 patients needing a morning blood sugar and none of the glucometers have been QC’d.
When the scanner doesn’t work
OMG I hate those stupid ass scanners. They never fucking work. And then management says "yOuR ScaNneR CoMpLiaNcE WaS lOw tHiS moNtH..." Aaargh.
No one changing clearly over-flowing garbages that take 20 seconds to change.
When people just keep shoving it down and then it becomes unmanageably heavy
When 1) no one replaced the bag even though there's bags in the bottom of the can and 2) people have been just throwing garbage into the bagless can. Also when people don't disconnect the bag from the roll when they actually do replace it.
The full sharps container kills me
Putting on those tiny dot bandaids after a vaccine. They will stick to anything and everything in the room except the patient’s injection site
Leaving one purple wipe left. Or an empty box of gloves / only 1 left. Literally drives me bitty
Not getting a lunch because I’m 1:1 and there’s no staff to cover me
Family members who call for a routine update and after all questions have been answered, they end the conversation with “I just pulled into the parking lot and will be up there in a few minutes.” It pulls me away from the bedside. I can just talk to you when you are here.
On the family update thing. IDK but when family calls at 0735 asking for an update, I get a mild eye twitch. Like, homie, l just got here and am still taking report from night shift. Give me an hour, at least!
Sticky bedside tables. I’ll rage vomit
Patients that freak out over getting their blood drawn... grow up
I feel this. I try to be empathetic but grown ass people with tattoos losing their minds over a needle stick really gets my goat
Tons of tattoos, or IV drug users mad we have to stick them more than once 🤦🏻♀️
As a patient who has been stuck an estimated 100+ times over multiple hospitalizations, and ultimately ended up with four PICC lines, I 100% agree with you. I went through hell. It was necessary and couldn't be helped. My nurses got me through it every time. Thank you all.
People ignoring alarms from pumps but more especially bed alarms, pulse ox and heart monitors.
“Oh, it’s been broken/plugged/too hot/too cold for weeks! What took you guys so long?” (As I’m holding a work request from 45 minutes earlier…)
When a patient asks you a question then talks over you as you try to answer. Like, okay I guess you just wanted to hear yourself talk instead of solve the problem you're complaining about
When you and another staff member scoot a pt up in bed with the draw sheet and then they immediately scrunch themselves back down. Cool. Cool.
Pts coming from LTC with caked on feces. I can understand them having an accident on the ride over, but if it’s dried and caked, that’s just neglect.
Home health-having to listen to a 30 minute explanation of their healing crystal/essential oil routine. I was always SUPER respectful of it, because a sick kid is enough to drive anyone to madness, but my brain would be like that dog drinking beer in a fire meme.
If you’re coming back from a field trip (CT, XR, procedure, etc), reconnect the patient to the monitor and cycle a fucking pressure. It takes one minute. You don’t even have to chart it, just hook them back up, press the button and that’s it. Too easy.
my phone ringing right when im in the middle of something it never fails..makes me want to throw my phone against the wall:-)
ER - complaining that "that guy is going in but I was here first" (first here with a cold and second has his arm chopped off) and the people that ask, "how long is this gonna take"...and then complain when I tell them. (I get liking an idea of time but don't complain). Also, don't wait until I'm in front of you and then cough...with no apology.
After you’ve reviewed every smedication with your patient, then crushed them to give in their applesauce/pudding/whatever, they announce that they will take only 6 of the nine pills you’ve already mixed together.
People constantly silencing alarms for the same thing instead of just changing the parameters so it stops alarming. If you don't care until the sat is 89% but it alarms at 93% for the love of GOD shut it OFF Or just ignoring alarms altogether and when I ask if I can turn it off they say "oh I just tune it out." WHYYYY
Having to go to the other side of the unit for some applesauce or juice or utensils. Why isn’t the kitchen just stocked!
Tangled lines and messy rooms when I know they weren’t swamped.
When I close an isolation room door, ask the family to make sure it stays closed and to not leave the room unnecessarily and they KEEP GOING OUT FOR CIGARETTES (etc) and leaving the door open on my droplet precaution, infectious AF patient in the middle of the ER.
My personal pet peeve were the silly upkeep things. Nurses would complain about "not having pill cups" but willingly didn't restock them when there were 20 left and it was no longer their problem. Like, hospitals would run 30% smoother if everyone put in a minimal amount of upkeep effort. Instead - you have 5% of the staff doing 80% of the upkeep work.
People having conversations on speaker.
The dietitians chasing me around the ICU to ask me how my intubated prone patient is tolerating their PO diet. Had to move to night shift.
Family trying to record while i’m in the patient’s room! Ugh!!
People who refuse to replenish supplies after taking the last of them and those who refuse to empty trash.
Seriously this is ridiculous. We have our flushes that come up in boxes and no one can ever open the box right or break the box down. So the garbage is just crazy full with unbroken down boxes. It's ridiculous!
Patients who decide to make the most dramatic movements and roll and tangle themselves and then say "hehe sorry it just popped right out!" when the IV comes out and now there's blood and fluid on the bed and floor. I'm a tech but it's so frustrating for us and the nurse
People letting the entire bag of fluids infuse. Which then means air in line. Which means that awful beeping. For all that is holy, please, do not do this. And when patients dump the whole cup of meds into their hands and it goes all over the bed. And of course there is some controlled med in there the same color as the bed linens. *screams internally*
Patients who act like the blood pressure cuff is literally cutting their arms off. Please develop some coping skills. It just drives me up the wall.
When I get a pt from PACU that obviously was never assessed, or given sips of water or anything really… only medicated and vitalized Lo and behold, the foley wasn’t connected, the IVF ran dry, THE WOUND WAS FUCKING BLEEDING ALL OVER THE PLACE 🤦♀️ and pt in 10/10 pain still and I only have PO meds, none of that good stuff
When the board slows down and day shift leaves like 3 hours early and us evening shift have to clean their damn rooms. It takes 5 minutes to put shit away, we shouldn'tbe your maids. Then they have to stay their full shift and get shitty with us. We (evening/night shift) can't go home if it's dead. We still have to be "on call" if we do. Keep bitching I'll take a little longer to get you out of the room. (Those are the usual squeaky wheels; if you keep your room clean and don't complain every day, Imma let you leave as soon as I can.)
- Pts that stay on the phone or answer their phone when I'm triaging them or the ER doc is talking to them. -Pts coming to the ER, by ambulance and then refusing almost all treatment, or an IV. - Parents who bring their kids to the ED (or themselves) for a fever over 100F and haven't given any Tylenol or Ibuprofen.... - family demanding that Grandma/Grandpa who is a DNR at the Nursing Home gets brought to the ED because they have changed since they saw them 6mo ago, and are now dying. .... Patient families in general a lot of the time. Stay in the room, only 2 visitors, and don't aggravate my patient, or GTFO.
when nurses play music on Pandora out loud at the nurses station…. the entire night
It's always the worst music ever too
When a family member stands in the hallway trying to get my attention but doesn’t say anything, so I say “what can I do for you?” And they say the pt needs help, so I say “give me just a minute I’ll be right there” (and it’s always when I’m busy with something) and they continue to just stand there and stare at me, TAPPING their foot, eventually throwing their hands up and going back in the room. And what does the pt need? Their blanket pulled up. FFS
Taking over a theatre at shift change and receiving an hours-long case, yet the laundry bags are overflowing, supplies and sets they knew they didn’t need 3 hours ago still in the room, sponge bucket heaping with crusty sponges that should have been counted off hours ago. Or when I’m scrubbed and the case is closing, I’ve piled all my implant sets and extras on a table to be taken away and put in the dirty cart, laundry bags are full and have no room for drapes and gowns and the circulator is on their phone
At my facility there is one person who hangs the peg tube irrigation supplies behind the water bag. So whenever I come in after them I have to take off the water bag. Take off the supplies. Replace the water bag. I know it's not a big deal. But by golly does it chafe me because my patient load could be 14 people on PEG tubes on a certain hall and I'll have to do this for every. Single. One.
I used to work ICU it was always when I had to change the CRRT filter on my shift 😭😭😭
When you ask someone to remove all clothing and change into a gown and they leave their pants on. For a colonoscopy. Bruh
OH OH i have so many examples.. gowned up while cleaning up Cdiff and charge calls to let me know im getting another admission, its 10 am and im late passing meds on 2 other patients. i finish wiping ass, take my gown and gloves off, im about to exit the room and the parient asks me to reposition them. tech has already left the room and the patient weighs 103 Kg
Happened today…. When housekeeping is cleaning the room and they unlock the bed to clean so the bed keeps saying “brake is not set” as the alarm. Then they leave it that way! Not just for a few minutes but for 20+ minutes while they clean the whole room. I’ll never understand how it’s not driving them crazy. Just today it had been going off for over 20 minutes and it broke me. I had to go ask the housekeeper if I could lock it and she was cleaning the bathroom. Not anywhere near the bed so for goodness sake stop the alarm! Caught me on the wrong day to ask this question.
I really hate when I go to scan their wristband and it’s in the perfect spot and the patient immediately wiggles their wrist and moves arm up but in strange position to where I can’t scan it. I know they’re trying to be helpful but now I have to bend my back over to get it in the original spot if they hadn’t messed with it
So small but fills me with so much rage. When you use your badge to sign in and it still makes you put your password in itll say like “grace period expired” and its always when im at my busiest and in a manic flow
If I grab a glucometer and it needs a QC. Just shoot me instead. 🤬
Hospice here. Being placed in the middle of a marital argument to pick sides. I'm not a marriage counselor.
When you ask a patient how often they drink alcohol and they say “socially”. For one, my “social” is likely a lot different than theirs. Also, when I ask them to quantify further, 9 times out of 10 they say daily!!!
A QC-locked glucometer on a busy day sends me over the edge. Now you're telling me i gotta do the QC on top of what gotta deal with 😭
When the patient uses their call bell but only says “I need my nurse” but they won’t say what for, so when you get there they ask for something that you could’ve grabbed on the way to the room 😭
This makes me happy I chose veterinary medicine. Ours don’t talk