[AngelfireRN]

Just wondering about what funny experiences y'all have had during your first days on the job. I'll share 2:
1)On my first week in a psychiatric hospital where they took children and teens, I was headed outside with the staff for the morning meeting. Before I knew what happened, I was thrown to the floor. The staff, none of whom knew me well, had mistaken me for a teen patient (I look very young), and thought I was attempting to escape. Took me a month to live that down.
2)My first shift as an agency nurse, the charge nurse asked to orient me handed me off to a tech, who asked if I'd mind feeding a patient. I didn't mind, although, as bad as they needed nurses, I thought I'd be giving meds. When I was about done, the charge nurse walked back in, and said "So, you're our new tech, right?" I said, "No, I'm your new RN." I wish I had a picture of her face. Priceless. OK, your turn. Any good ones?

[mom4josh]

My instructors told me that I'd probably have an advantage when I became a nurse because I was older than the usual college grad. That became very evident when I was about a month into my first job. An older man said, "Well, I guess you've been nursing a while!" To which I replied, "Yes, a while." Didn't tell him how short a while!

The next incident came when I had my first "live" man to insert a Foley in. He asked whether I had done this before. "Of course, I replied, as I smiled to my co-worker." I didn't tell him that all occasions prior were on a DUMMY!

Just thought of another... I was having trouble getting IVs started in my first few months, and my preceptor was obviously frustrated with me. I was attempting an IV in a patient, and she said, "Feel right here, this will be an easy one" as she palpated the wrist. I told her that I could not yet go by "feel" but that I had to see it. She insisted, "It's right there!" Of course, I didn't listen and failed an attempted IV to the hand. Well, she decided she wasn't going to let this great site get by her, so she scooted right in and got that great "feel", and out shoots blood all over! It wasn't a vein at all... too bad she didn't need ABGs! LOL

[Crux1024]

Originally Posted by AngelfireRN

1)On my first week in a psychiatric hospital where they took children and teens, I was headed outside with the staff for the morning meeting. Before I knew what happened, I was thrown to the floor. The staff, none of whom knew me well, had mistaken me for a teen patient (I look very young), and thought I was attempting to escape. Took me a month to live that down.

ROFL!! that was priceless!
:

[Creamsoda]

I was still a student doing a clinical in an outpatient mental health unit. 2 RN's and myself were leading a group therapy session and she was doing role call. She gets to me and writes my name down, thinking I was a patient...even though I had worked with her before as a student. How embarassing.

[puggymae]

I only had two days of orientation (who had even heard the word preceptor/preceptorship back then?) on days and went to night shift.

The first night one of the other nurses told me to take the doctors orders off of the charts (we had six deliveries in about 4 hours).

So I sat down at the desk and took all of the doctor order sheets out of every chart and placed them in a neat pile.

I was so green that I did not know that they wanted me to transcribe the orders into the computer, MARs.....

On the third night there was a pretty teenage looking girl with "Daisy Duke" shorts, a tank top (and no bra), and high heels on looking at a chart.

I walked right over there, grabbed that chart out of her hands and said "Visitors are NOT allowed to look at patient charts, you need to get out of the nurses station right now before I call security and have you removed."

It was one of the female residents - whose father just happened to be Chief of Medical Staff (as she not so calmly and loudly informed me with her lips two and half inches from my face).

[NYDreamer]

OOPS!

Originally Posted by puggymae

On the third night there was a pretty teenage looking girl with "Daisy Duke" shorts, a tank top (and no bra), and high heels on looking at a chart.

I walked right over there, grabbed that chart out of her hands and said "Visitors are NOT allowed to look at patient charts, you need to get out of the nurses station right now before I call security and have you removed."

It was one of the female residents - whose father just happened to be Chief of Medical Staff (as she not so calmly and loudly informed me with her lips two and half inches from my face).