AIBU to think I don’t singularly have the power to fuck up the ward?

[PeachPRC]

disclaimer: I KNOW it’s ‘unreasonable’ to say the q word as a HCP. My question is whether or not it’s actually literally stupid of me to say that word, ignoring the superstitious element of it.

A relative has taken a place on a nursing course starting soon and it got me thinking about my own nursing degree many years ago.

as a student I made the hideous mistake of saying ‘it’s quiet this afternoon isn’t it?’ and had my head bitten off by multiple registered nurses (for non HCP; mentioning that ‘it’s quiet’ is a mortal sin because that apparently ensures that the ward will suddenly become unmanageably busy). I hadn’t realised until then that mentioning the Q word was an absolute no no and I laughed along and apologised.

this happened maybe 3 times (in different departments in 2 hospitals so no overlap of staff). Honestly, by the 3rd time, I said the Q word on purpose just to see the reaction of everyone else. Each time, I was scolded by the staff because they insisted that me saying that word would ruin the rest of the shift by somehow making it become very busy. I said it once at approx 9am and by afternoon still had a (until then very pleasant) nurse giving me filthy looks across the treatment room. The first time I said it as an ignorant student I was properly told off, almost shouted at, by experienced nurses.

I have nursed for approx 20 years and know now that no one should ever say ‘quiet’ but that’s only because you’ll have your face snapped off by other nurses/ doctors, not because I genuinely think the myth of invoking a bad shift is true. This post isn’t about the jokey ‘haha don’t say that word!’ colleagues, it’s about the staff that TRULY believe that saying a word out loud can ruin a shift. I’d love to hear the reasoning behind that!

To this day, I’m still so surprised that HCP GENUINELY believe that a colleague saying the word ‘quiet’ out loud can wreck the shift and I’d love to know if another HCP can explain why they think that?! I nearly didn’t bother posting this because I assumed I’d get lots of ‘OP don’t you dare ever say that again 😉’ posts, but I’m interested in responses from HCP who truly believe the Q word can destroy a good day. Because as far as I’m aware, that’s a ridiculous thing to think.

my point is that logic says you’d be knee deep in ODs anyway. No matter what. Surely you don’t think the utterance of a word affects that?!

you know you haven’t literally ‘jinxed’ it though: because jinxing isn’t an actual tangible thing

As predicted the replies are full of superstition and anecdote which was the exact thing I said made no sense in my OP and asked respondents to explain logically. Which they obviously can’t

Been a nurse over 35 years. People who said the Q word. We would admonish them, but it was never seriously, and never be taken seriously. If it did get busy afterwards then the person who said it got a bit of ribbing but that was it. 'Well you know who's bldy fault that was!' Laugh. No biggie.

I think OP this is a combo of people being a bit superstitious AND just being bloody shattered and fed up.

Your colleagues know it's not literally going to make it busier when you say 'oh it's quiet', but they are probably sitting there feeling knackered and pissed off with their job generally after the last 2 awful years.

Saying it casually when you KNOW how it's going to be perceived is just going to wind people up. It's like casually jogging over the line at the end of a marathon as others struggle to finish saying "I could run another 5 miles actually". Pointing out that you are fine with things being a bit more shit to people who are fairly near the end of their tether is always going to piss them off.

So what may have resulted in gentle ribbing in times gone by, sounds like it's getting a harsher response now because people are so done in.

I've just started another thread about the grumpy and potentially kleptomaniac nurses on my DFs wards. Thanks OP now I'm marching in this morning loudly pronouncing 'ISN'T IT QUIET TODAY'

I am off to Google the moon thing though, how interesting !

It’s a bit like when someone says they’re looking forward to autumn and others round on them as if they are personally responsible for the summer ending.

I don’t think think that there is a logical explanation but humans seem to be hard wired to think religiously. I find it fascinating to see the same traits that people reject in religious thought emerging in their politics.

I'll give the op a proper, non-goady answer. The TL;Dr is a phenomenon called "regression to the mean".

Basically, each ward has an average level of busyness, with some random variation around it. Some hours are quiet, some are very busy, and this is mostly down to chance. Therefore, if you have an hour that's on one of the extremes of the range, let's say it's very quiet, then statistically it's likely that the next hour will be less quiet. It might be average, it might be busy, it might just be slightly less quiet, but chances are it will be at least somewhat busier. Therefore, if someone remarks during a quiet hour that it is, indeed quiet, then it may appear that they've doomed the ward when things are less quiet the next hour. In fact, it was always going to get busier anyway.

It works the other way too - very busy hours are likely to be followed by less busy ones - so always make a point to say how busy things are, OP, and perhaps people will think you're blessed, rather than cursed.

Then again, explaining all this might make you come across as a bit of a tit, so maybe just don't say "the Q word" for the sake of social cohesion. It is annoying though; superstition grinds my gears.

It's the Macbeth of healthcare....

Maybe you're just good at irritating people OP . Simple as that.

my point is that logic says you’d be knee deep in ODs anyway. No matter what. Surely you don’t think the utterance of a word affects that?!

Did you miss everything I said before about regression to the mean and culture?

<mutter> I said it was regression to the mean <sulks>

@MrsTerryPratchett 😁 Sorry! I was very tired and had a newborn stuck to my boob so my read-through wasn't very thorough.

If it helps I think your post explained it very well and much more succinctly than mine!

There are lots of things in this world people believe in that has no factual basis. E.g. religion for one. But you don’t keep telling a religious person there is no God, or tell a Hindu they can’t believe in re-incarnation, or tell anyone there is no soul etc etc

Oftentimes it’s just one of those things. I can see why it’s a superstition and that’s life! For example in my culture you offer a drink to someone as soon they walk in the room before meeting a new baby!

These things just happen!

I'm a bit confused why you think mumsnet can explain superstition to you? You already know what it is and you already know it's illogical, so why do you think anyone can make it logical?

The question you might be better asking is why you are receiving a more aggressive response to saying quiet than most people.

I don't work in a hospital, but I do work in an area where work levels are guided by external factors, so we do not use the quiet word. When someone does, we laugh and shush, it's a bonding thing. I think we all get along with each other and it's easygoing. Your work doesn't sound like that.

It's just regression to the mean, if it's unusually quiet enough to be commented on, then things will probably regress back to the normal level of busy-ness in the near future.

I said it once in handover because our entire stock of imaging equipment was down, so ambulance would have to divert one of our usual categories of patient elsewhere. I was scolded but ambulance did their job and the shift was fine.

You probably don't understand why your colleagues dislike you too.

out of curiosity have you noticed a pattern?

Does everyone have this reaction?
Hcp?
Nurses?
Doctors?
Or is it perhaps skewed in one direction more than another?

It’s the same in hospitality and I’m sure many other jobs. Just don’t say it and you’re fine.

I’ve never heard anyone say it to scold someone. I guess I’ve been lucky.

We will jokingly tell someone that has said it that they’ve ‘done it now’ or that they have to deal with the consequences but we don’t mean it.

Same as going onto night shift during a full moon. We joke about what we could be walking into.

Although as you can tell I might be conditioned not to say ‘IT’.

I have got the Björk song in my head.

Love the regression to the mean explanation above, hope that appeases the OP, but in general you sound like a bit of an annoying pedant 😂

And so peaceful UNTIL... da ra ra ra

I love that video!

It's weird superstition and I don't understand why people take it so seriously. I'm not superstitious though.