What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

Nurses General Nursing

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What have other peers done intentional/unintentional to freak you out? Good or bad. Happy or sad.

On my FIRST day as an LVN, (LTC) a res was screaming in her room as I was walking out to leave. I went in to see what was going on. She was having an anxiety attack and severe pain (post stroke). I pulled the call light, and no one came. Uggg.

So I peeked out the door and saw my CNA walking down the hall, and told him to come sit with res. I went down to get her a Xanax and a pain pill, well relief nurse was in the restroom, and relief CNA (with call light still going off) was sitting behind nurses station reading a newspaper. I told CNA to tell the nurse to get a Xanax and pain pill for res. She said OK. I go to relieve my CNA. Said goodbye to him, and stayed with res. after 10 minutes, CNA COMES INTO ROOM WITH XANAX AND MORPHINE PILL. She is soooooo shocked to see me still there, she hands me the pills and RUNS to the relief nurse. I could NOT BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW!!!!

(I did immediately call DON and tell what happened. Luckily, my CNA was still checking on another res, and saw the whole thing.--------they got a slap on the wrist! that was it!!!):madface: :madface: :madface: :madface:

I work in a LTC facility on day shift. On another shift there was a nurse that was upbeat, chatty and laughed a lot. Well apparently she got on another nurses nerves so the other nurse took it upon herself to pour some liquid medicine, I can't remember what it was, into that nurses tea!!! TO CALM HER DOWN!! That nurse didn't find out til the next night because one of the cna's heard her talking about it. Thank goodness she had no ill effects and made it home safe. The other nurse got fired after that.

Specializes in cardiac.
I work in a LTC facility on day shift. On another shift there was a nurse that was upbeat, chatty and laughed a lot. Well apparently she got on another nurses nerves so the other nurse took it upon herself to pour some liquid medicine, I can't remember what it was, into that nurses tea!!! TO CALM HER DOWN!! That nurse didn't find out til the next night because one of the cna's heard her talking about it. Thank goodness she had no ill effects and made it home safe. The other nurse got fired after that.

WHOA.....VERY SCARY!!!!!!:uhoh21:

Specializes in ER/Geriatrics.

It doesn't make me feel superior to read these posts...it saddens me really. I guess I was a bit too idealistic...I had no clue that these sorts of things were occuring.

I have never in my 24 years of health care done anything even remotely as unsafe/unpleasant or inappropriate as they stories indicate.

My hope is that somewhere out there someone who can make a difference is getting this information and making some changes to how care is being given.

This is not just about lack of experience or knowledge there is deep seated issues of character and patient safety.

Liz

Specializes in Emergency.
I have a good one to share but it wasn't a nurse who did it. You know the old adage about never getting sick in July because the resident MD's are all too green to do you any good? I'm thinking since it's October, we're safe from moron residents but the other day I got proof that we are not. I work on a cardiac step-down unit and we frequently get "syncope" patients from ECF's that just plain fell but they get the whole cardiac workup anyhow. Well, I was getting ready to send one of these little ladies back to her ECF and the Resident started hopping and jumping to find me to talk to me. When I went to talk to her, she told me that she wanted me to give the patient 40 MEQ K+ before sending her off. So, I say that I will but she needs to write me an order, we aren't allowed to take verbal orders (not completely true but she has the chart and could have written the order 10X in the amount of time she spent trying to pull me away from patient care to tell me to give the K+) She triumphantly shows me that she has written the order but I note that she has written for me to give it IV. #1, a K+ bolus IV will take at least an hour to come up from pharmacy and then it will take a min of 2 hours to run in and #2, the patient doesn't have IV access, she is confused and pulled it out. After finding this out, the resident looks at me and says, "can't you just give the K+ without IV access?" I said, "Yes, it's called PO" and she said no, and she gestured like injecting a needle into the air and I said, "You mean IM?" She said, "Yes, just (gesturing in the air again) give it to her". I told her that you cannot inject potassium IM and she argued with me. Finally I said that if she left the order as is, it would not get done and I hoped that she could not find a single nurse in this hospital that would attempt to give K+ IM. She wrote the order for PO and I gave it that way, but what medical school did this "DR" attend where she didn't find out that you can't give potassium IM? I told the attending on her, although that usually isn't my style, my big fear is that this resident will find someone stupid enough to try to give the drug IM.

I had a new intern order IV Tylenol once. :trout:

i don't know if i'm overreacting re: the following, but it's a nurse's note that was written about an actively dying pt with ARDS. this is not verbatim, but contextual:

"pt extremely agitated. increased moaning and groaning with facial grimacing. bil rhonci noted bil and throughout. rr 50, ap 140 t 102.4ax bp80/50

suctioned for lg amt frothy sputum, with poor effect. circumoral cyanosis, skin lt gray, appears in distress. will continue to monitor"

what is wrong with this picture?????

that this pt didn't receive prn mso4 or ativan???

she had orders for it!

how does one have the nerve to write a nurse's note such as this, and not be concerned about being accused as negligent?

i knew this pt.

she had advanced dementia with a highly anxious baseline.

when i read that note, i looked at this pts' mar, noticed she hadn't received anything for pain/distress; and went right to this nurse. you could hear this patient crying out in the hallway.

i demanded to do count with her, and take her as a patient.

finally got her settled with repetitive dosing and reassurance.

wrote an incident report on this nurse.

this particular incident i shall never forget.

it has stayed with me for yrs.

leslie

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

It isnt just nurses.

I came in one night to be assigned to a certain patient on a med surg floor. She had been on said floor for several days. She was on Floxin IV and Aminohylline drip. She was seizing away - and apparently had been for over 36 hours. Her diagnosis according to the physician? "Acute Psychosis".

And the nurses on that particular floor were all so new that none of them had ever actually seen a seizure. Apparently - niether had he - but he had been around for years. Worse yet - when I called him to let him know (I was a fairly new RN at the time myself - maybe 2 years out) he wanted me to tell him how to fix her.

I work in a LTC facility on day shift. On another shift there was a nurse that was upbeat, chatty and laughed a lot. Well apparently she got on another nurses nerves so the other nurse took it upon herself to pour some liquid medicine, I can't remember what it was, into that nurses tea!!! TO CALM HER DOWN!! That nurse didn't find out til the next night because one of the cna's heard her talking about it. Thank goodness she had no ill effects and made it home safe. The other nurse got fired after that.

Only FIRED??? How about arrested and stripped of her license???

Several years ago I was working on a stepdown unit where another RN was assigned to a pt in her mid 40's with MS. The pt choked on her lunch tray and the nurse did nothing to intervene because the pt had a DNR order. The pt died just because she choked on a piece of food and the RN thought that she couldn't suction her because of the DNR order. ( I was off of the floor with my pt in the radiology dept at the time) I only found out about what happened later in the day.

Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

re;5 senses

oh please

this is for fun and enlightenment

enjoy

Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

i want those scented markers!

Specializes in Med/Surg, ER and ICU!!!.
re;5 senses

oh please

this is for fun and enlightenment

enjoy

IT was for fun until people come on and take funny things as not funny. I am sure more posters than not laughed over it. Get over yourself.

Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.
IT was for fun until people come on and take funny things as not funny. I am sure more posters than not laughed over it. Get over yourself.

How can you read our exchange and NOT see the humor? Amen, Texas lvn!

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