Stressful Personalities In Work: Asking The Question

As I work longer in the nursing profession, I find that the most stressful area about working is not the job itself nor the patients, but those you work with. In every workplace there would always be somebody whose personality is not endearing. And then again there are those who are out and out bully. Or just plain bat shit crazy. Sure, everybody is suppose to be professional and all that shit... but... these "personalities" in the workplace sometimes creates an unpleasant environment. A normal person can tolerate it once, twice, but if you have to have to deal with it everyday, it gets stressful. I think this is where increased sickness statistics is seen. Gotta have a solution for the long term... And then the stress factor may come in varying degrees. Additional stress factors from other sources like home and such could come into play. And some people copes with it better than others. But how about you?... So what do you do if you have to work with these "personalities"? So how do you cope with it and not resign from your job? How do you survive it without getting sick? Use a Stress Reduction Kit? Please post your opinion in the comments section...

I've worked with a few of these "personalities" in the course of my tenure in the nursing profession. I resigned. I moved departments... What did you do?

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Anaesthetist Hymn

Infection Control

When I was a student, an infection control nurse told me that infection control is not rocket science but common sense. I never forgot that. And in the daily life in the hospital, it is often observed that common sense is not so common after all. Why is that?...

Lately in work, I brought to the attention of my senior, the "need-to-improve" infection control practice of the anaesthetist in theatre.

To me, placing a sterile bung (cover) at the end of a syringe to stop it from getting contaminated makes sense, infection-control-wise. So that when you administer the medicine to the patient, the possibility of infection risk to the patient is even more minimized compared to when you did not cover the syringe. Although, yes it is clean, but when you put a bung on it while lying on the counter waiting to be used, the possibility of infection is even lessened than when you did not cover it. To me, that was common sense.

Besides, what was the reason that it couldn't be done? If it was an emergency and there was no time, fine. That is acceptable. You gotta have your priorities right. Save the life first and we can worry about infection later. But on an 8-hour procedure, one has the time to cover syringes, surely. So it awfully looks to me like sheer laziness. To me that is not acceptable.

It took my seniours a long while to respond. Then they called the Infection Control Nurse of the Trust. Guess what she told me...

We need to gather more evidence that, "not putting a bung on a syringe", is an infection risk.

And I was dismissed. Ok...... Guess, that infection control nurse when I was a student was wrong....??

This is where you think for yourself....

For me, if I were the patient, I would rather that the doctors cover the syringes with a sterile bung to minimise the risk of infection to me.

Introductory Blog

Hello everyone,

Please call me Phantom Nurse. I am a qualified nurse practicing in the UK. I would like to reach out to all patients, colleagues, other healthcare practitioners (whether qualified or unqualified) and students to share their views with everybody. I have my own opinion as a qualified nurse, but, we can have an even broader view with more people sharing their brain-power. This exercise will hopefully help make me and other healthcare practitioners a better healthcare provider. This will also give patients opportunity to make their views heard. You can ask me questions or make a comment. You can email me at perfectlywckd-phantom [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please bear in mind that I am not all-knowing, therefore may not have the answers you want.

My workplace does not allow me to go onto the internet or on any public domain with any identifiable markers that might lead to them or to them through me, thus the Phantom Nurse pseudoname. Plus, I am also a fan of caped cruisaders... and we have... Phantom Nurse... welcome to my blog!

Regards,
Phantom Nurse

Disclaimer

The opinion(s) expressed in this blog is that of Phantom Nurse unless stated otherwise. You do not have to agree, you just have to respect it, just as your opinion will be respected. Phantom Nurse reserves the right to express opinion(s) in hyperbolic terms for dramatic effect. Comments are moderated however this does not constitute endorsement of the comment/ideas/views upon approval. The comment/ideas/views remains the property of the contributor.

This blog has links to other sites. Please note that Phantom Nurse is not responsible for any content(s) of any of the links as they are outside the scope of this blog.

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For questions or clarifications, please email Phantom Nurse at perfectlywckd-phantom [at] yahoo [dot] com.