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 am an lvn in a rn mobility program and a few weeks ago i was helping another lvn with her blood draw, and right after she drew the blood she pulled the butterfly closed and dropped it right in the trash can!!! I was like uh whoa! don't do that, those go in the sharps... I think she was just a little freaked over the blood draw, having only done a couple in her carreer. she was pretty embarrassed.

Specializes in floor to ICU.

Found out a fellow nurse hung a 25,000 unit heparin/250 ml NS in 30 minutes. She thought is was an antibiotic!

Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

A newly-qualified nurse on my ward drew up 15 mls of insulin instead of 15 units. Thank God for our two-nurse checking policy and that she came trotting up to me to check the dose.

No harm done and kudos to her for sticking to policy and having another nurse check it. Poor girl was mortified when I (gently) pointed out the mistake.

Heard about a nurse in my ED that recently had a pt on an insulin drip for several hours and never did a single glubed.

Specializes in LTC.

I like this post :) hmm..let me see here...I saw a nurse give an IM ativan SLOWLY..i mean barely did get the needle in..made my skin crawl. I know of a nurse who doesnt give her ac meal insulins til we come in at around 7pm...along with her pm as in 1 and 2 pm...meds and narcs....yet signs off on it for the right times..has yet to have a narc count come out right, um....lets see...ive known of pts who had skin tears and falls without injury yet no charting or incident reports were done because "im prn, who cares im not doing that", ive seen nurses leave meds on top of carts..right out in the open. i saw a nurse light a cigarette in the dining room one time. i know of another nurse who writes all kinds of orders and has yet to document one single time on where and why that order came to be. I got a long list thats just too long to put on here....but....thats a few i know of

I worked with a nurse who started a heparin gtt but NEVER drew a pTT. Seriously. I'm talking about prior to starting it, or for the time it ran until I got on shift to get report.

1. A nurse running dopamine and dobutamine for unstable patient in the same IV line.

If these meds are compatible via IV, they can be ran through the same IV lines. I used to work in ICU and seen lots of pressors ran into the same IV lines but labeled.

Specializes in pediatrics.

whoa.... speechless...

Specializes in pediatrics.
A nurse crushed Percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line IV.:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

that is effing insane.

Specializes in pediatrics.
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.

so wrong!!

Specializes in Community Health.

During my psych clinical, as our CI was giving us a tour of the facility, a man who was in his wheelchair in arm restraints wheeled himself up to our group and asked if any of us had a knife. One of my classmates, trying to be helpful I guess, said "no, I have scissors though" and proceeded to take his bandage scissors out of his pocket and hand them to the patient.:eek: Luckily my CI intervened and plucked them out of his hands before he could do any damage.

This same guy was my partner during one of our first clinicals...we were giving AM care to a male patient who was a new admit and a bit embarrassed at the whole process, so my classmate assured him "it's ok dude, we have the same equipment, and Mattiesmama has seen her way around her share of memberes!" :smackingf

(He graduated last week-god help us all!:chair:)

This one is more sad...at another clinical, more recently, I took a patients O2 sat and it was in the low 80's...alarmed, I notified the charge nurse who said she would take care of it. About 20 minutes later I went to check on him and he was unconscious, barely breathing, and starting to turn blue. His O2 was on at 10 L/minute and he had COPD. Thinking she had made a mistake I turned it back down to 2L (which were his orders) and sent someone to get the charge nurse again while I tried to arouse him, and did a quick assessment on him-his initial RR was 8/min and his O2 sat was 66 but they started to climb as soon as I lowered the O2...The nurse came in and proceeded to ream me out for changing the oxygen flow, paying no attention to the patient who was having retractions and struggling for each breath right in front of her. I tried telling her that he had serious crackles in both lungs (you could literally feel all the junk that was in there, it was vibrating...awful) but she ignored me, put him back on 10 L, and walked away. I was at a loss-so I just ran to my CI and told her what was going on-and she proceeded to open a can of whopa$$ on the charge nurse and within like 2 seconds a code was called and he was transfered to the ER (which was ACROSS THE STREET, mind you, not a difficult transfer by any stretch) He was promptly diagnosed with pneumonia (duh) and died a couple days later. I was a basket case after that one-I've had patients die on me before but I still feel, to this day, that his death could have been prevented. :scrying:

It is for reasons such as these that many nurses will make sure their loved ones are not left alone during hospitalization. I also believe there are many unreported errors of omission that result from staffing that is grossly inadequate relative to the patient acuity. My sister is alive today because I remained with her.

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