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!!!
Years ago I worked nights and one particular shift I will always remember. Got report from eve shift nurse and went about my business. First thing I would always do is a run through check on all my patients (worked cardiac tele at that time) before I did anything else. OMG. I walked into this patients room and found him in a jacket restaint stretched to the foot of the bed and pt. hanging over the end of the bed on his stomach, feet on the floor. Initially I thought he was climbing out out of bed at that moment and ran in to grab him. Well, when I got to him I immediately noted he was blue...and very cold to the touch. I called for help and we untied him and hoisted him onto the bed. The rigormortis was obvious. Lying on his back, his legs were in the air, bent at the knees and waist, with a perfect footboard indentation across his abdomen. Called the resident who came and had to crack the rigor (awful sounding) to get pt. lying flat. Pt was in his 90's and a no code....NO EXCUSE. What a noble way to leave the planet, huh? I quickly looked at the eve nurses charting and sure enough...closing narrative 2300....VSS, NSR, offers no complaints....yeah...and it was 2315 at that time. She had taken his monitor off because he was confused and squirming in bed causing it to "alarm too much" She stood there and argued she had just checked him at 2300 and he was "just fine". Resident turned around and told her she was full of ****. Fired? Lost license? NOPE. But if ya forgot to empty your linen or tried to set limits with a difficult pt. and they squawked....you're job was threatened. Nightmare job from hell.:angryfire
I have not repeated this story in a long time but I guess enough time has passed. Before I tell the story I want say at the time I really thought I was being helpful. I was in my late 20's at the time. We had this male patient around 35 or so. He was a great person and well liked by all the staff. He treated us all with respect. He would get very warm and only wear a pair of boxers and a tee-shirt and sleep on top of the covers. If he had visitors he would put on a robe. Well the boxers were the type with a slit on the fly but no button so there were times you would walk in and find him alseep but his member might have fallen out through the slit. Once he had an full erection while alseep and one of our nurses walked in on it during a night check. None of us said anything about it because he was not lewd in any way, it always was at night when he was alseep and he probably did not even realize what was happening, and he was in a private room. One morning I stopped in to see how he was, he was scheduled for some testing later that day. He told me that he had not slept at all the night before worrying about the tests and that he was going to try to get some sleep in the morning. Later that morning I stopped back to check on him and sure enough he was alseep on his side and positioned in such a way that his member had fallen out, he did not have an erection. I did not want to wake him, but was afraid that a family member would walk in and see it. He had an aunt that visited often. I got the bright idea that I could just adjust the flap on his boxers and cover him and no one would be the wiser. Well as I tried to this he woke up. After an awkward moment I explained what had happened. He thanked me for my concern and apologized. Despite his assurances that it was alright I decided I better tell my supervisor. Of course I was reamed royally for bad judgement. She went in and spoke to the man about the incident and I guess he convinced her that the whole thing should just be dropped. I got a verbal warning. About 3 months later she came to me and we talked about it and she said even though what I did showed poor judgement she is not sure she might not have done the same thing. Sorry this was so long but there was no short way to tell it.
An incident at my hospital involving an idiot resident writing an order for 50 units of novoLOG (the previous orders were 50 u of Lantus) on a younger A&O DM pt in with what I heard was cellulitis, then not one, not two, but THREE nurses caring for this patient questioning said order, even calling resident back up to clarify that's what he indeed wanted. Yes, that's right. 50 units of Novolog.
It gets worse. One of the nurses actually *GAVE* it at HS; the patients pm sugar check was in the 130s. Needless to say, around 3am when someone finally decided to look in on her, she was post-ictal, with a sugar in the teens. Patient was in ICU for about a month, comatose/brain dead until she died.
So be sure to check those insulin vials. And never be intimidated into giving a med you KNOW will have detrimental effects. All any three of them had to do was explain the residents idiocy to the patient (who I heard was well-knowledgeable of her diabetes), not give it, and chart "pt refused" on the med record and in the chart.
This happened yesterday, the 3rd shift nurse was giving report on a patient and said"oh, she complained of a little left chest pain over night, but it was away, also noted soe SOB" Kinda of puzzled we asked"did you call the doc?
Stated No, she's fine now. We finished report and when when checked on the pt, she was in acute resp. distress - abd. breathing, SpO2 81%. Needless to say we 911'ed her to the nearest hosp - guess what, admitted to the ICU with a PE!!!! :angryfire
As a nursing student, we were all gathered around a patients bed to watch another student perform her first REAL PATIENT Z track injection.
And that's exactly what she did. She shoved the needle into this poor guys hiney and proceeded to move the whole syringe in a Z motion, then injected the med. Bravo. Man screaming, nursing instructor pallid. A few students calm and unsure what the problem was, others horrified. We all knew that day, which students may be not be graduating with us. LOL:uhoh3:
OMG no way!!!!! you have to be making that one up! how can anyone be that stupid! didn't you guys have to check off on skills?
We had a new nurse who I was training, she had been away from working for about 10 years. She was a know-all. She was pulling up Insulin and when I told her it always has to be checked by another RN or LPN before being administered she said "that's not necessary, I know exactly what I'm doing". I told her you have to follow the rules. She stuck the syringe in my face. "well here check it then" She had pulled up 8 units in a TB syringe and had .80 of a cc !!! Whoa ! She didn't even seem concerned over that huge mistake she had made. She was like oh well. I asked my nurse manager to get rid of her because I refuse to train her. She tried one more preceptor and then fired the idiot "know it all" . With the next preceptor she was giving blood through non-filtered tubing and had it threaded backwards in the pump. How does someone like that ever pass the NCLEX ? Scarry Stuff !
I'm horrified by some of these stories, and the others I'd be horrified about if I knew what y'all were talking about more.
Anyway...My grandfather was in a LTC facility, he was VERY alert, and still had his wits. He reported an aide being hostile to him because my grandfather wanted to watch the football game. (Papaw LOVED football!!) I believe that guy was fired.
Later, he had a heart attack. 3 days after the attack the LTC sent him to the hospital. They had just been treating him for indigestion. The Dr. at the hospital said if he had been taken to the hospital right after the attack, they could have helped him. So, he ended up passing away.
Anyone want to know the significance of the 3 days?????? This put them where the LTC facility would get paid for the month.
It just makes me cringe to think that people go into a field because they care, and end up making it a money thing. I know mistakes can happen, but some I've read on this discussion are major mistakes made because of down right not being careful, or not caring anymore.....grrrrrrrrrr :angryfire
As I read these posts it makes me even more depressed because reading about these " NOT SO BRIGHT" nurses who I am sure passed the boards on the first try and here I am, a person w/more than a clue and just found out I failed. I tell you sometimes life is just not fair.
I TOO, FAILED THE NCLEX THE FIRST TIME, IT WAS PROBABLY JUST AS WELL, TALKING TO LPN'S ON MY JOB I REALIZED HOW LITTLE I REALLY KNEW. SO I STUDIED HARD, AND PASSED IT THE SECOND TIME AROUND.
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, how horrible.
if that had been me, i would have died on the spot or never would be able to get up the nerve to come back to the job.
i'd just go work at walmart or something, or just hide for the next ten years.
These stories terrify me. I hope and pray that I don't do anything that will jeapordize a patient. There is so much to learn in school, and it goes so fast, that I worry about these things quite often.
Specializes in Med-Surg, , Home health, Education.
I was working PM's and making rounds. I walked into a patients room getting blood and the entire unit of packed cells had infiltrated. When I went to d/c the IV I realized that the RN had started the IV and never removed the SHARP!!! She had unscrewed the cap at the blood return site and just started infusing the blood. No wonder it infiltrated! Had another nurse drop a p.o med down a patient's trach!
.thumb.gif.55aeaafdb61768ab641b1fab52f42961.gif){kind=avatar}
Trauma-tizedRN
150 Posts
Years ago I worked nights and one particular shift I will always remember. Got report from eve shift nurse and went about my business. First thing I would always do is a run through check on all my patients (worked cardiac tele at that time) before I did anything else. OMG. I walked into this patients room and found him in a jacket restaint stretched to the foot of the bed and pt. hanging over the end of the bed on his stomach, feet on the floor. Initially I thought he was climbing out out of bed at that moment and ran in to grab him. Well, when I got to him I immediately noted he was blue...and very cold to the touch. I called for help and we untied him and hoisted him onto the bed. The rigormortis was obvious. Lying on his back, his legs were in the air, bent at the knees and waist, with a perfect footboard indentation across his abdomen. Called the resident who came and had to crack the rigor (awful sounding) to get pt. lying flat. Pt was in his 90's and a no code....NO EXCUSE. What a noble way to leave the planet, huh? I quickly looked at the eve nurses charting and sure enough...closing narrative 2300....VSS, NSR, offers no complaints....yeah...and it was 2315 at that time. She had taken his monitor off because he was confused and squirming in bed causing it to "alarm too much" She stood there and argued she had just checked him at 2300 and he was "just fine". Resident turned around and told her she was full of ****. Fired? Lost license? NOPE. But if ya forgot to empty your linen or tried to set limits with a difficult pt. and they squawked....you're job was threatened. Nightmare job from hell.:angryfire