nursing superstitutions.....any truth in???

redem2 · Jan 16, 2007

We had a patient who was very alert and oriented on adm. and on my shift became restless, seeing a dead person in her room and she was screaming for help to get her out of there ! She was the only pt in her room and no other beds available. Through all this she was aware of time place ,date and why she was in the hospital. When we finally ask her to

describe this dead person she gave details of the pt that passed away in that room the week before.We were so spooked we had to transfer her to another floor!

australianrn · Jan 16, 2007

Definately more issues at work during full moon

fetch33 · Jan 16, 2007

Fatal left-hand turn? If I have a patient doing poorly, I hope like heck to not have to turn them. Recently, I had a patient that was circling the drain. Very low B/P, sats in the 60% on 100% O2, Cheynne-Stoking. He was a DNR of course, but the wife was at home. I called her about 4 am to let her know he was doing poorly. She couldn't drive until daylight. I suggested that she needed to find someone to drive her in. She didn't show up for over 3 hours. Wouldn't you know it, the patient had a stool. To avoid turning him, we mustered a bunch of staff and lifted him straight up to clean him. Thankfully, the patient didn't expire until after the wife got there.

bearsnurse · Jan 16, 2007

Iam a nights weekend option person in the OR I have noticed lately everytime my husband says to me "have a goodnight" when he drops me off to work something's bound to happen so i got into the habit now of kissing him goodbye before he could say it;) :kiss (worked for me everytime). the "Q" word is forbidden too and when i answer the phone people asking how are we doing tonight? I say "there's nothing on yet" just to remind us there is always that chance something is brewing out there... :lol2:

bethin · Jan 16, 2007

We don't get too many codes on our small rural hospital med surg. But everytime I really look (not glance) at the crash cart we have a code that shift. It's gotten to the point where co workers will see me walk by the crash cart and tell me not to look at it. And they NEVER ask me to go through the checklist with them.

Deaths on our floor only happen in odd numbered rooms: 101, 103, 105, etc. I don't think we've ever had a death in an even numbered room.

Of course, never ever say the Q word or say a FF's name. It will come back to haunt you. Even if you don't believe it, do you really want to chance it?

crb613, BSN, RN · Jan 16, 2007

tying a knot in the corner of a sheet of a pt. who looks like they are "circling the drain" will keep the pt. alive during your shift?
told to me many years ago and i have always done it...and i never had a pt die on me who i've knotted their sheet!

I had one that was about to die & an old nurse told me to do this very thing......she did not die on me. I do it every time now!

rnsrgr8t · Jan 16, 2007

This thread is great. In the almost 10 years I have been an nurse I have gotten very superstitious...

Never say the Q or S word. When I was in nursing school, I was a nurse extern on a peds floor. We only had 4-5 patients on the floor, 2 nurses and myself. We sent our 3rd nurse on the floor home at midnight. Wouldn't you know it, my favorite nurse Tina at 2 am leans back, puts her feet up and saws, "can you believe how q***t it is?" She had been a nurse for a long time and knew better. 10 admissions later in about 2 hours the poor nurse we sent home got a call from us at 4 am pleading for her to come back!

One of the docs I work with now was looking at her clinic schedule last Thursday (it looked insanely busy and she was scheduled for the OR at noon) said mid morning, "gosh today is not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be" then realized what she said and looked at me with wide eyes and put her hand over her mouth. Then the bus unloaded and she was late to the OR.

Crazy stuff ALWAYS happens on full moon, Friday the 13th and Halloween. Also when it is time for JCAHO inspections too! Not the normal stress that comes with their visit, but just really weird, spooky things that never happen always happen right in front of them.

Your frequent flyer patients that drive you nuts will either show up or call you if you say their first and last name together. It is proven though that if you only say their first name or their initials you should be ok. :)

Never look at your outpatient schedule and say, "gosh we have a lot of no shows today"! They will all show up at 4:30 pm and will all need to be seen.

Crazy families/patients occur in threes. One of the old pediatrician's I used to work with would always wind up with three insanely nutty families back to back to back in one day in clinic. After one of those days she would always say, " Do I have a sign on my forehead that says if you are coo coo come see me today?".

It never gets insanely busy/crazy when you are fully staffed. It always happen when you are short or someone calls out sick.

In our office, on of us nurses (there are 2 NP's and 2 RN's) is always in our office covering phone triage. The phones are rarely ever busy if we are staffed enough to have someone there. If we are busy and we are not able to keep someone in the office, the phone calls are insane. I swear the patients know when we are really busy and choose then to call.

I have also seen patients see angels or family members before they die. Children always have a nack for that. I had one boy that told me he was going to die b/c Jesus came and sat on his bed and talked to him. At the time he was stable and doing fine. He died 3 days later. We also had one room on our hem/onc floor we hated puting kids in b/c they always crumped at some point during their stay.

Great post!

mcmike55 · Jan 16, 2007

Here we are working in a world filled with scientific cutting edge technology, remote control surgery, computers, lasers, etc,,,and yet we still harbor superstitions!!!!

That said,,I believe too.!!!!!!!!

Things happen in three's no doubt. The problem is sometimes you don't really know where one set of 3's end, and the next begin.

Full moon,,,,bad things happen, sometimes a day or two on either side of a full moon as well.

Never, never talk about a frequent flyer, or a specific (hated)procedure, it will happen! In our surgery, we never use the word Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. We'll say Triple A, or big blood blister, or anything else.

Also, we've had troubles when Tom Petty is on the radio, so we stay away from him too.

Pt's saying they are going to die...do......they know.

I've talked with some that came back from a code blue, and some of their experinces, walking down the hospital hall with a long departed family member, etc happen as well.

Anyone notice that long married couples often die in close proximity, time wise, to each other???

Mike

burn out · Jan 17, 2007

Have you ever coded someone and the person that came back was nothing like the person you coded. Sometimes I wonder if their souls don't get mixed up whereever they go for that brief period and end up back in the wrong bodies.

RN BSN 2009 · Jan 17, 2007

Have you ever coded someone and the person that came back was nothing like the person you coded. Sometimes I wonder if their souls don't get mixed up whereever they go for that brief period and end up back in the wrong bodies.

That's a really creepy thought!!!!!!! :uhoh21: :uhoh21:

KaroSnowQueen, RN · Jan 17, 2007

Yes, deaths definitely occur in threes. And sometimes you do get an "extra"one, unexpectedly.

And the very ill person who suddenly rouses and eats a full meal, or "looks so much better", is definitely a goner.

Tying knots in the sheets is good. If the patient was able to swallow without choking, I always gave them a spoonful of orange juice each round. OJ and knotted sheets kept them alive til time to go home!!!!

And I truly believe, science not withstanding, that there are things and influences out there that we do not understand that do happen.

Lastly, I was in a code where it was a large man being coded. The RT was up on the bed giving compressions. We got the guy back THREE times and he would go out again. The last time we got him back, he grabbed the RT's arms and said clearly, "STOP IT.". She raised her arms in the air, climbed down and said "I'm not doing it!" Nobody else started and he died.

lovemyjob · Jan 17, 2007

Yes, deaths definitely occur in threes. And sometimes you do get an "extra"one, unexpectedly.
And the very ill person who suddenly rouses and eats a full meal, or "looks so much better", is definitely a goner.
Tying knots in the sheets is good. If the patient was able to swallow without choking, I always gave them a spoonful of orange juice each round. OJ and knotted sheets kept them alive til time to go home!!!!
And I truly believe, science not withstanding, that there are things and influences out there that we do not understand that do happen.
Lastly, I was in a code where it was a large man being coded. The RT was up on the bed giving compressions. We got the guy back THREE times and he would go out again. The last time we got him back, he grabbed the RT's arms and said clearly, "STOP IT.". She raised her arms in the air, climbed down and said "I'm not doing it!" Nobody else started and he died.

That is freaky. Just plain freaky. I think I would pee myself if I was the RT.