What is the silliest thing you've heard a nurse say?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

I now have been a nurse for 3 months and have 2 to share! :)

1.) The patients MAR said give 1 unit of insulin for every 30 above 150. The nurse called the Doctor for a sliding scale to be written out because doing the math was too hard............... ok.

2.) Another patients order was Ativan 2mg/cc 0.5cc q4.... she asked how many mg she was giving and if that equaled 1cc. When I explained to her that she only needed 0.5cc for 1mg she didn't believe me/understand me and I had to GO GET another nurse to explain to her I was right before she double dosed someone!

All I can say is wow :)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Sooo not funny or silly.

So scary.

Just remember the pointing fingers, when you are pointing a finger, there are more pointing back at you.

Silly? No.

Specializes in pediatric critical care.

Personally, that insulin order was a little confusing to me at first, I had to read it again. A sliding scale would certainly prevent a med error.

Why wouldn't the order for Ativan just been written as 1mg q4? Another step to prevent a med error.

I have also had a doc rewrite an order I found to be confusing, there's nothing wrong with that. Just my :twocents:.

I also feel that since you've only been nursing for a few months, you just haven't had enough time to do something like this yourself, or you wouldn't post this. It happens to all of us.

Specializes in Geriatrics.
Sooo not funny or silly.

So scary.

Not that scary. Okay, well maybe the second. But the first... not that scary unless you're just counting the fact that she couldn't do math. What she did was safe.. it was just weird of her to tell me about that and ask if I understood it the way it was written.... of course I do, it seemed simple to me!

The second one, I think the nurse didn't want to think she was wrong, but everything worked out just fine in the end.

Specializes in Geriatrics.
Just remember the pointing fingers, when you are pointing a finger, there are more pointing back at you.

That's very true.

Specializes in Geriatrics.
Personally, that insulin order was a little confusing to me at first, I had to read it again. A sliding scale would certainly prevent a med error.

Why wouldn't the order for Ativan just been written as 1mg q4? Another step to prevent a med error.

I have also had a doc rewrite an order I found to be confusing, there's nothing wrong with that. Just my :twocents:.

I also feel that since you've only been nursing for a few months, you just haven't had enough time to do something like this yourself, or you wouldn't post this. It happens to all of us.

I am sure it does happen to all of us, and that I will certainly do something silly. And I'll be sure to post it, too! Everything worked out fine in the end with the two scenarios I posted. They're just the kind of thing that when it's going on, you're thinking... whhatt?

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.

I personally hate threads like this that poke fun at our colleagues. It's no different than "eating our young," or "eating our old." Everybody has days when they're off their game and asks what sounds like a stupid question or makes a remark that raises eyebrows. It's tough enough out there right now. Let's have each others' back.

Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

We all work as a team. With less experienced colleagues we cut some slack.

Everyone makes mistakes. We are human. Don't be so quick to judge.

I was giving a guy a TD IM shot in his arm. He is all tense so I told him "Just relax, let it hang limp" and he replies "It usually is" and his wife starts to giggle. I proceed to give the injection and say "This won't hurt but you'll be a little stiff in the morning" to which he says "It always is" and the wife is now howling with laughter. I musta turned 5 shades of red when it dawned on me what they were thinking. We all had a good laugh but now I make sure to add your arm to the instructions. Nothing dangerous or bad but I sure felt silly.

Toq

Specializes in ICU.

actually, those orders were poorly written. They are opening up errors big time. I really don't understand the purpose of writing the ativan order like that at all.

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