I cannot believe a nurse did this......

Nurses General Nursing

Published

My grandmother in law is a resident at a local nursing home. My husband took my kids to see her today (I was at home with the baby). The nurse there took the cotton packing out of the top of a bottle of medicine she was opening and tickled my 4 year olds face with it. My husband pulled him away and told me about it when he got home. I'm furious about this. No telling what kind of powder or residue was on the packing..it could have been a chemp drug or who knows what. My husband didn't think to ask, just wanted out of there. Am I crazy for thinking this is absolutely unacceptable? I'm actually thinking of reporting her to the nursing board (she's done a lot of other crazy stuff we've noticed while granny is there). We've talked to admin before about stuff this nurse has said and done, but this is over the top.

I wouldn't do that. All this "I'm gonna report him/her to the nursing board" crap going around these days is a bit much...

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.

Wow, going to the nursing board about this seems beyond overboard. What exactly is your complaint, that your son got tickled by cotton? How is that something worthy of the BON? I'm assuming chemp is meant to be chemo? Is your grandmother on chemo? I think you need to take a step back and look at it from another perspective. The nurse was probably just trying to make your son laugh/be entertained while visiting a sick person, which can be very scary for a 4 year old. Now I don't work in a nursing home so I don't know how they dispense meds, but I seriously doubt there was anything harmful going on. If you have concerns other than "she's done other crazy stuff" I would talk to a supervisor or manager.

Specializes in Critical Care.

I'm not getting what you're so offended by, the cotton does not contain a measurable dose of anything, other than soft, whispy, and fluffiness.

Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

No, not acceptable but not worthy of BON. Definately worth a trip into management's office. I would be upset as well. Common sense definitely not so common as once thought:no:

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

Seriously, you're thinking of reporting her to the nursing board? I think you're being a bit ridiculous. I highly doubt that chemo drugs a) would be packaged in cotton batting, b) would be administered in a nursing home, or c) would be administered near children.

If it had cotton batting, it was probably an OTC drug, and probably enteric coated. I would seriously relax. She was trying to entertain your children. I really think you're overreacting.

Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.

In my experience working in LTCs for more than 15 years, the only medication that a nurse would remove the cotton from is an over the counter stock medication like Tylenol, a multivitamin or a stool softener. All prescribed drugs are specially packaged by the pharmacy and kept in drawers on the med cart labeled with each patient's name.

Tickling your four year old on the cheek with a cotton ball that likely came from a harmless bottle of a stool softener or multivitamin will not harm your son, and I doubt very seriously she would have done anything that she thought would be detrimental to him. Lighten up.

You're going to report her to the board because she rubbed cotton under your kid's chin? A complaint to management ok yeah. But the BON? Wow! And I have never seen a chemo drug packaged with cotton. And yes I am chemo certified.

I would not be upset at that nurse for trying to entertain my child. It's hard to let go of that control when it comes to our itty bitties, but try to take a breath.

You would be wasting your time to report this, there are way LARGER fish to fry.

Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.

No chemo drug has cotton stuffed in the top of the bottle, nor is it administered in a nursing home.

Specializes in NICU.

Sorry, but I just laughed at this. Woe to the nurse who was trying to make your son feel a little more at ease in what might have been a pretty scary place. People over-react over everything!

Specializes in Med/Surg,Cardiac.

When I saw the title of this thread I was excited to read the contents. Until I saw someone complain about a nurse tickling a child with cotton. Really? Are you going to report to the medical board that your pediatrician didn't clean his/her stethoscope before listening to his lungs? Cotton from a medicine bottle is most likely not contaminated with anything at all. Chill.

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