What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

[texas_lvn]

What have other peers done intentional/unintentional to freak you out? Good or bad. Happy or sad.

On my FIRST day as an LVN, (LTC) a res was screaming in her room as I was walking out to leave. I went in to see what was going on. She was having an anxiety attack and severe pain (post stroke). I pulled the call light, and no one came. Uggg.

So I peeked out the door and saw my CNA walking down the hall, and told him to come sit with res. I went down to get her a Xanax and a pain pill, well relief nurse was in the restroom, and relief CNA (with call light still going off) was sitting behind nurses station reading a newspaper. I told CNA to tell the nurse to get a Xanax and pain pill for res. She said OK. I go to relieve my CNA. Said goodbye to him, and stayed with res. after 10 minutes, CNA COMES INTO ROOM WITH XANAX AND MORPHINE PILL. She is soooooo shocked to see me still there, she hands me the pills and RUNS to the relief nurse. I could NOT BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW!!!!

(I did immediately call DON and tell what happened. Luckily, my CNA was still checking on another res, and saw the whole thing.--------they got a slap on the wrist! that was it!!!) :madface: :madface:

[texas_lvn]

I was working as a CNA at a center for developmentally disabled...Nurse calls a medical emergency (which means every MD is paged, as well as several nurses from what we called "sister buildings") because her patient had no heart rate.

Nurse had stethoscope on backwards :smackingf . Patient was fine. Medical staff that responded were all pissed.

ROFLMAO. Can you imagine the patient wanting to know why all these people are coming at her with their adreneline running.

[grace90, LPN, LVN]

Last night on Tele, another nurse, that I graduated with, had a very hypotensive pt in with something like pyelonephritis. I mean, SBP was 50-60's. The admitting doc didn't want to do anything but keep bolusing her, and the BP wasn't coming up at all, in fact, it was dropping. This nurse didn't want to call the doc again about it since she had already talked to him twice, so I told her to call a rapid response. Her response was "why, just because of a low blood pressure? everything else is fine." :trout: Fine? You call a SBP of 54 fine? Maybe I'm being too judgemental, but I kept a close eye on the crash cart the rest of the night. She finally did call the doc again, and as the answering service was directly connecting her to his home phone, I was about 5 feet away, not realizing she had him on the phone, and loudly said "Maybe if he had dealt with the blood pressure the first time he wouldn't have to get called 3 times." Not sure if he heard me or not, but oh well... Thankfully, no code, but the BP was still crap.

[MrsK1223]

I USED to be a circulator in outpatient surgery when we got a new clinical director, who had only been out of nursing school a year and half if that long, no surgical experience, no managment experience...was just dumb enough to take on that responsibility for such little pay...I guess she thought she would get to sit in an office all day every day...anyway....she came into the OR's without masks and surgical hats constantly...which is a huge NO NO in surgery....she had to be continually reminded. Then she proceeded to come into the OR's while procedures were going on an obliviously contaminate the surgical techs or the sterile fields. She would point at things on the sterile mayo stands with barely a cm's distance and ask what this or that was....and she wasn't wearing sterile gloves. She would laugh and slap/pat the surgical tech wearing the sterile gowns. She was constantly being called on it...but for her position, she should have known better and not come in acting like surgery is no big deal...which she said on several occasions. Her behavior ended up getting me fired when I called her on one too many mistakes and inappropriate behavior in a OR. IDIOT she is.

[allantiques4me]

This isn't my story, but last spring during clinicals one of my friends at another clinical site was watching a wound being debrided and cleaned. The patient had MRSA and the nurse was clipping the dead skin around the wound site and the dead skin was flying everywhere and it was landing on the chart and other folders! The nurse then simply took off her gloves and didn't wash her hands or anything and picked up the now contaminated charts and went down to the nurses station to chart!

Thats disgusting!

[jbp0529]

I especially enjoy the story of a nurse at my place who hung a bag of Zantac by mistake in the epidural cartridge and let it run almost 12 hrs before it was noticed. :uhoh21:

Not even the drug company who makes it knew what to expect...

[jbp0529]

I knew a nurse that inserted a catheter in the male, met resistance, and kept on pushing until blood was everywhere and he needed a stat order of packed red blood cells...and that was the second time that week she did the exact same thing. 25 years of experience, and she is still working strong.

This just reinforces my feelings all along. If i am EVER admitted to the hospital, and if I am awake, and if one of you is taking care of me, PLEASE let me put in my own foley

[goats'r'us, ASN, RN]

I believe the crushed percocet in IV story was written by a troll.........

hellloooo! it was written by tweety!!!

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

After receiving report while working med surg I had a nursing student come to me because the RN who was with her gave Morphine 10mg IV instead of the IM route it was ordered. thinking that the student might have been mistaken and wanting to use the situation as a learning experience for the student I grabbed the MAR and the original order sheet only to find out that the Student was correct. I immediately went into the room to check the status of the pt. she was a small women approx 110 lbs. I asked my cna to check her vitals and I called the supervisor and the covering physcian. The supervisor called the RN at home who replied "Oh, I didn't even notice" and laughed. she never even asked about the condition of the patient. Luckily the patient survived, thanks to narcan and a transfer to the ICU. I praised the student for intervening. The other RN eventually left and is now doing a desk job...how much safer for our patients!

I give Morphine 10mg IV almost daily to various pt's,..frequently give it hourly.

[sqky]

A 76 y/o male was 1st day post op for back surgery. His wife and family were at his bedside. He complained of pain 8/10 on a pain scale. A student with her instructor and primary nurse came in and administered 4mg Dilaudid IVP.

At the head of the bed, on the front of the chart, on the MAR, and on his wrist band it very clearly state this man was very sensitive to narcotics. He had never been given Dilaudid before. He had coded in surgery when given demerol and in RR when given Morphine on previous surgeries.

A daughter who is a nurse called to check on her dad and her mom told her he was sleeping well, but was concerned that he was only breathing about 4 times a minute. The daughter told her mom to call a nurse and she was on her way. The daughter arrived 7 minutes later and found the call light on. It had not been answered.

The daughter worked at the facility and one of her co-workers followed her into the room. The daughter was furious, but kept her cool. She hit the code button.

The primary nurse came in and said. "don't Narcan him, he will just start hurting again." The daughter countered with "We can help him deal with some pain, we want him alive."

After administrating the Dilaudid NO ONE checked the patient. The nursing staff had all left the room immediately after giving it and had not returned until the code was called and Narcan administered.

When asked why they had chosen to give 4mg of Dilaudid, the student and her instructor said. "he was a big man." The primary nurse stated she did not know the amount of drug they were giving. Each blamed the other, refusing to take responsibility for what happened.

(Doctor's order: Dilaudid 2-4mg IVP Q 2 hrs prn pain. Monitor patient closely for 10 minutes after administering, patient is very sensitive to narcotics.)

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

There was a nurse working a different wing than I at a Nursing home I was working in. She called me to ask how to piggyback concentrators so she could administer 10 LPM (which I thought was really odd because he was COPD). This piqued my interest so I went down to her wing (mine was mercifully quiet). She had a 80-something male with a pulse ox reading of 48. Yes, fourty eight. He was a DNR and hospice patient. I helped her piggyback the machines and we got his readings up to 60. After trying every mask and LPM setting we could think of for about 20 min, I told her to call the wife and the hospice nurse, this guy had all but one pinky toe out the door and should be allowed to die with dignity and with his wife by his side. I had to go back to my wing to take care of my residents. What does she do? CONTINUES TO TRY TO WORK ON HIM. NOT calling the wife or Hospice nurse. She even attempted to give him a breathing treatment. He had orders for Ativan and Morphine which were NEVER administered to him. This man died alone and in the most horrific pose I have ever seen.

Should have never happened as far as I'm concerned. Administer the Ativan and Morphine, call the wife, call the hospice nurse, and have a CNA volunteer stay with him until either his family came or he passed away.

Things like this are why I do not believe in hospice pts staying in a nursing home. They should be cared for in a hospice inpt unit. Besides not being familiar with palliative care practices, most LTC nurses are too overwhelmed and have too many pts to be able to give a dying pt the attention they need.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I was hospitalized recently in PCU due to complications from medications I was taking for HTN and allergies. A float nurse from my orthopedic floor came and said she was my nurse, I knew her... so OK... Came lunch time I asked if I could please get up and shower before I ate, the doc had given permission. She got very nervous. I got my shower, though I had to take of my tele patches in the shower myself. When I got back into bed she came in, handed my new tele patches to me and told me to put them on myself, she did not know where to put them and did not feel comfortable asking one of the regular nurses in the department.... then she said bye and off to lunch she went.

I know how and where they go (I have worked in PCU alot) but figured I would wait the half hour til she got back. In that half hour no other nurse checked on me and no one noticed I was off tele. (During the night my HR kept dropping into the 30's and SPO2 was in the 70's. She returned on time and came in to check on me and SHE then learned where to put the tele patches.

I survived as you can tell, I am here telling you about it. I used the experience to start some changes in expectations of and from the float nurses without anyone reacting horribly. Floor nurses who float are expected to be assigned a resource nurse on the shift .... and the float nurse is to communicate to with the resource nurse things she/he does not understand. It has a lot more to it, I am trying to make it simple on this forum. The education department of the facility has now developed a short review of specialities of each department and nurses attend classes to help them become better acquainted with equipment of each speciality department.

Recently I have only heard positive feed back from nurses that float and the departments they have floated to. It sometimes takes a nurse being patient to recognize and how we as staff can help each other to provide for the safe welfare of those we have in our care.

IMHO

I have learned nurses need to take care of our own.....we all have been freaked out... I sure have....But I want to be a part of fixing the problem.

Great post. Your reaction was very positive and proactive.

[Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN]

I'm a traveler and was doing a contract at a huge outpt dialysis facility.

I had just finished giving Vanco to a pt who was pos for blood MRSA, and I could not get the IV tubing disconnected from the blood lines. You know how they get stuck sometimes. I asked the charge nurse if he had any Kelly clamps I could use. He proceeded to put the connection between the IV and blood lines in his mouth and unscrew them with his teeth.

I said "OMG, you just put that in your mouth!" He just shrugged and handed me the IV line.