-So every time you have an agitated, possibly dangerous patient, you either have to waste time getting a witness to verify the waste in the Pyxis, then draw up a microscopic dose, which usually seems to be about as effective as fighting a four-alarm fire with a teaspoon, or pull out the whole thing and waste later, and then get written up for violating policy.
Or why drug companies put pills and tabs in blister packs that are so sharp you could perform surgery with them?
Or why every floor only has ONE flipping set of keys to the narc cabinet?
-So, now when you have the drug-seeker with the egg timer whining for his Lortab, you have to have roll-call to find out who's got them. Usually it's someone on the preceeding shift and they have them in their car, and then you have to wait for them to bring them back. That is, of course, unless the sup is feeling magnanimous and comes to unlock the narc cabinet for you. Of course, by that time, Mr. Abdominal Pain NOS is practically in DT's because he's had to wait ten minutes.
Or why IV poles always have a bum wheel?
Or why the lab always takes the CBC machine down for maintenence at 10 in the morning?
Or why the sickest patients are the ones you never hear a peep from, yet the ones that are probably better off than you are always the ones that whine and carry on fit to make you hold your ears?
You guessed it, I'm on another one of my tangents. Nursing's great Unsolved Mysteries. I'd love to hear some of yours.
Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
You can always take out the 2mg vial and then waste it later in the pyxis. That's what I do. Screw standing there waiting for someone to waste the other mg.
I did, got written up for violating p/p. Every time, no matter wht the situation was. That was my initial question. It makes no sense. While I'm waiting for someone to come waste with me, someone else could be seriously hurt, but God forbid I do something out of sync.
Why when I am busy assessing my patient, do family members call on the phone and then refuse to wait on hold or to call back and then get an attitude with you because you made them wait?
Why, when I come in to see my patient, is the room a terrible mess with syringe wrappers laying on every counter and used gloves on the floor? Can you not clean up your patient's room?
Why did the nurse from the previous shift not hang a new/full bag of IV fluids instead of the bag with 100cc left in it?
Why is the patient's IV 2 days past expiration when the patient has perfectly good veins?
I did, got written up for violating p/p. Every time, no matter wht the situation was. That was my initial question. It makes no sense. While I'm waiting for someone to come waste with me, someone else could be seriously hurt, but God forbid I do something out of sync.
Oh. Well that is stupid. I cannot count how many times I have needed some ativan for a confused patient and there is no one available to do a waste with me right then and there.
[color=#483d8b]when a new patient arrives on the floor....when the nurse is fixing to go in the room to assess the patient, does she bother to ask the tech to do the 1st set of vitals and get the ice/water/juice....when she is about to go in there?
[color=#483d8b]or....when a late meal tray comes on the floor....the nurse sees the dietary clerk set it on the counter and yet has the nerve to ask someone to take it to the room, when its her patient?
oh... i used to have the very same questions! but now i understand. it is because she has another pt w/ a systolic bp in the 80's, another requesting pain meds and another whose family is demanding we intubate the pt right now..... none of which the tech can help with.
hmmm... this sounds familiar. oh.. it was me yesterday
Why am I doing post-mortem care on the 55 year-old deacon who was visited every day by family, friends, and people from his congregation, and giving discharge instructions to the crack wh*re who is back for the third time in four months?
Why do people in the ER assume every person they see knows every single thing about the patient? Let's see, you've been here with the patient for three hours and have never seen me before, I'm walking down the hallway with a clipboard so you stop me and demand to know what the X-ray said. It's just so hard to suppress my eye-rolling sometimes.
ohhh...i have another one i just thought of....now this mainly pertains to my floor (postpartum)....
why is it when we get ready to take a patient (new mom) out for discharge....they know they can take all the supplies from the crib such as wipes, formula etc, but not the linens which include the baby blankets and washcloths....yet many times the crib is completely empty....and then when you go downstairs for their ride....their ride pulls up all expensive and pimped out???....yet they have to take all the extra things in their room they shouldn't be taking......
or.....when i work nursery and have to take babies out to the room....if the newborn is a baby boy....why the moms are more concerned about a circumcision than let's say feedings or diaper changes...
why is the patient's iv 2 days past expiration when the patient has perfectly good veins?
oh, i hate that! i can understand if you get busy and you normally take care of that kind of thing, i'll do it with no problem if it's the day it's due...but there's no excuse for going through two or more shifts with an old iv unless you have a doc's order to leave the old site there. there are several day nurses where i work who routinely leave nights with two or more iv restarts to be done...when i worked days, the ratio was often 6:1 and i got it taken care of, so don't tell me that you can't handle it when your ratio now is 4:1.
I'm about to start NS and as I am reading these posts I'm thinking to myself, that I can't wait till I'm at that point, someday. Thanks for all the insights as to what I have to look forward to, good or bad.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
~ birds suddenly appear every time you are near? (kidding, but really...who wants to hang around a person surrounded by birds all of the time?)
~ physicians cannot communicate with one another? (surgical resident gives me a phone order to contact cardiologist about diagnostic study result, then after i talk to cardiologist, i have to call surgical resident back).
~ no one ever dates primary iv tubing? (does that mean no one ever changes it? sometimes i think so.)
~ all of the orders for low beds are filled at 2 am when the patients are finally sleeping but the patients must be put in the beds asap because the bed delivery man is complaining to our manager that we aren't doing it right away and because day shift will have a very large cow about it if it's left one second past 0700? (i know for patient safety, the bed must be utilized, but this is always the one night the patient isn't trying to get out of bed and is accepting limits!)
~that cutie pie resident who flirts with you for months on end and always makes it a point to sit next to you and talk to you and only you turns out to have a girlfriend? (uh, this is...hypothetical :))
~the nurse before you reports that the patient hasn't had a bowel movement in four days, and when you check the chart, you discover that no one ever initilized the constipation protocol even though the patient in question has no contraindications? (or there is no documentation of the last time the patient had a bm?)
~ the vast majority of the population still has no clue what a nurse's scope of practice entails? (or thinks we're not "smart enough" to be doctors).
~ the meanest, dirtiest, grossest, most foul patients always have a significant other and children yet i can't get that hot sailor to call me back? (i think about more than boys, i promise!)
~ people think we'll believe them when they say "i was walking around the house naked and forgot i had an empty grey poupon jar on my kitchen chair so i sat on it and that's why i need to go to the or to have it removed"? (and why grey poop-on?)
~ just when you think your night can't get any worse because you've been running around like crazy and no you won't catch up by shift change, you realize you forgot to put on your deodorant? (or the tech you're working with did).
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AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN
2 Articles; 1,291 Posts
I did, got written up for violating p/p. Every time, no matter wht the situation was. That was my initial question. It makes no sense. While I'm waiting for someone to come waste with me, someone else could be seriously hurt, but God forbid I do something out of sync.