Dumbest thing you've done in nursing??

[lisa41rn]

I'm new in nursing and tend to reach out for advice often. You've all been great!! Now, because I feel more stupid than I would like, please help me and others by telling us what the dumbest thing has been in nursing that you've done. I make annoying mistakes, nothing dangerous, but some are really dumb. I want perfection! One instructor in our education dept said "if you aren't making mistakes, you're probably not doing enough." I think she's right, however, we've always been told to ask for help if you're not sure what you're doing. I have no problem asking for help even when it annoys some nurses. I'm really mad at myself this time because at report a nurse said she'd be hanging a bag and never did. I went in to assess the patient, the nurse was still around, I ASSUMED she would hang the bag as she stated, I ended up getting stuck with a new admit, three other demanding patients and barely stopped in to check on that first patient. Well a good part of the shift was over before I saw the bag was never hung. This wasn't a patient with major issues. In fact the doctor came in to see him and said there was no reason for him to be here. The bag was to infuse at a fairly slow rate and he could have easily drank more than what was to be infused. His output was still more than usual, but still I'm so mad I missed this. I mean, how could anyone miss something like this? I had patients on heparin drips, safety issues, etc and they all tied me down that I couldn't spend much time with this patient. No excuse, but I feel bad. I ended up hanging the bag right when I realized what happened and that was it. I know nurses make many mistakes and don't fess up or cover it up, (some far more serious) but I'm wondering what is the biggest thing you've done wrong?? I'm sure much of these errors are due to being so overloaded with patients!!

[Zoomer]

You know how recently there is a big push to make sure all patients are on DVT prophalaxis? Well, one night I asked the doctor to order some lovenox or heparin for his patient to prevent DVT and he looked at me strangely. Feeling like quite the patient advocate I started on a speil about how important it was to be sure the bed bound patients didn't get clots. Then I remembered..... The patient had no legs!! :rotfl:

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

Working nights in the newborn nursery.........I took a baby out to nurse. About 30 minutes later I realized I had taken the wrong baby to the wrong mother. The woman had breast fed another baby. It was dark in the room and she didn't notice but I had to tell her. She was rightly upset as was the mother of the infant who was fed by another woman. That was 10 years or more ago. I hope to never do anything that stupid again. :chair:

[allele, LPN]

Well, when I first became a nurse I wanted to give my patient her scheduled dose of colace. She kept trying to tell me that it caused her to have diarreah. I had JUST become a nurse, and I kept insisting it wouldn't, it's only a stool softener, not a laxative, she needed it because she wasn't moving much, wasn't eating/drinking much, blah blah blah. Well, she took it. And MANY code browns later I swore to myself that I'll never disbelieve a patient again!!

[mitchsmom]

I'm still a student so I do lots of dumb things, but...

My first major in school was Spanish... many years ago & I'm very rusty now... I had a Spanish speaking patient who just had a c-section & I was trying to explain that they were taking the baby's blood because the baby's skin didn't seem pink enough (I couldn't think of the word for "pale")... I realized after I went home that I was telling her that her baby's HAIR wasn't pink enough!!! (piel vs. pelo)

Good thing I was pointing at my skin during this brilliant explanation & I think she understood, that or she was very good at hiding her horror! LOL ... or belief that I was insane

[shammy]

Thank you. Your stories brought tears to my eyes from laughter. I too say silly things that come out and I'm left thinking why didi I say XYZ.

Oh, I like these stories! I can't recall right offhand anything particularly stupid that I did, but I recently had a long ADD moment and agreed to work a couple of nights, which I just cannot do, and consequently said some things that raised some eyebrows.

I was assessing a new pt in the ER one night and, with the intent of feeling for pedal pulses, asked her to slip off her shoes so I could check her pupils. :uhoh21: I made another gross anatomy error with a pregnant patient whom I was advising about seatbelt safety. I recommended that as her pregnancy progressed, she might find it more comfortable to wear her seatbelt low over her lips. What made it even more humbling was that I was gesturing with my hands at my own hips, and I could just see this patient thinking, "Lady, you don't know where your lips are?" I have since made a conscious decision to take the high road and assume that SHE assumed that I was referring to the lips that frame the mouth.

These two ladies were considerably more amused at my slips of the tongue than this one guy was. Again, it was very late/early in the am, and I am just not smart at that hour. I'd gone to check a pt's IV, and she was in one of our rooms that just has a curtain on it. Well, her boyfriend was wearing the most enormous clothes, at least 4 sizes too big, and when I went to push the curtain aside and leave, I placed my hand directly on his right hip and gave it a little shove. He gave me a look that would have frozen lava, and I immediately made the situation worse by profusely apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I thought you were a curtain." :imbar :imbar :imbar Then of course you know there was no way he was going to step aside for me to get out, so I was forced to depart the area at the other end of the curtain, which I could not find, and there I was just groping around like a little blind person, swishing those two curtains every which way, which I'm sure just instilled all kinds of confidence in my nursing skills, and the patient behind the next curtain could hear every word and was fairly hooting with laughter...

No, no more nights for me. Ever.

[prmenrs, RN]

Another nurse I was working with once asked a mother (in Spanish) if she wanted to eat her baby! Meant to ask her if she wanted to feed her baby.

[babynurselsa, RN]

WE had a hispanic mom one time so one of the girls had her hubby write down some simple phrases for us. The mom would come in and we would point to a phrase.

One night mom came in and the nurse kept pointing to the phrase "would you like to give baby a bottle now"

Mom would emphatically shake her head no.

A few nights later mom came back in and fortunately we had a PRN nurse who fluently spoke spanish. She was chatting with mom and she told her what was actually written in spanish was

"would you like to give your baby bugs now."

We got a huge laugh about that one. We also decided that hubby couldn't translate for us anymore.

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

I was chaperoning a pelvic exam and the very tired doc said to the pt, "I'm going to put my lips on your lady parts now." I hurt myself holding in the laughter.

[teenycar]

Here's a little amuzing story. I was in my second year doing Med./Surg. II and I was finishing up an assigned patient. My instructor comes running in all excited and tells me there is a patient with wound care that I just "had to do" as it would be something I'd probably never see again.

So I get the chart to review her wound care. She has a very exposed abdominal tumor about the size of a large grapefruit with multiple fistulas, necrotic tissue, etc... So I get the list of everything needed to do the wound care which was all placed in a very large brown sack. The nurse taking care of her tells me it took her an hour and a half to do the dressing change so I should be prepared to be in there for the long haul and that the patient would tell me exactly how to do it. So after putting on cap, gown, gloves, mask, and face shield I head on in (by myself).

The patient looked pregnant as I walked in. I introduced myself and what I was there for and we got to work. I start pulling off the tape, 12 ABD pads, more 4x4's than a typical clinic would stock, and roll after roll of curlex. What I wasn't told was that there was so much pressure from the tumor and hardened tissue that the puss was literally squirting out of her stomach. As best I can describe it, it looked like probably a dozen little volcanoes just exploding all over her stomach. Now I have some sort of sick fascination with wounds so I'm pretty cool with it, as is the patient.

I have everything off her by now and am wiping up the flying puss with some sterile towels. I hear the door open and can hear my instructor ask me how I am doing but she never actually sticks her head inside the door. All I can say is "awesome", with now doubt a little gleam in my eye, and the patient gives a little laugh. My instructor asks if I need help and I tell her that it would be nice to have someone open up all the packing and bandages for me. She says she is sending in another student.

A few seconds later a fellow student enters the room. I look up to see who the instructor sent in only to see the student look at me, smile, look at the patient with the exposed wound, and instantly fall to the floor! The patient says "uh oh, is she alright?" I can't leave the patient so I hit the call light and the instructor opens the door, still hiding behind it and says "is everything ok?". I say no and someone needs to pick up the student and take her outside. Two nurses come in and drag her off. The instructor appologizes for the incident and says she'll send in another student if I want. "Sure, send in another" I foolishly say.

So, a few minutes later another student opens the door, looks at me, smiles, looks at the patient, and wouldn't you know it, down she goes! At this point it is pretty comical and the patient and I start to laugh. The patient tells me "if this keeps up I'm gunna have to assist you!"

So in come the nurses again to pull out the student. The instructor again asks (hiding behind the door) if I would like help. I tell her, looking at the patient, that I think we'll manage on our own. I was in that room for a full 90 minutes doing the wound care on that patient! It was an incredible experience and I'm sure it is one I will probably never see again. I felt a little dumb, not so much for myself but for nursing students as a whole. They were totally unprepared and it was definitely an amusing but embarrassing story.

[kimcdo]

i was a relatively new nurse and i had to cover the floor while my coworkers went to lunch. well a pt on our unit coded ,was sent to the icu but did not make it. (this was a pt i was covering and did not know the pt). in the meantime, amidst all the chaos of the code and aftermath the unit secretary yelled out that we were getting an er pt into that room when it was cleaned. i of course did not hear this because im too upset. the next thing i know a man comes up to me and says he is here to see his sister in room###, the same room where the pt coded. i was so upset, i went through the whole story about what happend and all we did to save his sister. i even walked him down to the icu holding his hand -i felt so bad. i returned to my unit and the next thing i know the man came up to me and said "thats not my sister down there!" here, he was here to see the er pt coming into that room. i was mortified! i felt so stupid. the man had a really good sense of humor. when i took him into the room where his sister was he said, "you have no idea how glad i am to see you!"

[kanzi monkey]

An archived quote from the other bloopers post (hope it's ok to use this):

"A SN was told to change the gown on her pt, who had an IV. Your have to know, this was before those new gowns with the snaps on the shoulders. Anyway, without any problem she worked the gown up and over all the tubing, then the bag and continued with the gown down the pole to the base. She was found sitting on the floor, trying to figure out how to get the gown over the base and wheels"

this is my new favorite story.

:)

[ICUMelissa]

I went in to d/c an art line on a young girl, whose parents were also in the room (it was the first time I had done this).

I unspiked the saline bag without first deflating the pressure bag, and needless to say saline sprayed all over me and the pt, who was awake and with it. Won't do that again!