Murphy's Law of Nursing - Page 3

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  1. Apr 30, '12 by
    I have heaps but will narrow it down.

    I am guaranteed to be the only nurse that the floridly psychotic or upset geriatric patient will talk to or respond to, particularly when they are not assigned to my area, they also appear to know when I am working. Add to this my colleagues making jokes that I must be around when the department is full of weirdness.

    Massive verbal and reassuring de-escalation scenario with patients' relatives right at handover, only accomplishable by the nurse with all the details (me) ensuring I go home an hour late. Couldn't they have cracked the s*#$ half an hour earlier?

    Patients will always decide to get sick/deteriorate, need to toilet, or die the minute I transfer them into their ward bed.

    I offer pain relief, they decline, 5 minutes later the doctor tells me they would like pain relief making me look totally lacking in compassion.

    If you are busy, and your patient has fifty tablets that you have carefully dispensed into a cup for administration, you will either drop them yourself or they will.

    If I run with the crash trolley to the cardiac arrest on the ward, they will be alive when I get there and have just fainted. If I walk they will be having CPR.

    Nose itching after preparing for sterile procedure should be studied.

    Patients with terrible access will always need it the most and be the most needle-phobic.

    The patient with a GCS 14 attributed to IVDU after a fall will always be the one seizing and intubated 20 minutes after arrival (secondary to their large extradural haemorrhage). Said pt. will always be unloaded in a less visual area, with a less experienced nurse because no-one thought anything was really wrong with them.

    The pt. that the ambulance officers overplay have the flu, the ones they underplay die quickly.

    Awful, time sucking patients will always be around when you are trying to look after the nicest people in the world.
    jelly221,RN, *4!#6, ktlpn12, and 4 others like this.
  2. Apr 30, '12 by
    The day you think you're just barely healthy enough to go to work you'll have the most grueling, physically demanding assignment ever. The syringe full of blood will always hit the floor barrel down. The day you wear white you'll get puked on.
    sharpeimom, BostonTerrierLoverRN, NewbieinCriticalCare, and 3 others like this.
  3. Apr 30, '12 by
    Once I complete the extensive, time consuming, back-breaking dressing change on my MVA patient's lower extremities that took 45 minutes to complete, the orthopedic surgeon is certain to stroll into the room, rip open the dressing, glance at the wound for .5 second, then leave the patient there with the dressing hanging off on the floor for me to completely redo because it is now dirty. Side note: the orthopedic surgeon has not, prior to this moment, been to see this patient in 3 days.
    beckster_01, Chixie, *4!#6, and 19 others like this.
  4. Guide
    Apr 30, '12 by
    Bring 2 needles into the room, you get the stick. Bring 1 and you miss.
    Scrubmouse RN, canoehead, SkyeHawk3, and 17 others like this.
  5. Apr 30, '12 by
    Happens to me ALLL the time. Darn these need barcode systems!
  6. Apr 30, '12 by
    Terrible!!!
  7. Guide
    Apr 30, '12 by
    every weekend or holiday, when you're scheduled to work someone will call out
    SkyeHawk3, nhnursie, BostonTerrierLoverRN, and 4 others like this.
  8. Apr 30, '12 by
    Quote from HalfMarathoner
    Drawing up the Dilaudid in the med room, thinking to myself, "do not throw this away as it needs to be barcode-scanned or they will think I am DIVERTING NARCOTICS AND I WILL LOSE MY LICENSE!!!" as I watch myself chuck the empty Dilaudid syringe into a sharps container.
    This happens to me more often than not! Our morphine comes in little syringes in the omnicell - so I always put a needle on the end to push it into my other syringe full of NaCL... and then habit makes me throw the sharp into the bin. Ugh!!!!

    And why do doctors always round at shift change? And then try and track down nurses for something on the patient? So many times I get the doctor come up to me and say "Are YOU the nurse for 24?" Why yes, I am - but I have had this patient all of two minutes so I don't know jack. Sorry. You would think they would know better by now!
    beckster_01, SkyeHawk3, Savvy20RN, and 2 others like this.
  9. Asst. Admin
    Apr 30, '12 by
    A patient will not verbalize a single complaint all day but decide 30 minutes before the change of shift that they wish to leave AMA.
    Savvy20RN, Aurora77, BostonTerrierLoverRN, and 7 others like this.
  10. Apr 30, '12 by
    Gotta preface this by saying I work in a 60 bed, privately owned ALF that is 100% Alzheimer's/Dementia care. We don't have unit clerks, but we do have an administrative assistant who answers the phones, pushes the button to let visitors in and out, etc.


    The phone will not ring, visitors will not show up at the door, and the fax will not go into overdrive..... UNTIL the admin asst goes home for the day... then all of the above will happen simultaneously.... during dinner.... when someone has just fallen... and you're trying to complete your 5pm med pass.

    You'll be having a good day... in a good mood... on a roll...everything falling neatly into place... and someone will say "Gee, isn't it QUIET tonight?"
    canoehead, BostonTerrierLoverRN, NewbieinCriticalCare, and 13 others like this.