New Grads-What are some of the silliest things youve done so far?!?!

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Sep 19, 2006

I do some of those things sometimes, and I can't blame it on being a new nurse. :imbar Sometimes I just momentarily forget what I'm doing... until I see the blood. I've tried to irrigate foleys that have blown right off the sliptip and gotten bathed in pee for my efforts. Yum. One of my coworkers (who has at least twice the experience I have) was helping me admit a post-op and we were switching over from the OR pressure set up to ours (see my posts on using pumps on pressure lines for a hint) when she pulled the spike out of the pressure bag without noticing that it wasn't the one she'd clamped, but the other one. The IVF sprayed across the room for almost ten feet! We had a good laugh over that one.

perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2006

We had a common saline flush bag in our med room when I started last year, and I remember one time when my preceptor told me to draw up some saline for a med and I stuck a needle into the bag... needless to say it leaked everywhere and had to be replaced!! Other things like once forgot to shut the med port on a pt's G-tube they only used for night feedings (at a pretty high rate), and had to wake them up to change the sheets an hour later w/feeding all over the bed. I'm sure there are many others but that's what comes to mind immediately :)

Boston-RN, RN · Sep 20, 2006

I was trying to "help out" some of the CNA's, I'm in a rehab hosptial and the persons transfer status to the bathroom was "BEDPAN ONLY and she was sitting in the w/c so instead of getting her to bed I put the bedpan under her in the chair.......the person that took it out from under almost pee'd herself laughing......Not gonna help next time LOL

RGN1 · Sep 20, 2006

When I first started drawing up IV meds I always eneded up firing the stuff round the treatment room - it took me ages to work out how to add the sterile water to the powder in the vial without building up all that pressure with the resultant fountain!

Hoozdo, ADN · Sep 20, 2006

:smackingf :smackingf ok-so im a new grad. still in orientation. thank goodness my preceptor keeps me in line, however, i still do dumb stuff all the time, lol.
last week, while drawing blood off the a-line and attempting to do glucose testing...i squirted myself with blood, and another time all over the wall...and other time all over sink. however, in my defense, that was only 3 times out of like 100 that i did it well...lol.
yesterday i was drawing labs off my a-line and it must have been 0400 bc i decided not to take the test tube out of that, um, plastic thing that kind looks like a needle that you put the test tube in (omg thats awful, i dont even know what the name of it is :smackingf) then i took it out of the aline...oops...blood all over again. grrr. lol.
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i did that once, lol. that thing is called a vamp and vamp tip. i think all of us have done that at one time or another!
oh, then i was priming a line, and normally i'm good at this...yeah except the time this week i let it run all over the floor...duh. oh, once i was trying to draw up some water to put down the ng tube...i couldnt for anything get the water to go into the syringe...hmmm...the cap was still on...ugh i felt stupid.:monkeydance:
i do that a lot with a 60 cc syringe. dang that cap looks invisible. one time i had a pt with many lines with multiple infusion and plugged an expensive a/b in one of the ysites. found out after about 10 minutes that all the fluid infused on the floor because that line wasn't plugged in to the patient :uhoh21:
on my first day on the unit, i was opening a vial of fentanyl and sliced my finger right open, ow! another stupid thing i did in my first week was needle stick myself after drawing up a vial of procrit.....had to tell pharmacy i dropped it to get another one!

i am only 10 months in, but i am trying my best not to make stupid mistakes. :monkeydance:

RGN1 · Sep 20, 2006

Oh my, I'd forgotten my one & only "needlestick"!! LOL

I was adding a med to an infusion bag & somehow didn't get the angle quite right or there was a fault in the port (which is what I want to believe, of course). Anyhow I pushed really hard & sended up sticking the needle right through to the other side of the port & straight through my gloves & the soft tissues of my thumb!!!

Oh well, if you're going to stick yourself it might as well be with a clean needle that's just drawn up a dose of a fairly common antibiotic!!

stressgal, RN · Sep 21, 2006

Ummm, Lipids go below/after the filter or the filter will clog and all the tubing needs changed. :rolleyes:

acgemt · Sep 21, 2006

How about the most embarassing?? My cute as a button 81 year old came in for falure to thrive and alzheimer's/dementia issues. I chose not to secure her belongings (after all what could an 81 year old do???) When it was time to tell her she was being transferred to another facility, she wan't too happy. When it was ativan time, she whipped out her can of pepper spray from her pants pocket. With so many people in the room, I just dove right on top of her trying to get it out of her hand. My eyes got the brunt of the spray. Oh, those 81 year olds. Never trust a cute face!!

Needless to say, yes pepper spray hurts, The nurses were all squirting me with saline...and milk. Oh the embarassment.

GrnHonu99, RN · Sep 21, 2006

How about the most embarassing?? My cute as a button 81 year old came in for falure to thrive and alzheimer's/dementia issues. I chose not to secure her belongings (after all what could an 81 year old do???) When it was time to tell her she was being transferred to another facility, she wan't too happy. When it was ativan time, she whipped out her can of pepper spray from her pants pocket. With so many people in the room, I just dove right on top of her trying to get it out of her hand. My eyes got the brunt of the spray. Oh, those 81 year olds. Never trust a cute face!!
Needless to say, yes pepper spray hurts, The nurses were all squirting me with saline...and milk. Oh the embarassment.

LOL. Milk? thats funny. Glad i'm not the only one doing things like this:)

DSplendid · Sep 22, 2006

oh this is fun, lets see....

copied a whole chart for a transfer...on the wrong pt.

while giving report to the most experienced rn...i said: "mrs. so and so is legally blind, i mean she totally can't see!" i had the whole department laughing....:roll

walked a symptomatic bradycardic (hr 30-40's) to the bathroom; and then was surprised when she started to get dizzy :smackingf

let a surgical pt, which was literally on the way to the or, have a sip of ginger ale. :smackingf

placed a pt on a neb treatment and...oh, i don't know, let it continue to run for about 4 hours...worse part is...she still was inhaling from it.

lastly, during an emergency...i took emergency meds ordered by the doctor out of the pyxis...and didn't realize the whole time taking out the meds. i was under another pt's name...which by the way, was being d/c'd. :uhoh21:

there is more....trust me! :smackingf :banghead: :selfbonk:

CarVsTree · Sep 22, 2006

I attempted to change PICC dressing while the PICC was still attached to a line.

We use the new Stat-locks and I had never done a Statlock PICC dressing change. I didn't realize that when you chloraprep the site it disolves the "glue" on the statlock. Well I didn't have a new statlock. So I turned to leave the room (PICC is now not anchored). And yupp! You guessed it. I tripped over the line and pulled the PICC out about a foot or so. :smackingf Pt. was to be discharged that day and got to stay an extra few hours and go through the poke of a second PICC insertion. He was not pleased at all, but really was a very good sport. I think by my 10th "I'm sorry" he'd about enough of me though. And I'm sure the PICC nurses were loving me (was home trying to sleep, plagued with guilt by the time they arrived.

I did report myself in a pt. safety report, including what I did wrong and how to avoid this mistake in the future.

My motto... NEVER change a PICC that is connected to anything (other than the pt. of course).