Funny story.....from first few weeks of clinical.

Heres a funny story I was just thinking about from last semester (my second semester), when I had clinicals on a med-surg floor.

My teacher assigned me a 59 year old male with retardation...I cannot remember for the life of me what the primary dx was, but he was getting TPN.
We had just learned about it in lecture the day before so I was excited because I could learn more about it. This man was absolutley wonderful, the type of patient that makes you remember why you got into this profession. Because he was mentally retarded, he didnt have much family to take care of him and was put into a home. All he did was smile and laugh all day and I couldnt help but be in a good mood myself.
As soon as I was finished his morning care, I immediatley opened my books and read up again on TPN and how it works. I was ready for my teacher....the pt. needs accu-checks and daily weights. I read in two books about how much weight TPN can put on and read all the ingredients on the bag to confirm why. ANy question my teacher asked me, this student nurse was prepared.

And here she comes.......Why is this? What is that? How does that work? The student nurse got all the answers correct! THe day will officially end on a good note! Yeahhhhhh! Ok, I can go on my break now.....but wait....the assigned nurse tells me my patient is getting discharged in a few hours and needs help gettting dressed and prepared. No problem I say. My friend and fellow student nurse came in to help me get the patient dressed and organized for his trip back to the home.

"Wow! What a very nice outfit you have!" I say...."Yes, Yes, it is nice" the patient replies. "OHHH, and look at this jeff cap, you are stylin'...wait till the ladies see you when you go back!" "Yes, I like my jeff cap" the patient replies....
One leg in pant....and the second leg in the pants.....and....upppppppp.....ummmmmmmm.....upppp p...darn it, I cant button the pants!! I ask my friend for help, no luck! "Boy! I said, no wonder theyre discharging you! That TPN did you good! YOu gained alot of weight!" "I sure did!" replied the pt. There was no way the pants were going to button but he didnt want to take them back off so I put his jeff cap on as he asked and went on my break with my friend.

20 minutes later I come back and walk into my patients room and a lady is standing in there and my teacher and the primary nurse and they are rollinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg !!!!

The lady in the room was my patients roomates wife. The roomate was also getting discharged and his wife came in to get him ready. While I was on break, she went to the primary nurse complaining because all of her husbands things were missing! They looked everywhere ...no can find. Guess where it was......on my patient that they found getting ready to leave the floor on a wheelchair! THe lady had mentioned a jeffcap and the nurse remembered seeing a jeffcap on my pt. and they ran to find him! Thank god they got to him before he left! THey had to bring him in and switch all the stuff off him and onto the right pt. I was soooooo embarrassed! My teacher just gota kick out of it!! Along with the rest of the whole entire floor! NOw, to this day.....everyone in my class says to me....."Boy Nicole, TPN really works well doesnt it!!"

Moral of the story: Not only is it important to check the ID bracelet before meds, its important to check the ID tag on clothes!!