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)