Take the IV out... yourself.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, I spent some time in the emergency room. Turns out I strep throat, so that's why my fever was being cruddy and throat getting worse. I never honestly get sick and the one time I do... it's not so pretty.

Funny thing is, I am also a nursing student so I attempted to keep a keen eye and just watch. However, I never told the nurses I was a nursing student, when they asked what I did for a living I told them I was a Mom and smiled.

When it came time for them to discharge me, the nurse came in and started to take my IV out. Another nurse came to ask her for something while she was in the middle of doing it. Focused on talking to her. I ignored it, but wished she would hurry up and just take the dang IV out. I wanted to go home and go to bed. I was tired and feeling like crap, plus I missed my son. Then she turns to me and says the unbelievable...

"Here take it out yourself."

She walks out and NEVER comes back. At this point I am fuming. So I start picking the rest of the tape off my arm and as I finish taking the tape off, another nurse walks in to see me getting ready to carefully pull my IV out. She asked what I was doing it and why I was doing it. All I could think of and manage to say was to "ask the ***** nurse that told me to do it myself." Thankfully the other nurse helped me take it out. I've never been told to do it on my own and honestly the woman should have just finished taking the IV out without leaving me hanging...

Oh and what she left me for... was to go get blankets for another patient. :eek:

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Wow. Well, I guess the "silver lining" to this is I bet you will never tell that to a patient.

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

SHe said what????? I am beyond flabbergasted! Even if she knew you were a nurse, that is so inappropriate. I hope the second nurse follows up on this. And you have learned a valuable lesson. Unless you are actually teaching something to a patient or family member, never tell them to "do it yourself".

Oy vey!

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Never! I wouldn't want someone to do damage to themselves from something that could of easily been taken care of quickly.

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Why would she tell you that? Saying "take it out yourself" tells me she thought you (1) could take it out (2) were indicating somehow you could do a better job. Sorry to sound doubtful, but you've got to understand from my point of view it seems improbable.

Did you file a formal complaint against her?

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Why would she tell you that? Saying "take it out yourself" tells me she thought you (1) could take it out (2) were indicating somehow you could do a better job. Sorry to sound doubtful, but you've got to understand from my point of view it seems improbable.

Did you file a formal complaint against her?

I never said anything to her. I was just waiting and watching. Only thing I can think of was when I sighed from being tired.

And no need to apologize. :] Everyone reads into things differently.

Yes, I did file a complaint.

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My husband had a cardiac cath and we were so eager to leave that we never noticed until we were in the car that no one DC'd his IV. I did it in the car, no big deal, wasn't mad, we were the ones beating down the door to go home.

However, once his nurse realized what happened, she freaked, needless to say. She called our home and spoke to my dad (there with our daughter) who told them not to worry, "my daughter's a registered nurse, I'm sure she'll just do it". Apparently this bit of info didn't do much to ease her troubled mind, lol. I called as soon as we made it home to let her know it was ok, no harm done. She seemed both relieved and terrified to hear from me! I actually felt pretty bad for her.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

So...what exactly are you writing on the Press Ganey you recieve in the mail? Lol. :p

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That happened to me too. The floor I was on knew I was a nurse. I had a c-section. I did a bird bath the first day because i was on Mag. The second day I wanted to shower and was no longer hooked to the IVF. My evening nurse came in to look at my incision and said "You havent taken that off yet" refering to my bandage. I was like no. She didnt offer to wrap my intact IV lines so that I could shower, and because I use to work OB, I know it was not my job to take off that bandage. Heck I couldnt even see it without looking in the mirror. So I said to myself "ok fudge it". I d.c'd both of my IVs and took a shower and had my bf to help me take off the bandage. Noone ever asked me one thing about either one. The cna's did keep up with my urine and BP seeing as how I had elevated BPs and on Mag for 24 hours. To think about it now, I just say oh well.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Not appropriate and shouldn't have happened. :down:

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Specializes in neurotrauma ICU.

not only was it rude (!) but it is also a liability. What if you hadn't taken it out...and then gone out and use the hospital started IV to shoot up illegal street drugs? She was an idiot. I hope you got her name!

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Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.

Imagine if you were her patient and ignorant of the procedure and blithely remove the IV catheter. Let's say you were taking Coumadin, so you freak out and faint or worse fall, seeing blood blood blood everywhere?! I wouldn't dare put that much trust in a patient.

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