sqky

you may not believe it.. but this is true my doc's office his nurse got 294/180 on me when I went in for a migraine ..... guess where I ended up.

We have a LPN working postpartum and nursery at our facility. She was trained in OR as a scrub nurse for C-sections. I just talked to her. She loves taking care of the moms and babies, but the highlight of her day or night is scrubbing in for a c-section.

An elderly gentleman was recovering from hip surgery. He began retaining fluid in his tissues... third spacing horribly in his legs. Internist came in and wrote order to compress area rhymaticly until all fluid released. The patient was transferred to a transitional floor from the surgical floor for rehab. Charge nurse signed off on the transfer orders. Upon arrival on the transitional floor the order was put on their treatment plan. Very new nurse was doing treatments. Want to guess what she did? hint: when transferred the only area which was edematous was his foreskin. The staff said he was VERY happy down there........until they realized that is NOT what was to be rhymatically compressed until all fluid released. He was to have TEDs and leg pumps on.

I would like to add to your list. To that list add resources for adoption. The time of discussion of this topic is not during labor. Our local hospital has prenatal classes which has added special night for the birthing mother who is considering relinquishing her child. On that night an adoption social worker, birthmom and birthgrandmother come in to answer questions about the adoption process and their experinces. It is a very positive environment for everyone. Your job is very intense and dealing with a child being relinquished only adds to the difficulty. Develop and use your "natural resources in your community"........ those who have been there and done the ups and downs related to relinquishment and live to share about it. It works. The local Planned Parenthood use the "natural resources" I have referred to, I am the birthgrandmother they call.

A patient in ICU is now paralized from an error by nursing staff at the local hospital. A 24 y/o female MVA patient had a CVP line for fluid infusion and an epidural for administering continuous pain medication. Pumps were labeled correctly for each infusion as were the tubings. The primary nurse hung Cipro ( she did not check the labeling closely) then followed it with Gentamicin all through the epidural line. A similar incident occured 7 years ago. The caps for the epidurals and CVP's were the same. They have changed to a red cap for the epidurals, but that does not help if you are not observant of labels.

A 76 y/o male was 1st day post op for back surgery. His wife and family were at his bedside. He complained of pain 8/10 on a pain scale. A student with her instructor and primary nurse came in and administered 4mg Dilaudid IVP. At the head of the bed, on the front of the chart, on the MAR, and on his wrist band it very clearly state this man was very sensitive to narcotics. He had never been given Dilaudid before. He had coded in surgery when given demerol and in RR when given Morphine on previous surgeries. A daughter who is a nurse called to check on her dad and her mom told her he was sleeping well, but was concerned that he was only breathing about 4 times a minute. The daughter told her mom to call a nurse and she was on her way. The daughter arrived 7 minutes later and found the call light on. It had not been answered. The daughter worked at the facility and one of her co-workers followed her into the room. The daughter was furious, but kept her cool. She hit the code button. The primary nurse came in and said. "don't Narcan him, he will just start hurting again." The daughter countered with "We can help him deal with some pain, we want him alive." After administrating the Dilaudid NO ONE checked the patient. The nursing staff had all left the room immediately after giving it and had not returned until the code was called and Narcan administered. When asked why they had chosen to give 4mg of Dilaudid, the student and her instructor said. "he was a big man." The primary nurse stated she did not know the amount of drug they were giving. Each blamed the other, refusing to take responsibility for what happened. (Doctor's order: Dilaudid 2-4mg IVP Q 2 hrs prn pain. Monitor patient closely for 10 minutes after administering, patient is very sensitive to narcotics.)

here is one to lighten the spirt!! lol:Santa1: A female was brought into the ER via ambulance. She had been driving her car on icy roads, the car failed to stop at an intersection with a major highway and she struck a Toyota station wagon. There were no police around (it was 5am and this is a very small town). She volunteered to walk to the Sheriff office to get help since there was no other traffic. No one would answer there so she walked to the city police dept. No one there either (found out later they were all at the Sheriff Office drinking coffee and eating their doughnuts). She saw a tow truck pull into the car dealership and went over and had them call the SO to get help, then decided to walk back to the accident scene. On the way back she slipped on the ice, you guessed it, broke her leg. Now I should tell you she had wrecked a brand spanking new Pinto sedan (only had 500 miles on it) and had not received a scratch. After 45 minutes of laying on the ice and snow employees of the business she fell in front of came to work and found her. (There had been a severe ice storm the night before and had come early to shovel the walks....... to late to save her from falling lol). Anyway, she ended up in the ER, got casted and family took her home. 30 minutes later she was back in the ER with the cast broken off her foot and all the toes broken on the casted leg. She had gone to her parents home, sat in her dad's recliner, it broke, flipped her backwards. Her casted foot struck a bookcase breaking her toes and splitting the cast. The doc was still in the ER when she was taken back in, yelled at her to go home........ she showed him what was left of her cast and asked him if there was a warranty on his work. He shut up and refixed her leg and toes. She totaled her new car, broke her leg and then her toes in less than 2 1/2 hours..... now that was a bad day. :Snow: I lived to tell about it, but I also check all chairs before I sit. :icon_redface:

We had a 17 y/o male walk into the ER, a tactless nurse commented "he walks like he has something stuck up his butt"....... he heard her. The sad thing is he did..... not by his choice. He and some friends had been out partying in the boonies (124 miles from our hospital), got drunk, walked down over the hill, fell down (he stated he had some difficulty getting up, but attributed it to being drunk). He got back up walked to the fire and one of his buddies hit his butt jokingly for falling down. Blood spattered all over. When he fell he had inpaled himself on a small tree, when he stood up it broke off. They bypassed 2 closer hospitals to come to ours. He stated he was not having any pain. In the end...no pun intended, the tree had ented his rectum, passed through his abdomen and had pierced into his chest cavity. His first surgery lasted 17 hours, I got to watch some if it and later cared for him on the nursing unit. His hospitalization was 5 months following the first surgery and had to have 5 more over a 2 year period.

3 years ago I floated to ER. My first patient was a guy and his girlfriend came in for moral support. He was complaining of not being able to void. I bladder scanned him and he was over 1000cc. The story came out after I asked him how long it had been since he had voided. He causually said, "Ever since she (pointimg to his girl friend) put the pinto beans in my member to see how far they would shoot out when I pee." He ended up in surgery. The the dried pinto beans had swollen from exposure to the urine and he could not pass them. After they left the ER other nurses told me they were monthly visitors to the ER for foreign body removal from their private places. When will people learn! lol

I was working ER years ago when a very high society lady came in for a pelvic exam. I gave her a gown and asked her to undress and left the room to let the doc know she was ready for him. He came in and we put her in the stirrups. Low and behold a green stamp was stuck to hair in her peri area. The doc winked at me, took the stamp off and continued the exam. It was all I could do not to laugh. After she left he said he should have asked her if her green stamp book was filled. (for you who are to young to remember, green stamps used to be given out at stores, you would collect them to turn them in for items in a catalog)

I was hospitalized recently in PCU due to complications from medications I was taking for HTN and allergies. A float nurse from my orthopedic floor came and said she was my nurse, I knew her... so OK... Came lunch time I asked if I could please get up and shower before I ate, the doc had given permission. She got very nervous. I got my shower, though I had to take of my tele patches in the shower myself. When I got back into bed she came in, handed my new tele patches to me and told me to put them on myself, she did not know where to put them and did not feel comfortable asking one of the regular nurses in the department.... then she said bye and off to lunch she went. I know how and where they go (I have worked in PCU alot) but figured I would wait the half hour til she got back. In that half hour no other nurse checked on me and no one noticed I was off tele. (During the night my HR kept dropping into the 30's and SPO2 was in the 70's. She returned on time and came in to check on me and SHE then learned where to put the tele patches. I survived as you can tell, I am here telling you about it. I used the experience to start some changes in expectations of and from the float nurses without anyone reacting horribly. Floor nurses who float are expected to be assigned a resource nurse on the shift .... and the float nurse is to communicate to with the resource nurse things she/he does not understand. It has a lot more to it, I am trying to make it simple on this forum. The education department of the facility has now developed a short review of specialities of each department and nurses attend classes to help them become better acquainted with equipment of each speciality department. Recently I have only heard positive feed back from nurses that float and the departments they have floated to. It sometimes takes a nurse being patient to recognize and how we as staff can help each other to provide for the safe welfare of those we have in our care. IMHO I have learned nurses need to take care of our own.....we all have been freaked out... I sure have....But I want to be a part of fixing the problem.

I was observing for a part time job in a LTF with a very old LPN (I will call her Helen) showing me "the ropes" as she put it. While setting up the next round of meds two CNAs came to the med door and said a resident was dead. Helen told the CNAs to "pull out his foley and clean him up." Helen during this time called the doc, family and funeral home (all before checking him herself). I was very uncomfortable with how she was doing things and asked her about it. She just blew me off. Now the CNAs came and said their work was done, and they did not remove the foley. Helen stomped down to the room, grabbed the foley and pulled it out with the bulb fully inflated!!!! The patient let out a scream, sat straight up in bed and let out a stream of vulgarities as the mortician walked through the door. Helen looked at the aides and accused the them of lying to her.!!! Then she told me to call the doc and family to tell them of MY mistake!!!! I refused. I was an observer, not an employee. She retired 2 days later.

My feelings.... If we each put as much energy into working together as a team, as we do deciding what letters behind someones name decides who will be in a management postition... all our work would be more satisfying to us as health care providers... and the client/patient benfits. We each have a state BON. The facilities which put LPN's in management roles must comply by rules. Don't you think JACHO and each states surveyors would be issuing warnings or shutting them down? As a LPN I have worked management in LTC and also a charge nurse. The two jobs had totally different job descripstions. One was hands on nursing, the second was paper work ... and more paperwork...

ok..I am a LPN. I was put in the position of 'house supervisor' while working at a LTN facility several years ago. The RN whom I surpervised said nothing about the fact I was 'in charge' of the 94 bed facility while working with me. She was not allowed to carry narc keys, she could only give narcs in my presence, and was not allowed in the med room without me being there. Those were not my rules but the DON. I respected her knowledge and experience, she respected mine. A year or so went by, she completed her rehab and went to work for a local hospital. Not knowing she was working there, I applied for and was hired as a staff nurse. Much to my surprise, my first night at work she was my charge nurse. We worked together for 5 years before she found a different job she liked more. Before she left she thanked me for the understanding and support I had shown her when she was getting back into nursing. She said many of her fellow RN's would treat her like she had the plague the first year back in nursing and she was ready to give nursing up. She said what changed her mind was the way I accepted she had messed up, yet helped her to regain her self respect, gain respect of co-workers, and provided a positive role model for her. Now, what is more important, having someone who does a supervisory job well and all workers give their 110% while at work........... or someone with all the letters after their name, work is chaotic, and staff relations are down in the dump and patient care does not get done?

I see the same thing in the hospital where I work. Right now we nurses on the floor are talking between each other about it. We are seeing experienced, peer respected nurses leaving with not even an acknowledgement from administration. I agree also have seen those experienced, peer respected nurses passed over for positions several years earlier. The positions were given to nurses who had been out of school for only 1-2 years. The years of experience and certification in a nursing speciality ment nothing to management. A couple of us at work have taken it upon ourselves to get some acknowledgement for nurses who are leaving. We make memory boxes, hand deliver stationary to key management pesons and ask them to write something that they will always remember about the person. We include "memories" from everyone from every department. We then put all the "memories" together in the box and present it to the individual. Sometimes we have to track the person down after they have been released from working here. But everyone needs to remember good times and know they have been appreciated. We have quit talking, and took action. We did not want to be part of not acknowledging someone, we wanted to help start it.