Pet peeve

1 So I had to float to a resp/tele floor last night and another nurse was trying to be helpful by drawing an am lab from a central line on one of my pts. Without gloves. It was perfect timing as I had just came in to check a blood sugar so I made a big production of putting gloves on just to hold the strip for the drop of blood. Oh and this is one of our union reps in a magnet hospital. Yikes is all I can say. I've also seen a nurse changing caps on a PICC without gloves. Now isn't one of the points of changing caps infection control?!?!?!

Pet peeves?
wow that is kindof crazy, how are we supposed to keep hospital aquired infections down, if we can't fallow simple rules of safety, for the pt and ourselves. I have also seen allot of nursing staff (aids and nurses) doing things without gloves ie. changing diapers. It drives me nuts too...

While I don't do procedures bare handed, I have on occasion (well, ok, often) done what should be "sterile" procedures with clean gloves rather than sterile because the gloves in the kits are just too big for me and end up down around my knuckles before I get halfway through what I'm trying to do. In the settings I work in (not hospitals) individually packed sterile gloves just aren't available and I REFUSE to supply my own. So next best option clean gloves under sterile then when the sterile ones fall off at least I have clean gloves left---better than nothing and the best I can do. And procedures requiring real manual dexterity get clean gloves only all the way! My pet peeve -- a "one size fits all" ordering mentality as a way to save money!

One of mine is starting an IV w/out gloves on. An RN on our IV Start team does this. She sanitizes regularly, but still ... Though she's a bit more ... cleanly than I am when I start IV's. I end up having to change the bed depending on the person I'm poking

From the gloveless...mind your own business.If I was to draw labs off a line without gloves I am not putting the patient at risk in any way. If I maybe, possibly get a drop of blood on my own intact skin...I'm also not at risk. Amazing, isn't it? Just your sense of ewwww has been offended. If you watch carefully you'll see the gloveless are also some of the best handwashers you'll ever see. We tend to be old school, and are fully aware of the risks and benefits of gloving or not. The phone has more microorganisms than most urine/blood samples.

Canoehead, While I do not automatically assume a post is addressed to me; I'll reply to this one. I also have many tasks I do without gloves when others may wish to wear them. I feel it is the persons own preference; however when I wish to use them I would like them to be available in the proper size and it is a pet peeve of mine that they are not. That is the only point I wanted to make. Thank you for letting me get this off my chest. LOL

I have seen PCAs and nurses take finger sticks without gloves. I guess, I'm type A, cause I put on gloves when moving pts in bed (esp. after discovering all kinds of "nice" things in beds.

I'm a little lax when it comes to gloves. When it's a sterile procedure, then yes, I wear gloves. To pull a pt up in bed? No. Of course I remember when I was a CNA in the early 80's. I wiped up lots of poop with no gloves. Sometimes I start IV's without them and sometimes they are on. My patients are pretty low risk but as we know, a needlestick can go through any glove.

It's a pet peeve of mine when people at work insist I wear gloves to boost someone in bed.They will literally hand me a pair or ask what size I wear. If I'm not coming in contact with bodyfluids or doing a procedure that requires it I prefer my own skin. I'm not sure why people are so nutty about gloving up for things that do not require it. However I do wear gloves if I suspect I will come in contact with bodily fluids.

When I think about how many YEARS I started IVs without gloves...(sigh) and I am still alive!Back in the 70's, we rarely wore gloves for pt care, unless it was a poopy patient, or there was other obvious reason. Not including Isolation patients.I started nursing school in 1971, so heaven knows what all I came in contact with!I have 2 issues - - 1. How often do you clean your entire stethoscope, not just the diaphragm? and 2. Recapping dirty needles, up in the air. How far are you from the sharps container? I use the scoop method even on my own needles at home! (diabetic).Oh --- one more thing. When someone licks their fingers to turn pages in a paper chart. Please don't put your saliva on the chart. I might have to turn that page in a minute.....

Quote from mamamerleeOh --- one more thing. When someone licks their fingers to turn pages in a paper chart. Please don't put your saliva on the chart. I might have to turn that page in a minute.....

1) Docs and lab techs wearing the same lab coat day after day around a dozen or more different patients. Where I work nurses aren't even allowed to wear a lab coat into a patient room but the doctors and lab techs breeze in and out like they never heard the term fomites.2) Speaking in baby talk to adult patients who are in complete possesion of their mental faculties. We have this one aide who will ask patients "did you tee-tee?" "Do you need to go wee-wee?" "I need you to wee in this cup." One time I heard an elderly gentleman reply to her with "ma'am, I haven't tee-teed since I was five years old. I am a grown man and would appreciate it if you treated me like one." The look on her face was pure gold but it didn't break her of this very annoying habit.3) Staff who use scripted phrases when they enter or leave the room. On occasions when I am a patient or on one of my spouse's frequent stays, by the time you have heard the exact same wording from a dozen different people you want to scream.4) Policies that dictate calling a patient Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. or Miss no matter what the patient's preference is. I hate being called Mister XYZ (long story.) My wife prefers to be called by her first name as well. We have repeatedly asked the staff at the dialysis center where she goes to call us by our first name but they absolutely refuse. Same with a lot of clinics and hospitals she goes to. To me, not calling a patient by their prefered name is just plain disrespectful.This was rambling but it was a long night and has been a longer day. I'm going to watch TNT for a while and go to bed.

How about this one--nurses and cnas who empty urine, stool, etc into the toilet and then don't flush the toilet or rinse the graduate container or bedside commode bucket. Disgusting, wonder if they flush at home?