Now, if you saw this on a chart, what would YOU think?

[AngelfireRN]

Came up to do a consult, and was going over the PMH for this patient, and am sitting here yet, wondering WTH?

Now, I may be being picky, and grammar is my pet peeve (Southern voice notwithstanding), so please don't flame me. The sheer amount was what got me.

Allergies:

Bactrium, Dioxicycline, Augmenatin, Arythriomycin

PMH:

Fibriomylagia, hitatal hernia, hystorectumy, rotocuff sx, carptal tunnel sx, plantar fashistisis.

Took me a sec to realize that a NURSE actually filled this out. I thought a family member did it.

Yes, I know that no one's perfect, but this just floored me for some reason. I know you can look at these and figure out what the girl was getting at, but, sheesh!

What are the worst clinkers you've ever seen on a chart, supposedly written by a medical professional?

And go ahead and flame me if you want to, it's freezing here!

[CrazierThanYou]

I have a friend who is a major hypochondriac who develops every disease she sees a commercial for. She saw a commercial for medication for restless leg syndrome and suddenly, she had restless leg. But when she got the medication, it made her feel bad so she stopped taking it. Never again has there been any mention of restless leg syndrome. That is only one example of a million "diseases" she has had, all advertised on television.

One day, she told me she though she might have ED. I nearly fainted laughing and told her it was impossible for her to have that!

[semiller36545]

Once found on a H&P, written by the MD : Oriented except for time, place, and person. Never did find out exactly what the pt WAS clear on , since she was non-verbal.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

Ahem.

I hate to be picky myself; however, Angelfire, love, did you notice that your post featured spelling errors, NOT grammar mistakes?

I love it when admission reasons/chief complaints are misspelled or completely garbled medical terms. My personal favorite? "Appendascities."

[JDZ344]

i have seen:

Hx of Cabbage.

Pt. lives alone with his wife.

(when a medic certified a death): no breath sounds, no pulses felt, pupils equal and reacting to light. (I had to quickly get her to change it before the patient went to the chapel of rest!)

Hx of commiting suicide x 2.

I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that have made me laugh the most! and mostly I guess they are pen slips/brain faffs rather than errors!

[HmarieD]

This is not a spelling or grammar issue, but I once read a chart in which a nurse documented "Pt's sister is dumb as a box of rocks"

[SandraCVRN]

This is not a spelling or grammar issue, but I once read a chart in which a nurse documented "Pt's sister is dumb as a box of rocks"

Don't you wish you could chart that!!!!

[Music in My Heart]

Could've caused an error - that arythriomycin referring to erythromycin or azithromycin? Especially when you throw messy handwriting into the mix.

Agreed -- this is beyond just being annoying, this is downright dangerous.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that such horrid spelling should be cause for probation and, if not rectified in a reasonable time, termination.

This person is supposed to be a college graduate, right? Even the diploma folks are required to take college-level English classes, aren't they?

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

i have seen:

Pt. lives alone with his wife.

I saw one like that today! "lives alone with daughter" was on the ER history

It will read a little bit differently on my care plan.

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Ahem.

I hate to be picky myself; however, Angelfire, love, did you notice that your post featured spelling errors, NOT grammar mistakes?

I love it when admission reasons/chief complaints are misspelled or completely garbled medical terms. My personal favorite? "Appendascities."

I know, I know. I tend to lump them together, because to me, they just go hand-in-hand. Mea culpa, lol.

BTW, LOVE the avatar. Garfield's my fave.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I for some reason googled the phrase "acute coffee" - and got over 1,000 hits! Sure, some of them were about an acute coffee crisis and most of the rest were research reports about acute coffee consumption/ingestion, with a few random sites I didn't click through ("Trafficking feels acute coffee for easily to two hours") and no clincial presentations of acute coffee...

That is funny. I am guessing in this case Doc was needing some coffee LOL, it was notes on a resp. assessment.

Some of these reminded me of another one though, when we were doing clinicals in the nursing home and looking through patient charts one nurse had noted that the pt has hyperpotassinemia , our instructor was there and we all got a chuckle out of it.

[StudentNurse2011]

Many years ago I worked in an ER with a doc who was a former teacher. She was famous for making copies of charting errors, circling the errors in red ink, then returning them to the guilty person.

One morning I found one of her charts that she'd charted, "Pt had a bowel of corn flakes for breakfast." It was just too good to resist. I made a copy, circled the mistake in red, and pinned it to the bulletin board at the desk she shared with the nurses. Everybody got a big laugh out of it, including her, and as far as I know, she never corrected our mistakes again.