A message to new grads: NEVER....

Nurses General Nursing

Published

* un-spike the old IVF's with 100 mls left in the bag while it's still hanging

* say the word "quiet" in reference to your hopes for the shift

* say you've never had a patient ________ before

* take your stethoscope off till you're in your car and on the way home

* plan on going to that inservice/staff meeting/whatever during your shift

Experienced nurses, share your wisdom. What are some other things that new grads should NEVER do?

If you insist on drawing up more than one medication at a time label the syringes before hand. Never "guess" which one is which.

Don't feel bad about calling the doctor at 3am for pain medicine for a new surgical patient (or any patient for that matter) The doctor should have known better than order just plain tylenol or 1 mg of morphine q3 hours

Patients can sleep with a pain level of 8 out of 10. I know that one from personal experience.

As hard as it is don't let the doctor intimidate you. You went to school for many years and you are a trained professional. It is your job to report observations to the doctor; make sure you chart that you told the doctor and their response.

Get you own . Do not expect the hospital to protect you against lawsuits.

Be careful what you chart. Five years later you may not remember what happened and the charting is all you have to go by. Just keep it simple and write the facts. Try to write verbatem what the patient says. When you paraphase it may look like you are not being honest.

Trust your instincts, they usually are correct.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Hint to self!! IF you are opening up more than one vial of Demerol/morphine for IVP you may need to rethink what you are doing!...And dont think the pt has a CVA after giving 125 of Demerol IV over 30 sec....

Another thing ..Please give meds over the time listed in Drug book..I see seasoned nurses Push things like Reglan and solumedrol over seconds...

I had a doctor push 50mg of phenergan through my IV over 5 seconds. It's supposed to go at a rate of 25mg a minute. That was an incredibly painful experience.

Had a patient of another nurse code and die after she pushed 50mg of demoral. When she checked back 30 minutes after administering the medication for effect he was nonresponsive. I am very careful about the rate a medication is pushed

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Women's health & post-partum.
Don't feel bad about calling the doctor at 3am for pain medicine for a new surgical patient (or any patient for that matter) The doctor should have known better than order just plain tylenol or 1 mg of morphine q3 hours

When the doctor admits the patient with orders for a whole battery of tests, but doesn't order pain med, activity, diet, sedation, etc, CALL HIM/HER. Why should they sleep when the patient can't? (I guess you can tell this was a chronic problem with one of our MDs.)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Thanks to all the marinated nurses for these wonderful tips! I am definitely taking notes. I start my first job on 1/18/05.

BSN2004NSU

What is a marinated nurse?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Adult Med-Surg, Rehab, and Ambulatory Care.

What a great thread!

And I dunno, but I figured marinated meant seasoned, been in it awhile, etc.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Never:

... assume that someone else is doing your work, even if you've delegated it to them... part of delegating is following up to make sure the task was done...

... give codeine IV piggyback... we've had several new grads attempt this in the last 6 months...

Codeine cannot be safely administered by an intravenous (IV) injection as it may result in pulmonary edema, facial swelling, dangerous release of histamines, and various cardiovascular effects
... rely solely on how another nurse says a procedure should be done if you've never done it before... read the policy... know, legally, what's the proper procedure and interventions... (ie: i recently was told that after initiating a feeding tube on a night shift that it was "nurse's discretion" to start a basic feed of Jevity to "maintain the line" until a dietician could assess the pt... a quick check of the policy showed that only a dietician or a MD could order what type of feed after initiation... the MD didn't feel comfortable choosing a feed, so we put in a dietary consult)...

... skimp on documenting... it could come back to bite you in the butt!

... forget that your pt.'s and their families are watching EVERYTHING you do...

... forget why you first chose to go into nursing... :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

OK..I thought of another one...be careful when you get verbal results of a patient lab or xray report. Better to visualize the report yourself before you call a doctor. I did this once, called the doc in on the word of a previous shift nurse..and she was wrong. Of course I got blamed cuz I called him in. I learned a good lesson though.

Phoned radiologist reports I'm OK with but not much else...like to see other reports myself and verify them personally before sounding an alarm. ;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in A myriad of specialties.

" I simply say "good shift to you!".

What a great thing to say! I like that.:)

NEVER feel stupid for consulting the drug handbook or Lippincott's to "refresh" your memory on something!

NEVER say "I'll be right back" if you even suspect it'll be 10-15 mins or more!

NEVER report to noc shift with only 3-4 hours' sleep under your belt.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

THANK YOU to everyone for taking the time to share these great tips/advice/encouragements.

Spec, graduated Dec 04' taking nclex in 2 weeks!!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

HAHA I graduate in may....and in my clinical last semester I hung an IV for the first time...we I spiked it with a secondary line so I needed to redo it with a primary line...and I took the 2ndary out and it spilled all over...I was mortified and everyone thought it was funny...but how was I supposed to no lol :rotfl: :rotfl: now that I think about it it was kinda funny but I wish I Would have read this frist.:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

* un-spike the old IVF's with 100 mls left in the bag while it's still hanging

* say the word "quiet" in reference to your hopes for the shift

* say you've never had a patient ________ before

* take your stethoscope off till you're in your car and on the way home

* plan on going to that inservice/staff meeting/whatever during your shift

Experienced nurses, share your wisdom. What are some other things that new grads should NEVER do?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Again I learned this the hard was too...I also learned from that experience not to talk while doing the care lol I got a mouth full and to top it off the patient had MRSA EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW:eek:

Never try to force a flush using a 60 ml syringe through a NG/feeding/G/J tube stopcock. If it won't flush easily, repeatedly and gently pull back and push forward or you will end up with whatever you're flushing the tube with all over your face, neck, upper chest and arms. (I learned this the hard way early on.)
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Bone Marrow Transplant.

A seasoned nurse...just thought I would change it up:)

What is a marinated nurse?
Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment