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..).
Specializes in Float Pool - Med-Surg, Tele, Psych.
I definitely had my share of bloopers during nursing school. This was one of my best: I was taking care of a teenaged patient during my pediatric rotation. I was really flustered, trying to track down a piece of equipment that was missing from his room and I picked up his phone to call the nurses' station. I dialed the number, held it up to my ear, and heard nothing. I muttered to myself "why isn't this working?" and my patient looked at me like I was the dumbest person he had ever encountered. "That's for the TV," he said, with a very incredulous tone of voice. I looked down and sure enough, I was trying to dial the desk with his call bell/TV remote. The phone was sitting on the bedside table. Oops. I successfully called the desk using the actual phone and then carried on with my day but I did feel like the patient was (rightly) a little skeptical of my knowledge and abilities for the rest of my time with him!
Fortunately I have NEVER made that particular mistake again. :)
My blooper was last semester. Our rotation started at shift change (0700). The night nurse told me that I'd need to "d/c the IV in Room #". To me, d/c an IV means completely remove it. Did I ask to clarify? No. Did I look in the computer to see if there was an order? No. I just assumed that he wanted me to completely remove the IV. The patient was going to be discharged that evening, so it made sense to me that we'd d/c his IV.
So, I go in the room, remove the IV, document the removal in the computer and then go up to the new RN on shift and say "I already d/c'd that IV in Room # for you and documented it, so you can scratch that off your list". She asks if I meant I completely removed it. I said yes. She said "you were only supposed to d/c the FLUIDS! He's got IV antibiotics due at 1100". I felt like a complete idiot. DOH! She said I'd better get a new IV inserted pronto.
So, I get my instructor and explain what happened. I almost cried because I felt like a moron for assuming instead of verifying first. She was really nice about it. She said I needed to go explain what happened to my pt and let him know that I was going to need to put a new IV in.
Luckily, my patient was a very good sport about it. He joked with my instructor that I really just wanted to practice poking him with needles. I was happy that I got the IV on the first poke, whew! I learned a valuable lesson. Never, ever, EVER assume anything! Last night was our final night of clinicals and one of the nurses asked me to d/c an IV and I this time I made sure that she meant removal. I don't think I'll ever forget to do this now. Good learning experience :)
I really hate it when seasoned nurses hit you with shorthand technical speak that can often be ambiguous if youre not careful. I almost made a bloop due to a similar miscommunication today actually.
Nurse tells me, "hang a bag of D5 normal in room blah". So im thinking at first that means normal d5, ya know..a bag of straight d5. Then I started thinking this guy isnt diabetic or crashing..why does he need d5. Oh god does she mean d5 normal as in d5NS ??? I was too scared to ask so I casually looked around the room as if I couldnt find the bag and waited til she stepped away from her computer to check theborder myself and sure enough it was d5ns haha. Phew crisis averted dilemma deleted !
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elizzyRN
24 Posts
I definitely had my share of bloopers during nursing school. This was one of my best: I was taking care of a teenaged patient during my pediatric rotation. I was really flustered, trying to track down a piece of equipment that was missing from his room and I picked up his phone to call the nurses' station. I dialed the number, held it up to my ear, and heard nothing. I muttered to myself "why isn't this working?" and my patient looked at me like I was the dumbest person he had ever encountered. "That's for the TV," he said, with a very incredulous tone of voice. I looked down and sure enough, I was trying to dial the desk with his call bell/TV remote. The phone was sitting on the bedside table. Oops. I successfully called the desk using the actual phone and then carried on with my day but I did feel like the patient was (rightly) a little skeptical of my knowledge and abilities for the rest of my time with him!
Fortunately I have NEVER made that particular mistake again. :)