Funny doctor orders

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I worked at a teaching hospital for about a year. I really enjoyed closely interacting with the interns, residents and staff physicians. Many times hilarious orders were written by the newbies. One of my personal favorites was from an intern who only wrote "Vicodin" and that was it. No route, dosage, frequency, etc. Haha! We also had a doctor write "b4" in the chart. We assumed they meant "before." I guess they forgot that this wasn't text messaging. Lol! We also had an older doctor who would write things like, "please call help desk to get the printer fixed." Yes, in the chart. Good times. Please share any of your funny stories from charts!

Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I work in OB, and I was reading an intern's progress notes on a shoulder dystocia, and he wrote "Dr. XYZ entered the lady parts..."

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Specializes in ICU.
I work in OB, and I was reading an intern's progress notes on a shoulder dystocia, and he wrote "Dr. XYZ entered the lady parts..."

:eek: Hahaha!

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I work in OB, and I was reading an intern's progress notes on a shoulder dystocia, and he wrote "Dr. XYZ entered the lady parts..."

LOL again! What are people thinking?

OP...good thread, it's a nice change...

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Go here to see 57 pages of funnies!

https://allnurses.com/nursing-humor-share/charting-bloopers-6434.html

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Please share any of your funny stories from charts!

The one that stands out in my mind from a foreign trained female resident with very broken english, "pu--y muir valve as tolurate".

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I work in OB, and I was reading an intern's progress notes on a shoulder dystocia, and he wrote "Dr. XYZ entered the lady parts..."

"It's kinda dark in here, anybody have a flashlight?!"

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Haha.. recently there was an order for orthostatic BP's and then following that were some unidentifiable hieroglyphic-looking figures.. no one could figure it out until the UM realized it was drawings of actual "orthostatics". There was a picture of a very crude looking stick figure person lying down, sitting, and standing, except it just looked like strange ancient characters that no one understood. Orders in secret codes! Only the intellectually privileged can follow them.. :clown:

Um, Doc, we know what orthostatics are! We don't need visual depictions, but thanks!

I use those figures when recording my orthostatics so I remember which pressure and heart rate correlate to which position.

Did he want you to write them in next to the figures? I was actually taught in nursing school that those figures were the correct way to denote position when recording/charting orthostats.

Just a little FYI. Things can vary so greatly from place to place. :)

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I don't have any funny ones.

I do remember a Dr who was very upset with a nurse who did not give a med the Dr did NOT write an order for. He put it in his progress note but forgot to write an order. He let every nurse at the nurses station know that no matter where he wrote an order we had to find it and follow it. He said if he wrote it on the wall in the men's bathroom that we had to find it and follow it. So that day he carried a roll of toilet paper and wrote all his orders on toilet paper and placed them in the front of the chart. The nurse manager brought the Chief in to take a look, the Chief re-wrote all the orders while steam poured from his ears. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall and heard the discussion between the Chief and that Dr. That Dr. never repeated that behavior.

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LMAO I would have taken his 'orders' made a copy secretly while he was still on the unit, and then, while in front of him, say, "*** IS THIS TOILET PAPER DOING HERE?!" *place in the allshred bin* ...

"What do you MEAN you put your orders on TOILET PAPER - are you mentally damaged?!"

... or ...

"Hospital policy dictates if you don't write it in the correct location for it to get done. If it's not in the right spot, then it's not going to get done. Do your job correctly or retire."

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I don't have any funny ones.

I do remember a Dr who was very upset with a nurse who did not give a med the Dr did NOT write an order for. He put it in his progress note but forgot to write an order. He let every nurse at the nurses station know that no matter where he wrote an order we had to find it and follow it. He said if he wrote it on the wall in the men's bathroom that we had to find it and follow it. So that day he carried a roll of toilet paper and wrote all his orders on toilet paper and placed them in the front of the chart. The nurse manager brought the Chief in to take a look, the Chief re-wrote all the orders while steam poured from his ears. What I would have given to be a fly on the wall and heard the discussion between the Chief and that Dr. That Dr. never repeated that behavior.

No funny ones???

This is hysterical! :yeah:

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Had an order that said "4 mg. prn" the Dr. signed. Had another one nobody could read. I chased him into the parking lot with the chart and asked him what it said. He said, "How would I know? I can't read it." Have had quite a few that say "change wound drsg. daily" but the pt. has 6 wounds and they never say which one. The worst was one that said DNR. So we put a band on the patient and made her a no code. Three days later he came back from vacation and asked how the pt. was doing with the drug neb Rxs he ordered. That's what his "DNR" meant. Great.

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