Inquiring Minds Want To Know: Outrageous Orders!

Nurses General Nursing

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IVE RECENTLY HEARD SOME FUNNY AND SOMETIMES DISTURBING STORIES IN REGARDS TO PHYSICIANS ORDERS.SO I WAS JUST WONDERING:

WHATS THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS MD ORDER YOU EVER HAD TO TAKE OFF OR WERE EXPECTED TO IMPLEMENT? AND WHEN YOU REFUSED TO IMPLEMENT OR TAKE THESE ORDERS OFF,WHAT WERE THE CONSEQUENCES?

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW,THANK YOU.

Specializes in hospice, pediatrics.

For physical assessment of pt in H&P....."Pt has no remarkable changes from the last time he was seen." One sentence, no more. That really helped us out a lot!

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place TED's/SCD's to bil lower ext. Pt had bil. aka.

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Angie, this type of stuff burns me too...particularly when I get a critically ill patient without any advance warning from ER, a piss poor report (ER is swamped, they have to run, will get me paperwork 'later' :( ) I call down to ER for 'some' orders and the ER doc yells "Call the attending for admit orders, it's not my job " but the attending has supposedly seen the patient in ER....(no orders written of course...)

BUT there IS a progress note saying "H & P" dictated. :( Very helpful, right?

Nothing like flying by the seat of my pants...got an unstable new patient and I'm starting with nada. Not even a family member to talk to to who might be able to tell me what happened.

Just another fun filled night in ICU...:roll

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Originally posted by fedupnurse

I do not want you to call me again for anything on this patient. I wrote that as an order. Boy was he *issed off!!

BAHAHAHAHA!!!! I do that too...if a doc is an a$$hole and says something like that, honey, I will write it VERBATIM...heh heh. I also am fond of documenting bad/ominous sx of distress in a pt., then documenting the MD's response VERBATIM along with 'no new orders rec'd' in the chart.

BUTTHEADS!!! :rolleyes:

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I've seen some outrageous orders, but the one that immediately comes to mind is "Flower care q 24 hours". (The ICU patient was worried that her flowers would die. Not only did this ignoramus bring the flowers to her bedside (NOT allowed in any of the ICUs I've ever worked in), but he wrote an order for the nursing staff to care for the flowers.

Another winner is "ABGs STAT q 1 hr" on a DNAR patient. To make it worse, no art line! And worse yet, when we called the results to the resident who wrote the order, he cursed at us! (He wrote for STAT labs every hour, he must want to know the results, right?)

Vicki K

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And July is right around the corner!!! Anyone else from a teaching hospital planning a mental health leave??????

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Vasotec IM. She is about to become a second year!!! God help us all!

I have a feeling this thread is going to become very active in another 6 weeks or so!!!! Particularly for those of us in teaching hospitals!!

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Originally posted by Stargazer

"Place foley cath to wall suction"

:chuckle :roll :lol2:

I don't have anything nearly as good to contribute, but thanks for making me laugh!

Heather

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Originally posted by NurseDennie

Curlytop said "Oh Yeah-- How about "Up to chair QID" for a total-lift patient who is half comatose. YEAH RIGHT!!" I can see why we do it, and I did it for a long time, it really is good for the comatose patients, and we had special chairs for people who were OOB but couldn't really sit in a chair! The unit got beds that adjusted more than the usual bed. So that "counted" as being OOB in a chair. Never got around to getting them for the floor!

Love

Dennie

By the way- I was referring to the "QID" part of the order -- NOT "up to chair". After 11 years of ICU nursing I know how beneficial increased activity and the upright position is.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

My favorite was STAT Hot tea with lemon.

And this Dr. was serious!!!!!

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Got an order once for 10-15% O2....

Up in chair qid for comatose pt....

Ambulate tid for pt that needs at least 3 people to get into a chair right beside the bed...

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Originally posted by Vicki K

I've seen some outrageous orders, but the one that immediately comes to mind is "Flower care q 24 hours". (The ICU patient was worried that her flowers would die. Not only did this ignoramus bring the flowers to her bedside (NOT allowed in any of the ICUs I've ever worked in), but he wrote an order for the nursing staff to care for the flowers.

Vicki K

Did the flowers live???:chuckle :chuckle

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