Most shocking thing you've seen another nurse do?

Nurses Relations

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SNF. RN supervisor summoned (overhead, at about 0300) me to one of her rooms. She was attempting to insert an NG tube in an alert man, about 40, alcoholic, with varices. Told me she felt a 'blockage'. She was holding the tube as though it were a fork, and she was 'stabbing' something. She rammed the tube down, pulled back, then rammed it again- until blood exloded out the tube. I suctioned him really quick and the suction tubing, canister and filters became packed with blood. I ran out and called 911, came back told her "Get the **** away from him! What are you DOING"?. I was suspended, for allowing her, an RN, my supervisor, to be so incompetent. Was told I should have known she was incompetent, and should have 'taken the NG from her and inserted it yourself'. Oh, really. Yes, he died. She was 'asked to resign', because her son was the medical director of the place. The panic on that man's face is clear today, and that was 25 years ago. BTW- I don't think an LVN should insert NG tubes, it's as crazy as giving TPN. Out of bounds, my opinion.

I've seen a nurse put in an NG tube in a pt so she could administer contrast. The tube was obviously in the pt's airway, but the nurse thought she heard air when she checked for stomach placement. She was going to administer the contrast when I told her she couldn't do that because she was in the lungs. The pt was coughing and turning colors. I promise you she looked at me and said that she would just advance the tube into the stomach. After I picked my jaw up off the floor where it had fallen because I was so shocked I told her to take the tube out and get someone into the room who knew what they were doing. The pt was my husband.

I've seen a nurse put in an NG tube in a pt so she could administer contrast. The tube was obviously in the pt's airway, but the nurse thought she heard air when she checked for stomach placement. She was going to administer the contrast when I told her she couldn't do that because she was in the lungs. The pt was coughing and turning colors. I promise you she looked at me and said that she would just advance the tube into the stomach. After I picked my jaw up off the floor where it had fallen because I was so shocked I told her to take the tube out and get someone into the room who knew what they were doing. The pt was my husband.

WHOA! That is crazy! And they wonder why some people are scared to seek medical attention!

Nothing clinically related, but... I work as a CCP at a hospital (nurses aide) and there was a patient I had to do constant observation on. He was not all there and was violent and hallucinating. The nurse came in to try and help me calm him down after he was threatening to kill the other patient he shared a room with. He then said he needed a pen to write down a phone number with (he was hallucinating) so the nurse handed him a pen! Honestly? You're going to hand a violent man with dementia a pen? GREAT IDEA so he can start stabbing us or himself.... that was just pure stupidity.

:eek: Oh my... these stories are crazy! And a little scary..tisk tisk.

Gives you pause for thought, eh- in the event you notice something 'off' about a nurse or anyone else, you may recall something weird you read in here....the sky's the limit!

Specializes in Skilled Nursing/Rehab.
[COLOR=#003366]Baubo516, Hopefully this helps answer your question and makes sense :sorry:

In my facility we often get orders to replace the amount of a patients NG tube drainage. The order will say to replace 1/2 of the NG output with NS IVF over 8 hours and will show up in the MAR at 1400, 2200, and 0600 and Here's how it goes:

NG tube drainage was 600 cc over 8 hours

Divide the 600 cc in half and then divide by 8 hrs = 25 cc/hr

Titrate Pt 0.9 or NS IVF to 25 cc/hr to help replace fluids lost from GI system

*The replacement fluids may be the primary fuid or piggy-backed into the primary fluids in which case only the replacement fluid is titrated and if piggy-backed into a primary IVF, that IVF stays the same.

Thanks, AJJKRN!

This thread is making me nervous to graduate in May. All these crazy errors that kill people. :-\ Hope I never give someone a story like these to tell.

Wow! Very interesting (and scary) topic! I know we are all human and make mistakes...but holy cow! :eek:

Responding to the NG drainage replacement calculation:

600/2= 300. 300/8= 37.5 (38) mls per hour. Or am I just really missing something here??

Worked with a Surgeon several years ago who would place foley catheter into abdominal wound site and have staff place contents back into stomach via NGT. One of the most Asinine things I ever saw. I totally agree never place NG secretions back into pt.

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Take a full lunch break without interruptions.

When i was a nursing student back in my home country, I had my duty at the medical surgical ward. My patient has a stab wound on his abdomen. Due to the limited amount of supplies to stop the bleeding from the surgery to repair his wound, they had to put a sanitary napkin on his incision instead of a gauze.

Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.

This isn't so shocking as it is dangerous and presumptuous. My last job was as a wound care/hyperbaric nurse with a wound healing clinic. We had a patient who had been getting wound care for weeks for a diabetic ulcer. One particular day I happened to be assigned to this patient to do her wound care when I noticed, in big letters on the front of her chart, that she was allergic to silver. When I removed her dressings I noted that she did indeed have a silver alginate dressing, so I checked previous orders and not one time did the doc order silver alginate for this patient.

I reported to the doctor what I found and he looked stunned. Turns out the Nurse manager took it upon herself to apply silver alginate to the wound and had been doing so for weeks. When she was questioned about it she simply stated "I thought it was the best option for her and she hasn't been harmed so what's the big deal?" The "big deal" is that the woman could have had serious issues! You just don't experiement on people like that because you think you know best.

Needless to say I was extremely embarrassed and ticked off to have to explain to the patient's son why I wasn't using the same dressing the NM used. Thankfully he was very nice and understanding about the whole thing. I quit shortly after when I kept noticing, among other problems, the NM telling the doctors how to do their jobs, yelling at them and taking matters into her own hands and treating wounds against doctor's orders.

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