So new nurses..share some of your duh moments so far! Here is one I did last week:
It was the end of a 12 hr night shift. Pt having weird fecal type residual out of PEG. Ended up hooking it to suction to see how much she had. So we took it off suction per MD orders. Preceptor gave me a big thick strip of tape and said "go use this to mark the canister with the time and amount so the next shift will know how much." I thought "huh why did she give me this LONG strip of tape"
I tore it in half and lined it up ---- this way with the suction drainage, wrote the amt and time.
A few minutes later I'm charting and my preceptor says "um come here I need to show you something"
Well DUH..I was supposed to put the tape like this | to mark it...oops lol. She said she got a chuckle out of it. Made perfect sense once she said it. Scary sometimes that they give us a license huh? lol
So what have you done that you felt like DUH...what was I thinking?
I thought PPD was post partum depression. I don't think I was ever taught that in school either..and then if you have never done one how are you supposed to remember? I can't remember everything I learned sheesh. Which is why when you ask a GI doc about breathing tx they look at you with a glossed over look on their face lol...THEY don't remember it all either!
One of my glorious DUH moments was when I was making my rounds to do my I/Os. My pt had a colostony and ileoconduit. Since he was inpt, the ileoconduit we attached to a drainage bag. However, the pt was self care with his colostomy. So I drain the foley bag and I go record the amount on my bedside chart and then I poke my head in and ask the pt did you have any bowel movements today?? LOL DUH!!!! My pt chuckled and said no. I say okie dokie and then realize what I said. DUH!!!! I poke my head around again and said ha I do know what I am doing, how much stool did you empty today? My pt got such a kick out of it....as long as we both could laugh at it. LOL
I thought PPD was post partum depression. I don't think I was ever taught that in school either..and then if you have never done one how are you supposed to remember? I can't remember everything I learned sheesh. Which is why when you ask a GI doc about breathing tx they look at you with a glossed over look on their face lol...THEY don't remember it all either!
This is off topic, but PPD when referring to a TB test means Purified Protien Derivative.
LOL. I love A lines. I can't count the times when I was first out that I forgot to release the pressure before taking the tubing out of the bag...lol can we say water everywhere???
Or lets see...the times when the cap on my foley, on the collection chamber..wasnt screwed tight enough...yay..urine all over my pants...
or...when im gi ving meds down a duotube...oops, make sure you hold the t ube as you are pushing large volumes down a tiny tube...lol tylenol everywhere! My pt got a k ick out of it though lol
Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
My first day on the job, I asked my preceptor to sign my narcotic out for me. She looked at me and said, "why?" It took me a couple seconds to remember I could sign things now!
Can relate to that. The first ward as an RN that I was on, every time I discharged a patient I had have notes countersigned - four months! Not normal, but policy of that ward for new grads. Next ward, first day, I ask senior nurse to countersign my notes. She looked at me like I had come from Mars! Can't blame her really!
Well, I am nearly past my first year as an RN- tomorrow is my anniversary of looking on the internet and seeing that yes I passed!!
I had a not so shining moment yesterday when a doc was giving me orders and she wants me to do a PPD test. She sort of has and accent and I can't understand the letters- because in school we called this a TB test or a Mantoux skin test. She asked to speak to my charge nurse and told the charge nurse that she could not imagine a nurse not knowing what a PPD was!:trout: So there I am with my tail between my legs- the charge writes the order and all and it is sent to the pharmacy. Pharmacy calls me back asking me what this PPD thing is! (It was a balm for my hurt pride). I rewrote the order for tuberculin skin test and it made them happy. I just hope the doctor realizes tomorrow when she is signing that order that I am not a complete moron.:uhoh21:
I had a doc with a heavy accent giving me a ton of orders over the phone. I had to ask him to repeat every other order. He got very upset with me, telling me that I needed to get my ears cleaned out!
During my first year as a nurse, I helped a little old lady to the bathroom. She said, "Honey, I'm going to need the paper". So I went and got her newspaper off of her bedside table. She started laughing and said, "not that paper...the toilet paper". DUH!!!
Specializes in med/surg, ortho/neuro, ambulatory surg.
Ok I had a duh moment today. We have to carry pagers so that if a pt needs something and the front desk cant find us they page us to that room number. Well today I was walking around for about an hour and I kept hearing this one BEEP I checked all the IV's it wasn't that so I go sit down to chart and hear it AGAIN my preceptor finally said "could it be your pager?" I pulled it out sure enough I had two pages that were over an hour old I wondered why earlier the chrage nurse came and got me and said hey we need you!! LOL
I start my job as an RN next week. But I have a duh moment from my last day of preceptorship in school.
I had a difficult patient who was wary of all the nurses. My preceptor convinced her I knew what I was doing...and was graduating in a few weeks. Everything went fine all shift..until just before I was going to leave. I had an order to DC her IV and I had to get a set of vitals. (see where this is going?)
It was almost midnight, I was already running late, tired, and wasn't thinking straight. I know not to take a BP where hte IV is running, but I DC'd it, chatted with her a little, assisted her in breast feeding, then took her BP. Suddenly she notices she's got a POOL of blood under her. Ugh..not a big deal, it stopped easily- but next time I DC an IV I'll make sure not to take a BP there 5 minutes later.
Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
To add...I work alot with Australian indigenous mums who have different accents from us 'cityfied' ppl. Two of the ladies came up and said what I thought was "s'gone" (as in it's gone). I said yes - I had been teaching one of them how to attend to her niece's PEG feeds and had taken the lines down for her while she was away. They kept saying it...finally I clicked and realised they were asking for a scone! Hellooo. But I told them hubby was from Scotland where they say "skoon", so they laughed at me, thank goodness :trout:
To add...I work alot with Australian indigenous mums who have different accents from us 'cityfied' ppl. Two of the ladies came up and said what I thought was "s'gone" (as in it's gone). I said yes - I had been teaching one of them how to attend to her niece's PEG feeds and had taken the lines down for her while she was away. They kept saying it...finally I clicked and realised they were asking for a scone! Hellooo. But I told them hubby was from Scotland where they say "skoon", so they laughed at me, thank goodness :trout:
:lol2:Dar, is your dh a v "posh Scot":lol2: here in central Scotland, a Scone is a "scoan" (rhymes:with moan etc) You have good taste in men btw!!!!:lol2:
I start my job as an RN next week. But I have a duh moment from my last day of preceptorship in school.
I had a difficult patient who was wary of all the nurses. My preceptor convinced her I knew what I was doing...and was graduating in a few weeks. Everything went fine all shift..until just before I was going to leave. I had an order to DC her IV and I had to get a set of vitals. (see where this is going?)
It was almost midnight, I was already running late, tired, and wasn't thinking straight. I know not to take a BP where hte IV is running, but I DC'd it, chatted with her a little, assisted her in breast feeding, then took her BP. Suddenly she notices she's got a POOL of blood under her. Ugh..not a big deal, it stopped easily- but next time I DC an IV I'll make sure not to take a BP there 5 minutes later.
This is too funny because I just did this the other night! The blood pressure cuff was cycling right when I decided to release pressure after d/cing an IV. Luckily it didn't take long to stop after that and I didn't have a mess to clean up. I had a good laugh at myself.
:lol2:
Mommy TeleRN, RN
649 Posts
I thought PPD was post partum depression. I don't think I was ever taught that in school either..and then if you have never done one how are you supposed to remember? I can't remember everything I learned sheesh. Which is why when you ask a GI doc about breathing tx they look at you with a glossed over look on their face lol...THEY don't remember it all either!