RULE #1: Never Say the "Q" Word

[Joe V]

Everyone knows that when you mention the "Q" word, hell breaks loose. And, we all know that there are some nurses that are just the magnet of bad things. Any stories you want to share? Any rules that should be followed?

[wannabecnl]

No, no, no, never say the Q word!!! You're just asking for trouble! When I look up at the OR board and see a... ahem... smaller number of cases than we usually have, my word for that is "interesting" or "different," not the Q word. There can be 20 cases (we usually do 25-30), but if you say the Q word, they'll all have MRSA. And A-fib. Just saying.

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

I learned the hard way. As a fresh-faced nursing student volunteer in the ER, I said "It's quiet today." This nurse gave me the dirtiest look and said don't ever say that word!

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

My last rotation of nights. I was spending what I thought was 4 nights on the ward - I then got pulled to hospital supervisor for the last one so had 3 on the ward before I finished that job and took a M-F position.

Night 1 - shockingly bad intern on, post op laparotomy vomiting his guts up. I have given him everything I could, stopped his PCA thinking it could be that. Next time he pukes - its faecal. wide bore NG please ... Intern response "lets leave it till the home team are on at 7." Uh no! call the registrar - she gives me a phone order for the tube. Drop it, get 1.5L fluid out - pt feels better, intern is "threating" me by calling the hospital supervisor - I tell her to go right ahead. She didn't know I had finished a secondment there a few months prior and was part of the casual team! HA! So she calls the reg. She explains that a ANUM with 8 years colorectal experience beats an intern with 8 months experience.

Night 2 - same intern. NEW post op laparotomy, older guy, no real history - was as rigid as they come when I walked in. Could not move arms or legs r neck ... Call intern, useless. Call registrar and ICU liaison nurse. Off to ICU for NIV and a new dx of Parkinsonism. Another pt., being treated by a different intern absconded with an ex-fix on...

Night 3. new pt out of ICU. went into assess. Clammy and tachy. One feel of his pulse suggested I was in bother RAF 180. MET call. Treated that over 2 hrs, the other nurses checked on my other pts. I went and checked on the rest of them as the MET call was stood down.

Went to my second sickliest to see he had just vomited and aspirated NG feeding that the family wanted the pt to have. Yell to the MET to come back, go through the motions of calling the call for their stats. Suck out about 400ml of ensure from this man. Idiotic family insist that he should have everything done for him (pt is in 90s, multiple medical problems, high level care nursing home etc) Pack him off to respiratory care for NIV as ICU refused him.

Went back to check on pt 1. All good.

Start doing all my way over due tasks. Obs, drain emptying etc. pottering along at the bedside of the one pt that I wanted to spend time with a palliative vascular pt who was actively dying from PVD. Pt 1 was in the bed beside her. I look over and he looks 10 times worse than before. another MET call please.

The hospital manager attends all the MET calls to see if beds need to be made in other wards. She turned up to this and said "if this is what you have been escalating to all this week I am glad I am not working tomorrow." ICU nurse liaison who I have known for years comments "at this rate tomorrow when she is running the place we will end up evacuating!" Send pt 1 off to ICU. Ask the orderlies to all stay back and help me with my palliative pt to move her and clean her up. Make her comfortable finally!

Feel I have achieved something ... the last few hrs roll on. check on pt 3 all night. Start my AM round, bloods, morning weights etc. Get stuck with a contrary old lady who wants things done in the most ridiculous manner. Get that feeling that I have to check on the palliative pt. Get out as soon as I can from where I am and she is dead. Still warm, but dead. I hate pts dying alone. I try to move heaven and earth to get family in or ask colleagues for help so that I can sit with them.

Finish off everything I have to do for her and the rest of my pts. leave work - start walking down the stairs - stop off at the respiratory care unit. Pt 2 is dead. stop off in ICU to see them doing CPR on pt 2.

In 10 hrs I lost 3 pts. I know that 2 of them went to a higher level f care and were very unwell but still...

Hospital manager shift. The director of access heard about my night from hell and had left chocolate for me. bless her. hd the best night in a long time. Plenty of beds in the hospital (this is a public hospital trauma centre). Little to no drama on the wards, get to hang out in ED and witness an amazing resuscitation effort.

So after 8 months of no nights I picked up an agency shift to supplement my savings. Weird as all! Full moon... Palliative care unit. Undertakers turn up to pick up a pt who ISN'T DEAD! Another pt who is in for symptom management looses the plot and starts stripping off and nudie run at 4 AM! Umm so Nights are not good for me!

[UPSgirl]

Call it superstition, but take a moment to think about this. I don't have the faintest clue what hospital you work at or what department you are in, but I can guarantee you (if you work in a department with more than 13 rooms) there isn't a room #13. It skips from 12 to 14. It's not just superstition!

[Joe V]

??

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

3 hours ago, Joe V said:

??

Well, if you didn't say the Q word, I wouldn't have to make that face!

[Joe V]

4 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

Well, if you didn't say the Q word, I wouldn't have to make that face!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Just now, Joe V said:

Did you skip the class in nursing school on how to grow your bladder to the size of a Winnebago waste tank? Nurses don't pee! (But they totally should make sure they take time for that during their shifts)

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

The Q word is VERY REAL.

We used to have a hospitalist who would stand in the middle of the freaking ICU and say "Well you're having an easy night." And then it would all go to h-e-doublehockeystics.

Any form of the Q word, including easy, simple, uncomplicated.... Shussh. Shush your mouth.

[Beeda]

My son used to make fun of my “q-word” phobia until he became a paid emt during college.  Now he gets it!  Even now I don’t use the q word at home. I say “not noisy” or calm or pleasant