Nursing Superstitions?

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What are your nursing superstitions? Here are a few of mine...

- I become paranoid if, during report, someone explicitly states a pt is a "full code" (we don't normally note code status unless a pt is a DNR) OR if there is a leaf magnet in one of our wall bedside chart storage thingies (leaf magnet placed on a pt's door = pt died)

- A doctor turns to me and says, "Keep an eye on him/her" or "Call me if ANYTHING changes"

- I will NEVER say, "Man it's a pretty good/calm/quiet/boring/etc. day today!" until I am clocked out and have left the hospital!

- I work days, not nights, so it's always the day AFTER a full moon that = chaos for me

ER - Sunday nights are bad enough, but when Sunday nights also happen to fall on a full moon. ugh. We used to joke that on these nights, the hospital needs to provide valium salt licks - one at the time clock for the staff and one at the registration desk for the patients/family members.

OR - Set out everything you'd need for a stat C-section before you leave for the weekend to ward off evil spirits, I mean, to keep from getting called in to do a stat C-section in the middle of the night.

Endoscopy - I have a lucky scope. I swear. LOL When I know I'm going to have a difficult case come up, I'll hide that scope so I can use it for the difficult procedure. It's saved my a** too many times to count. :D

Somehow, surgeons and endoscopists know when we're on call and try to go out to eat with the family. I don't know how, but they do. If I stay home, my phone won't make a peep, but as soon as I go out to eat with my family, we have a stat something or other come up. It got so bad for a while that when we went out to eat and I was on call, my husband insisted that we take 2 vehicles. (That negates the rule, however. They don't call when we take 2 vehicles. LOL)

I swear that I can tell by the way the phone rings when it's the hospital. I don't even have to look at the caller ID.

When I'm working with the doc I'm on call with for the weekend, we laughingly say, "I hope I don't see you this weekend!" It sounds bad if anybody overhears, but it usually works. When we forget to say goodbye this way, we're pretty much guaranteed to spend the weekend together in the hospital.

This weekend I have to do a major research paper that's due at school Monday. I'll let you know, but I'd almost guarantee that I'll get called into the hospital both days. It never fails. :rolleyes:

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There is a Sgt. at my job (yes I work in a jail) who calls me Nurse Blackcloud. Every time I work with him, there are at least 3 code blues. He is an old school EMT, and responds to most code blues with the nursing staff. Secretly we both love the excitement, but I don't think it is me with the black cloud...I think it is him!

I hate full moons!

I never say the "Q" word

I worked last night, after having had no sleep, my third 12 in a row, and knowing that I had to stay up today (thanks by the way for the distraction with this thread), Can anyone say night from hell? Yeah that Sgt. I mentioned earlier...He worked the past three nights with me. Thank the gods I am off the next two days!

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Specializes in Med Surg, Post partum, peds, newborn nur.

I believe in not saying the "q" word also. Have heard about the tying the knot in the sheet. And of course not saying the frequent flayers names.

Our nursing station is in front of the elevator. If the elevator opens and no one has pushed the button and no one gets out, we say that it is death coming to take someone away.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.
HollyHobby said:

On the other hand, it is absolutely true that when a patient starts talking to previously-deceased family members, the end is near.

Just before my mother coded she looked straight at the blank wall beside her and had a perfectly pleasant conversation with her mother(my grandmother) who had been dead for 25+ years. It included a description of what pretty flowers grandma had with her and how bright and sunny it seemed. Mom recovered and clearly recalls her mother standing at her bedside surrounded by flowers and a golden glow. I crack the code cart whenever a patient starts talking to their dead loved ones!

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

Don't you DARE utter the "q" word in my presence! I don't know who ever taught me that one, but I believe in it!

This is weird, but anytime I see a family standing by the code cart and talking (of course they don't know what the code cart is) we end up having a code that night.

And I don't know what came over me one particular night, but everyone made fun of me about it. We have multiple towers in our hospital, so the departments are divided not only by floor number but by tower letter (rather than having wings like some hospitals). One night one code was called on our floor, two towers away. Then two codes were called on our floor, one tower away. (They're both medical departments like us but completely different staffs and management). Well, I wasn't having it. I closed the doors between the towers. That evil wasn't coming to us that night! And guess what, the tower next to us had yet another code that night. I swear it was meant for us...

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Specializes in Peds.

If I think about a patient I don't want to have before I get to work, low and behold, that patient is on my assignment when I arrive at work.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

If I have an unstable/very sick patient coming in for surgery, I will roll the crash cart around and park it beside the door to the OR. This superstition is deeply ingrained in me, and I have NEVER had a patient code when I pull the cart to the door!

I totally agree with events occurring in threes. Always.

The Q word is bad bad bad. This is usually the FIRST thing I teach to new residents.

I have never heard of the knot-tying. I love this thought. I wonder where this originated? Sounds like deep Louisiana. Anyone know?

Interestingly, every hospital OR that I have worked in (I used to travel, so I have seen many different ORs) never had an OR 13.

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Specializes in Emergency.

NEVER, EVER say the Q, S, or B word! It will always lead to a bad shift.

If you agree to work extra, or change shifts with someone, you are guaranteed to have a terrible shift.

If I have to start an IV or do a blood draw, I always bring in extra supplies. If I don't, I guarantee I will miss or blow a vein, but if I have the extra, I usually get it on the first stick.

I work on a tele unit, and there is one particular respiratory therapist, who, when we are working the same shift, we are guaranteed to have a code or a deteriorating patient who needs to be transferred and intubated or put on BiPAP. We cringe when we see each other!

There is also a particular attending who definitely has a black cloud over their head. When they are on call, we will definitely have a code.

We don't talk about our frequent flyers either.

I agree that the full moon thing is true.

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When I first started working charge at a LTC, I'd always go in with "This shift will be a piece of cake" attitude. I didn't have to be hit on the head more than twice to change THAT thought. When I started thinking about which resident I had to watch closely, who the staff were whose observations were golden, etc. life got a whole lot better.

I totally agree about things in threes.

One that I haven't seen mentioned is: whenever a person who has been failing, not eating or drinking, eats a full meal -- have the mortuary on standby. That's one I've seen happen multiple times. It's as though they're getting fuel for their journey.

Full moon nights are also crazy in nursing homes. I've refereed many a fight between sweet people that at any other time wouldn't hurt a fly.

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Specializes in Intermediate care.

Anytime i am up for an admission, i always get the detox or "mental status change" patients.

99.9% of the time this is the case.....

therefore,when im up for admission, i mentally prepare myself. get all my other patients settled and prepare for the worst.

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What means if a nurse take the ill hand of a stroke patient in her hand and she says some words like "this hand will never be better"? Or "this is your weak hand" shaking it?

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Specializes in NICU.

ALWAYS be completely set up for the sickest admit you can think of...it will never come.

Never say "bored." (I'm off for the next couple of days, so I can say it - for now.)

If you really are bored, don't set up for anything...it WILL come...and enjoy it!

If a patient looks "different," alert the charge nurse, the RT, the attending, and review the crash cart - your patient will be fine.

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