My best orientation mistakes

Nurses Humor

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I am week 4 in a 6 week orientation as a new RN in LTC/Rehab. I have done some really stupid stuff so far :lol2:

Highlights:

10)__ Tried to hook up an IV antibiotic with kangaroo (g-tube) tubing!

9)__ Unhooked a suprapubic catheter to flush without pinching the tube. Hello pee! I love pee!....just not on my shirt and shoes.

8)__ Tried to draw up insulin in a 60 cc syringe using an 18 gauge needle!

7)__ Stood around feeling really clueless.

6)__ Asked a s/p CVA pt. with right sided paresis to squeeze my hand....with her right hand.

5)__ Hid in the bathroom when asked to flush that dang suprapubic catheter again.

4)__ Had daily fights and arguments with the IV pump. "There is no freakin air bubbles you stupid machine I finally did it right this time. Stop beeping!!!"

3)__ Said to a Pt: "I really like how your member looks". so embarrassing....but at least the ulcer on it is healing!

2)__ Hid in the bathroom for 14A's flush again......

1)__ Tripped and fell into a Pt's bed landing pretty much fully on top of him! talk about a laugh.

I have never felt so stupid, clumsy and DIS-oriented ever in my life as I have in the last 4 weeks of orientation. :o

Specializes in Medical Assisting.

Oh my! What I have to look forward to in a few months when I start clinicals in my LVN program! :uhoh3: So glad that there are topics like this out there so I know how much "fun" we'll all be having! :no:

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Well, this is a humor thread after all. Goodness, such expertise here....that is the thing about nursing that is hard, all the EXPERTS who never make a mistake....ever. Obviously the insulin thing did not get me very far. After I opened the syringe and looked at the bottle I went DUH and laughed a little bit. It was funny how stupid it was. Sorry I freaked you all out a little bit. Same with the kangaroo tube. I opened the package, looked at the ends of the tube and banged myself on the forehead for wasting a whole tube feeding set...funny, no? My preceptor laughed with me too. Should I have cried and quit? Should she have reported me as unsafe? If that is the general consensus, than my humanness makes me unfit to be a nurse. I'll leave it to all you superpowers out there. :bowingpur

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I am a baby beginner nurse anyway. While I feel very insecure and awkward in my learning, I know my heart is absolutely there with my patients, and I do not do what I feel even slightly uncomfortable doing.

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Specializes in Renal; NICU.

skicoachrn, you are doing fine because you DO recognize how DUH something looks when it's not correct. I've been nursing for 36 (OHMY!) years and there are still times I will make a mistake. Because experience and time do NOT make you a perfect nurse. Don't believe that from anybody. It simply brings memorization of rote activities, a deeper knowledge base, details that will become second-nature and critical thinking which is inborn in many people (alas, some NEVER get it, including nurses who do tasks very well).

Especially today when there are so many changes and advances, and the work is craziness non-stop, mistakes can, and do, happen to the best of us!!! You need to simply keep doing what you're doing. Question everything, even if it seems you question too much. Someday soon, you will find yourself gradually feeling more confident, more self-assured and answering your own questions with your experience & knowledge.

Best to you as you find your way. I hope you will always have co-workers & leadership who will nurture you and help you keep the faith in yourself and your abilities.

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Sure hope that most of what you wrote is "being funny". Where were you during clinicals when the insulin syringe was hopefully learned. I would be very afraid to have someone like you caring for anyone in my hospital.

I would hope that you can get supervised practice with the equiptment you will be using, and practice on your own with supplies that are not needed for patients. Right now you are DANGEROUS!

That is incredibly rude. The error was caught before it did any damage, and unfortunately with all you learn in four full years of school, you are bound to forget or mess up one or two things. No one was hurt. This is a humor thread! Obviously it's scary or nerve-wracking at the time but you have to be able to laugh at your mistakes later or you'll have a nervous breakdown by the time your first year of nursing is over!

Also I do understand the humor about the patient with breasts story...she wasn't laughing AT the patient, but rather by how shocked she was to see breasts on a man! She found out AFTER why it was, I'm sure it was just quite the unexpected surprise until she realized what the reason was!

The story about the poor Spanish-speaking woman is pretty cute too! I wonder WHAT on earth kind of son you have to have who would teach the nurse to swear at his own mother (:o) but I know people who have been taught...ahem, "the wrong thing to say" by a native speaker of another language and it's always pretty hysterical when you find out what you've actually been saying!

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Thanks dbscandy. and everyone for the supportive words.

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ruby vee - that was quite funny.

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Badphish ~ I'm with you. Lighten up guys. The older regime wasn't perfect and THAT is when all the regulation came into play, now they are just adding to it for the sake of job security and yes, patient safety.

I'll never forget going into my first med surg patients room and seeing tubes protruding from every orifice possible. Thank the heavens that his wife knew what they all did 'cause I sure didn't. Though I asked my instructor about some of it and found she was correct on every one. It's amazing what patients and their family pay attention to and learn. Just like i have learned a lot from CNAs. EVERYONE has something to learn and teach, NONE of us are perfect, and in nursing a sense of humor is essential. Yes we do stupid things and yes we learn from them and yes there are even those who make tragic mistakes. We are not a perfect lot, just people who choose to do our very best each and every day and pray we do everything the way it should be or get someone to help us who knows how.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

it reminds me of one time, we were practicing rectal suppository insertion on a mannequin. a classmate of mine was inserting it w/ her middle finger. my instructor screamed, " y r u using that finger?!" my classmate, standing there looking blurred, said, "y not?" :lol2:

my instructor gave her a glare & said, " dont use that finger again."

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Another Spanish speaking story-- my mom is in L&D and has lots of non-English speaking patients. She was trying to learn medical Spanish and asked a patient what she thought was "are you hungry?" (Tienes hambre?). What she actually asked was Tienes hombre? "Do you have a man?" This to a woman who had just had a baby! Opps!

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I laugh out loud a little bit when I think of a certain silly thing I did in orientation... I had checked an ER patient in all by myeslf, assessed her, inserted a large bore IV for a bolus, collected blood. I was feeling pretty good about myself when I was quickly brought back down to Earth. I went to change out the bag of saline that I erroneously took for empty by pulling the spike from the still hung (and full with about 100CC) bag. I immediately realized the error when the fluid still in the bag came spilling out all over myself and the floor. I'm sure I turned 5 shades of red but the patient got a good laugh out of it!

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I would love to have access to a 60cc syringe - where did you find that?

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