What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

Nurses General Nursing

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twotrees2

913 Posts

I worked night shift in pediatrics for over 10 years. We were always short staffed and the physical plant was huge so you ran miles all night. I worked with an older (60's) nurse who had come back to work after 35 years at home.

Her "technique" for keeping her assignment quiet was to tape their mouths shut! I'm not kidding, I'd find infants and toddlers with pink tape over their mouths, often keeping a pacifier in place. Yes, I talked to her/reported it to the management staff, etc. She was warned. She didn't do it anymore but always held it against me..."gee, what's your problem? It works!"...sigh.

they do say duct tape fixes everything but never heard of pink duct tape LOL- there are a LOT of stuff we USED to routinely that isnt anymore. poor woman was probably quite embarrassed. i know its not funny but man could i use some of that pink tape with my boys sometimes lol.

twotrees2

913 Posts

Day shift nurse gives report saying she doesn't understand why newly inserted foley isn't draining. I said I'd take a look. Foley did not drain because it was inserted into rectum.

now i have seen some difficult foleys to find the urethra which is in the lady parts literally ( just had one last week took me forever to find lol) but the rectum????? rolfmao - that takes the cake hahahha.

twotrees2

913 Posts

Some freak out moments:

1. A nurse locked her demented patients in their rooms on night duty so she could get some sleep

2. A nurse gave a patient a dose of insulin (note: he was not a diabetic nor ordered insulin) because he was endstage cancer patient

3. A senior nurse asked how to prime an IV line because she didn't know how.....she then said is there anything else she should know? and was about to give a blood transfusion

These all happened at 1 facility. Different registered nurses all faced losing their licence over these issues and other freaky things they did. The worst part about it was I was a new staff member and a lot of the poor practices at this place freaked me out (needless to say I left this hospital).....but the biggest freak-out was that the many nurses that worked at this place were not freaked out, because poor practices were the norm!

had resident ordered abx iv - day nurse put in iv - ran in her dose ( cant believe it went in and not infiltrated) i went to run mine - she was still there - cant get the iv working to flush - look it over - and she had the dang thing in BACKWARDS - yep - upside down in the vein - how her abx ran in i have no clue lol. took her down cause she does NOT believe me when i went to get stuff t oremove hers and insert new one- she about fainted lol. as nothing bad happened like a bad infiltrate i can no wlaugh my butt off - never before had i ever seen one backwards and no matter where i stood as one is supposed to to do ivs - i still dont know how she got it backwards - she had to be standing at his head LOLOL

twotrees2

913 Posts

dude, i was part of the biggest fiasco i've witnessed yet! a co-worker and myself were preparing to insert a foley. simple enough, i can actually say i have some skill here. the patient was a good-natured woman, non-verbal but with it, peg tube, trach, the works. she knew what we were doing, responded accordingly and was very cooperative. luckily. just in case, there were 2 nas at the ready, (nothing better to do?) i should say right now what we all know, inserting a foley isn't truly 'sterile' however, there is a line. i contaminated my first pair of gloves. 1st trash bag. i attempted to insert the cath into a skin fold. it promptly flopped on the bed, (due to my surprise?) the aide (bare handed, ) gave it back to me. more trash. explained to her not to touch it. here is where i mention everyones prefered techniques. we are all different. 5 minutes was spent re-arranging my prepared space for the procedure.we'll call my fellow nurse teri. teri gets out another kit. just the cath, as we already have the bag etc. the same helpful na tried to hand us things from the kit. more learning experience. we have quite the disagreement over teri placing and removing her hands and trying to change hands (basically wallering around the labias). she satisfactorally cleaned the area finally... and...it goes into the urethra!... hooray! urine spews up and everywhere! she cries bag bag bag! we 3 stand incredulous! staring at the urine fountain unable to comprehend that the bag needed to be connected to the cath. teri reaches for it and lets go of the cath which shoots, (not slides) from the urethra. trash bag #2. apologizing to the patient for the mishaps and for laughing, she herself laughed at us! try # 3 teri connects the bag. yes! we are ready, she found it once, no big deal. somehow the lady parts and urethra must have switched, for she went confidently right into that lady parts. she was so confidant that she had it , she told the na to inflate the balloon, so she did, try that is. ky spewed onto the bed. we had to go to a bigger trash sack at this point. pt still laughing at us. what a good sport! what the heck, 1 more time. i of course had to rearrange, got ready. checked all of the incidentals we had just flubbed up. here we go! it was good! like text book! 45 min from the start, missy miss had her cath, a good laugh and bath from all the mess we had made. consequently, the next am, we came in to find out the replaced the cath during the noc, she needed a bigger balloon, they found the whole thing in the bed next to her!

then there was the other foley incident, the only time(and i definately learned!) i did not eyeball my own written dr orders before implementing them. my preceptor on my last day of orientation, at the end of shift, took me and the kit down to the pts room. she was indeed to have a foley, and it went smoothly. sometime after we left, they read through the chart to discover she was allergic to the iodine we had just smeared all over her delicate parts! ( no adverse reactions btw. she was fine.)

about putting in foleys- for some reason ( umm like short staffed cant find cnas or nurses to help etc) 75 % of the time i have to get my administrator to help me ( she is kinda there all the time - yes often till 9 or later in the eve - might as well get a bed lol) enyhow- every time i get her to help somehow she gets soaked with urine all over her arm or leg or both ( mind you this does not happen to ayone else lol) she now keeps an extra set of clothes in her office in case i need to call for her help lol.

twotrees2

913 Posts

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!!:uhoh3:

-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!:rolleyes:

scary - when i was a cna thinking of going to nursing school i nealry did not go - the nurse ( who was exemplary and encouraging me to go she felt i had what it took) on duty had a residet code in her w/c - well she wanted to get this poor soul in bed to die laying down or bring her back if ppossible - well the w/c was facing the wrong way and had we pivoted this woman who obvioulsy cant help us she would be at the foot of the bed so me being the "exemplary - trying to be anyhow - like my preceptor /nurse) decide i will do the turning -

needless to say the woman got into the bed with her head at the head of the bed but she was on top of me - just as she fell on top of me - that death gurgle went through her ( you know the one) and through my chest to the floor. scared the hell outta me and i vowed i wsa never gonna be near dead people again!! thank god for my friend the nurse - she was able to talk me down and i eventually ended up in ltc holding hands while they have that death gurgle - but ill never forget the feel of one myself

twotrees2

913 Posts

Yano, if I ever see cardizem running at 125 ml/hr they'll have to code me and the patient at the same time. I just know I'll blow a gasket.

ditto - many of these are cracking me up ( no harm no foul but gads stupidity lol) but some are just downright skeery. shiver

i guess we could chalk it all up to good learning experiences for us all of what NOT to do.............................

twotrees2

913 Posts

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.

ok ok i will make a confession - i have on occassion when i am swamped with mr so and so on the floor and mrs so and so wants a tylenol - given the tylenol to a cna ( yes i know - completely not legal) but never have i given anything othher than an OTC to a cna to give - one i trust the cnas i would allow to give it and secondly - an OTC - if they want one they can have one ( just dont take my residents ill goive em my own out of my purse ) and thirdly i work the dementia unit and likely the pill is crushed and in applesauce - if they can choke down that disgusting combo more power to em ( again just make sure my resident gets thiers - which goes back to i only allow thoise i trust implicilty to do it)

twotrees2

913 Posts

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.

ok i got one where i was the one who freaked out the docs and nurses and i was the patient - had just given birth and few days later ended up in ER with severe head pain - ( migraine eneded up !) and of course they take your hx - well after an ct scan and a bunch of workup the doc very serious and mournful comes in to talk to hubby me and our newborn in his little seat - and chocked out he thought i might have a subdural and needed further testing - well - LOL i forgot to mention that i have a pituitary microadenoma ( which looks like a bleed on ct ) and the look of relief was so genuine on his face i couldnt help but laugh - i had scared the pants off the poor man unintentionally ( hell i had a freaking blowout headache and never even dawned on me about the tumor as it had been 10 yrs since found its just not something i think about)

he did keep me on a 23 hour bed "just in case" to watch and make sure it did not get worse and get me some pain control - but it ws refreshing to have a doc not be coldhearted when they tell you something may be wrong ( honestly - when i miscarried twins - which i did not know that i was miscarrying - the gyn my doc sent me to blurted out what you crying for they aint babies yet and they is dead" ugghhh - id have liked to kick out his teeth)

twotrees2

913 Posts

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.

eeeks i better watch my back - i am a upbeat chatty laugher and i know i get on some nerves roflmao - good lord i cant even fathom doing something like that ( hmm though could use some for hubby always yelling and swearing and grumoy wonder if itd work in pepsi cause he dont drink tee hahhaa) kidding!!!

twotrees2

913 Posts

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

unfortuantley many nurses dont feel poping pills is a good thing even for chronic pain - i live it so i have no trouble at the first sign ( rubbing knees, groaning mildly , anxious, as clues need to be deemed from the dementia who wont just say i have pain) giving pills -perhaps they relate the sympoms to "just the dementia" instead of taking a closer look?? i dont know but many a day i come in and have to get my dementia patients who have "been wild all day" to a comfortable level where them they will be ok again. just a theiry

twotrees2

913 Posts

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

we can do one of a few things -

a - we can get upset someone posted a not so wanted post and tell them "go away " go read elsewher " and what not or

b- we can forget about it , let it go and continue to giggle ourselves silly at others expense and shake our head and drop our jaw in wonder at the stupidity of others and learn from it.

c- we can keep arguing about what is and isnt funny and end up with a closed thread -

personally i choose to ignore that posters post - calk it up to the fact she isnt in the mood or whatever may be her ratioanle and let it go :) just my 2 cents

twotrees2

913 Posts

Although I can see the humor in these posts, I can also see why patients & their family members need to be advocates for their own or their loved one's care. I have been the family member & usually you get nothing but attitude from the nurses if they know you're a nurse- in fact they avoid coming into the room. I always try to keep it a secret that I am a nurse for that very reason. It's rather scarey w/all the new nurses w/out adequate orientation & the patient population getting older and sicker!!

personally i have sevral residents with family members as nurses and get along quite well - i have found that even when they think the care is bad they hesitate to say cause they dont want the burden of attitude to fall on thier loved one who needs to live there - i am glad to take thier burden away and be the reporter myself - and i know they appreciate that nad have confidence in me and confide in me -

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