What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

[texas_lvn]

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:

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I knew a nurse that inserted a catheter in the male, met resistance, and kept on pushing until blood was everywhere and he needed a stat order of packed red blood cells...and that was the second time that week she did the exact same thing. 25 years of experience, and she is still working strong.

I was on orientation as an LPN with this SAME dizzy nurse and she was to supervise me giving PO meds. I came to this patient that was admitted the night before and the patient told me that she already took her medications, but didn't remember which ones. I asked her where was the medication and she pulled out all of the meds that she had at the bedside. I told "Dizzy RN" and the patient that because of this, I was not going to administer ANY medications to her until I can determine what happened (one of the drugs I was to give was Lopressor), and the nurse took the meds out of my hand, adminstered it to the patient and signed the MAR (thank God, she did that). I told the charge nurse what happened, took the meds from the bedside and locked them up. STILL, nothing happened to Ms. Idiot.

Another nurse had to adminster Potassium IV, and she turned up the volume on the main line so that the potassium would not burn...never mind that the volume was determined by the physician, and she could have had the patient suffer from fluid volume overload. I can go on and on...

[texas_lvn]

I knew a nurse that inserted a catheter in the male, met resistance, and kept on pushing until blood was everywhere and he needed a stat order of packed red blood cells...and that was the second time that week she did the exact same thing. 25 years of experience, and she is still working strong.

I was on orientation with this nurse and she was to supervise me giving PO meds. I came to this patient that was admitted the night before and the patient told me that she already took her medications, but didn't remember which ones. I asked her where was the medication and she pulled out all of the meds that she had at the bedside. I told "Dizzy RN" and the patient that because of this, I was not going to administer ANY medications to her until I can determine what happened (one of the drugs I was to give was Lopressor), and the nurse took the meds out of my hand, adminstered it to the patient and signed the MAR (thank God, she did that). I told the charge nurse what happened, took the meds from the bedside and locked them up. STILL, nothing happened to Ms. Idiot.

Another nurse had to adminster Potassium IV, and she turned up the volume on the main line so that the potassium would not burn...never mind that the volume was determined by the physician, and she could have had the patient suffer from fluid volume overload. I can go on and on...

This stuff amazes me. It is a great learning tool, although I would have refused to administer meds as you did.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

This stuff amazes me. It is a great learning tool, although I would have refused to administer meds as you did.

Heck yeah, I gave her NOTHING! Thank goodness the idiot signed the MAR, therefore, it would not have been ME that would have found her passed out in the bathroom. The patient had the nerve to say; "You can give it to me...I don't want to get you in trouble". I told her that there would be no trouble for me, because I cannot, in good conscience administer this medication to her. She didn't even remember WHAT she tool (not that it would have changed my decision).

[nursejohio, ASN, RN]

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.

That takes some serious cojones! At the LTC I used to work at, the going prank was putting thickener in drinks... that was always a hoot. But meds? Never, that's asking for trouble

[barbyann]

Long ago, when I was a CNA, I witnessed an RN attempt to get a MR patient to swallow a dulcolax suppository. I took it away. I never did find out if she was just too lazy to give it correctly or if she really didn't know where it belonged? I reported to DON and she was canned.

[daisey_may]

how about these stellar examples:

-experienced peds icu nurse about to y-in her blood with her tpn:nono:

-not-so-new grad stating "now what do you do with this exactly" while holding an ambubag!!

-nursing student attempting to crush and dilute po ativan and give iv (where do people get that? was that once how we prepared iv meds?) and nursing instructer no where in sight (thank god another student stopped him)

and the kicker:

i was a nurse's aide in a nursing home years ago, worked frequently with an rn who was kind of out there, but "always right" and would argue to the death. she ordered me to go get a rectal temp on pt with temp, when i attempted to protest, she ordered me again, not so nicely this time. you see, this pt had cancer surgery years before that left her with a colostomy and no rectal area at all, it was completely sewn shut. finally the rn said she had just done it herself earlier(really now, did you?), why was i causing so much trouble. i politely encouraged her to get it herself then. boy was her face red when she got back from that room. i do often wonder who's rectal temp she had really taken earlier that shift!

omg that part where you were worked in the nursing home as an aid is so hilarious! it still cracks me up just thinking about it. can you even imagine her in there desperately trying to put a thermometer in a place where it simply can't go? oh that's just funny. i bet that nurse was red in the face!

[daisey_may]

I am so thrilled to see so many nurses who are happy to point at other nurses and report their failings. It is also heartwarming to see that no-one here has ever done something rotten.

Congratulations.

I may be mistaken, but this thread is entitled "what have other nurses done that have freaked you out". THere is another thread that is called "your worst mistake" that you might want to take a peek at.

[daisey_may]

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.

Sorry I'm making a million comments tonight. I was thinking about this one, though. This doctor gestured in the air, which meant IM. So, she obviously isn't familiar with drugs or their routes, which was already a given when she tried to give potassium IM. I just hope that she doesn't hurt someone. Sheesh...

[am17sg05]

ER SETTING:the thing that freaked me out is that i am very,very busy and i just see them sitting in the nurse's station chit chatting and there's a lot of orders to be carried out or they are all in the break room and the shift just started.

another thing is jealousy when it comes to schedules and overtimes.

[daisey_may]

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.

While I was doing my ER rotation, it was pretty quiet...the biggest action I got was a tetorifice shot, but i learned a lot about relationships. Mostly, the nurse would come back to the desk and report to the doctor vital signs and some assessments and he would go in. ( I was surprised by how slow everything went) Anyway, the doc would come out and asked the nurse what she thought. Well, she said what she thought but gave it inquistively, letting him know that HE was the doc and she was the nurse. He said, "no, I'm serious. I trust you. I want to know what your expert opinion is." She thought about it, then answered something similar to what first said, just slightly different. THe doctor then said "if you're sure, then I'm sure, too". ANd that was the diagnosis.

Granted, I was only there a few hours. Who knows, maybe it was some game they play and the doctor was thinking the same thing the enitre time...but I still found it really strange...

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

That takes some serious cojones! At the LTC I used to work at, the going prank was putting thickener in drinks... that was always a hoot. But meds? Never, that's asking for trouble

Yes, slipping medications into a nurse's food is low down. I have seen that done before as well where I worked as a psych tech about 15 years ago. At that facility, we were certified to give medications, and there was another tech that used to sneak into the employee's lunchroom and eat our food (even if it was labeled with your name). Anyway, someone got sick of her stealing their food, and someone slipped some sort of liquid psychtropic medication in a soda bottle. The woman had a great deal of nerve stealing food, so, she sort of got what she got, but I would have NEVER done that.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

While I was doing my ER rotation, it was pretty quiet...the biggest action I got was a tetorifice shot, but i learned a lot about relationships. Mostly, the nurse would come back to the desk and report to the doctor vital signs and some assessments and he would go in. ( I was surprised by how slow everything went) Anyway, the doc would come out and asked the nurse what she thought. Well, she said what she thought but gave it inquistively, letting him know that HE was the doc and she was the nurse. He said, "no, I'm serious. I trust you. I want to know what your expert opinion is." She thought about it, then answered something similar to what first said, just slightly different. THe doctor then said "if you're sure, then I'm sure, too". ANd that was the diagnosis.

Granted, I was only there a few hours. Who knows, maybe it was some game they play and the doctor was thinking the same thing the enitre time...but I still found it really strange...

I have seen physicians ask a nurse's aide what they think (knowing that she was an aide)...scary...