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!!

[beachbum3]

I'm in my 4th semester, graduating in May. This was back during my very first med surg rotation.

The very first time I ever took a blood sugar we had been trained very quickly as a group on how to use the machines. We were allowed to do this task with out the instructor or nurse present in the room. So I'm already scared to death, never had stuck anyone with anything before, and go walking in there. I stick the guy, get the drop of blood in the appropriate spot on the slide, stick it in the machine and wait for the reading. I got an error message. He wasn't a great bleeder, so I thought I didn't get a big enough drop of blood. So I stick him again, repeat the steps, get another error message. By now I'm thinking "What the he double l?! Whats wrong with this thing??" and cursing the accucheck under my breath. I try it again and still got another error. So I go get the nurse.

Turns out I was inserting the slide upside down. :smackingf

Luckily the guy was very good humored about it!

[davidndenise2001]

So far, knock on wood, I don't think I've done anything to dumb, that I'm gonna recall. :icon_roll

I have heard stories about a few of my collegues. One nurse was getting ready to do an enema and had a CNA helping her. She forgot to instruct the CNA how to hold the bag of water and ended up w/a soap water enema on her head.

Another nurse was calling the on call doc one night and instead of asking for Dr. Rector asked for Dr. Rectum.

[Lannister]

Not put my thumb on the side port of a G-tube before I try to flush it... YUCKY...:barf01:

[xviii-xxv]

back in nursing school a very good friend of mine had this patient and was having a backflow on her IV...the whole bottle was out of fluid and i swear i see the pt's blood rising up to the bottle.when my friend saw this he gone soo pale and started to get "hysterical" and he was shouting "NURSE, NURSE!! BACKFLOW!" just when he realized that we are the NURSES in charge... :selfbonk:

[NursKris82]

OMG- I laughed so hard on this one! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

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.

[BrokenRNheart]

This is kinda bad.

My first death. I was a brand new tech/nursing student. Pt was a no code and ON A VENT. Nurses took me in to see the process and "pronounced" him when his HR and BP were ZERO.

I said, "Why is he still breathing."

For the longest time they would walk by me and say, "He's still breathing."

In BMT we had to deal with a lot of IV lines and multiple pumps with lots of features. IV Tubing day was always good for a smile. I would whip off 8-12 IV tubing changes and set them all up, etc. Then I would step back (I had the patients and family for awhile and they knew me) and say....."Hmmmm, does that look right? I never know, see I actually took a vet tech class on the internet and after I took my test they sent me a nursing license and well, hey, I'm no dumby it pays well. I look like I know what I'm doing don't I?" They loved it. They would pass the joke on to their visitors and other family members. Never got in trouble for it.

[BrokenRNheart]

Someone else did this about a wound:

"***** drainage"

OK, that didn't work, so she couldn't remember the word for purulent.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Once, as a new med/surg nurse, I discharged a patient home without a doctor's order.

Actually, I thought I'd gotten a verbal order from the doctor, who'd stopped by on her way to her office to check up on this patient and told me "I'm going to send her home today, just make sure she's got some help at home and I'll call in some scripts". So I wrote up all the paperwork, took out the patient's saline lock, talked to her daughter who was willing to help out for a few days, and sent her home right after lunch.

About two hours later, the doc returned to the floor and asked for the patient's chart so she could write D/C orders. OMG!! I felt like the pit of my stomach dropped three feet, and my blood ran cold. Of course, I had to admit what I'd done; the doctor was NOT pleased, to say the least, but she didn't tear into me, just wrote out several scripts, handed me a bag of medication samples and some instructions, and told me to call the patient to come back and get the necessary items.

Well, I felt I needed to make it right, so what I ended up doing was driving out to the patient's home and giving her the scripts and the meds and the discharge instructions. She thought it was an extra special service offered by the hospital, but I knew the truth......and felt like seventeen kinds of idiot :imbar:imbar:imbar

[Fan of 4 points]

Awww, it's things like this that you never forget.

[Calgon-take.me.away]

this happened to my daughter and i while we were out doing somoe christmas shopping. we happened to run into a male co worker with his wife that were doing some shopping also.

i did not recognize him at first and promptly stated, "gee i did not recognize you with your clothes on!!"

i tried to explain that i meant that i did not recognize him in jeans and a t-shirt. his wife almost has a coronary on the spot and my daughter wanted to crawl under the nearest counter.

it was absolutely the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

This happened more than 15 years ago.

I was a new grad working on a cardiac floor.

Had a patient on tube feeding(for supplementation) and the patient was going to get a g-tube the next day.

Pt. was to be NPO after midnight. I took away his jug of water, didn't give any PO pills BUT I forgot to turn off his tube feeding.

Felt like an IDIOT the next morning when the surgeon came to talk to patient before being taken to surgical suite and saw the tube feeing still running.

All of the nurses were so kind and I apologized profusely. He got his g-tube later that afternoon instead.

I've told this to students and new nurses I have precepted over the years-everyone makes stupid mistakes.....:redpinkhe

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

this happened to my daughter and i while we were out doing somoe christmas shopping. we happened to run into a male co worker with his wife that were doing some shopping also.

i did not recognize him at first and promptly stated, "gee i did not recognize you with your clothes on!!"

i tried to explain that i meant that i did not recognize him in jeans and a t-shirt. his wife almost has a coronary on the spot and my daughter wanted to crawl under the nearest counter.

it was absolutely the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me

i've actually had patients say that to me when we are out shopping.:wink2: