Most shocking thing you've seen another nurse do?

Nurses Relations

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SNF. RN supervisor summoned (overhead, at about 0300) me to one of her rooms. She was attempting to insert an NG tube in an alert man, about 40, alcoholic, with varices. Told me she felt a 'blockage'. She was holding the tube as though it were a fork, and she was 'stabbing' something. She rammed the tube down, pulled back, then rammed it again- until blood exloded out the tube. I suctioned him really quick and the suction tubing, canister and filters became packed with blood. I ran out and called 911, came back told her "Get the **** away from him! What are you DOING"?. I was suspended, for allowing her, an RN, my supervisor, to be so incompetent. Was told I should have known she was incompetent, and should have 'taken the NG from her and inserted it yourself'. Oh, really. Yes, he died. She was 'asked to resign', because her son was the medical director of the place. The panic on that man's face is clear today, and that was 25 years ago. BTW- I don't think an LVN should insert NG tubes, it's as crazy as giving TPN. Out of bounds, my opinion.

Was working 11p-7a at a SNF, years ago. While doing the chart checks I noticed that the previous nurse held the HS dose of Lantus. This nurse wrote in the notes section "only half dose of Lantus given, due to residents BS of 150 at HS." This nurse was new and did not look at the residents past HS BS. That was his normal. I wish I had seen this error before she left, I did not want to see this nurse get in trouble. Just needed some education. Thankfully the DON felt the same, nurse received a verbal warning and education.

Have had to re-educate residents whom suffer from acid reflux late at night, that NO, you do NOT drink any kind of fruit juice with tums or any other acid reducer!

Have seen a PA use a staple gun on a young man, who tried to slice his wrists. PA was ****** the pt would not talk to him or let him see the inflicted damage. No lidocaine was given. I think PA used "extra" force when stapling. I was in shock! I did end up reporting what happened to CNO and chief MD. Got labeled as a tattletale, not a patient advocate. Until I saved a brand new doc's behind, their pt lived and doc kept their license. Then I was called a "team player!" Whatever.............

I had a new RN tell me (as an LNA) that my resident was overweight and hot when I called her in to check a resident. She instructed me to get him a fan.

He was diabetic, suffering low sugar, cold and clammy. She would not check his blood sugar even though I asked her to repeatedly. I had been on the same wing for a year, she had been there three days.

It escalated and I had to call the shift supervisor in because I knew something was really wrong. He ended up being sent out to the hospital where he passed away.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

So let me get this straight... The pt was acidotic because...gastric secretions...which are acidic...had been infused...INTO HIS VEIN?? I'm dumbfounded. Even if she thought that's what the order read, WHY oh WHY would she consider that a good idea?!?! IV gastric secretions?!? I can't even begin to wrap my head around that.

And the "capped" ETT. Wow.

One of my faves was the guy who bounced back to us (SICU) from the floor in screamingly bad acidosis. Turns out the nurse misinterpreted the order to "replace NG drainage IV q4h with NS" as "empty out the NG cannister and put it into the volutrol with some saline." OMG.

One of my other faves is the LPN in the PACU when I was a new charge nurse. She remembered that we always taped an O2 catheter to the ET tube of anyone who came in intubated, and extubated them as soon as they woke up enough to cough. I looked over and this woman was bucking and trying to sit up, and this LPN was holding her down and calling for sedation. I went over to see what was going on and discovered that the LPN had taped the catheter in there alright-- she covered over the whole end of the ET tube (so it would be good and secure), thus completely occluding her airway. I ripped it all off and extubated the lady, got her settled, and pulled the LPN into the office to ask her where she thought this lady would be able to breathe with her ET tube taped off. She looked at me pityingly and said, as if to a moron, "Through her NOSE." So we turned to the cut-away picture of the airways of the head and neck and I asked her to show me how that would even be possible. I swear she thought I was making it all up. THAT was pretty horrifying.

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Hugs!! I'm so sorry for your loss.

Some dialysis "nurses" are not nurses....they are technicians.

A technician torqued my fathers VAS cath in an attempt to get the cap off...after I warned her to NOT use two metal hemostats to get it off, AND told her I was a critical care RN....she fractured his catheter. I told them how to temporaily fix it..no one listened

It was a late Friday night and I was "assured he would be fine until Monday" and it wasn't "necessary to call the team in for this"......I told the MD (who I knew well) that I will hold him personally responsible if anything happened I had a bad feeling.....my Dad coded 13 hours later and died.

I miss you so.....

Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

What do they think DEFIBRILLATION is for? :facepalm: Vfib is pulseless. Vtach can be pulseless. Those are what you shock. PEA is pulseless too, but it doesn't look a thing like Vfib or Vtach on the monitor. I dunno, I always found Vfib and Vtach to be a couple of the easiest rhythms to identify... It's not brain surgery, people. Sheesh.

The first time I took ACLS, we had kind of the opposite situation. It wasn't the megacode where you "run" the code on the dummy, but the instructor would put up a strip and ask what we should do. The strip had normal P waves, normal QRSs, normal length QTs, normal ST segments, at 40 bpm. She said "This pt doesn't have a pulse." There was this family practice MD in our class who kept trying to answer as if this person was in sinus brady. 3 or 4 times, the instructor would say, "But he's PULSELESS," and she would repeat her actions for SB. :banghead:

When I recently renewed ACLS, as I was running through my mega code scenario and I got pulseless Vtach, I said to shock the patient, and the entire class, including the instructor, all said, "no it's PEA because there's no pulse." Never mind how I explained it and showed them the algorithm card, I kept getting push back. I thought I had gone crazy and lost the ability to read until the instructor later came back to me and admitted he was wrong. So maybe the concept of PEA is sticking a little too well!
Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

A few months ago I had a pt who would need to be pried off the ceiling w/ his propofol off. One night I had the neurosurg resident ask me to shut his sedation off, and he'd be by in half an hour to do his exam. I had taken care of him for 3 nights in a row so knew him, and I told the resident "He will extubate himself by then. Just give me a 5-minute warning and I'll have him awake for you." It was true--I had stopped him from self-extubating several times, even if I just attempted to turn the propofol DOWN. The resident didn't like that idea, said he wanted to make sure he was awake. "I understand, but it does not take him 30 minutes to wake up. Propofol has a short half-life, and he's only on 30 anyway. FIVE minutes and he'll be trying to extubate himself. If you want to wait around I'll shut it off now, but I'm not leaving it off for 30 minutes."

He wasn't too happy with me, but guess what... five minutes later, as I was tending to my other pt, he comes into the other room and said, "You can turn the propofol back on. He's trying to extubate himself."

Trying to extubate himself? Didn't see that coming. :sarcastic:

What the? First off, drives me wild when doctors come around and tell you to turn off the propofol then make you wait hours before they review the patient (I just want to scream at them sometimes...DO YOU KNOW THE HALF LIFE OF PROPOFOL??) Second of all, totally disgusting that someone would do this to a patient, and what sort of ICU nurse wants a patient moving and in pain anyway?
Specializes in Geriatric.

Just the other day an RN gave me a tb injection into my sub q tissue. She used a 45 degree angle and then told me that it didn't matter if a wheal was present because the wheal is suppose to show up later.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Just the other day an RN gave me a tb injection into my sub q tissue. She used a 45 degree angle and then told me that it didn't matter if a wheal was present because the wheal is suppose to show up later.

Oh dear.

Specializes in dementia/LTC.

"Have seen a PA use a staple gun on a young man, who tried to slice his wrists. PA was ****** the pt would not talk to him or let him see the inflicted damage. No lidocaine was given. I think PA used "extra" force when stapling. I was in shock! I did end up reporting what happened to CNO and chief MD. Got labeled as a tattletale, not a patient advocate. Until I saved a brand new doc's behind, their pt lived and doc kept their license. Then I was called a "team player!" Whatever............."

Good for you on reporting that!

Specializes in dementia/LTC.
Just the other day an RN gave me a tb injection into my sub q tissue. She used a 45 degree angle and then told me that it didn't matter if a wheal was present because the wheal is suppose to show up later.

Oh my.

Specializes in dementia/LTC.
I had a new RN tell me (as an LNA) that my resident was overweight and hot when I called her in to check a resident. She instructed me to get him a fan.

He was diabetic, suffering low sugar, cold and clammy. She would not check his blood sugar even though I asked her to repeatedly. I had been on the same wing for a year, she had been there three days.

It escalated and I had to call the shift supervisor in because I knew something was really wrong. He ended up being sent out to the hospital where he passed away.

Wow. I always get super nervous with diabetic pts I don't know well. If they exhibit the slightest symptom I think might be related to bs I check them just to be sure. It only takes a couple minutes. That's so sad.

Specializes in family practice and school nursing.
Some dialysis "nurses" are not nurses....they are technicians.

A technician torqued my fathers VAS cath in an attempt to get the cap off...after I warned her to NOT use two metal hemostats to get it off, AND told her I was a critical care RN....she fractured his catheter. I told them how to temporaily fix it..no one listened

It was a late Friday night and I was "assured he would be fine until Monday" and it wasn't "necessary to call the team in for this"......I told the MD (who I knew well) that I will hold him personally responsible if anything happened I had a bad feeling.....my Dad coded 13 hours later and died.

I miss you so.....

I know this is an old post but I was just reading through. Esme, I am so sorry this happened to your Dad. How terrible they wouldn't listen to you...

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