Some people eat, sleep, and drink medicine… eat, sleep, and drink nursing… eat, sleep, and drink surgery… or whatever their healthcare field is. They seemed to know what they wanted from the very beginning.

And these people can stress you out quite a bit. If you’re about to start your internship and you are still undecided about your future… or if you’re a nurse about to finish your clinicals and enter the work force… these Obi-Wan Kenobi types can be pretty annoying. (Gotta squeeze some Star Wars references in there… how could I not?… destiny?… Star Wars day?… anyway, click the audio and think of Good ‘ol Ben).

It would be nice if we could know who these people were before they even said a word… Introducing a new medical humor series from GiggleMed.com – a series of doctor jokes and comics related to subspecialty… Doctors of Destiny :)

Infection control humor for education?…

Evidence-based medicine cartoon books?…

What next? Agreement on healthcare reform?!

Look… the educational materials in the healthcare professions can be pretty dry, downright boring, and ultimately, awesome dust magnets. So, we’re trying to change things a little bit (and not without some controversy).

We’re releasing a new book today – a funny, witty, medical humor book with evidence-based advice on infection control practices. This isn’t some cute little healthcare limerick you post up at staff meeting… or some cheesy nursing clip art for bulletin boards that no one looks at…

No. This is Bugs on Scrubs, a hilarious argument between a nurse and a doctor about who is spreading infection – and an interesting, all-too-familiar twist at the end. We’re releasing it today at the pre-ISBN, pre-real-publication price of only 10 bucks.

Medical humor and medical education have a love child, Bugs on Scrubs, and it’s only 10 clams.

Pharmaceutical lunches aren’t just about the doctors and the reps… What about everyone else in the periphery?… the food stores… the squishy toy makers…

And these guys?…

This short, one-minute long, funny video parodies that internal competitive streak found among all of the healthcare professions. Doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, OR techs, house staff, and EMTs all have this phenomenon of “one-upmanship” when telling stories. Whether it is telling funny stories or recounting the events of a code or bragging about accomplishments, there’s always someone with something a little funnier, a little more disgusting, or a little more alarming. Check out this comical video:

OK, it's time to revisit Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Last time, we looked at nurses. But this time we're going to examine some habits of those doctors that get right under our skin, the annoying ones that everyone complains about, the doctors that are nowhere to be found in Mr. Covey's book. Just to help you identify the people we are talking about, here are the 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Doctors:

• Calling consults before even seeing the patient.
• Going on vacation without arranging coverage... assuming that residents or hospitalists will cover.
• Despicable penmanship.
• Using prohibited abbreviations (and then having the kahonies to get angry when nurses or pharmacists call them on it).
• Always being late for meetings, appointments, and important events. Always.
• Asking a staff member a question without greeting them first ("Hello", "Excuse me", "Pardon me", "I'm sorry to interrupt, but..." no greeting what so ever, none).
• Introducing themselves as "
...

We've all heard of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  But what about all of those people that we work with in health care?... you know... those people that are nowhere to be found in Mr. Covey's book.  Just to make sure we're all talking about the same people, here are the 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Nurses:

• Just calling "to let you know".
• Writing "Doctor aware".
• Saying, "It's not my patient".
• Referring to patients by their room numbers and not knowing their names.
• Smoke breaks.
• Waiting until the end of their shift to start their charting.
• Writing that they "read back" an order, when they did no such thing.

Feel free to add others for consideration.  Send us an email or just post a comment below.  For those annoying nurses that took offense to this post... two things: (1) If you do three or more of the above, you have no one to blame but yourself, and (2) the next post is one that you'll love - The 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Doctors.  :0)

Check out this funny med school graduation speech… He touches on several disciplines and subspecialties, several personality types, and a bunch of doctor jokes. He also makes a serious comment that is right up GiggleMed’s alley – about combining empathy and (appropriate) humor when caring for patients.