Brain farts

Nurses General Nursing

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What's some dumb non-dangerous things you've done as a nurse? Today, I changed an IV bag without taking the old one down first. IV fluid poured on the floor. Duh.

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Specializes in CVICU.

Went to check a tube feed residual on a g-tube. Forgot to plug the TF back into the g-tube and restarted the pump... yeah, that ended in a bed change :)

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had some rocephin run down the sink because i didn't put the clamp on

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I accidentally unscrewed the INT cap off of a triple lumen catheter when D/C'ing the IVF....only to return 5 minutes later with blood all in the bed. :-(

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

It was my first med error. I was working in a huge very busy ED and patients were lined up in the hall on stretchers. One of the docs came over and asked me to give this lady some Librium because she was going through alcohol withdrawal. Most of our orders were verbal and not written down until later. Sometimes you did not even know the name of the patient. (It was sort of like a war zone back then). I went over to her and had to wake her up to give her the medication, which seemed strange to me at the time. About 30 minutes later the doc came up to me and said " did you give that lady her Librium?" I said yes and he said "which patient?". I pointed at her and he said no, it's that lady over there. I had given the Librium to the lady that was there for an OVERDOSE. Stupid... fortunately everyone was OK and I felt soooooo stuid.

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Specializes in tele, oncology.

I had another nurse ask me to start an IV on a really hard stick. First try, blew the vein. Second try, must have been right on a valve b/c it just wouldn't advance. Patient was virtually unresponsive, so I gave myself one more try. The only decent place I saw left to stick I practically had to hang upside down to get to, with her arm at a weird angle. So, I stick her, and get it...except I put it in the wrong way! (Catheter was pointing toward her hand, not her head.) All I could do was shake my head...nine years I've been doing this now, you'd think I'd manage to not mess that up!

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Specializes in Telemetry, CCU.

Hung a piggyback and didn't unclamp it.... probably did that 2-3 times before I really made it a strict habit to always double check my clamps after hanging something.

Just the other day, a pump kept beeping "occluded" and I thought it was the pt's PICC line. Flushed it with 10cc's, retried it, still occluded, flushed with another 10cc's, tried the infusion again, STILL beeping occluded (the PICC was flushing sluggishly and had been in the pt for a few days). So I get my preceptor and tell her what's going on. She walks over to the pump, unclamps the tubing, low and behold, it works!! I felt like such an idiot but we just laughed it off :chuckle

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

Well I am just a student, actually pre req student until august, but taking my Pathophysiology right now. Couple weeks ago I was doing up my Flash Cards for our CV quiz we were having. Not sure where my brain escaped to but I was writing the cards from the notes and had to text my friend to make sure MI meant Myocardial Infarction. The next day she was like, "having a bit of a brain fart last night" I was like I guess because for the life of me it escaped me and I knew it.Shoot I had just done a case study on it and got 100%on the quiz so it's not like it was something I couldn't get.I do that often with spelling some ofthe simpliest words some time as well, I am not a great speller but know the basics and will have to stop and think about it sometimes. I think my brain is confused on it's age. I am still fairly young but am just not as sharp as I used to be. Maybe to much head trauma as a child :stone

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Forgot to inflate the balloon after inserting a Foley.

I was still a student, but I'd done a number of catheter insertions, so the nurses let me put one in this 400+lb. female with, um, challenging anatomy. I was so excited when I hit paydirt on my first attempt that I told the patient, "We're done!" and confidently hooked the drainage bag to the bed.........only to be deflated moments later when the catheter suddenly slithered out of the patient and onto the sheets, along with a fair amount of urine. :imbar

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

Not mine, but you can't make this stuff up....

Friend of mine on shift comes and gets me, says, "I want a witness." Okay, not a good start. Go in the room, lady with CHF, SOB, foley hanging. Nothing in the foley. I don't mean just a drop, I mean nothing, looks like it just came out of the kit. I ask the pt, "ma'am do you feel like you need to urinate?" Pt tell us she's been getting up and going to the bathroom all day. I'm thinking fistula? Kidney failure and in denial? Turns out the nurse on dayshift, the NM's niece, put the foley in the patient's lady parts, didn't notice there was no urine return, and this poor woman had been dragging herself up and going to the bathroom all day. Poor thing!

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Specializes in PACU, ED.

My worst was a very stable post op pt. who's orders said to SL IV when taking PO well. She was drinking fine so I decided to lock the IV but ended up D/C ing it. Checked floor orders and sure enough she had IV abx ordered so I had to apologize and start a new IV on her.

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I had a bit of dyslexia while reading this thread. I thought, "Brian farts? As in Brian from allnurses' farts?" Oops!

And now back to our regularly scheduled thread regarding brain farts. :D

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