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:

[ValWai]

One more reason to stay healthy.

[fronkey bean]

a nurse run Heparin 25,000u/250ml in one hour (she thought it was an antibiotic)

Know a nurse that did the same thing w/ lido:uhoh3:

[fronkey bean]

Let me tell you what I did that freaked me out(very early in my career). I was working in non-invasive cardiology doing stress tests for stress echocardiograms. There was another RN who did the stress tests in nuclear med. He was out one day and I was doing the nuke med pts and there was a exercise phys. student who had been working with the other nurse there. The student hooked up the pt and I got a prewalk ekg, notified the MD then started the test. I walked over to get a blood pressure and while I was doing this the stress machine kicked out an ekg. I went over to record the b/p and read the ekg and noticed that the student had already written the rate and rhythm down. I checked that what she had written down was correct and then w/o thinking let her stay in front of the monitor while I did b/p's. After a few minutes I asked her whether she had learned to read EKG's at school or at the hosp. She said she had never taken a class to learn EKG patterns. Becoming a little nervous:uhoh21:, I asked how she knew what to write on the report (bear in mind the other nurse had been letting her do this or I would not have -no excuse i know). She said she would just look to see what the other nurse had written and the write that down with the current rate. I almost threw up! I walked over moved her out from in front of the EKG screen, finished the test, and went and found a quiet place to thank the Lord nothing had gone wrong! Taught me my lesson though - never let someone do something if you have not verified that they are qualified to do it.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

Unit Sec was "too busy" to call a Rapid Response and "too busy" to call the PCP for a crashing patient. Incredible enough, but the nurse for that patient decided to wait on the US to call instead of doing it herself.

:angryfire

[CRNI-ICU20]

I once worked with a nurse who read this doctor's order:

Replace urine output "cc for cc" .

In other words, for every 100 cc's of urine, the nurse was to adjust the IV fluid rate accordingly....

She withdrew the URINE FROM THE FOLEY BAG, AND INFUSED IT DIRECTLY INTO THE PATIENT'S CENTRAL LINE CATHETER....CC FOR CC.....

I have to go get another cup of tea now....ugh.

[muffie, RN]

I once worked with a nurse who read this doctor's order:

Replace urine output "cc for cc" .

In other words, for every 100 cc's of urine, the nurse was to adjust the IV fluid rate accordingly....

She withdrew the URINE FROM THE FOLEY BAG, AND INFUSED IT DIRECTLY INTO THE PATIENT'S CENTRAL LINE CATHETER....CC FOR CC.....

I have to go get another cup of tea now....ugh.

OMG, that's all

[catlynLPN]

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.

I read alot of this stuff for learning. You can learn from other people's mistakes. Hopefully, I don't have to learn something so big as that K+ shouldn't be given IM, but some things are suttle.

But some of it is funny, too, and I get a kick out of it.

So......:trout: me! I enjoy reading junk that other people post here.

[NBMom1225]

The most common thing that freaks me out that I see nurses do are older nurses not wearing gloves when obviously required and saying "I've been a nurse for 35 years and haven't gotten anything yet, we didn't wear gloves when I first started"

A nurse who took care of my immunocompromised daughter in the NICU almost seven years ago said something similar when I asked why she wasn't wearing gloves...funny how my daughter was suddenly reassigned to another nurse,hhhhhmmmmm?

[NurseLatteDNP, MSN, DNP, RN]

I once worked with a nurse who read this doctor's order:

Replace urine output "cc for cc" .

In other words, for every 100 cc's of urine, the nurse was to adjust the IV fluid rate accordingly....

She withdrew the URINE FROM THE FOLEY BAG, AND INFUSED IT DIRECTLY INTO THE PATIENT'S CENTRAL LINE CATHETER....CC FOR CC.....

I have to go get another cup of tea now....ugh.

Are you serious????? How did everyone find out?

[CRNI-ICU20]

the nurse was observed draining out the urine from the urine bag then drawing the urine up in a syringe and then pushing it IV into the central line.....yes...the patient became very ill .....tachy.....eventhough the urine was thought to be "sterile".....it was not a compatible "substance" with the blood stream...ie it' a by-product of the kidneys...high ammonia, etc....the patient almost died...and prob. would have if not for the observer intervening....ugh.

[Balder_LPN, LPN]

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.

What is the point of this post?

[Balder_LPN, LPN]

This happened over 20 years ago, and it still creeps me out....

I was working in an acute neuro unit at the time. I had been off for a few days, and when I got back I had a pt that was new to me, but she was was 3 days post op from a craniotomy for a bening tumor. She was doing very well, in fact the only reason she was still in acute care was because there were no empty step down beds. a very nice, spry 78 yr old lady.

After introducing myself to her and talking a little bit, I told her I needed to do neuro checks on her. SHe got a real cute grin on her face, and told me to go ahead.

When I checked her pupils, her right eye was reactive, but her left was fixed and dilated. I kept calm, she kept smiling and talking while I cooly(I thought) checked the chart for her previous pupil checks. ALL WERE PEARLA! I checked again, trying to act like nothing was wrong, and the pt kept grinning at me, but that left eye just looked, well, a little odd!

I finally said,"Have yoiu ever had any problems with that left eye?"

She said,"Now, honey why would you ask me something like that?"

I started to explain pupils reacting to light,etc, and she laughed out loud!She said,"I have had a glass eye for 25 years, And not one person has noticed before you!" She was right, she had had 5 nurses in acute neuro before me, they had all charted PEARLA in her neuro checks. I also read all the progress notes, the neurosurgeon hadn't caught it, either!:uhoh21:

I usually chart PERRLA (pupils equal, round and reactive to light and accomodation)