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:

[Indy, LPN, LVN]

i am actually working with the RN tonight. this happened last year. we work on a telemetry/ step down unit. she was pulled to another tele floor. so we heard this from the other nurses working with her. one of her patients pumps was beeping so another nurse went to check on it. well, she went to the room to find out that the patient had cardizem hooked up, but it was on hold. the pump was set at 125 cc/hr. first, it's a 1:1 ratio and we mix it in a 100 cc bag. the highest we run it on the floor is 20 mg/hr. so the nurse was shocked and checked the patients vitals and stayed with them. the attending rn finally showed up and said, " i was just verifying the order." luckily she didn't have it running. the following week, she asked us how to mix the drug and almost did the same thing. we sent the charge nurse to check on her patient to see if the right rate was made. she's been a nurse for 30 some odd years.

another incident is when she took care of a fresh pacer. 5 am she tells the charge nurse that her patient was asking if anyone else was working. the charge rn went to the room and the patient had a HUGE hematoma the size of a softball on his left shoulder. he had said he had asked his nurse about it the night before at 9pm. she didn't tell anyone until 5am the next morning.

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.

[kaeri]

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.

[RunnerRN, BSN, RN]

WOOT WOOT!

Glad to see it took at least 3 days for someone to come in here and blast us for this. I for one have learned a lot for other people's mistakes, and my own. Yes, we have all made our own mistakes, but the topic of this thread is "mistakes OTHER people have made" that you can't believe. Have you ever worked with someone who supposedly graduated from nsg school, and just cannot believe the crap they just did?

And PS - most of the mistakes listed above weren't just mistakes, they were potentially fatal/harmful mistakes (Percocet through a central line? Giving meds other people draw up?)

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

I think somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed. There are many threads on here where we share mistakes we have made. Some of us are just amazed at things that go on and wonder if we are alone. This thread allows us to share our feelings on this subject in an arena with others that understand. This is also a good learning tool, ie, mistakes that have been made and how to avoid them.

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

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.

LOL, Good one Kaeri!! I wouldnt say this one "freaked out" anyone but myself and actually was a funny one but a lesson well learned. While I was working CCU/ICU I had an elderly gentleman who had suffered an MI. Newly ordered meds made him very nauseated frequently. He was in a chair and on entering the room he pointed to his emesis basin and was ready to blow. So I grabbed it quickly to hold for him and at the same time looking for the bath pan (we all know that emesis basins hold very little!). Of course there was no bath pan handy. In turn I had to try to run to the hopper in the room to empty (only a few feet from him) before the next explosion. After the second empty he was pointing to the emesis basin but was unable to speak due to the n/v. I kept reassuring him it was ok and we'd get through this. Afterwards I was cleaning him up and he started laughing loudly!! Just couldnt figure out why this man was laughing after being so ill. Until he asked me "Is there anyway to fish my dentures out of that commode or is it too late!!!! Needless to say I had flushed his upper dentures as they fell into the basin as he was vomiting. I was so very very embarrased! Next day I came in and his family had brought him some lovely fresh peaches of which he gave to me since he was unable to eat them as he giggled handing them to me. The hospital did reimburse for the dentures but it's one story I will never forget or live down in my career. Thank goodness he was so very understanding and took it with humor and understanding.

[texas_lvn]

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.

If you read the OP, it says what have other nurses done to freak you out. There is already a thread for things you have done, and there is already a link that another member has placed. I am sorry you do not know how to read the OP, or even the header for that matter.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

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.

It's also heartwarming to see that the full title of the post was not read clearly

"What have OTHER nurses done that have freaked you out?"

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

Not a nurse but a resident is 'refloating' a central line under fluoro. (because they initially floated it 'across' into the other subclavian vein instead of 'down' into the vena cava - and refloating it under fluoro would be a good teaching experience.) Nice sterile field, with the little 'condom' on the fluoro handle so the doc can position it like he wants.

This is like slow motion here: this little piece of lint falls off the fluoro machine and ever so slowly drifts down right on the insertion site where the doc is advancing the line. So, how does he rectify this: OF COURSE, he blows on it to get it out of the way. You wouldn't want that piece of lint to affect the sterile field, would ya?

And then looks at me with a sheepish 'What?' expression because I'm staring at him like he has 3 heads. In actuality, I'm pretty sure he just wasn't thinking and realized how stupid that was the second he did it. But, still!

Now, I've heard MDs state you can lick central lines and not cause any more infections than they already DO cause, but, still! Not on my watch, please.

~faith,

Timothy.

[marygirl]

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.

[hrtprncss]

Top this if you dare:

Pt has an antecub IV that is leaking. The newly minted RN taped an emesis basin behind the pt's elbow and told the pt to 'call when it's full so I can come empty it." I actually saw this.

LOL this made me chuckle and made my day, too funny.

[marygirl]

One for the NCA, as well. New to our floor, this NCA asked me to come and assist her to get a patient back into bed so he could get onto a bedpan. I go into the room and I see there is a bedside commode in the room and that the patient is sitting in a cardio-chair. So, I ask, is there a reason the patient is in the cardio-chair? Yes, he wanted to sit up for a while, but he can't ambulate. Okay, how did he get to the cardio-chair? Assist X2 and pivot turn. Hmmmm, couldn't we do the same thing to get him to a bedside commode? NCA admits she never thought of that. Now she is going through her nursing pre-reqs and all I can think of is that she didn't THINK of putting the patient onto a commode when one was available and patient was able.

[queenofgerichairs]

I had a CNA tell me that Mrs. FippyDippy was impacted and she tried to "dig her out". I guess the look on my face was upsetting she quickly told me that the other nurse told her to do it one night. I explained that even we nurses didn't do that anymore and I explained the danger. She looked horrified and ask was I going to tell on her? I told her no she just did (ha ha). Cant believe a CNA didnt question that one