Tonight one of the clerks informed me, "It's okay to give the risperidol you paged about". What??? It turns out she had taken a verbal order!!!!!!! Of course the doctor thought he was speaking to a nurse on the phone.
This clerk is a new employee, but still, I was shocked at that.
Anyone else witness odd things by other (non nurse/MD) employees? transporters, housekeeping, dietary, etc???
Oh ya, I informed the clerk that her role doesn't involve taking verbals
We have a unit secretary who just leaves orders undone on the chart. When she gets an order she can't understand, she just leaves it. She wont ask for help or ask anyone what something means. When I get her charts to sign off (I am the charge nurse) I have to go into the computer and verify that all the orders are there. It is a real pain in the A--.
Not trying to pick on anyone, but isn't the nurse signing off on a chart ALWAYS supposed to verify that they were actually entered in the computer, etc? That's the way I've always been trained and seen it done.
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
Yes, I do have to check all the orders. But when we put things like lab or radiology orders in, we put the order number next to the original order so people know it has be entered into the computer. Unfortunately, with 34 patients I just can't go into the computer to verify that the numbers match the actual order placed into the system.
First semester of nursing school: I'm on clinical in a med/surg unit with my pt who had some decent back surgery due to abscesses. I'm in there with the floor nurse and the resident comes in. My pt has been up walking the WHOLE hospital and states he'd really feel better if his foley could come out. "Sure," the doc replies, "we can take care of that right now." The nurse and I assume this means he'll give the order and we'll be taking it out as soon as he's done assessing the pt. But noooooooooo - not the case! Before we can even BLINK, the doc rounds the bed, pulls out bandage shears, cuts the tube and yanks!! No time for the balloon to deflate and I, quite literally, see my pt jump almost a foot off the bed. Pt replies, "Jeez that hurt! But it feels good to have it gone." The nurse immediately pulls me out of the room and with a straight face says, "You KNOW what's not the proper way to do that, right?" All I can do is nod yes. I've never seen anything quite so ridiculous.
Just recently, now that I'm a big-girl nurse on my own - - we had a pt on our critical care intermediate unit refuse to wear his TED stockings among MANY other basic health measures. The resident comes to the floor and the pt's nurse tells him about how the pt is refusing just about everything, but he's a full code and blah blah blah. Basically, the pt is just being an @$$ to the nurses. This resident has a mixed reputation with the nurses. Some hate him and say he's arrogant, some (like myself) love the man. He's Latino, self assured, loud, and has very few problems saying what's on his mind. He goes into pt's room and, in no uncertain terms tells the main he's got 3 choices if he declines all these care measures: "1, you're going to die. 2, you're going to die. 3 - YOU'RE GOING TO DIE." The pt promptly shut up and started cooperating. :) Hmmm... it was really much funnier to witness first hand lol.
And best dementia line EVER: crazy old lady comes into our unit. Like, UBER crazy. Constantly yelling out from her room, "Is everyone OK? Are you OK?" etc. Convo goes like this:
Patient: where's my body??
Nurse: *aggravated grunt* It's in the bed attached to your head!
came back from lunch to the Aide Station one day to find the XO (administrative officer) starting an IV on one of the soldiers. I said what are you doing? youre not a medic! my XO says i took the EMT course, i said that doesnt mean you can start IVs. a little bit of knowledge is very dangerous.
I had worked in a hospital for many years.. I knew the pharmacist on duty well.. I was nine months pregnant when I went down to pick up my amoxicilling rx for a nasty case of bronchitis. The pharmacist had an intern with him, and the window was designed with a shelf that rested just above my belly.. you had to kind of lean in through the window and yoohoo to get someones attention. The pharmacist waved to say he knew what I needed, paused to think a moment, winked at me and instead sent the intern over to counsel me on my medication.. after the standard "do not stop taking this medicine.." He says.. " Have you had this med before?" my reply.. "yes.. about nine months ago.. the last time I had bronchitis." Which was true...He said.. "Oh good then we will just go over some precautions...Some antibiotics deactivate birth control pills.. so if you are taking the pill you will need a back up method for a few weeks if you are sexually active and do not desire to get pregnant.." I glanced over that the pharmacist.. and back to the intern.. and I said, pointing at the pharmacist in an accusatory manner and stepping back, hands on my massive, pregnant belly which had previously been hidden under the window ledge.. "That guy never told me that... Oh my god... it THAT why Im getting so fat and havent had a period since last time I took this antibiotic?" The look of absolute mortification on the interns face was priceless as he backed away from the window, pale as a ghost and stuttering.. "I-I- Umm-I..."..and the normally dry pharmacist had collapsed against the file cabinet in gales of laughter behind him.
I work maternity with an arrogant doctor who also doesnt have any issues letting people know what he thinks.. For a time we had gyn surg.s on our floor during a remodel. We had an extremely obese woman come in.. large pannis.. large sections of heaving hanging skin from the thighs.. She was having pelvic pain and the doctor needed to take a looksie... so he pulled me and another nurse in to help hold legs and etc.. When we had gathered as much as we could to facilitate his exam.. he puts his gloves on and in front of this perfectly cognitive 40 year old woman ( not that it would be appropriate under other circumstances... ) The doctor says.. Ladies.. Im going in.. if you slip or let go I am a dead man... We were both stunned that he could say such a thing... after a moments recovery the other nurse and I must have both been on the same wavelength.. we both said.. "hmm.. tempting".
I used to work with a few CNAs back a few years ago that were not the brightest. We worked 11-7 and instead of eating in the break room on the unit, they would often times have their food in the hall. The gross part was the fact that they would roll laundry carts over and use them like tables. I can't tell you how many times they did this. I can't believe they never picked up some nasty germs from that. I still get grossed out just thinking about that. I would just walk by shaking my head thinking, " I mean for crying out loud...I just put sheets filled with POOP in that thing!
I work maternity with an arrogant doctor who also doesnt have any issues letting people know what he thinks.. For a time we had gyn surg.s on our floor during a remodel. We had an extremely obese woman come in.. large pannis.. large sections of heaving hanging skin from the thighs.. She was having pelvic pain and the doctor needed to take a looksie... so he pulled me and another nurse in to help hold legs and etc.. When we had gathered as much as we could to facilitate his exam.. he puts his gloves on and in front of this perfectly cognitive 40 year old woman ( not that it would be appropriate under other circumstances... ) The doctor says.. Ladies.. Im going in.. if you slip or let go I am a dead man... We were both stunned that he could say such a thing... after a moments recovery the other nurse and I must have both been on the same wavelength.. we both said.. "hmm.. tempting".
OMG - that is so cruel - but yet so funny! What did the patient say? Did the doctor just not realize what he was saying? If I were the patient - I think I might have intentionally passed gas or something as revenge!!!! LOL
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
I worked in a huge ED in Houston. The clerical staff were giving a party for one of the staff. The nurse manager reported to me that she was not able to find two of them during one of their shifts for about two hours. Turns out they went shopping at Kmart during their shift to get stuff for the party. Just left their assignment to go shopping. Did not tell the charge nurse or ask permission, just left.
I had two off duty police officers on duty in the ED one night and they were apparently board and decided to take a ride down to the stroll (the area where the hookers hung out and the liquor stores, 7-11stores were) to get some beer. They went to one of the 7-11 stores to get a 6 pak and walked in on a robbery in progress. Both got shot. We found out where they went when they returned to the ED on a stretcher with their gun shot wounds.
People having sex in the stairwell, smoking pot in the parking lot, having a seizure secondary to using crack on their break, trying to heat up the thanksgiving turkey in the autoclave (this was before microwaves) and having the turkey explode in the autoclave. Having all the ED clerical staff leave the ED at once to go out to the parking lot to smoke pot, nurse having a psychotic break at work evidenced by the fact that she was mumbling and walking around trying to paper the wall of the med room with those red medication added stickers, I could go on and on.
Is the patient vegetating or what? I was a charge nurse at a LTACH. A patient was an IV drug user and the doc suspected that he may have cardiac vegetation and ordered a TEE. The nurse taking care of the patient was new to the US from India. He read the order and began to laugh. I asked, "what is funny about a TEE?" He replied, "I can tell the doctor that he has been vegetating all day- he wont get out of bed, won't talk on the phone, he won't do anything!".
Yes, then I explained what a TEE was and the reason for the test. It was hilarious!!!!!!
- we had a pt on our critical care intermediate unit refuse to wear his TED stockings among MANY other basic health measures. The resident comes to the floor and the pt's nurse tells him about how the pt is refusing just about everything, but he's a full code and blah blah blah. Basically, the pt is just being an @$$ to the nurses. This resident has a mixed reputation with the nurses. Some hate him and say he's arrogant, some (like myself) love the man. He's Latino, self assured, loud, and has very few problems saying what's on his mind. He goes into pt's room and, in no uncertain terms tells the main he's got 3 choices if he declines all these care measures: "1, you're going to die. 2, you're going to die. 3 - YOU'RE GOING TO DIE." The pt promptly shut up and started cooperating. :) Hmmm... it was really much funnier to witness first hand lol.
Daywalker
93 Posts
That's not funny OR strange....just lazy. Poor you having to "work" with her.