I thought it would be funny to start a thread to share silly things you've done in nursing school. I know we've all done some ridiculous things; we're learning after all and we can't expect to be good at this right out of the gate!
I can start with three personal examples:
-I was in ICU clinicals this past semester. I'm 3/4 of the way done with my program, I'm starting to feel more confident, and the fact that I've made it to the ICU clinical portion means I presumably know more about what I'm doing, right? So, the RN asks me to go get her a top sheet. Easy, simple, first-semester-in-RN-school request. But... I don't know if it was the clipboard in her hand full of papers, or the fact that I'd just gotten back from lunch and hadn't turned my brain back on yet... but I just looked at her blankly. Top sheet? What is a top sheet?! I was thinking she meant like, a piece of paper they use for shift hand off or whatever. Top sheet. I was amazingly, wholly embarrassed when the poor RN had to walk me to the supply closet, scan in, and grab... a top sheet. For the bed she needed changed. I'm sure that RN will forever think I'm an idiot.
-ER clinical. I get to start an IV... yay! I've been getting them all day, 5 good sticks, this one is one more to get some practice in. Different nurse than I've had all day though and this one makes me nervous. Try to ignore it. I poke- get flashback- yay! Start advancing the catheter in and that, my friends, is when something in my brain decides it would be a great idea to retract the needle... before the catheter is fully in and before I hold pressure above the catheter. I had been doing it perfectly all day so WHYYYY did I do that?! You know what happens next. Bloodbath! This patient was a BLEEDER and even after putting my finger above the catheter and holding pressure, it looked like I had just tried to murder the pt. Luckily the patient just kind of laughed it off, and we were able to float the cath the rest of the way in so the pt didn't have to be restuck... though afterwards the RN went around the ER announcing loudly to any other RN who would listen that she'd never seen such a bloodbath in all her life. *facepalm* 5 good sticks and praise from the RNs erased by one idiotic moment. Sigh. I did redeem myself after with one more good stick (with the RN who didn't make me nervous supervising!), and I will say I learned from this and I've never done that again!
-First time emptying a foley bag. Bucket got full, foley bag still had some urine in it, so I was going to have to come back for another trip. But... I forgot to re-clip the little tubey-thing. You know where this is going... yep. Pee everywhere.
So those are my bloopers/embarassing moments. I take comfort in the fact that none of them were particularly dangerous mistakes and I learned from each one of them (except the sheet. I SWEAR I knew what a top sheet was..).
I have had many this semester. This was our first semester in the hospital and my first week on the floor I was all thumbs, down to using the computer and doing my very first med pass. The second week I was on it. Third week, I was so exhausted, that I fell right back asleep after my alarm at 4:30am and didn't get up until 5:50am. I had to leave at 6 to get to my clinical on time. I got there on time, but not looking my usual put together self. Then my name badge fell off in the car and I couldn't find it. I thought I lost it and was freaking out. Finally went to my car during lunch and there it was, sitting on my seat!!! I just looked stupid that day.
I still cannot figure out why the O2 Sat machine on the datascope will never work for me and I have to get it from the wall. Everything else works but that. And that's the easiest thing to get!! I think I'm jinxed on that.
When the nurse convinced me when mixing abx that you had to get the little plastic separator out of the tube before you could get the fluid into the add on. Took me forever and I asked another nurse for help
Losing my pants during a code
Making a pt go asystole while starting an iv
Not securing my crazy pt so they ran through the hallways naked with catheter bag in tow
You know the urine cups with the blue lids and vaccutainer to get the urine into the tubes? Instead of peeling off the yellow label to open the vaccutainer part of the lid, i decided to jam my thumb into the yellow paper to open it. I didnt know there was a needle underneath there and it punctured right through my thumb! Had no idea 🙈everyone had a great laugh.
I am in my final term of my RN program. I am precepting at a rural hospital an hour away from my home. I was there this past weekend and my pt needed her bag of NaCl changed because it was almost gone. So as I went to spike the new bag, I pulled the spike out of the old bag and fluid ran on my shoe and the floor. My nurse was like "Honey, you can flip the bag over and pull it out. I know that too". Duh. I felt so dumb, but at least my pt got a laugh.
When the nurse convinced me when mixing abx that you had to get the little plastic separator out of the tube before you could get the fluid into the add on. Took me forever and I asked another nurse for help
Losing my pants during a code
Making a pt go asystole while starting an iv
Not securing my crazy pt so they ran through the hallways naked with catheter bag in tow
The list can grow easily.
The more of these I read, the more I realize we all have in common. The pants and the code? It was a close call... many many flights of stairs and elastic waist stretchy pants don't go well.
The more of these I read, the more I realize we all have in common. The pants and the code? It was a close call... many many flights of stairs and elastic waist stretchy pants don't go well.
Curious as to how you made your pt flatline?!
Yes horrible elastic waist bands without ties are never in my wardrobe again. They all have to have ties on them now at the least.
I literally put the needle into his arm so we could send him to get a stress test done. Apparently that allow was too much stress
I graduated last year (thankfully), but it was a close call my last semester. I went to a school that prides itself on turning out students who've had "at least twice the number of hours as average graduate nurses," so in addition to 17 credit hour classes and mandatory NCLEX prep classes, I was expected to work at least part-time (to pay my own way through school as I had been all four years) and complete 336 hours of specialized practicum. So in essence, I was out and about from 8am to 5pm, quick nap and do my homework from 5pm to 6:30pm, and then off to my nightly clinical from 7pm-7am. Quick nap and start it all over. I didn't even have breaks on weekends, it was every single day like this (my school made sure of it, even in the face of a nurse preceptor who only worked 40 hours a week - they gave me two). In all, I was getting about 2-4 hours of sleep per day/night. Needless to say, towards the end of the semester, I was about to crash. And it was gonna be big. Up until then, I hadn't made any major/really dumb mistakes that I know of throughout my other years. There were lots of little things, not knowing where things were, not knowing how to hook up a telemetry monitor on a new patient, silly stuff like that. But nothing big.
On my last clinical day ever, I went into work dead tired already from a semester of little to no sleep and running hard. On top of this, the computers were down so we had no access to EMR after a certain point in the shift. Combine all these factors, and I made the most spectacularly stupid med error in history: I gave one patient's meds to a different patient next door. Luckily, it was just a daily multivitamin and (slightly more worrisome) an anti-anxiety med since the other patient meant to receive the meds had mental health issues. So I reported it to my preceptor as soon as I realized the mistake, she notified the patient and her superiors, and we filled out all the correct forms and such. I had the best preceptor ever, she just said it was a learning experience, that we all had to have them, and that her first major med error was giving a patient a drug he was allergic to! So it made me feel better.
But nothing felt as good as going to my pinning ceremony still half-dead from that shift the night before, and then sleeping for almost two days straight once it was all over!
You know the urine cups with the blue lids and vaccutainer to get the urine into the tubes? Instead of peeling off the yellow label to open the vaccutainer part of the lid, i decided to jam my thumb into the yellow paper to open it. I didnt know there was a needle underneath there and it punctured right through my thumb! Had no idea ������everyone had a great laugh.
In the classroom skills lab, one the day that they taught us about drawing blood, they passed around all the supplies as they lectured -- syringes, butterfly needles, vacutainers, lab tubes, etc.
Well I had never really looked at a vacutainer up close before and I couldn't put together in my head how it would transfer blood into the tube with just that little rubber tube in there. So, like a good curious child....I reached in with my thumb to poke it. Turns out theres a needle inside that rubber piece!
Blood. Everywhere. Pain. Embarassment.
At least it was just in class and not in clinical?
our morphine comes in this very slim special vial that i discovered has a plastic bottom. wanna know how i discovered it has a plastic bottom ?
i inserted 1ml of air into it before drawing it up. or should i say attempted. anyway i heard a popping sound that sounded like a champagne bottle and observed my patient doused in the eye with morphine. oh well, intra occular is ALMOST like intravenous right ?
Well I had never really looked at a vacutainer up close before and I couldn't put together in my head how it would transfer blood into the tube with just that little rubber tube in there. So, like a good curious child....
as soon as i read that part the BIGGEST GRIN grew across my face haha
our morphine comes in this very slim special vial that i discovered has a plastic bottom. wanna know how i discovered it has a plastic bottom ?
i inserted 1ml of air into it before drawing it up. or should i say attempted. anyway i heard a popping sound that sounded like a champagne bottle and observed my patient doused in the eye with morphine. oh well, intra occular is ALMOST like intravenous right ?
Elijah I did this too!!! I forgot about that blooper!!! The plastic cap thing went FLYING!!!!
Ugh. I have another blooper to report now from last night.
I told my clinical instructor that my patient was on TPN during report. Then I went to lunch when I was done giving report. I came back and my instructor found me and told me my patient wasn't on TPN, he was on tube-feeding. All I could do was sigh. That's what I meant to say and now I look like I don't know the difference. *facepalm*
I felt so dumb, but at least my pt got a laugh.
NurseGirl525, ASN, RN
3,663 Posts
I have had many this semester. This was our first semester in the hospital and my first week on the floor I was all thumbs, down to using the computer and doing my very first med pass. The second week I was on it. Third week, I was so exhausted, that I fell right back asleep after my alarm at 4:30am and didn't get up until 5:50am. I had to leave at 6 to get to my clinical on time. I got there on time, but not looking my usual put together self. Then my name badge fell off in the car and I couldn't find it. I thought I lost it and was freaking out. Finally went to my car during lunch and there it was, sitting on my seat!!! I just looked stupid that day.
I still cannot figure out why the O2 Sat machine on the datascope will never work for me and I have to get it from the wall. Everything else works but that. And that's the easiest thing to get!! I think I'm jinxed on that.