What is the dumbest order you ever read?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Nov 4, 2007

i've seen a few dumb orders in the past 30 years.

"flower care q 24 h." (he wanted us to water the patient's flowers.)

"mom 30 cc im." (sadly, a student nurse actually gave that one.)

"bathe patient before intern sees." (common in our inner city hospital)

"bathe patient before attending sees." (common in our rural hospital.)

"do not call me for anything unless the patient dies." (no, it wasn't a dnar patient.)

"only attractive nurses to care for this patient." (patient was a vip)

"only ugly nurses to care for this patient." (patient was notoriously inappropriate with female staff.)

"do not wake me up for dumb stuff." (i could almost sympathize -- the nurse was a new grad and wasn't the brightest bulb by any means. but still, this is a legal document!)

EmmaG, RN · Nov 4, 2007

i had an order for q 1 hour arterial blood gases on a dnar patient.

when i see idiots order crap like this, i always ask them just what they plan to do with the results? how will it change the treatment?

ebear, BSN, RN · Nov 4, 2007

Ruby Vee, I do hope you reported this resident!

JaredCNA, CNA · Nov 5, 2007

I feel your pain, I got off work at 8am. and slept till about 3... when my brain is like, "The sun is out you fool, what are you doing when you should have been asleep last night". I've been on the shift for 3 years... you think I would be used to it by now lol

I've been on it for a year now and am doing okay, it's just hard having 1 day off.

But I wouldn't work anything else...I love noc. I really can't stand the sun though-- it gives me a horrible headache since I've been working nights.

sinus.rhythm · Nov 5, 2007

Patient is in terminal condition, with trache and PEG in place. New MD orders: Do not resuscitate, do not intubate. RN may pronounce!:trout:

elizabells, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2007

then the door slammed open and the resident stomped back out of the room, flung the dirty (glass) blood gas syringe against the wall and screamed "ok, you bitches! you can d/c the blood gases. you won!"

when/where on earth was this? if a resident had called us bitches and thrown a dirty sharp on my unit, that resident would have only been a resident until the attendings showed up for rounds. i'd have called security on his @ss.

EmmaG, RN · Nov 5, 2007

Patient is in terminal condition, with trache and PEG in place. New MD orders: Do not resuscitate, do not intubate. RN may pronounce!:trout:

I haven't slept, so maybe I'm not getting this one.

??

TexasPediRN · Nov 5, 2007

child life to provide game system console-

for parents!

this one annoyed me the other day- first of all, child life is there for the child, not for the parent to have video games to play. second of all, who writes an order for that???

DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN · Nov 5, 2007

Chocolate Cake for lunch please

EmmaG, RN · Nov 5, 2007

Chocolate Cake for lunch please

Make that two!

buggal1989 · Nov 5, 2007

I don't blame him. I have never understood why we have to call in the middle of the night to tell a doctor his patient died - when it was an expected death. What is he supposed to do about it?
Why not hold that call until about 5:30, at least?
Oh, and don't forget - taking VS on a presumed corpse just might yield some sign of life still there! It's been known to happen. :o Creepy, I know.

Yes, we had a pt who had EMD (what the heck is it now - PEA?????? Can you spell R.E.T.I.R.E.D. and don't care no more cause my doc has said i will NEVER be able to work EVER again - if you read bitterness along with the humor you win!!! It's just a y.k.w. to go to school for 4 yrs, pay on a loan for 10 yrs, finally work your way up to really good pay and are in a job you LOVE (hate the co-workers-LOVED the job) to be told you will NEVER, EVER get to work again becasue of a y.k.w. disease!!!) Back to the story: who was in PEA for at least 1hr 45 mins becasue the shift did NOT want to pronounce him on THEIR shift and have to do all the work - - - soooo they left it for US and who was the lucky winner of the dead pt???? ME!! BLING! BLING! I know he was dead at the time of report as he had no pulse (A-line) and no respiration - - - so when I did call the doc (of course he said NO CODE) and I had to wait for him to come up to actually see the pt as we could not pronounce - it was at LEAST that amount of time that he had a rhythm on the monitor - we wanted to see how long the rhythm would last and we were up to AT LEAST (remember we didn't KNOW how long he had been dead - cold and stiffing upon assessment is NOT "just dead" as the previous shift tried to tell us the next day) but then the doc came and we had to do all the other business of getting a pt prepared for the morgue and had to disconnect him).

Now as to the champagne - if I come in to any of your hospitals you make take that order if a resident writes it for me!! But ask him/her for more!

Now as to the resident who threw the bloody syringe we would have called the attending RIGHT THEN no matter what the TIME was and his but would be in TROUBLE!!!

WOW this is LONG - if you read it to the end you should get a reward, but I just ate my last cherry cordial kiss! :devil:

buggal1989 · Nov 5, 2007

I've been on it for a year now and am doing okay, it's just hard having 1 day off.
But I wouldn't work anything else...I love noc. I really can't stand the sun though-- it gives me a horrible headache since I've been working nights.

I worked nights in the ICU and came home and tried to sleep - the room was totally dark and I felt like I was in a cave - I got really disoriented and it took my hubbie several mins to get me straight when he came home - so I moved to another room and the guy across the street had to rake his leaves - every day - all day long - and he had to rake the SIDEWALK (you may guess I now live where there are NO sidewalks). But I want you to tell the truth Jared- you're really a vampire aren't you?