Come on, admit it! We've all had 'em--bizarre nursing situations.
Lately I've been having quite a challenging (?) run of them and people are starting to cross themselves when they see me and stuff. Leaves me feeling a tad weird.
The latest came to us in the form of a patient who was passing through our unit on the way to ICU. Of course, our elevators were not functioning (lot of construction lately).
So on to the other elevator bank, but alas! The bed wouldn't fit through the door to get to them. So we plugged the patient's bed in right there in the hall, and set up for a Code while we planned an alternate route.
Happily, the patient was none the worse for wear, but I really got chills thinking about what could've happened.
So, come on, make me feel better. I know you can top that.
Your staff have to get off an elevator if a patient gets on???
Here, too. Of course, not the staff transporting the patient. But for privacy and respect issues, we have been asked to get off any elevator (even if you're already on and have gone several floors) if it is needed by a patient.
There are also signs posted on the first floor by the elevators urging visitors to do the same.
I mean, really, when you're a patient, you look and feel horrible - not having to be jammed into an elevator with a bunch of people is a nice touch.
Here, too. Of course, not the staff transporting the patient. But for privacy and respect issues, we have been asked to get off any elevator (even if you're already on and have gone several floors) if it is needed by a patient.
There are also signs posted on the first floor by the elevators urging visitors to do the same.
I mean, really, when you're a patient, you look and feel horrible - not having to be jammed into an elevator with a bunch of people is a nice touch.
It's a nice touch, but we'd never get anywhere or get anything done in my facility if we practiced this particuar nicety.
On on "quiet" Sunday afternoon, we answered a call light from a sweet little old lady who asked us to "Please come down here quickly and get this thing out of my room." The "thing" turned out to be the largest green frog I have ever seen. We think that he had come up to the room in the large potted violets that her visitor brought in a few minutes before...It was purchased from our "Pink Nook" downstairs. Being from the country, we scooped it up in a styrofoam cup and took it out to our duck pond in front of the hospital.
I was attempting to give an iron supplement to a sweet, but confused little old lady. She refused and started asking about her mother, who had died long ago. I re oriented her to the present and she seemed agreeable so I decided to get her to take the pill again. This time she started screaming "you killed my mother and turned her into iron!! Help!! Police!!." She started to get agitated so I decided to give her the PRN Ativan that was ordered. Twenty minutes after I gave the Ativan I returned to her room to check on her and this time she was naked with her hospital gown pulled up over her head singing. She was more than happy to take her iron tablets after that. :)
Doing Agency a few years back, I got assigned to a Tele overflow unit. It was set up like an ICU, with the monitors and hookups in the room, and then monitor/print capabilities out at the desk.
Just me and one other nurse for 10 patients, mostly walkie-talkies. No tech, no unit sec, and no monitor tech to read the strips.
Got a pleasant older new admit once who was in A-Fib, apparently new onset. Questionable seizure history. No sooner did I get her settled than the desk unit started reading "NO COMM". Which meant, of course, that the units were not communicating. Which meant I had no idea what this patient was doing on Tele while I was out of her room. Because of course, the stupid machine worked fine in the room.
Oh, and of course, what with the thing not working, I couldn't be sure, but was that a SIX-SECOND FLATLINE?! :uhoh21: Why, if the machine was "NO COMM"
did the thing alarm and spit out a beautiful strip of the pause, followed by a very slow A-fib? HR came back to 60s within a few more seconds. I was not a Happy Nurse. It looked like the real thing.
I checked on the patient and she was fine, watching TV. Vitals stable. No other symptoms. She was alert, oriented X3, and she was sure. She was positive. No really, she was OK, nothing had happened. Just watching TV.
So maybe the machine WAS out, but by golly I had that pause and the subsequent recovery on TWO DIFFERENT LEADS.
So I did what anyone would do--I documented the problem and notified the shift supervisor, who came down with another nurse. They diddled around with the machines until their fingers were blue--and couldn't get the machine working.
There were no other beds in the entire hospital. The repairman couldn't make it out until morning. It was 3 a.m. There was no other staff to watch this lady's monitor at the bedside. In another part of the unit, I had a patient going into CHF. I could NOT stand there and monitor this patient continuously. No one else could be triaged off of their monitors--everyone needed to be on Tele. The alarms were going off constantly and the place was utter bedlam.
The supervisor left. She was concerned, she had tried all she could try, and she gave me her sympathy--and left.
As soon as I had the chance, I started wiggling connections and plugging and unplugging equipment in the patient's room. After all, it was working before. Pt. remained alert and oriented, calm, watching TV. Finally, by some miracle, I got the blasted thing working.
Couple hours later, the thing starts alarming again! Three seconds, four.....six......eight..... :eek:I was already sprinting to the room.
There's my lady, head tilted upwards, and I'm thinking ohgod we'll have to Code her, when she blinked, looked at me, and said, "What was that? I heard the bell go off and I looked up, and there was this LINE instead of where my heart rate was. And I thought to myself, you're not having seizures, there's something wrong with your heart! Isn't there?"
The "pause" lasted about 9 seconds. The patient was alert, oriented, and awake the entire time. That was bizarre, not to mention the machine malfunction.
The patient had a pacemaker put in the next day. I haven't worked Agency since.
She had an aunt in long term care, and she went to visit her with her two year old daughter. It was winter and she had a little dalmation-spotted coat on her little girl with a matching hat complete with floppy ears. Cute, right? Well, as she went through the lobby a confused woman got up and started chasing her screaming "You B*TCH! You stole my cow! Bring me back my cow!!!" Apparently got the black and white markings confused... cracked me up.
She had an aunt in long term care, and she went to visit her with her two year old daughter. It was winter and she had a little dalmation-spotted coat on her little girl with a matching hat complete with floppy ears. Cute, right? Well, as she went through the lobby a confused woman got up and started chasing her screaming "You B*TCH! You stole my cow! Bring me back my cow!!!" Apparently got the black and white markings confused... cracked me up.
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:lol2: 
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
not that time, thank god!