Blatant Nursing "No-No's"........what's your worst???

[anndoodle]

All of us at one time or another have seen or heard of a nurse doing the most idiotic or blatantly stupid thing that goes against our grain of "good nursing". What's the worst you've ever heard? Here's one for you:

At a LTC where I worked, (this was LONG ago...) we had one nurse on 3-11 shift that all the other nurses kept complaining about because it was "common knowledge" that she always gave her 4 pm meds with her 8 pm meds. Of course, I never actually saw this happen and rarely ever worked with this woman. However, no one else would dare to approach this nurse as she had worked there "forever", and always got her way with whatever she wanted. She would leave the building and not clock out for her breaks, and spend a couple of hours at Walmart then return to work. I was told once that a family member approached her about a resident who thought was having a heart attack and this nurse told them "I'm not her nurse, you need to inform someone else"....this while she sat at the nurses desk filing her nails. Anyhow, one evening our DON just "happened" to check this nurses med cart...and guess what. Supposedly, all the 8pm meds had already been given (or at least they weren't in the med cards) Needless to say, she doesn't work there anymore. Actually, I believe she retired!!!

I don't understand how some nurses can be so PLAINLY unprofessional - not even attempt to hide it! EDIT: Just a reminder, this is what I had heard, not what I had witnessed. Had I witnessed anything close to this you better believe I would be on the phone with someone...and fast!!!

[jannecdote]

when i was working at the the paediatric hospital here, there was a tragic incident involving a tiny baby,an iv splint and tape, and a pair of very sharp nurses scissors. the digit was reattached sucessfully. scissors and small children just do not mix and i make sure it is only my fingers in peril when i have to cut tape to remove an iv splint

omg!! if i had been the nurse who did this, i think it would have ended my nursing career--i would have died on the spot.:uhoh21:

[donnapalmer]

We were in our summer clinical in July, 2004, on a med-surg unit at a large, regional medical center...my patient had a large, draining post-D&I wound of the hip (s/p ORIF, post-op infection). It had cultured for large amounts of MRSA, and she was on isolation (contact precautions). Here are three LPN students, "half-done" (we graduate this year), with isolation gear on, two to pack her stuff...she was being discharged AMA) and one to assist this patient to the bathroom, per doctor's orders. In comes the med nurse, to dispense her meds (long-time med-surg RN--23 years at this facility alone). Now, the patient has made it to the bathroom, and the students are collecting her personal items in bags...the med nurse parks her bottom not only in the patient's bed (bad enough!), but on the canvas-backed absorbent pad that has been contaminated with the patient's MRSA-rich wound drainage, and not yet removed. As the three of us watch in horror, she dispenses meds, and goes out to the nurse's station and sits out there. Lucky for all of us and our families, we aren't allowed to sit during clinical (until we do our nurse's notes), and aren't at risk in that specific situation. Perfect example of "learning by negative example"!

[unikuelady, RN]

I've gotten an ulcer from orienting a newly hired "years of experience" RN. She was not only incompetent but down right dangerous. For example: ...Patient to have last dose of IV antibiotic before being discharged from hospital. IV Hep-Lock occluded. so nurse takes it out....so far so good. I ask her what she is going to do. She tells me she is going to start another hep-lock and administer the med. She goes into the med room. I get busy at the nurses station. She comes out of the med room and I ask her if she has all of her supplies. She stated yes. A few moments later I enter the patients room to see if she needs any help. I got there just in time. She had attached an 18 gauge needle to the syringe containing 20cc of IV antibiotic and was about to administer it IM. I immediately stopped her. Took her out of the room and asked her in private what she was doing. She told me that she looked the medication up in the med book and it said it was ok to administer it IM. I questioned her further and we both looked up the medication order in her chart. She was failing 2 of the 5 "rights" of medication administration/lied to me and false documentation.

Instead of admitting her wrong doing...she continued to defend herself. I told her she had to leave the hospital immediately...both of us had the same patients so I didn't even need to get report from her. I called the Manager and informed her of the above. Guess what? she was back the next day...assigned a new precepter! I could not believe it. (I had her for 4 weeks already..so this was not her first day). Unfortunatly she had another major incident and was finally let go. (Patient was harmed and required longer hospitalization). I heard she got hired at another hospital in the area. There is a saying on a t-shirt that says " you can't scare me..I'm a nurse"

I'm here to tell you that The most scarry situation to be in is to be working with a incompetent/dangerous nurse.

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

I read this one in a nursing journal a few years ago, and I still can't believe 3 RN's were involved in this. A child was in the hospital and had been thru a lot. I don't remember the circumstances. He had IV fluids running and the doc had order Procaine PCN IM. The nurse decided that the kid had been thru enough and she didn't want to stick him and wanted to give the med IV instead of IM as ordered. Instead of checking with the doc or a drug book, she consulted 2 other staff nurses who agreed it was a good idea. Well, she did it and the boy died. They were sued along with the hospital. I think 2 of the 3 nurses lost their license, at least for a while, while the 3rd was acquitted because she was not in direct care of the child. For an educated lot, sometimes nurses really do some stupid things. None of us are immune from mistakes, but it seems like, some people seek them out!

[tiredfeetED]

i cut off a broviac!!! it wasn't completely my fault. the line was 'occluded' on the pump, wouldn't flush or return blood. there was this contraption over the line, (right below the exit site). one of my genius co-workers invented this to prevent the line from twisting and thus occluding. i needed to get it off, it was taped to good...long story short, in came the scissors and off came the broviac!!!

the moral to this story: don"t play with scissors near a central line

also, don't tape something so good that no one else can remove it!!!

or dont use trauma scissors for cutting of tape from a 1yr olds hand...you never no what u might find missing! (story i heard from a er doc) still makes me cringe! :angryfire

[webbiedebbie]

Nurse with 23 years experience had patient swallow Motrin 800 mg with a nasogastric tube in place!

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

I worked with a nurse in a prison once who was supposed to give about 10-12 Tuberculin shots. She accidentally gave then all Tetorifice Toxoid injections SubQ. They all came back with their arms swollen & red. We initially thought there was a Tb outbreak in the facility until the head nurse noticed the Tetorifice Toxoid vials thrown in with the Tuberculins (they had been kept separate for a reason!)

[tclark20]

Why didn't somebody stand up to that nurse? I feel that if she was going to take her job like that she shouldn't even been a nurse. I am a nusing student and i went to into the nursing field because I care about people and want to help them. I guess there is always someone out there that is going to give nurses a bad name. I have been at a hospital visiting my grandama before and one of the hospitals nurse had said she hated her job in front of another patient and then was reported to the supervisor and she lost her job on the spot. The only thig that is confusing me is that all you had to do was report that nurse and she would have never found out who reported her because it would of been kept confiential and then she would have been under reveiw and would have got got.

[nuttyRN]

I've gotten an ulcer from orienting a newly hired "years of experience" RN. She was not only incompetent but down right dangerous. For example: ...Patient to have last dose of IV antibiotic before being discharged from hospital. IV Hep-Lock occluded. so nurse takes it out....so far so good. I ask her what she is going to do. She tells me she is going to start another hep-lock and administer the med. She goes into the med room. I get busy at the nurses station. She comes out of the med room and I ask her if she has all of her supplies. She stated yes. A few moments later I enter the patients room to see if she needs any help. I got there just in time. She had attached an 18 gauge needle to the syringe containing 20cc of IV antibiotic and was about to administer it IM. I immediately stopped her. Took her out of the room and asked her in private what she was doing. She told me that she looked the medication up in the med book and it said it was ok to administer it IM. I questioned her further and we both looked up the medication order in her chart. She was failing 2 of the 5 "rights" of medication administration/lied to me and false documentation.

Instead of admitting her wrong doing...she continued to defend herself. I told her she had to leave the hospital immediately...both of us had the same patients so I didn't even need to get report from her. I called the Manager and informed her of the above. Guess what? she was back the next day...assigned a new precepter! I could not believe it. (I had her for 4 weeks already..so this was not her first day). Unfortunatly she had another major incident and was finally let go. (Patient was harmed and required longer hospitalization). I heard she got hired at another hospital in the area. There is a saying on a t-shirt that says " you can't scare me..I'm a nurse"

I'm here to tell you that The most scarry situation to be in is to be working with a incompetent/dangerous nurse.

I am just so glad that I have not seen too many "stupid nurse" occurances! I have been a nurse for only approx. 1.5 years though!

[mattsmom81]

Failing to ask an appropriate question is the downfall of many nurses who have made serious med errors in my experience.

I'm a firm believer in organized preceptorship and education programs as I've seen mistakes from so many nurses try to learn specialty work OJT , they assume they know 'enough', make a bad call and harm (or potentially harm) a patient.

It is why I will not likely agree to precept a nurse in my ICU if there is no dedicated education program/internship in place to back me up. Too much liability for me, too dangerous for my patients, and an unfair burden on everyone involved, IMO. I learned ICU OTJ many moons ago, but its a whole new ballgame today.

This just can't be said too often...nursing is a career where its more important to know what you DON'T know vs what you DO know, and to utilize extreme caution on the job. Follow facility protocols and policies. Don't assume, ask.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

I saw a nurse draw up 10cc of phenobarb for a baby, to be administered IM. The charge nurse intervened before the dose was given. Hint: If the syringe is the size of the patient it is probably too much to give.

[Peachy720]

Hey everyone!

I'm still finishing my pre-reqs, but thought this is the perfect place to get something off my chest, something that dissuaded me from me wanting to be a nurse for the longest time.

I'll keep it as short as possible.

I won't name the hospital, for fear of offending anyone, but I will say it is in *********** and there are several similar stories I have heard from family and friends about this hospital.

My beloved "Maw-Maw" needed to have a quadruple bypass. When they touched a calcified artery, she had a massive stroke and heart attack on the table. Do you know how long it took them to tell us? WEEKS. Seriously, after the surgery, they told us all we had to do is "wait for her to wake up."

So, they finally do tell us that she had a massive stroke. She was lost and trapped in her mind for 6 months, all the time them giving us hope. She could open her eyes, smile, and squeeze your hand, on her GOOD days, that was it. She was on a breathing tube, feeding tube, and numerous other things. She had to have a tracheotomy.

Now, I was living 2 hours away, and was trying to go back down every weekend, whenever I would get off from work. Do you know I would sit with my maw-maw, and she would have a BM, I would call the nurse's station. It took FOUR HOURS for them to come on this particular occasion, and I called every 15 minutes.:angryfire :angryfire

I think the worst of the things I could tell is what we finally found that was keeping the infections coming and eventually killed her. My aunt was told of hospice, and when they came to transfer her, the transporters were in shock. They found bedsores the size of your fist in her back, stuffed up with gauze to keep the fluids from pouring out. They had not been turning her at all. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire After my maw-maw passed three days later, my aunt took pictures, which I regret seeing.

Thanks for letting me vent, guys. It took so long to get over this, and so long to be able to trust that not all nurses/medical professionals are like this..I prayed for that staff every night, my aunt would put money in my maw-maw's hands so that she could "tip" the nurse's aides and anyone else, and this is what she got?

Take care,

Tanya