Dangerous nurses

Nurses Relations

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Have any of you ever worked with a nurse you would classify as dangerous ---- dangerous as a nurse and as a person?

Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

When I first became a nurse (million yrs. ago) I dropped a pill before giving, picked it up, wiped it off and gave it and felt guilty about it for the longest time.....OMG !!!! I cannot believe some of these posts that I am reading....If I see a med error, I write up an incident report but from there I don't know how it is handled....I think most get lost in the shuffle because nothing is ever done about it...

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Specializes in ICU.

I came in on a Sunday to the ICU and while working, checked in on a patient I had a few days before that. Found out the nurse was infusing LEVOPHED into a peripheral IV that had infiltrated obviously HOURS before. Looked on the chart and found an order that was written the day before for a CENTRAL LINE STAT. The nurse knew about the order and said the reason why pt doesn't have central line is because it is the weekend and there are no surgeons there. THey would place it on monday, even though we have a doctor in the hospital 24 hrs a day just for things like this.

With my direction, patient had a central line placed within the hour.

I wrote it up, completely and factual,,, and nothing happened to the nurse. The patient's arm turned black and pt died several days later.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

That right there makes me fume.

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Aloevera,

Conditions of participation states that medication errors can not be used as a punitive measure but rather as a learning tool. A facility who participates with Medicare or Medicaid can get in trouble if they make medication errors punitive unless it is down as an outright malicious act.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.
I came in on a Sunday to the ICU and while working, checked in on a patient I had a few days before that. Found out the nurse was infusing LEVOPHED into a peripheral IV that had infiltrated obviously HOURS before. Looked on the chart and found an order that was written the day before for a CENTRAL LINE STAT. The nurse knew about the order and said the reason why pt doesn't have central line is because it is the weekend and there are no surgeons there. THey would place it on monday, even though we have a doctor in the hospital 24 hrs a day just for things like this.

With my direction, patient had a central line placed within the hour.

I wrote it up, completely and factual,,, and nothing happened to the nurse. The patient's arm turned black and pt died several days later.

OMG !!!! Was she stupid or just lazy???? See what I mean? Nothing is ever done with any of my incident reports either.....I don't understand it....

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Seems to be a lack of accountability when it comes to nursing. I'm sure she just got "education" via management and nothing was ever put in her file. I'm sure they chalked up the patient's death to whatever the patient was in the ICU for and not because the patient's arm was black.

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Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.
I have worked with one nurse in PACU who I thought was dangerous to patients. That danger came from a lack of critical thinking skills. One example follows. Adult post-op pt. orders for demerol are typically 12.5 to 25mg IV. Peds doses are typically 2.5mg or sometimes 5mg IV for bigger kids. The nurse in question had a small pediatric pt who was in pain. She prepared to give a 25mg dose to the kid. The decimal point was either missing on the order or maybe covered by the 5 when the doctor wrote the order. I told her that was too much but she didn't believe me until I got a second opinion from our CM. BTW, the pt. received the correct 2.5mg dose and did well.

I'm glad you caught her.

When I was in charge and precepting someone in Burns (dumb,I know) she stated her 3 year old pt was in pain and we both agreed that she needed 15 mgs DEMEROL (burn pt's need higher doses). I went into the med room a few minutes behind her to get something for my pt(Thank God!!!) and noticed that for some reason she was using a 12 cc syringe with the 1cc tubex(We had a old time narc box where you could access any med in there) and I next noticed that she had pulled the MORPHINE. OMG!! I'm not excitable but I nearly screamed! She was going to give 15 mg Morphine to a 3 year old rather than 15 mg Demerol. I'm pretty sure it would have killed the child and since she was in an unmonitored bed and being watched by an idiot.After that along with several other major mistakes or near misses we asked her to leave the unit.

I guess pyxis are a good idea.

I thanked God that night and many others.

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Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.
OMG !!!! Was she stupid or just lazy???? See what I mean? Nothing is ever done with any of my incident reports either.....I don't understand it....

They'll care about it if she recovers and has to lose any of her arm,the hospital will pay big time.

They are having a big trial(I think it might be over) but a pt accidentally received phenergan intra arterially and she lost her arm. She was a musician.

They are thinking about banning Phenergan completely even though if given appropriately it is a good drug. I only give it through central lines though anymore.

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Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.
Aloevera,

Conditions of participation states that medication errors can not be used as a punitive measure but rather as a learning tool. A facility who participates with Medicare or Medicaid can get in trouble if they make medication errors punitive unless it is down as an outright malicious act.

I don't believe this was a med error but a failure to follow through on a dr's order to get a central line placed. That's pretty egregious.If this lady recovers and has any deficit from that anyone involved will pay big time except for the good nurse who got the central line placed as ordered.

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Specializes in CVICU, Burns, Trauma, BMT, Infection control.
When I first became a nurse (million yrs. ago) I dropped a pill before giving, picked it up, wiped it off and gave it and felt guilty about it for the longest time.....OMG !!!! I cannot believe some of these posts that I am reading....If I see a med error, I write up an incident report but from there I don't know how it is handled....I think most get lost in the shuffle because nothing is ever done about it...

Me either Aloe Vera,my head is going to explode!:no:

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

How about the doc who ordered a dilauid PCA (this is verbatium)

Dilaudid 2mg bolus dose.

Dilaudid 5mg demand dose with 10 minute lockout

Dilaudid 20mg/hr continuous rate

Max 4 hour dose 150mg.

The nurse who had this pt came to me saying she programed the pump but didn't start it since she didn't feel comfortable.

I seriously can't believe the pump let that be set even on high dose. Anyway after she showed it to me I went and found the resident and asked him if he wanted to kill his pt. He tried to tell me that this was ok. I told him it wasn't and made him rewrite the orders. We ended up with a much lower and normal dose.

I am glad that the nurse came to me and said that something wasn't right. I am really glad that this nurse didn't have the sense to start the pump, who know how long before this pt coded.

We also had a nurse who ran insulin as a piggy back and the pt got the whole 100units in the bag and when it was pointed out to him, he said he didn't do it. He wondered why the pt blood sugar was so low. He also had a pt who was agonal breathing and continued to try to put in a NGT. Thank God the charge nruses were rounding and intervented.

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Specializes in 30 years IV Nurse.

I have seen nurse high on drugs doing some dangerous stuff, I repoted them and they got suspended and the board required them to go to rehab. I had a nurse tell me to hang blood with D5W because there was no NS on the floor, reported her and nothing was done. I worked with a nurse who was mentally unstable, she got fired. I had a nurse attack me at work, she also got fired. I see dangerous nursing almost everyday, it is scarey, but all you can do is report them.

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