Yesterday I was dragging. It was Monday, coming back from a week off, hadn't slept well, etc. An hour before the end of the shift. Called a doctor's office about a patient's insulin and possibly switching her over from prefilling Lantus syringes to the pen. Left a voicemail message on the triage nurse line that went something like this...
"Hi, this is ProBeeRN with ____, calling about ____. " Blah, blah blah, explain situation, wanting to switch to pen, promote patient independence, reviewed BS log, etc. Everything going fine. Until I ended it with this:
"So, my number is xxx-xxxx, if you have any questions you can call me back, and if it's ok with the doctor he can call in that script for the solostar to the pharmacy and if it's not ok...well then I guess he doesn't have to do anything then, does he? Everything else is fine with the patient. Ok, thanks, bye.
I then hung up and stared at the phone like it was going to grow tentacles and poke me in the eye. My patient laughed at me.
I've said this several time while exhausted from a crazy shift..
Super: any way you can come in for 7a-3p tomorrow?
Me: Sure.
Doh! You have to be really tired to agree to come in for your 11th straight in a row..AND on a shift you don't work on a floor you've never done before...AHHH!!
Once near the end of a long and super-busy shift-- I was exhausted-- I was getting a couple of pills ready to give to a patient. I opened them at the bedside, put them into a 30ml plastic cup and got ready to pour the pt some water from his pitcher. I then proceeded to pour the water directly into the 30ml cup on top of the pills. On top of that, it was an orientee's first day with me. I know she thought I was a real winner!
I've also answered call lights "This is *my name*" like I answer the phone, instead of "May I help you." Or I've answered the phone "May I help you?" LOL.
I thought of another silly story, that actually had to do with a pt. On my old floor, we didn't have those awful phones we carry around now, so when we urgently needed to find a nurse we would page over the call light system "So-and-so, turn your light on."
One day, we paged "Sue, turn your light on." A patient, whose first name was evidently Sue, hit her call light and when we answered, she uncertainly said, "Um, this is Sue..?" We got a good laugh out of that, bless her heart!
I can't say words right when I've worked too much. "Hoat clanger" and such come out. It's also not too fun to pick up the phone and say "what do you need mrs. (pt name)?" when it rings. Invariably it'll be another pt's family member and they think I am rude. Which I am after too many nights in a row, answering q15 min. call lights from the same person who speaks googoogaga now instead of english.
Once we had a deaf patient. Yep, profoundly deaf. He hardly ever hit the light by accident. He couldn't know that you acknowledged his existence unless you went in the room and stood in front of him, to see what he wanted. I was his advocate for quite a while. Then he got to the phase of being lonely and on the light just to see a pretty face. After a long week of this, he rang during report. We have chaos report style, also known as verbal, and so I wasn't right then giving report, I was waiting my turn and unfortunately, standing by the call light answering thingy. I yanked the phone line (it has a phone line) out of the wall, (this causes it to shut up until you plug it back in) and said "nononono, no no noNO!!!!" rather loudly and apparently, was stamping my feet and doing some impression of a two year old. When I turned around, believe me you could have heard a pin drop. I smiled and went to check on the patient after plugging the call light machine back in first. It was embarrassing.
I'd had a really LOOOONNNG night. One of my patients was a little mid age lady on BiPap. She didn't want to wear it that night because it was irritating her face. Her sats had been doing really well so I said ok (monitored her VERY closely).
Her AM labs come back....retaining CO2..... normal for her but it's higher than what it was so...The R/T asks me if I want to put her back on BiPap. My tired, idiotic reply? "Will that help?" *smacks forehead* "Doh!"
I knew before the words come out but I couldn't stop it. To make it worse, I and the R/T had JUST finished a conversation about the incredibly stupid things some of our colleagues have said and done:uhoh3:.
I'm 36 days away from being done with my ASN/ADN....so glad I'm not the only one who can't think of the simple words!!!
I used to blank out on common words after a night shift.
I was giving report on a pt going for a procedure at another hospital once. I said "Box lunch was ordered. Its in the...." total blank. "You know - the big white thing. Keeps food cold.. " Other nurse looks at me "The Fridge?". Me: "thats right! The Fridge!".
I read this post yesterday and got a good laugh from it, but apparently karma does exist...
After my clinicals today I sat down to study for an exam and I started to write notes down, but couldn't figure out why my pen wasn't writing (especially since I JUST bought new pens yesterday)..... I look at my "pen" and realized it was my penlight. :) I turned it off and looked around to see if anyone saw me make the mistake of trying to write with a penlight.. lol!
Our pyxis and tube system are side by side... A few times I find my self staring at the tube system with my finger up in the air wondering where the screen is. HA
I was bringing a patient graduated cylinders for his irrigation and said, how many colanders would you like? After a blank look from his wife, I started laughing and said, well, that wouldn't work very well, would it?
I caught myself knocking on the pantry door at home before I opened it! I thought I was losing my mind! Thank God it's not just me!
CT Pixie, BSN, RN
3,723 Posts
I've said this several time while exhausted from a crazy shift..
Super: any way you can come in for 7a-3p tomorrow?
Me: Sure.
Doh! You have to be really tired to agree to come in for your 11th straight in a row..AND on a shift you don't work on a floor you've never done before...AHHH!!