Dangerous nurses

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Jan 14, 2009

Once had a student nurse unplug a vent to plug in an IV pump and not realize it. Pt died. Massive lawsuit ensued.
To this day I still wonder how someone would even consider unplugging anything in an ICU! I'm glad I don't work in that particular hospital anymore.

That certainly takes the cake. How awful!

BroadwayRN, ASN, RN · Jan 14, 2009

Once had a student nurse unplug a vent to plug in an IV pump and not realize it. Pt died. Massive lawsuit ensued.

I'm not doubting that you're relaying the story as you know it but I really don't get it. If a vent is unplugged, it has a battery back up (just like the IV pumps) alarms go off, the 02 sat alarms, the tele alarms, the patient is in an ICU where nurses are there to quickly resolve such a problem. It doesn't make any sense that the patient died because the vent was unplugged?

nitenite · Jan 14, 2009

I'm not doubting that you're relaying the story as you know it but I really don't get it. If a vent is unplugged, it has a battery back up (just like the IV pumps) alarms go off, the 02 sat alarms, the tele alarms, the patient is in an ICU where nurses are there to quickly resolve such a problem. It doesn't make any sense that the patient died because the vent was unplugged?

I can't say because I don't know all the details myself. I just know the vent was mistakenly unplugged, the pt died after and there was a lawsuit. I was not at work when it happened or else I might have been on the code team. I can only go on what I heard.

Maybe the vent was faulty? :confused:

CHATSDALE · Jan 14, 2009

only one with that combination but i have met several who were incompetent or inadequate as nurses, and some who could not work up respect for patients

some lazy as all get out

the constant pattern in all of this was that in most cases the TPTB thought that these nurses were the best in the building

KyPinkRN · Jan 14, 2009

Almost weekly when supervising dressings I see people contaminate thing and attempt to continue. They are genuinely surprised when I tell them they have to reglove/get a new setup etc. I don't know if that qualifies as "dangerous" per se, but it astonishes me how many people cannot maintain a sterile field.

FYI-sterile dressing changes are outdated on things like wounds... the only thing we do sterile is central lines and dialysis access and such. Otherwise we just use aseptic technique. Of course half the patients I care for are already MRSA positive in their wounds anyway.

lamazeteacher · Jan 15, 2009

To: Bedpan 76

I am almost 70 (in April'09), have perfect corrected vision and excellent hearing. My cognitive skills are much better than when I was 23 and I resent the inference that anyone working beyond 65 yo has missed that graceful retreat into retirement.

I hope you'll be able to do that, financially - but you never know.....

Please exercise more restraint when referring to us oldies but goodies! Some of us are luckier than others. Aging is capricious.

Periodic evaluations should outline all nurses' skills objectively, and be reviewed by dept. heads in case action is needed (in a perfect world), but as the above posts reveal, it's the people in charge who are dangerous sometimes and misrepresent their favorites.

I would imagine that gossiping with the DON isn't possible in an acute care hospital, so it may have been a LTC facility where that happened (more relaxed setting). When I visited them as a Home Health nurse, I noticed a lot of inuendo and cliques. I could not work in one, as I don't put up with that well.

This post demonstrates that, I think. Please don't take offense, but consider that the prejudice against aging nurses is rampant and can rob many of us of a decent living when the actual performance demonstrated is within the limits of a capable nurse (if a little slower).

lamazeteacher · Jan 15, 2009

Once had a student nurse unplug a vent to plug in an IV pump and not realize it. Pt died. Massive lawsuit ensued.
To this day I still wonder how someone would even consider unplugging anything in an ICU! I'm glad I don't work in that particular hospital anymore.

________________________________________________________________________________________

To my knowledge, student nurses must be supervised closely by an instructor who is nearby to respond to questions and observe possible irregularities - especially in ICU. Didn't anyone notice in time, that the vent wasn't on?

There are so many plugs (at least 6) in ICU to use, I can't imagine that it was necessary to unplug anything!

I certainly hope the lawsuit mentioned lack of adequate supervision by the school attended by that student.

lovehospital · Jan 15, 2009

Well I would think that any nurse who doesnt think for herself could be potentially dangerous.

BelleKat, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

To: Bedpan 76
I am almost 70 (in April'09), have perfect corrected vision and excellent hearing. My cognitive skills are much better than when I was 23 and I resent the inference that anyone working beyond 65 yo has missed that graceful retreat into retirement.
I hope you'll be able to do that, financially - but you never know.....
Please exercise more restraint when referring to us oldies but goodies! Some of us are luckier than others. Aging is capricious.
Periodic evaluations should outline all nurses' skills objectively, and be reviewed by dept. heads in case action is needed (in a perfect world), but as the above posts reveal, it's the people in charge who are dangerous sometimes and misrepresent their favorites.
I would imagine that gossiping with the DON isn't possible in an acute care hospital, so it may have been a LTC facility where that happened (more relaxed setting). When I visited them as a Home Health nurse, I noticed a lot of inuendo and cliques. I could not work in one, as I don't put up with that well.
This post demonstrates that, I think. Please don't take offense, but consider that the prejudice against aging nurses is rampant and can rob many of us of a decent living when the actual performance demonstrated is within the limits of a capable nurse (if a little slower).

:yelclap::yelclap::yelclap: :yeahthat::yeahthat::rcgtku::rcgtku:

BelleKat, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

I really don't know of any situation where unplugging the vent alone would cause it to stop working unless RT had silenced ALL alarms and there are many redundant alarms ie low pressure,high pressure on O2 and compressed air,normally there would be so many alarms it would be impossible to ignore along with the pt's monitor alarms as he was bradying down.

I mean I've heard something like this too but I suspect it was very long ago before all the safety mechanisms(like the early 70's?) or it is urban lore.

Where I've worked with critical ventilated pt the alarms are set so tight that if the pt just coughs heartily the high pressure alarm nearly blasts me out of the room.

I did hear of a RT who d/c'd a vent on the wrong pt and he died,that was in the 80's I believe. :crying2:

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

The more I think of it, the more implausible the vent story sounds. Vent patients are also monitored patients and when the sats went down, I would be rushing in that room and bagging the patient if the vent was off.

Perhaps the true story got changed/elaborated/distorted and then passed along the grapvine?

BelleKat, BSN, RN · Jan 15, 2009

I did work with a very bad nurse who just seemed to hate all aspects of being a nurse.She didn't care about people,she was inattentive and careless,she made many mistakes. One pt who was critically ill and had just been extubated she got out of bed at the end of her shift and although he had an aline too she left the cardiac and aline alarms off so the next shift essentially goes into a dead man's room who was still getting a jet neb(nice touch?) and was flatlined and beyond help. They go all out full code,they were all feeling terrible that this new nurse had slipped up like this and that she would be devastated but when she came back in the unit after she was dressed she just shrugged like "so what" when they told her.

I also followed her with a 18 month old child who was orally intubated but was to be trached in the am. This child drooled and securing the tube was a pain and it needed to be closely watched. The child was active in a crib and the nurse hung the majority of the vent curcuit outside of the crib so the weight would use the side of the crib as a fulcrim and essentially whip the tube out of the babies mouth It happened three times on her shift!!!!

I got report and went in there quickly and saw that it was ready to happen again,I called RT to retape,I sedated wee one and placed the vent curcuit in a way where it didn't pull on the tube just in time to get a call from the attending begging me to not let her get extubated again. I told him if I had to stand there and hold it in I would. The baby was fine and went to get trached the next morning,no more mishaps.

They never seemed to punish her or sanction her,her attitude always sucked and my heart fell if I saw her outside to get report on a difficult pt because I knew she would not work hard enough for the pt to do well. Complicated burn pt are incredibly busy and unstable and so much depended on the nurse picking up clues to notify the dr so these issues could be addressed or the pt could likely die that shift.

I remember being so upset when I came in that night to hopefully take my pt again and she was dead.

I pretty much lost heart for it after that. This nurse was a BSN and I think that's the only reason they kept her,the dept heads seem to love her. She's probably CNO somewhere perpetuating her particular "style of nursing".

I hope not,maybe she went into Real estate.Gee I hope so.

Wow,didn't mean to write a book.