New Nurse Horror Stories

Nurses Safety

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I am wondering if any new nurses have had horror stories on a new job. I worked one 8 hour shift at a nursing home, It was horrible. I called the DON the next day and said I worked my first shift the night before and it would be my last. I then called the companies compliance hotline and the state.

Here are just a few things my "trainer did or told me"

1) If we don't have a med for the patient we just initial we gave it because we don't want the state to know we don't have it.:eek:

2) A patients 5 pm meds and 9 pm meds were given at 11 pm :no:

3)Meds from the day shift were not charted as given and I was told the day nurse would get caught up with her charting the next day:down:

4) If you realize later you forgot to give a med - just chart as refused :argue:

5) A patient fell and they put him back into bed and said he did it all the time so they don't do any reports.:crying2:

6) Gloves not worn to do accu check or give insulin - and don't wash your hands too much because they will become chapped. Hand sanitizer not available for use:smackingf

7) Several times - if a patients med was not available, the took another patients med to give. She also broke a postassium 20 mEq with her hands that was one patients to give to another patient that was ordered 10 mEq.:grn:

8) One patient was not to receive a dose of meds that day but was to get it the next day. The next days dose was already marked as given. I was told the nurse that gave that dose would see it the next day and skip it.:angryfire

9) Patient ordered Vit D 1000 IU and Vit D2 50000 IU. In the drawer was Vit S 1000 IU and Vit D 1.25 mg. I was told the Vit D 1.25 mg rounded to Vit D2 and since it was in the patients drawer it was his and thats what we give.:cry:

I was then told that this was real world nursing and I better get used to it (I was actually told to take off my rose colored sunglasses).:cool: I went home and threw up. I pray I hear about a hospital job I interviewed for last week!!! I will never do their type of nursing.:banghead:

Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.
I also worked (briefly!) in a 90 bed LTC facility after I had my hip replaced- I honestly thought it would be easier then acute care. It was just me (RN) and an LPN who had been there 12 years. We each had 45 patients. I couldn't figure out how he completed all his med passes and had time to sit, when I couldn't even finish my shift by 11:30pm. Had to punch out and return to finish my work. :nono:

How did the LPN do it? He passed ALL 3-11pm meds on 1 pass. That meant that BP meds, sleeping meds and everything else got passed out from 6pm to 8pm. His people all were sleeping, he could sit.

I agree some meds it makes no difference what time the pt receives- but ambien at 6pm? Insulin could be a problem too...

When I first started working at a nursing home I gave out meds at two separate times too. But I quickly found out you can't. BECAUSE, the residents are sleeping at 7PM and quickly told me they didn't even want the 9PM med!

So I was left to join the rest of the nurses by giving out everything excepts ABTs at one time.

I did watch to see what I was giving them and to make sure they weren't going to have a reaction, but this is what they were used to. I couldn't change things even when I tried.

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Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.

It will happen again. Its not just because you were new.

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Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.
Good choice.

Please don't think all nursing homes are like this tho..good and bad everywhere.

Just about. I worked as an agency nurse going to different nursing homes and they are mostly the same no matter where.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

on my very first day in a harvard-associated teaching hospital, i was in central hospital orientation -- you know -- where they show you the fire safety video and you sign up for your benefits . . . .

some woman came into the room where we were learning about fire safety and asked "how many of you new nurses are going to work for the neurology floor?"

eleven hands raised.

"how many of you have any experience as nurses?"

eleven hands went down.

"ok, how many of you are diploma grads from this hospital?" (obviously, this was about a quarter century ago!)

four hands went back up.

"you, you, you and you. go home and get some sleep. you're working at 11 tonight. and you -- you're in charge."

had i had any sense, i would have quit then and there. as it was, i found out that where i was going wasn't much better!

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I just wanted to update. I know they fired 3 nurses and gave one a 3 day suspension. The State did go in and investigate. I do not know the results yet.

I was offered a position with Hospice, which is what I wanted to do all along but thought I would need a years experience as posted. They decided I was worth training the right way. I love the people I work with and the environment.

If you are placed in a position you are not comfortable, remember you worked very hard for that license and don't jeopardize it. Also remember that each and every patient deserves to get the best care possible.:yeah:

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Specializes in PACU & NICU.

Geez. Who would have thought that you would need to worry about other people's actions in this way to nurse. I wouldn't have stayed either. Someone is likely to make an error and try to blame the worker attempting to follow the correct methods of nursing.

When nursing managers don't know what is happening on units (and I know they don't), they are putting their license in jeapardy. Manangers are responsible for all their nurses. When the public starts to sue more nurses, we might see a shift in accountability.

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Specializes in med surg, geriatric, clinical, pool.
Geez. Who would have thought that you would need to worry about other people's actions in this way to nurse. I wouldn't have stayed either. Someone is likely to make an error and try to blame the worker attempting to follow the correct methods of nursing.

When nursing managers don't know what is happening on units (and I know they don't), they are putting their license in jeapardy. Manangers are responsible for all their nurses. When the public starts to sue more nurses, we might see a shift in accountability.

Oh yes I have been called Nancy Nurse. I played "dumb" and asked him what that meant. I wanted to know his version of Nancy Nurse. Anyway he answered, "someone who goes strictly by the book". I told him he could afford to go more "by the book".

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No offense here, but when a med nurse has 60 patients that need their meds given out within a two hour, or sometimes only a one hour time period, how can he/she not find ways to make it easier? I don't agree with giving a higher dose than was ordered, or taking someone else's meds. But come on now, is giving a 4pm colace at 6pm, along with the patients other routine meds really going to make that much of a difference, when you still have 30 or 40 more people to give meds out to?

Using colace as an example makes it seem like a minor change (and that example is). But when nurses start taking short cuts with med admin, errors are very likely to happen. The real problem in your example is one nurse giving medications to 60 pts. I can't imagine how this would be safe and would never jeopardize my license in that manner.

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I am wondering if any new nurses have had horror stories on a new job. I worked one 8 hour shift at a nursing home, It was horrible. I called the DON the next day and said I worked my first shift the night before and it would be my last. I then called the companies compliance hotline and the state.

Here are just a few things my "trainer did or told me"

1) If we don't have a med for the patient we just initial we gave it because we don't want the state to know we don't have it.:eek:

2) A patients 5 pm meds and 9 pm meds were given at 11 pm :no:

3)Meds from the day shift were not charted as given and I was told the day nurse would get caught up with her charting the next day:down:

4) If you realize later you forgot to give a med - just chart as refused :argue:

5) A patient fell and they put him back into bed and said he did it all the time so they don't do any reports.:crying2:

6) Gloves not worn to do accu check or give insulin - and don't wash your hands too much because they will become chapped. Hand sanitizer not available for use:smackingf

7) Several times - if a patients med was not available, the took another patients med to give. She also broke a postassium 20 mEq with her hands that was one patients to give to another patient that was ordered 10 mEq.:grn:

8) One patient was not to receive a dose of meds that day but was to get it the next day. The next days dose was already marked as given. I was told the nurse that gave that dose would see it the next day and skip it.:angryfire

9) Patient ordered Vit D 1000 IU and Vit D2 50000 IU. In the drawer was Vit S 1000 IU and Vit D 1.25 mg. I was told the Vit D 1.25 mg rounded to Vit D2 and since it was in the patients drawer it was his and thats what we give.:cry:

I was then told that this was real world nursing and I better get used to it (I was actually told to take off my rose colored sunglasses).:cool: I went home and threw up. I pray I hear about a hospital job I interviewed for last week!!! I will never do their type of nursing.:banghead:

This nursing home has a huge systems problem with medications. Why are they not available? I shudder to think what is going on with the controlled substances. Also nursing education is severely lacking. Nurses should know better than to skip doses, not chart or endanger themselves by not using gloves. This is a lack of integrity that indangers both the nurse and the patient. Education, supervision and then disciplinary action.

The article did not mention the acuity of the patients or the nurse patient ratio. I suspect those are problems too. The morale seem very low.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
This nursing home has a huge systems problem with medications. Why are they not available? I shudder to think what is going on with the controlled substances. Also nursing education is severely lacking. Nurses should know better than to skip doses, not chart or endanger themselves by not using gloves. This is a lack of integrity that indangers both the nurse and the patient. Education, supervision and then disciplinary action.

The article did not mention the acuity of the patients or the nurse patient ratio. I suspect those are problems too. The morale seem very low.

Just FYI. This thread is four years old....

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I used to work in a facility with horror stories that are quite similar to yours. After a few months, I finally decided to leave because I couldn't take it anymore. Hope you find a better place to work in! Good luck!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

During my tour of Nursing Home Hell, my charge nurse wanted me to leave the keys to the narc drawer at the nurse's station when I went on break, in case a patient needed a med. I refused, and told her to page me if she needed me.

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