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:

[keepleaRNing]

uh oh..I think I posted a reply in the wrong spot, but what I meant to say was ...dat's NOT cool about the recapping needles...

[keepleaRNing]

Rotfl and smh with the nitro being used as handcream

Yucky!

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

just caught up on the thread and remembered a good one...i might have posted it before, though....

I was working as a CNA in a neuro ICU. We had a patient with a frontal lobe injury from being thrown off a horse. He spoke no english, but he communicated his feelings quite well with his hands- he had what I learned were typical frontal lobe injury-related behaviours, and continually pantomimed masturbating (even in restraints) whenever a female passed his room. If you had to get anywhere near him, he grabbed your boobs and held on for dear life. he was a strong little dude, and was constantly working his way out of the restraints- he had the order because he kept trying to pull out his ventricular drain. I spent a LOT of time with him, as he wasn't a 1:1 and the charge seemed to always assign him to a nurse with a very critical 2nd patient.

One morning, I came in to get his vitals and empty his foley. The night nurse was a traveler who was known for being lazy- both on our unit, and at another hospital where she'd worked as a new grad. I always checked to make sure lines and dressings were still intact when I did my rounds, as the nurses often ended up stuck in another patient's room for long periods (I never touched the lines, of course, and only resecured dressings that I was able to touch within my scope of practice).

On this particular morning, I looked at the tegaderm covering his ventric- ms. lazy had stuck 3 additional tegaderms on top of a ventric that was ALL THE WAY OUT. He had CSF leaking onto his pillow. (This was right at change of shift, and the day shift nurse was still assessing her other patient.)

I hit the call button and yanked one of the residents, who happened to be walking by the room, in to help. At shift change that evening, the charge nurse confronted this nurse, who had initialed the tegaderm and charted that the line was intact at 0653. Ms. Lazy responded with, 'oops. i didn't notice- my bad.':angryfire

But- as a tangent- the REALLY interesting thing happened later that afternoon....

I walked by the room and saw this patient- still in wrist restraints- STANDING BY HIS BED. he'd flipped himself over, so his arms were completely rotated inward behind him. He was pulling and bucking like a dog on a chain. Ventric was all the way out, laying in the floor. I yelled for help, and another resident and I got him into bed quickly- the attending came running, and announced that they had to drill another hole in this poor dude's head.....NOW.

I was lying across the patient on one side of the bed, holding his opposite arm and leg down- he was going for his central line by this point. Ten docs and nurses run in and place the sterile field over me, as there was no time to restrain him any other way.

As they were positioning the drill, the patient got his hand around my waist and stuck it RIGHT DOWN THE BACK OF MY PANTS. :stone He proceeded to full-on grope my rear end- but I couldn't move, and nobody could reach to remove his hand- plus, we couldn't exactly break the sterile field at that point.

So, for ten minutes, I had to stand there while he basically felt me up. Once the surgeon realized what was happening, he asked if I was okay- I said I was- and the surgeon started giggling a little. The other four nurses restraining the guy (he was strong) got to giggling, too. Once the new ventric was in, I yanked his hand out of my pants, moved back- and totally cracked up. I mean, I understood it was his injury making him act that way, so it's not like I could've been angry at him. Everyone in the room was laughing out loud by then, and the surgeon said, 'well, rach, looks like you have a new boyfriend.'

The rest of his stay in the ICU, this patient was referred to as 'rach's boyfriend' amongst the staff. I visited him a few days after he transferred out to the floor, and he was as nice and polite as could be. I still laugh when I remember that day.

Thank you for one of the most hilarious and best illustrated stories i've ever read on here lol, and kudos to you for being one heck of a nurse, i know a lot of nurses that wouldn't have held their composure and not responded appropriately with consideration of the patient's situation.

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

i've been an er nurse for 3yrs and thankfully have a great team & had to think hard to remember a situation that freaked me out, but still managed to come up with a few..

in nursing school, during my psych rotation (at the time i was really interested in going into psych nursing), we were in a locked down dementia unit in a smaller private hospital. well the entire hospital had just been completely renovated but they apparently forgot about this floor b/c the pts beds had hand cranks to raise/lower beds w/these awful huge metal siderails that any confused pt could easily strangle or get themselves stuck in, not a single working dynamap or pulse ox in the entire unit, and the one manual bp cuff was desperately in need of calibration that instead of the needle sitting at 0 it stayed at 60mmhg and the nurses/cna's would actually use it to check bps w/out even attempting to compensate for it (when of course they actually did bother to check vs ). one rn i was following was going to do a.m. meds, many of which were bp meds, used the vs charted 8hrs ago which were probably incorrect anyways, went to give them to the pt who was demented and pushed them away, knocking them to the floor, rn picks them up and says "you better take these or you're gonna go back in that restraint chair again!, pt still refuses, she then hands the meds to me (during this rotation we weren't even allowed to give meds) and says "get him to take these i don't have time for this", soon as she leaves while i'm standing there dumbfounded, pt grabs meds from me and swallows them all then winks at me and says "i like you better, shes a bi***!", i tell my instructor about the incident (shes quite an older lady who you could tell had old school mentality), she says "well at least the pt got his meds, but don't document in your papers b/c we're not supposed to give meds" and gave the impression that ratting out other nurses was bad no matter what!

another day, same place, pt with long hx of having trach is placed on this unit for early stage alzheimers (really? a lockdown unit?) and apparently had been previously in icu for some type of respiratory issue.. well one of our other students went in to assess the pt who had not had vs for over 8hrs, nebulized 02 wasn't even plugged into the wall, pt has blue lips and difficult to arouse, student freaks out, gets a nurse who says "well did u bother to check a pulse ox?", but of course there is none to be found except one that doesn't turn on. finally someone calls a code blue and all of the rns start freaking out not knowing what to do, noone bothering to check the door for the code team whose badges apparently didnt give them access, so they're locked out pounding on the door while these moron nurses run around yelling and blaming the next one "well it ain't my fault the cna was supposed to get vs" etc, finally one of us see them at the door, let them in, pt gets whisked back up to icu, and nurses go back to their laziness & gossipping like nothing happened! not sure how that pt turned out..

it was a regular sight to see a pt that may have been agitated or "acting up" as they called it one day, restrained in a restraint chair so that they were unable to move any part of their body, placed in the hall in front of the nurses station so heavily sedated that they're heads slumped forward and were drooling. one of my pts who couldn't have weighed more than 110lbs was being given 600mg seroquel w/breakfast, 300mg @ lunch, and another 600mg with dinner, for hx of dementia! i felt she was being grossly over-medicated, and i'm aware of pts building tolerances to meds but as someone whose been on seroquel for years for sleeping, i take 400mg qhs and that knocks me out, and i'm twice this lady's size! she would always be in the eating/day area head slumped forward drooling, barely arousable with a full tray of uneaten food next to her that you knew she never got to eat. and of course theres no pulse ox, and when i talk to my instructor about it she says "well you better find some way to wake her up b/c you have to do your psych interview/assessment papers still" .. really? maybe i should go make her some coffee so she can stay awake to answer these pointless questions!

that place ruined psych nursing for me, although i knew that i would be a great nurse & have a big heart and could make a difference for a lot of those pts, it would be an impossible uphill battle every day d/t lack of resources, lack of caring/concern/education, and i knew i would end up burned out w/in 5yrs.

about a year ago there was a story on the news about that same unit, a pt was found in the dayroom in the middle of the night, by himself, with his entire lower body engulfed in flames! apparently it took someone so long to find him there (even though it is directly across from nurses station, fully visible with all windows, the lights are turned down and he's ablaze, not to mention he had to be screaming), that the man ended up w/3rd degree burns over 50% of his body and ended up dying! no lighter or anything was ever found and it ended up being a criminal investigation for possible homicide! it broke my heart when i heard that story, to imagine how he must have suffered in the last moments of his life, when it could've been prevented if maybe one person noticed the lone pt in the day room @ 3am screaming! that whole unit should be burnt down and multiple staff terminations and revocations of licenses.

[RN0820]

I was an aid on a tele floor...and my patient was complaining of her PICC site hurting. I looked and noticed the cath had migrated about 4-5 inches out of her skin. I called the nurse, who proceeded to undo the dressing without gloves on, wipe the cath with alcohol...and reinsert it. This patient was on neutropenic precautions to boot.

[chelynn]

It greatly helps to place one's self in the shoes of the CNA, especially a LTC CNA. I work at a nursing home, and each one of my CNAs is assigned 12 to 15 patients each. They simply do not have the time to sit with one patient for an extended period of time when there are other call lights that need to be answered in an expedient manner.

In addition, most LTC facilities suffer from high employee turnover and attrition rates, so the DON usually won't bestow severe punishments upon lazy staff members. The DON is just happy that a warm body has arrived to fill the necessary shift. In addition, there's typically not enough quality time for most LTC nurses and aides to devote to non-emergencies such as panic attacks and screaming. Few, if any, procedures are done by the book in LTC. You'll learn as you spend more time in your new LVN role.

If you read it the problem isn't that the CNA didn't have time to sit with the resident. The problem is that the nurse gave the CNA the patients meds, MORPHINE and ATIVAN to administer. That to me is grounds for termination for BOTH of them. By the way I am in LTC and I do my job "by the book" thank you very much. There is no excuse to take shortcuts in ANY nursing situation and if you think there is then maybe you need to reconsider your career choice.

[AngelRN89]

"This is a CNA story but it was so funny at the time

Ill never forget the time my CNA was showering a female patient. She took her to the shower and the next thing I know she steps out the door white as a sheet she said ..."UH hello nursie down there...UH denise come here please, we have to have a talk".. I thought the lady was dead or something.. I go down there and she says..."The next time i am about to shower a female with a member will you please tell me before hand"....I said "WHAT" . The lady had a prolapsed uterus and her cervix was hanging out..."

This post is my favorite!! I had a laugh attack! Thanks for sharing.

[MomRN0913]

A nurse crushed Percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line IV. :eek: :eek:

You have to be kidding. Please tell me you are kidding.

[bsveillon]

I am so thrilled to see so many nurses who are happy to point at other nurses and report their failings. It is also heartwarming to see that no-one here has ever done something rotten.

Congratulations.

I totally get your point. We've all made our mistakes, but, I guess, I was always so terrified of making a major, irreversible error, my mistakes were more aggravating than actually dangerous.

Not that, I'm better, if I would have had more confidence in myself back then, and not realized my inexperience, I might have done the same things these other nurses have done.

[Morettia2, BSN, RN]

I have one...this wasn't a Nurse but a DOCTOR who did this......Here it goes, you guys are going to love this one, it was about 4 years ago..I was probably about 1 year into my nursing career as an RN, I used to work on an Interventional Cardiology unit. So the pt. was a case from the cath Lab s/p AICD insertion. The nurse manager recieved report from the cath lab at our change of shift at 7pm, which was normal to get report from the cath lab before the case came to the floor during change of shift. Ok the pt had AICD insertion...blah blah blah blah....Any drips? No but the pt will recieve Ancef 1gm but we will hang it when we bring the pt up( Ancef with in 30 min of AICD insertion for profaltic ATBX which is pretty much universal protocall in our hosp)....any allergies....NKDA....pt. is spanish speaking only but our Anestiaologist speaks spanish so he did the H&P and so on and so forth....So the ANM said ok the room is ready bring the pt. up....so about 5 min later the pt. arrives on the floor.

We get the pt. situated in the room, Myself and a few others are doing EKG's putting on the monitor ect, and getting the CXR and I have always done this, ALWAYS, I First check the orders and the H&P and the procedure notes as we are getting the pt. settled... and the one RN from the cath Lab spikes the Ancef and the IV is going and all of a sudden the pt. is in respiratory distress....The other RN's first thought was a pneumothorax from AICD placement.....

OK I am anaphalatic alleric to PCN, so as soon as I saw the ANCEF was actually running I yell TURN OFF THE IV and get EPI NOW (I mean this was seconds from when the cath lab RN spiked and hung the bag) ....The family had come up with the pt. and they only spoke spanish too...I ran out of the room, and I speak enough broken spanish to find out that the pt is Allergic to PCN. And the family had told the Doctor that did the H&P and intake form that he was allergic to PCN. But he put on the chart NKDA. I called a code and the Anastesiaologist who was on the case in the cath lab and who TOOK the H&P came stomping in the room and was so miffed. He said while intubating the pt, yea he may have mentioned something about a PCN allergy but Ancef should have not caused the anaphalyxis.

I turned to him and said are you serious? If the pt is allergic to PCN that should have been a red flag not to give ANCEF...he tried telling me that Ancef can be tolerated in pt's allergic to PCN. I said what you thought maybe some flushing and hives?? And why is there NKDA on the H&P and Intake form if you knew about his PCN allergy? He just yelled a bunch of curse words...

I know the nurse doing the med rec asked the pt. if he had any allergies and the pt. said no, and the nurse spoke fluent spanish, but this was right before the cath, so most people are so nervous that they forget but she should have asked in depth medication allergies, food, ect...then most people respond....but the initial H&P by the MD was critical....and the family wasn't with the pt. when the RN was doing the med rec. in the cat lab holding area..and by the way this pt. had no past medical HX that we were aware of, and no primary MD that they could have referred....

Anyway to make a long story short the pt lived but let me tell you...from that day on any pt. with a PCN allergy, or any allergy, I had my nurses check the ATBX the pts were going to recieve. We were and still are very strict on allergies, but I made sure of that. And one reason is because, me who was a new nurse at the time, made sure that all of the RN's knew what drugs were associated with different allergies the Reason being I have quite a few med and food allergies myself and I just wanted my RN's to be very diligent and proactive no matter what the MD says!! Lesson learned!

[bsveillon]

I have one...this wasn't a Nurse but a DOCTOR who did this......Here it goes, you guys are going to love this one, it was about 4 years ago..I was probably about 1 year into my nursing career as an RN, I used to work on an Interventional Cardiology unit. So the pt. was a case from the cath Lab s/p AICD insertion. The nurse manager recieved report from the cath lab at our change of shift at 7pm, which was normal to get report from the cath lab before the case came to the floor during change of shift. Ok the pt had AICD insertion...blah blah blah blah....Any drips? No but the pt will recieve Ancef 1gm but we will hang it when we bring the pt up( Ancef with in 30 min of AICD insertion for profaltic ATBX which is pretty much universal protocall in our hosp)....any allergies....NKDA....pt. is spanish speaking only but our Anestiaologist speaks spanish so he did the H&P and so on and so forth....So the ANM said ok the room is ready bring the pt. up....so about 5 min later the pt. arrives on the floor.

We get the pt. situated in the room, Myself and a few others are doing EKG's putting on the monitor ect, and getting the CXR and I have always done this, ALWAYS, I First check the orders and the H&P and the procedure notes as we are getting the pt. settled... and the one RN from the cath Lab spikes the Ancef and the IV is going and all of a sudden the pt. is in respiratory distress....The other RN's first thought was a pneumothorax from AICD placement.....

OK I am anaphalatic alleric to PCN, so as soon as I saw the ANCEF was actually running I yell TURN OFF THE IV and get EPI NOW (I mean this was seconds from when the cath lab RN spiked and hung the bag) ....The family had come up with the pt. and they only spoke spanish too...I ran out of the room, and I speak enough broken spanish to find out that the pt is Allergic to PCN. And the family had told the Doctor that did the H&P and intake form that he was allergic to PCN. But he put on the chart NKDA. I called a code and the Anastesiaologist who was on the case in the cath lab and who TOOK the H&P came stomping in the room and was so miffed. He said while intubating the pt, yea he may have mentioned something about a PCN allergy but Ancef should have not caused the anaphalyxis.

I turned to him and said are you serious? If the pt is allergic to PCN that should have been a red flag not to give ANCEF...he tried telling me that Ancef can be tolerated in pt's allergic to PCN. I said what you thought maybe some flushing and hives?? And why is there NKDA on the H&P and Intake form if you knew about his PCN allergy? He just yelled a bunch of curse words...

I know the nurse doing the med rec asked the pt. if he had any allergies and the pt. said no, and the nurse spoke fluent spanish, but this was right before the cath, so most people are so nervous that they forget but she should have asked in depth medication allergies, food, ect...then most people respond....but the initial H&P by the MD was critical....and the family wasn't with the pt. when the RN was doing the med rec. in the cat lab holding area..and by the way this pt. had no past medical HX that we were aware of, and no primary MD that they could have referred....

Anyway to make a long story short the pt lived but let me tell you...from that day on any pt. with a PCN allergy, or any allergy, I had my nurses check the ATBX the pts were going to recieve. We were and still are very strict on allergies, but I made sure of that. And one reason is because, me who was a new nurse at the time, made sure that all of the RN's knew what drugs were associated with different allergies the Reason being I have quite a few med and food allergies myself and I just wanted my RN's to be very diligent and proactive no matter what the MD says!! Lesson learned!

OH NO! You can NOT make me believe a Doctor did this! Not an almighty DOCTOR!

[Turd Ferguson]

As a student I was shadowing a fairly new nurse one day. Watched her draw up two syringes of Demerol with filter needles, then proceed to inject both syringes into the patient's buttocks via the same filter needles.

Ouch!