What did you see at clinicals that shocked you (re/the nurses and doctors)

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in home health, LTC, assisted living.

Hello: I just finished my last two clinicals. I hope some of the things I saw are not the norm in the working world. Okay, here's a few things: doctors who did not wash their hands, even after touching a baby's bottom, and then go on to the next patient, nurses who changed peri pads without gloves, the funniest - nurses who wore patterned underwear (way too small) with their see-through white pants. Nurse helping a new mom breast-feed and to latch on, did not wash her hands before and then even put her fingers in the baby's mouth to check suck reflex. :uhoh3: :uhoh21:

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Specializes in CV Surgery Step-down.

Okay, I'm new at this (4th week in clinicals) but I've already seen a few doozies. Here's my favorite so far...How 'bout a nurse doing a stool guiac (sp?) by pressing the card down into an adult undergarment WITH NO GLOVES ON, recording the result, and then walking out w/out washing her hands!!

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Specializes in ER, Medicine.

Doing peri care without gloves and without washing hands afterwards. Really people come on...that's not just common sense, that's gross!

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Specializes in Telemetry, Oncology, Progressive Care.

This isn't really related to pt care but there was a doctor there who apparently thought her time was more precious than anyone else's. Apparently she asked for a chart and nobody answered that they had it so she just assumed a student walked off with it. Another nurse happened to find it laying under some papers. So the nurse gave the chart to the doctor and the dr said, "Well no one answered." Then the nurse told the doctor, "Well, we're all busy too doctor."

Kelly

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.

This happened to one of my fellow students.

We work in Oncology, and a newly dx'd pt. had several questions for the doctor, and was having trouble remembering them all because of her mind-set. So my classmate got a pen and paper, and wrote down off of her questions for her, so when doc came in, she could just read from the sheet and write down any answers that she may forget.

Doc comes in. Pt and student nurse say that pt. has several questions regarding the cancer and care, and pt. starts to read from the sheet. Doc then GRABS the sheet from her, and goes down the list quickly, saying "Yes. No. No. 2 months", etc. etc, giving short, curt answers. He then gets to the end, and says, "That's it. Are we done here?" and leaves. This is an ONCOLOGY doc. Someone who is trained and gives horrible news all the time. Not that it would be acceptable for any other doc to act in such a manner though.

Fellow classmate told us in post-conference about this, and our clinical instructor sat there with her jaw on the floor. She said she'd seen and heard of rude bedside manner, but that by far took the cake.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

All I have to say is, before you assist a doc with any bedside procedure, prepare for the worst.

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Specializes in LTC.

going out of room down hall w/gloves on to pick up something, going back into room.

sterlie dressing change w/no sterile method

catheter care w/ no gloves

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A nurses who kicked a big metal garbage can away from me, post op in the recovery room. Huge clang when it fell and me in tears for 1 hour. I made a formal complaint.

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Specializes in OBGYN, Neonatal.

Hmmm...well thankfully nothing patient care related yet however I have seen one particular doctor screaming at nurses and copping an attitude with the nurses on the floor, at the nurses station, in front of 14 nursing students (myself included), patients and our instructors. It was very unprofessional. In one instance he had a good reason to be upset however it could have been handled a little more professionally, not to mention the way he was carrying on, the whole floor could of heard and I can just smell lawsuit from the way he was talking. YIKES> Luckily though the patient was fine. It was not a student related thing, nor was it a mistake made by the nurses on the unit.

The second time, same doctor, was b & m'ing (b@#@#ing and moaning) about being unable to find a chart, he was lifing them all up, and dropping the covers down huffy and such. We, as students tend to part like the great divide when the doctors or nurses come through because we want to give them the room they need (WHY are nursing stations soooo small?!) so its not like we were in the way, but he was huffy and puffy about the chart. Don't know if he found it but by that time I was just done with being around him, since this was two weeks after the original incident.

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Worst I've seen was a nurse doing a catheter on a woman. The nurse put it in the wrong hole then pulled it back out and wiped it off on the bed sheets then put it in where it was supposed to go.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.
Worst I've seen was a nurse doing a catheter on a woman. The nurse put it in the wrong hole then pulled it back out and wiped it off on the bed sheets then put it in where it was supposed to go.

Ew, Ew, EWWWWW!!

All this non-hand washing - you do know these are the same people who don't wash their hands after using the bathroom either, and are the first to put their disgusting, germy hands in the bowl of chips........

My almost-ex, one of my sons, and myself got very, very ill several years ago from e. Coli from pizza. Came directly back to a pizza worker who admitted he never had, never will wash his hands after using the bathroom (his reasons were so stupid they were hilarious - "that's what toilet paper is for, I wipe them on my jeans, soap is for sissies and doesn't clean anything anyway, I cleaned the counters with cleaner afterward, and accidently got some cleaner on my hands anyway, so that cleaned them" etc.)

And the pizza place tried to give us a gift certificate for free pizza after they learned we'd been hospital, and they never fired the worker. Anyone want to guess if we've EVER been back there???? LOL I couldn't even eat pizza for more than a year afterward.

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Ew, Ew, EWWWWW!!

My almost-ex, one of my sons, and myself got very, very ill several years ago from e. Coli from pizza. Came directly back to a pizza worker who admitted he never had, never will wash his hands after using the bathroom (his reasons were so stupid they were hilarious - "that's what toilet paper is for, I wipe them on my jeans, soap is for sissies and doesn't clean anything anyway, I cleaned the counters with cleaner afterward, and accidently got some cleaner on my hands anyway, so that cleaned them" etc.)

...because there are some people who are so stubborn, so obstinate, that the only way you can get them to do the "right thing" is by legislating it. A darn shame, too! What kind of relationship does the pizza parlor owner have with the health dept? How could they continue to employ such a dirtbag (yeah, stupid person number #2 or #3 or more...)?

NurseFirst

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