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!!

[EmmaG, RN]

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!"

One of the nurses I worked with had a patient die one night. It was expected, she'd fought a long battle. The family had gone home for the night, so my friend grabs the patient's chart to get the contact number and calls them to give them the news. I walked into the chart room as she's hanging up; she says the family told her they would be right in, and asks me to help her get the patient ready.

She stands and grabs the chart to put back in the rack and stops cold. I've never seen anyone turn pure white before--- she literally had no color at all. She hands me the chart and points at the name. She'd called the wrong patient's family. Poor thing, she was shaking like a leaf, she couldn't even speak. I seriously thought she was going to faint.

I tried calling the (wrong) family back to tell them of the mistake, but they'd already left for the hospital. My friend was a basket case, so I caught the family as they came running up the hall and told them what happened. They took it very well, and were quite relieved, needless to say.

[confused101]

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.

Now what is funny! What did the pt. say?

[Shopgirl1]

My co-workers were telling me how one time a patient had really bad scrotal edema and there was a order from one of the interns stating to "Massage the scrotom qshift to help remove the fluid" :uhoh21: HAHAHAHA I think the intern should have done it first! Sometimes it amazes me who can make it through medical school!

[daverika]

This is probably not the dumbest but I think it is the funniest...I was a relatively new ICU nurse and had been sent "STAT" to the OR with a replacement pacemaker box, as the one on the patient was failing. "What do I need to put on?" I asked the unit manager...she pointed to a cart and said "mask, cap and shoe covers". I slammed these on in record time, raced to the OR room where they were seconds away from coding the patient, and helped to switch out the generator. Thankfully, the crisis was averted and everyone drew a collective sigh of relief. As I prepared to leave, the circulating nurse thanked me and added, "Next time you can just use the booties." Looking around at the surgeon and anesthesiologist, I realized my mistake.

I had artistically tied beard covers around my shoes.:imbar

[daverika]

Regarding accidentally unspiking a pressurized flush bag,I did that "back in the days" we used D5 in the pressure bags. Fortunately I took the brunt of the blast, not the patient. Unfortunately it was also back in the days before shower rooms were routinely available to staff. My hair was glued into a truly amazing configuration, and I was hours away from shift's end. You are right...you only do that ONCE!

[Semele]

Glad I am not the only one giving themself a shower unspiking a bag.

The peds floor I used to work on also contained a general hospice wing. Most pts were elderly and came from a nursing home and had no family. When they passed, we called the doc and got the order and then we call the funeral home etc. One night I called the doc on my pt and told him she had passed and he was quite relieved as she had been suffering yada yada. Of course you realise I called the wrong doc on the wrong pt so I called him back and apologised. He laughed and said for me to keep her comfortable. Wouldn't you know it I ended up calling him later the same night and he actually asked me if I was sure this time.

We recently had a pt from Nicarauga come to our facility for a lifesaving esophageal surgery. He and his mother were here for 7 weeks and they learned a little english and taught us a lot of spanish. We had made some cards from an internet translation spot. We were all telling him he was a silly lil boy...we thought. Turns out we were calling him stupid. No wonder he didn't trust us!

[CarVsTree]

Med error: Gave dulcolax supp instead of tylenol supp to a patient with exacerbation of IBS w/diarrhea x 3 days. I realized about 15min after I gave it. I then preceeded to try and retrieve it... Called resident (who could NOT stop LAUGHING).

BTW, did not have any bm's for me after that. When I returned later that night, day shift reported that she had a big poop with no c/o.

[megananne7]

Med error: Gave dulcolax supp instead of tylenol supp to a patient with exacerbation of IBS w/diarrhea x 3 days. I realized about 15min after I gave it. I then preceeded to try and retrieve it... Called resident (who could NOT stop LAUGHING).

BTW, did not have any bm's for me after that. When I returned later that night, day shift reported that she had a big poop with no c/o.

hahaha!!

at least they didn't BM everywhere.

[paxpax]

This happened to me and my SN partner our FIRST DAY of Med/Surg clinical when we were students.

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.

:)

[Marvie]

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.

That story is hilarious!ROTFLMAO

[buggal1989]

Ok - I didn't do this but I was there when it happened. We had the telemetry monitors in the ICU which we were supposed to keep an eye on - yet right with two very critical pts apiece - only 2 of us on the shift with frequent call ins so a nurse was pulled from the floor - usually OB - not dissing OB nurses, but they are just not trained in med/surg/ortho critical care and just like I pestered them to death if we had a critical OB pt in the ICU - if they had caller id they would have given up answering the phone and just come upstairs to see what stupid question we had or what wanted them to do! Anyway we had called the Med floor for SVT and they ran down the hall to the patients room and charged into the room and found the patient's girlfriend on top of him having her way with him - to make it more interesting he was in a full body cast (there was no telemetry on the surg/ortho floor at that time and I can't remember why he was on telemetry. I would have liked to see how they accomplished that, but it was one of the most embarrassing moments in telemetry history. So always knock before charging into a pts room, unless of course the monitor shows a critical rhythm!

Another moment in ICU history, this man kept going into Vtack despite drugs - so one of the nurses who always happened to be on when this occurred (I believe she was the bad luck fairy) would try a thump before calling a code - well it always worked! The pt finally told us that if she ever did that again he was suing her - despite the fact that we emphasized over and over that she had saved his life!

This did happen to me - in Nursing School. We were told the pt had a tube feeding scheduled. I volunteered to do it as I had done it frequently on my boyfriends uncle who had a logging accident a long time before and half his brain was gone. So ok - we all go in the room and get ready to do it and I just blanked out - the pt had a NGT and my to be uncle had a Gtube. I just totally blanked out on what to do and I'm sure I looked dumb as a snake - I had to be lead through every step by the instructor! After that I always got DETAILS on what the procedure would be and review it before volunteering!

[motownrn]

A fellow student and I were in clinicals at LTC. A very confused patient came up to us in his wheelchair and asked us to take him to the bank (which is located inside the facility). We did this for him. He spoke to the teller for a little while and when it seemed like he was finished we were going to take him back to his room. We didn't know which room was his and he was no help. We ended up going to one of the nurses stations and they said "That's Mr. XX, He's in room 301". We joyfully took Mr. XX to room 301. We wheeled him into his room and started to walk away. We were just about out the door when the patient started yelling "I DON'T WANT TO BE IN HERE!!" Thinking that he was bored of spending all his time in his room, we decided to take him out near the nurse's station. As we were wheeling him out of the room, my friend said to me "didn't the nurse say that his name was Mr. XX ?" I said "yes" She said "that's not the name that was on the door!" We ended up trying to leave this poor old man in some one else's room!! That's why he didn't want to be in there. We were going to leave him in 301S, his room was 301N. How embarrassing. :smackingf