How about urines in a biohazard transport bag that have an empty cup
floating in them?...Oh yeah, an a lid in there somewhere too...

Fellow techs who think they are "sooooo helpful" running around here and
there, getting in your way and leaving a trail of semi-processed specimens.
Don't these "team players" realize the energy they expend when it's
un-necessary?

D

Everything that's been mentioned so far plus:

1.  Rude nurses - I had one that just DID NOT want to talk to me last
night regarding a specimen that I had to cancel that was sent from the
ER before his floor arrival (a foley tip - which is not culturable -
another pet peeve). My team leader ended up emailing HER manager to get
back.....who said there is no justice?

2. Rude doctors - ones who pull rank and just won't listen to you

3. Lazy people on another shift who you end up having to clean up after
in some way (something was not subbed out, ID'd correctly, left for you
when they could have done it, etc. etc.)

4. Specimens from outpatients that either have no name on the specimen
and/or no orders on the requisition (which are usually received after 9
p.m. on a Friday so the problems can't be cleaned up until Monday)

5. Unlabelled specimens of any kind - especially SPINAL FLUIDS (I've
seen this numerous times. You'd think if they went to this much trouble
with a patient they'd at least label a CSF). A subheading of this would
be straight catheter specimens that have almost leaked out into the bag
because they couldn't BOTHER to screw the lid on after putting the
patient through a catheterization (especially a little bitty baby).
Sheesh!

6. Specimens and requisitons whose names don't match, and the nurses
just want you to tube the specimens back to them so they can "fix" it.
We cannot do that and require that a form be filled out by their nurse
manager and they haul their butts across the street to relabel the
specimen if it's one that's not easily collected again (tissue, CSF,
fluids). They don't like that a whole lot.

7. Rock hard fecal specimens labelled with a diagnosis of "diarrhea."
Who is kidding who here?

8. Specimens with <0.5 ml (serum, fluid of any kind) with about ten
tests ordered on them for multiple departments (including complicated
send out testing with copious specimen requirements) and they can't
understand why you have to QNS some of them.

9. Complicated clerical/ordering/specimen problems left over from
another shift without any kind of note being left, everyone from that
shift has left for the day, and the nurse calls down and doesn't want to
go through the whole story again because she already was dealing with
someone who is not there any more....so you have to try to reconstruct
everything while the phone's ringing off the hook, STATs are coming in,
blood cultures are turning positive, and that unlabelled CSF just
arrived.....

10. Lab weeks that feature all kind of activities for first shift,
including games, potlucks, etc. and the other shifts are just completely
ignored. I always wonder how in the heck all these first shift people
have time for all these activities....this year was particularly
blatant.

Well, there are ten more - any commentary?

Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology

"You should have known one does not use a platinum loop for shoveling
coal." - Dr. Max Gottlieb in the novel "Arrowsmith"

Being called out of bed at 4.30am to do an emergency pre-op blood count,
waiting like a lemon till 6am when the pre op sample arrives together with
the post op sample:
"we sent them together to save the poor porter making so many trips" !!

Last week that one was !

Doctors who can't speak English very well who then accuse me of racism when
I can't understand them on the phone.

The way that junior medical staff abandon protocol in favour of panic EVERY
time there is a major emergency.

Being chief BMS means I am not in any position of authority, just that I
take the blame :o)

Add on tests  (particularly amylase on abdo. pain patients) which could have
been requested with the casualty sample but aren't because the requester
doesn't have brain in gear.
People who phone up and say "I wanted this urgently but I forgot to put it
on the form. Particularly annoying with electronic requests which can be
marked urgent with one click of a mouse.
Blood gas samples with the needle still attached.

Hmm,  1) internet abuse?

Ever since certain areas of the lab become connected, you can pretty
much depend on doing all the work while your co-worker checks her AOL
mail. We've solved the problem generally just by handing them the work
instead of getting up and doing it ourselves when we work her.

But, you can't really ban it for the others who use it responsibly.

     2) working by yourself- with another person

another co-worker who is incredibly knowledgable, but will spend 2
hours on a slide with immatures, or a fluid slide, or a mailbox (not
internet here, a dumb box) reminding people some protocol forgotten the
night before and you do - everything else. We've solved this one with
the 7 step prayer: God grant me the grace to accept the thing I cannot
change.

     3) the 'perfect' co-worker

you know, never wrong about anything lab related or otherwise, always
criticizing.

     4) chatty patties

a milder peeve - definately personality related, but yapyapyapyapyap.

     5) the unique dater

I've never seen anyone else do this, but May 5, 2005: it's 050505,
05/05/05,
5-5-05, but 5-5-5 ?   5/5/5 ?  That just ain't normal! Its just
unnatural!