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!!!
Specializes in Med-Surg, , Home health, Education.
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.
We all make mistakes. Some are funny, some aren't but just be cautious. When you've been a nurse 25 years you'll be able to look back and laugh like me! Good luck!
Years ago, I worked with a brand new nurse, first job out of nursing school. She was a very sweet girl, however, seemed basically clueless about many nursing tasks. She had been orienting for a few weeks, when she came running up to me, frantic. She was crying and saying she was trying to give meds to a pt. thru the G-tube and now she couldn't flush the tube at all. I assured her we could unstop the tube, thought I would just show her some old tips on how to take care of this. When I got to the pt.'s bedside, I was completely amazed at what I saw. The G-tube had some thick, purple gunk all over it and in the tube. I asked the young nurse to tell me exactly what she did. She said, "First I crushed all the meds up, I flushed the tube, then I mixed the meds with grape jelly, and used the syringe to push it through the G-tube." "Whoa", I said, "Why did you mix the meds with grape jelly?" She then told me how she had seen all of us do that with crushed meds. I explained that you only mixed them that way to give meds po. :uhoh21:
Needless to say it took a while and a lot of work to clear that tube. This is also the same nurse that I once told to use a filter needle to draw up meds from a glass vial to avoid glass particles. Well, she did that, and then proceeded to give an IM injection with the filter needle! Ouch.
Limik
OMG, I hope she's never my nurse! I have known a few like that!
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
I had a pt. that had to have her G Tube replaced almost every week. The DON tried to blame the nurses for pulling it out, after a year of this they finally discovered that the intern that was replacing it was stitching the balloon and that was why it kept coming ou.
Some of these stories area bit nitpicky IMHO. Some people can and DO swallow well around an NGT unbelievably. And its not alife threatening event to run a litre bag of IVF with potasssium through a correctly functioning dial-a flow...not on an adult.....I have had to do that because I haven't had ENOUGH pumps for all the patients and had to prioritize pumps for the drips...Lidocaine, Cardizem, Heparin, Natrecor, etc. Some of the above 'blatant no no's are really only 'not best practice' or policy problems more than actual med errors. Simple TEACHING may be the only remedy necessary since likely no harm would be done...I hope some of the reporters here aren't enjoying their write ups too much. There's already too much of that. When did nurses start preferring writeups and punitive response to education? Its a big problem out there IMHO...no solidarity.
I remember working an agency shift at a place once and I did not change a tube feed bag cuz I didn't know it was policy for night shift to do so. I came back the next night and the nurses had made a HUGE deal and had 'written me up' on a med error form for this!! I just shake my head at these types of nurses....where is their sense of priorities??? GRR.
Nurse with 23 years experience had patient swallow Motrin 800 mg with a nasogastric tube in place!
This almost happened to my aunt when she was in the hospital. She was on continuous suctioning and the nurse came in with a huge cup of meds. I had only been a nurse for a few months,but thankfully I caught the error. My poor aunt was out of her mind she was going to try to swallow them, to make it worse there was even a huge potasium pill in the mix.
Just because a person has an NG in does not mean they cannot swallow!
There are many reasons to place an NG tube, and often a larger bore NG is for decompression purposes. Pts that have these placed for decompression purposes may have the tube clamped to see how they tolerate it.
Anyway, don't you think it is best for the patient to do what is most normal for them if they can. I woudl think they would rather swallow a pill than have a tube flushed, diluted crushed meds placed down the tube, flushed, meds down tube, flushed....
If an NG is to LWS, and must remain on LWS, then no, pills are not a good idea because they will be sucked back out.
This is not to horrible but I think it happens a lot MY husband was recovering from majoe surgery on a step down unit in a major nearby hospital. The second post-op day, I had been there for 8 straight hours and noticed that no one came in to check vital signs. He was hooked up to a bp monitor so I could monitor heartrate-bp etc. but no one checked temp. At change of shift I told the nurse I thought he was running a temp. Her answer--Well at 4 his temp was normal. I said what was it. 98.6. I told her this was amazing because no one had done it. Well she said it has been documented every 4 hours. She argued with me and stuck up for whoever was charting telepathic vital signs. No offer to check it now. When I called nurse later in evening to check in--guess what? He had a high temp. I work at the sister hospital to this one and did not want to complain. I am careful about checking post-op vital signs on my patients, but felt helpless when it came to my own husband. I later sent back the survey and let them know about it. What could be worse than charting fake vital signs. As a nurse I would want to know if my patients were not haveing them done, even though they were not charted. I,m sure this continues to go on at this hospital.
I was working on a day shift when one nurse asked me to cover her patients while she went on break. I said ok, but only if she had done all of her meds, she assured me she had. Well, I was busy but keeping an eye out for the lights on the hall(we were working back to back rooms) when one of her lights came on. I answered it and the patient wanted his meds, including his pain med he had requested an hour ago. I went to look and sure enough there were his meds in a cup, unopened, I rechecked them, signed and gave them, also gave pain pill. I took a quick look and all of her meds were not given. I did not give her meds but I did mention this to her when she came back from her extended break, she just laughed and said she knew I would take care of it and she really needed to see her boyfriend, who worked close
by. I reported the incident to the charge nurse, since the patient were at least 90 minutes to 2 hours late getting their meds. I was treated like a leper, told she could manage her group anyway she liked and it was not my place to question why her meds were not given. Needless to say, I was convicted of "ratting" on a fellow nurse but no one seemed interested in learning why. I never covered for her again, and I got out of that place as soon as possible.
Specializes in private duty/home health, med/surg.
This is not to horrible but I think it happens a lot MY husband was recovering from majoe surgery on a step down unit in a major nearby hospital. The second post-op day, I had been there for 8 straight hours and noticed that no one came in to check vital signs. He was hooked up to a bp monitor so I could monitor heartrate-bp etc. but no one checked temp. At change of shift I told the nurse I thought he was running a temp. Her answer--Well at 4 his temp was normal. I said what was it. 98.6. I told her this was amazing because no one had done it. Well she said it has been documented every 4 hours. She argued with me and stuck up for whoever was charting telepathic vital signs. No offer to check it now. When I called nurse later in evening to check in--guess what? He had a high temp. I work at the sister hospital to this one and did not want to complain. I am careful about checking post-op vital signs on my patients, but felt helpless when it came to my own husband. I later sent back the survey and let them know about it. What could be worse than charting fake vital signs. As a nurse I would want to know if my patients were not haveing them done, even though they were not charted. I,m sure this continues to go on at this hospital.
Sister hospital or no sister hospital, this is a horrible practice! :angryfire You can't let something like this slide. What if your husband ended up with serious complications because his fever hadn't been caught? How many insurance dollars have been eaten up because patients' post-op VS are being falsified? Yes, I'm sure the falsification continues to go on, as you said, because no one bothers to report it.
Dorito, ASN, RN
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