Scariest things you've seen

Nurses General Nursing

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What is the scariest thing you have seen other nurses do? We have all seen some pretty ignorant, or uncaring things. Just curious. Someone should probably write a book.

I once saw a nurse uncap a line and "let it drip a little" so she sould determine if it was in a vein or artery!

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i've followed nurses who've not charted on fresh post-ops they've received on their shift... not a nurses note or even a flow sheet! :rolleyes: i couldn't believe it!

sterile dressing changes where the nurse used non-sterile gloves to get things from the dressing tray...

suctioning, starting IVs, doing blood draws and emptying bedpans without gloves...

using a 1½" 20 gauge needle to give an IM injection to an emaceated 80 year old pt... i would possibly understand using that needle if you weren't going to insert it the entire way, but this nurse went as far as she could until she "felt resistance" (which was only an 8th of an inch from the hub)... i swear, i heard her hit bone!

giving a sedative to a pt. to "settle him" after he fell out of bed and hit his head, and then wondering why they were increasingly unresponsive during neuro checks... :rolleyes:

beth :p

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This happened a few years ago, we were having a busy night with admissions on a med/surg floor. My patients rooms were located close to the nurses station so I was able to hear this conversation. A nurse comes up and ask the charge nurse if she or someone could help her with one of her new admissions. Nurse ____ (BSN) was standing there and said "sure, I can help you, what do you need? Pt _____ needs an NGT placement. A short time later the helpful nurse returns to the charge nurse and says that guy really put up a fight, he just kept saying that he can eat just fine. But I got it in!. The charge nurse looked at her and said what guy ?

This same nurse once had a I.V. pump in a semi private room sharing it with two patients. When she was called on it, she said that she thought that was why there were two sides! :eek: I'll bet she's in charge somewhere these days. ha ha.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Bushie getting elected by the Supreme court

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Pt admitted w/ hypertensive diagnosis ..... nurse assigned to patient -- did not check blood pressures on this patient for 12 hours -- she was too busy.

Monitor alarm in unit turned WAY down because it "kept going off" and it was "hard to concentrate with the loud nouise all the time" (alarm was alarming for a REASON -- DUH!)

"team members" who won't answer any pt lights but their own... that kinda screws the whole "team idea"!

Fresh post -op -- no vital for 4 hours after arriving on floor -- major complications -- tx to ICU, died 3 days later.

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I used to work withan RN who was scared to death of a code. One morning almost at the end of my night shift, I went into the break room to use the BR and tape report. This RN comes into the breakroom and I hear her call my name looking for me. She sounded a liitle frantic so I came out to the desk to see what she needed. This person was SITTING BEHING THE DESK, with the pts charts right behind her. She told me "___" has a pt that is coding or something and she doesn't know if she is a DNR or what. ????!!!!!! She didn't even know which room! So here I am like Oh my!!! and take off running down the hall...felt like I was in a nightmare...The RN in charge of this poor pt was a new grad, found this pt unresponsive and was scared to death. We did code this poor person but they did not make it. This same RN was also known for actually walking out of her pts rooms if they coded..yep we would be running in and she would be running out..did I mention she was also charge nurse...needless to say I don't work their anymore..man what a bunch of incompetents...and I could also tell some real scary resident stories. :rolleyes:

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I have two...one is a nurse and one is a resident (not to MD bash b/c I actually like residents a lot....good ones, anyway). The first one (now I did not see this myself but I was on the unit when it happended) is an orientee in ICU who only had a couple of days orientation left and she was to give 6 units insulin IVP to a patient but she drew up 6 cc's and was about to give it when her preceptor saw her and stopped her...thank goodness! She does not work in the ICU now. The second is a resident who walked into a patient's room on the floor, walked straight back out and told the unit secretary that the patient needed help because he was not breathing and then turned around and left the unit!

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Specializes in med-surg.

9 hours ago I offered a patient Atarax or Tylenol; she asked what the Atarax was for and I told her it was for anxiety. Patient stated that she had nothing for anxiety, the nurse on the previous shift was sure of it. (In our hospital, we usually give Ativan). I wasn't sure what Atarax was, either, but I looked it up before I ever saw my patient, it was a PRN, after all. The next patient had every port to his central line unclamped. The next patient was incontinent of liquid stool on the floor and was HUMILIATED, and all nurses had been charting on the liquid stools all day. The patient had immodium ordered for 2 days and he had not recieved a dose. And this was last night!

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Specializes in Nurse Practitioner-Emergency Room.

I'm currently a nursing student, and during one of my first clinical experiences, the MD was performing a thoracentesis(sp? I am new you know) and he asked me to help position the patient. As the doctor was aspirating the pleural fluid, he accidentially shot some of the fluid (rancid and purulent I might add) across the room, narrowly missing my eyes! Not necessarily scary for the patient, but I learned real quick that you should use eye protection in situations such as that. Anyway, I'm new to this site, but it's the best nursing site I've found so far. Look forward to positing many times! :) :)

____________________________

Life is what happens when you're making other plans (or something like that)

John Lennon

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ewh, Kyboyrn... that reminds me of the first time i watched a resident place a femoral line... firstly, he was using the wrong line kit (he was using one for a radial art line, not the longer one needed for a femoral), so he was never going to get it placed properly... and secondly, he attempted to place it about 5 times! :imbar the last time, he tried aspirating the line to make sure it was clear and ended up shooting a huge, disgusting blood clot across the room, narrowly missing my face... i finally stepped up (i was only a student at the time and intimidated by medical staff) and suggested that he get help, for the sake of the patient... the senior res came in and took one look at the kit and asked him WTH he was doing... turns out, this was the resident's first femoral art line as well, and really should have been supervised for it... the senior res got it in one go... and i learned that if something's not going right, regardless of who's doing the procedure, say something!

beth :p

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We had a resident in the LTC where I work whose hearing aid was plugged with wax, so the nurse put it to her mouth and blew out the wax- totally nasty! now she is our infection control nurse- go figure!!!

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Specializes in Long-term care, wound care.
ham22, i love your tag line.

thank you!!!!!!!

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