Ep.70 Nursing Pet Peeves

Nursing Pet Peeves

In this episode, we will talk about the ten most common nursing pet peeves. This will be a compilation of our experience. But first, we will cover a nursing home fraud in LA that settled fraud claims for 16.7 million. 

The nursing home operator will settle fraud claims for 16.7 Million.

A Los Angeles company that runs 27 nursing homes has agreed to pay $16.7 million to settle allegations of Medicare fraud.

“Specifically, Longwood allegedly pressured therapists to increase the therapy provided to patients to meet pre-planned targets for Medicare revenue. These targets were alleged to have been set without regard to patients’ individual therapy needs,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Pet Peeves

Letting tubing run dry

  • Some medications like inotropes or pressors can be a serious issue when they run dry. Blood pressure can drop in a matter of seconds. It’s not just when the critical meds run dry. It’s all drips in general. It’s a pain in the ass to be rushing to grab a med right when you walk in. If you don’t feel like hanging it, at least order it or grab it from the pixies and leave it in the room.

10/10 Pain Scale with a Smile

  • You know that patients claiming to have a 10/10 pain scale while managing to smile and talk exist. Or once you leave the room, the patient returns to nap. They look fine but claim to have the worst pain they have ever felt. Their facial expressions don’t match the intensity of pain they are supposed to have. Unfortunately, pain is subjective, so we have no choice but to offer a solution. 

When you are about to get the report, and the nurse says, “I didn’t read any notes.”

  • This is probably one of our most annoying nursing pet peeves. As soon as we hear this statement, we will have to figure out what is going on with the patient. If you’re lucky and have time, you will spend the first 15-30 minutes of your shift reading notes and verifying what was said during the report. Things sometimes happen, like getting an admission 30 minutes before the report. 

Having to take manual or orthostatic blood pressure in the ICU

  • Hourly blood pressure on an LVAD is tedious but essential; it doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck. Manual orthostatic is annoying; taking three blood pressure in 3 different positions is a process. 

Tangled Cords, Cables, and lines

  • When you are having a bad day, all the tangles, cords, cables, and lines. The worst is IV tubings. If you have many drips going and add more, you don’t know where everything can go. You don’t know your access for emergencies, and you have no idea what drugs are compatible.
  • Either the staff nurses who used them earlier didn’t bother to organize them, or the cords became tangled all by themselves. Sometimes the patient moves around in bed, and you must continually fix leads, cuffs, cords, etc. it is good practice to clean up your cords and label tubing before the shift change. 

Whining co-nurses

  • If you need help, ask, don’t whine about it. 
  • There is always that one nurse you’re working with that complains about everything. It drags everyone’s positivity down. You will be glad you’re doing bedside care during these times.

Patients Who See the Hospital as a Hotel

  • Not only can the patients get annoyed and call for every little thing the family can be the same way.
  • Some patients expect a hospital works as a hotel. They look for the unrealistic hospitality vibe and ask for perks you’d typically find in a ritzy hotel. You can’t believe you are dealing with these requests when your other patients are hanging on to their lives by the skin of their teeth.

The Doctor Abbreviates Everything & copies and pastes notes

  • We all know those abbreviations that have us rereading notes multiple times, trying to figure out what it means. “Patient was in SX” Operating room. 

When you’re trying to leave a room and your patient won’t stop talking

  • We understand that communication is vital. Laying in a room with no one to talk to sucks, and we understand that. We talk to our patients all the time, not just to update them on the plans for today but also to have a genuine conversation.
  • Just because we enjoy talking to our patients doesn’t mean we always have time for it. Sometimes the patient goes on and on. Have you ever had a conversation with someone that goes on and on? That’s how we feel sometimes.

Nurses that ignore alarms

  • Another nursing pet peeve we don’t like is when nurses ignore the light alarms. Nurses ignore call light alarms because the concerned patient is not their patient, which is irritating. Why ignore it if you can answer and inform the nurse assigned to the patient? The same goes for pumps, cardiac monitors, and mechanical ventilator alarms. Some nurses bother to stop the alarm but don’t inform the nurse handling the patient.

Did you know: That hospitals don’t allow turning off the alarm for A-lines?

What are your nursing pet peeves? Learn about it here

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro
05:41 Tubing
11:45 Reading Notes
17:37 Blood Pressures
21:41 Nursing Housekeeping
26:08 Patient Execution
29:28 Communication
32:34 Alarms
33:53 Alarm fatigue
38:15 End of Show

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