Murphy's Laws of Nursing | Life of a Nurse

Fun facts (or are they) about nursing ... Anyone who has been a nurse for more than a few weeks or months will smile and nod because you know these are all so true! "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Nurses Humor Nurse Life

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If you're running around horribly busy, you're unorganized and need to prioritize, but if you're not running around horribly busy, you're lazy and need to find more work to do.

Remember folks - Murphy was an optimist!

Share your Murphy's Law!

Murphy's Laws of Nursing

⚕️ When you need the money, your shift is cancelled; when you have a weekend planned, you have to do overtime.

⚕️ It's you're first night shift for three years. And it's a full moon.

⚕️ You're doing the "Only 27 more minutes of the shift from hell happy-dance", only to turn around to see your supervisor standing there.

⚕️ The absurdity of the suggestion is directly proportional to the distance from the bedside.

⚕️ Your nose will itch the very moment your gloved hands get contaminated with bodily fluids.

⚕️ You always remember "just one more thing" you need after you've gowned, gloved, and masked and gone into that isolation room.

⚕️ The correct depth of compression in adult CPR is a bit less than the depth you just reached when you broke those ribs.

⚕️ If you wear a new white uniform, expect to be thrown up on.

⚕️ Corollary: Residents always poop on your brand new shoes.

⚕️ As soon as you discontinue the IV line, more fluids will be ordered.

⚕️ You always forget what it was you wanted after you get to the supply room. You always remember when you get back to the other end ...

⚕️ Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the boss is watching.

⚕️ Your buddies who were reading the paper at the nurses' desk a minute ago always disappear when you need help ...

⚕️ Expect to get your pay raise the same day the hospital raises the parking rates (and other charges)

⚕️ The better job you do, the more work you can expect to be handed ...

⚕️ The amount of clean linen available is inversely proportional to your immediate needs.

⚕️ Rest assured that when you are in a hurry, the nurse's notes have not been written.

⚕️ Fire drills always occur on your day from hell⚕️ The first person in line when the clinic opens will not require urgent care. The sickest person will arrive 5 minutes before closing: "I thought I'd feel better"

Murphy's Laws on Doctors

👨‍⚕️ The doctor with the worst handwriting and most original use of the English Language will be responsible for your most critical patient.

👨‍⚕️ Doctors only ask your name when the patient isn't doing well.

👨‍⚕️ As soon as you finish a thirty minute dressing the doctor will come in, and take a look at the wound.

👨‍⚕️ In a critical situation, the most highly qualified clinician will offer the most advice and the least support.

Murphy's Laws of Patient Care

👩‍ Realizing the patient you've just injected has a serious infection causes you to stab yourself with the used needle.

👩‍ A 500 pound patient needs all care, while your 80 pound patient needs a finger dressing ... and your colleague has a "bad back."

👩‍ The disoriented patient always comes from a Nursing Home whose beautiful paperwork has no phone number on it.

👩‍  The patient who has been dying all night finally meets his maker 12.5 minutes before shift change.

👩‍ You walk out of a patient's room after you've asked them if they need anything: they will put the call bell on as you are about three quarters the way down the hall.

👩‍ The patient furthest away from the nurses' station rings the call bell more often than the patient nearest to the nurses' station.

👩‍ Ten seconds after you have finished giving a complete bed bath and changing the bed, the patient has a giant code brown.

👩‍ If a patient needs four pills, the packet will contain three.

👩‍ The more confused and impulsive a patient is, the less chance there is for a family member or friend to sit with the patient.

👩‍ When the nurse on the preceding shift has surrounded the patient with absorbent pads, the code brown will hit every sheet and miss every pad.

👩‍ When you are starting an IV on an uncooperative patient, or dealing with a huge code brown, there is a phone call for you and it's that crabby physician that you have been paging all morning.

Murphy's Laws of Management

✔️ When you cancel extra staff because it's so quiet, you are guaranteed a rash of admissions.

✔️ When management smiles at you, be very, very afraid ...

✔️ Staffing will gladly send you three aides--but you have to float two of your RNs.

✔️ Mandatory meetings are always scheduled after you've had the night from hell and just want to go home to bed.

✔️ For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

✔️ The perfect nurse for the job will apply the day after that post is filled by some semi qualified idiot.

✔️ If only one solution can be found for a problem, then it is usually a stupid solution.

✔️ As soon as you've ordered the pizzas, 25 patients show up at the ER registration desk along with three ambulances all with cardiac arrests!

Share your Murphy's Law!

Specializes in MICU,SICU,Telemetry.

You've hung all new IVs (or tube feeding) for the next shift and then it gets DC'd.

IV pumps run fine while you're in the room but start to alarm as soon as you sit to write your notes.

Your pt denies discomfort all night then C/O chest pain to the Doc on AM rounds.​

Specializes in PICU, Pediatrics, Trauma.

Change of shift...it's Always change of shift, either 5 minutes before you are about to give hand-off or 5 minutes after you've received hand-off but before you've had a chance to even assess your other patients on your first back after days off and you don't know any of the patients.

True story...End of shift...One of your patient's PCA runs dry right before you are about to go in and collect all your numbers. You can't get in to replace it, because no one can find a key and the one who has the backup key is on vacation...When you finally get a key, the one "helping" you goes in and erases all your history before you can write it all down.

If you ever dare utter the name of the worst patient you've ever had to take care of in your entire nursing career, ER calls for you to take report on that very patient. 5 minutes later she will arrive with 2 suitcases and a few plastic bags planning to stay for awhile. You can kiss lunch goodbye for the next 2 weeks!

Utterly sweet patients with their whole lives ahead of them walk in with a stomachache and leave with a stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis. ?

Nasty insufferable patients who waste their lives on drugs walk in with a stomachache and leave with a simple heartburn diagnosis.  ?

Specializes in Gerontology.

If you only have 1 empty bed, the admission will always be the opposite sex. This means moving pts/beds.

And if the move creates an angry pt/family, the admission will be cancelled after the moves are complete.

Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.
nightmare said:
Never use the "Q" word(Quiet) on nights! It's guaranteed to make all HELL break out!

Burst stoma bags always occur 5 minutes before you are due to give report.

If you swap shift with someone, it will be a busy night and your original shift will be uneventful.

That bag of fluids which was not running well will suddenly run through when you are on your break.

The doctor wants an answer which is in the care plan, the care plan is in an office where the phone doesn't work! So you either leg it for the care plan leaving the doc hanging or chance phoning back when you just know he will be elsewhere.

Never use the "Q" word ANYWHERE! Ever.

nitenite said:
Utterly sweet patients with their whole lives ahead of them walk in with a stomachache and leave with a stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis. ?

Nasty insufferable patients who waste their lives on drugs walk in with a stomachache and leave with a simple heartburn diagnosis. ?

No the nasty ones get admitted for at least two weeks.

Specializes in PACU, ED.

If a patient is a hard stick either:

A. Get a call from the lab that it is hemolyzed.

B. The doctor adds on another lab 15 minutes later that requires a new draw.

Never try to influence which patient you get in PACU. If you do the Karma of the PACU will slap you around. The ICU pt you ducked will be awake, stable, and pleasant. Status is just precautionary or for q hour neuro checks. The simple lap Chole you get will arrive with room temperature BPs, severe sleep apnea, and when finally awake 10/10 pain and throw up on you.

The sickest patients are admitted on days with low staffing.

If you come in to help out in a shortage you'll probably get written up for something stupid or make a stupid error then get no thanks for helping out on top of it!

I would tell my co-workers if they mentioned a pt's name they had to take care of them when they are admitted to our unit...80% of the time that pt would be admitted that night or the next.

Shocks me how many patients dont have reliable friends and family to stay with them, especially when they are bent out of shape a million different ways. Also, hate calling it a "call bell" makes me feel like a maid or farm animal lol

Specializes in Pediatrics.

The ileostomy bag you need to check hourly will burst right before you are able to check it. Never fails.