The most common myth I have heard is this one. In an unnamed ITU it was noted, with great concern that on a particular weekday (let us say Thursday) that patients were dying with alarming regularity.
The management looked into this of course. It was discovered that Thursday was the cleaner's day for doing a deep-clean.
Of course! The cleaners were UNPLUGGING THE RESPIRATORS to plug in their vacuum cleaners:eek:
Where I used to work, if we were to utter the name of any frequent flyer, we were met with a "shush", for to speak the person's name would mean they would soon be coming through our doors.
Specializes in HD, Homecare, Med/Surg, Infectious Disease.
I did a NICU rotation for 2 days during my last clinical and they had 22 admits over the weekend the nurses told me that they had so many related to premature rupture because it was a full moon and the moon controls water and humans are made up manily of water
It is fact that the moon controls water, but not the water in our bodies. It is responsible for controlling the tides. If the moon controlled the water in our bodies, why then aren't the nurses going crazy in addition to the patients??? The moon apparently is selective lol.
We had a couple of patients die during supper, both times with a tray that featured green Jello. I noticed that for quite a long time after that, green Jello would surreptitiously find its way into the garbage every time it was served on our floor. I explained to my CNAs that green Jello probably did not kill people, but you'll never find people eating it here now, hehe.
At my hospital, the big superstition is the "code hour" between 2 & 3 am, when most codes are supposed to happen. Just out of curiosity, several colleagues and I have been keeping track of hospital wide codes called on our shifts, and over the past 2 months, they have averaged 2-4am.
*** Slow codes are real, but not like that. It's not that people actually move slowly. More like a little CPR gets done while the code team leader get a brief report from the primary nurse and then the code is stopped, usually after one round of ACLS. The time of death is called and that's it. This usually happened when there is really no chance of saving the person.
The reason behind slow codes, in my experience, is unrealistic expectations of physicians, primary surgeons, and their failure to make the patient family understand the real situation.
I used to be a big proponent of getting family members out of the room during a code. I have changed my mind on this now as I find the best way to get them to want to call it quits is to let them see what we are doing to their loved one.
I have heard of slow codes more in this manner. I have heard several stories about children in the ER that were DOA but the team did a "slow code" to allow the parents time to process the death. I do not think the term ever applied in a situation where the MD or nurse "felt" the patient should be DNR and chose to take matters into their own hands. Rather, it is used in hopeless cases where the families are not ready to let go and the code is more for the family's benefit than the patient's.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Alright, not to freak the guys out I promise, but when I was in NS, we had a "film strip" (yeah, film strip:) dark ages) about what to do if a man got an arousal response, during a bath or whatever. At that time, I heard over and over that the standard treatment used to be, (again, I apologize !) a sharp whack to the member with a pencil. Is this true?? Is it another nursing urban legend?
The one I have always thought was freaky is "if you turn them they will die" for pts w/bad problems.
Similar to that, if a patient was comfort measures and you gave them a bath... that's usually when they expired....
I've also heard that to keep a patient from dying on your shift, you need to tie a knot in the sheet... and if a common housefly gets into the patient's room.... look out
I wish I didn't have this story to tell. During my first RN job 15 years ago I was working in a rural LTC facility. I had been working there about a year when I got a verbal order passed on to each shift in report but originating from the patients MD. The patient was female mid-forties and had been a resident of this facility for many years. She had MS with a myriad of chronic health problems R/T primary dx. Extremely obese and non-ambulatory. A&O. Very lucid and cognizant of all aspects of her condition, plan of care and prognosis at all times. She had the active support of a sister who visited on a regular basis. They laughed and talked like school girls sometimes for hours. She had been approached with DNR order by her MD and adm. staff on multiple occasions and after private discussions with her sister she declined to sign. She felt like she enjoyed her life such as it was and was too young to die. During the first year I worked there her overall health had declined somewhat but was still basically good in between infections. She had been treated multiple times for increasingly drug resistant infections ranging from UTI to pneumonia. She had some hairy moments but each time rallied and recovered. During this time administration had amped up their efforts to coerce a signature. She confided in me once in her sister's presence that it felt like harassment. I sympathized but didn't know what to do other than continue to provide her with the best care I knew how. I was baffled at first about why they were so adamant that she sign DNR. I soon found out it was because she was a Medicaid pt. who was about to reach her lifetime max. Eventually she had another major infection and was getting huge doses of vanc and gent IV. Her condition was precarious but she continued to have a good attitude and a lot of spirit. During report for my shift was when I was told that the MD had ordered a "slow code" if she coded but that this was not to be mentioned anywhere in writing including nurses notes. I had never heard that phrase before and asked what it meant. Reporting nurse reported that doc stated "if you find her without pulse or respirations have all staff leave the room,go to nurses station and call ambulance, go back to the room and stand outside with the door closed... (and stay there until the police come and cart you off to jail although I added this in my mind). I immediately said there is no such thing and I refuse to do that. Other nurse said "you have to it's a doctors order! ", to which I replied "nothing was written, it wasn't said to me by MD and I have not only a right but a moral and legal imperative to refuse to carry out illegal orders". Thankfully nothing happened on my shift as I'm sure I would have lost my job (but I was prepared to do that). The patient eventually recovered. I don't know what they did when Medicaid ran out. I moved on soon after this event. If I had not seen this myself I wouldn't have believed it could really happen. I wish I didn't have to know it could. I know this is long but it really feels good to get it off my chest. I've carried that around for a long time. I still believe that reports of slow codes are 90 plus percent urban myth but I also cannot believe that that this incident was the only time this has ever happened. And for anyone that may be thinking I was getting my leg pulled, I assure you that was not the case. This caused a significant seismic jolt among staff and administration esp. between nurses who refused vs. nurses prepared to carry this out. That's my story and that's the end of it. Thanks for listening.
I do not think the term ever applied in a situation where the MD or nurse "felt" the patient should be DNR and chose to take matters into their own hands. Rather, it is used in hopeless cases where the families are not ready to let go and the code is more for the family's benefit than the patient's.
country mom
379 Posts
Where I used to work, if we were to utter the name of any frequent flyer, we were met with a "shush", for to speak the person's name would mean they would soon be coming through our doors.