It's been awhile since we had a stupid nurse tricks thread, so here goes: How to look Incredibly Stupid Without Really Trying:
Call in to work because it's snowed and it's "not worth your life to drive to work on those roads." Be in a bar down the street from the hospital when your best friend at work uses the "Find My Friends" app on her iPhone to check on when her replacement will get there in to relieve her. (Will you lose your job?)
You've got horrible abdominal pain, but you suck it up and come to work anyway. Yay, you! You collapse in your patient's room and are whisked off to the ER by your manager and an RT. You insist that you're infertile and couldn't possibly be pregnant as you're delivered of a full term baby girl. (OK, this one was a CNS and nursing student.)
Call in sick to work because you want to go to your manager's wedding and you didn't win the "get the weekend off" lottery. Catch the bouquet. (And lose your job.)
You're having palpitations, and you're a little lightheaded and slightly diaphoretic. Strangers at the mall are concerned and offer to call an ambulance. You decline, telling them you're fine. Then you think that you probably should go to the ER, but since you know from AN that you won't get a sandwich to eat, you sit down at Bertucci's and order a plate of ravioli. Then you drive yourself to the ER, park at the bottom of a hill and walk uphill to the entrance. You're surprised when the triage nurse takes you straight back. (Yes, that was me. I was fine.)
Tell everyone at work that you're young, you want to have fun, and you're going to a friend's Halloween party after work. Go to the party dressed as a sexy nurse, and be in lots of pictures. Post those pictures on Facebook. Now call in sick to work the next day at 06:50 for your 07:00 shift. You've friended everyone you work with on FaceBook. (And NOT lose your job. What are the odds?)
Steal money from your colleagues' bags in the breakroom. Get caught by a colleague with a black belt in tae kwon do. Be photographed with a 5 foot tall girl flipping you and then sitting on you until Security arrives. (Have your manliness questioned by everyone who sees the pictures.)
The other fun one is when either the roller clamp or the IV itself is clamped and you don't realize it:)
Have you ever found it with the clamp put in the wrong way? As in, pump is basically pumping from patient to the IV bag. Three co-workers checked it and couldn't figure out why it was beeping. They were pretty embarrassed when we figured it out!
Squirt lidocaine right in your own face and have numb lips throughout the case...
Get NTG on your hands while spiking that old-fashioned IV bottle and have a mysterious headache for the next hour!
Yep...I should slow down when drawing up/spiking the meds I suppose!
OOH, and one more! I had this trauma surgeon who would always criticize everyone in the room during a resuscitation. One day I wasn't squeezing the blood in hard enough (waiting on the Level I infuser), so he came to take over and show me how the experts do it. He proceeded to bust the blood bag and cover himself in blood. I will never forget that day!
I was helping a student start an IV once and encouraging her to look in the upper arm (because most people don't look there). She pointed to the pulsating brachial artery and said..."OOOH there's no way I can miss that one!"
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Squirt lidocaine right in your own face and have numb lips throughout the case...
Get NTG on your hands while spiking that old-fashioned IV bottle and have a mysterious headache for the next hour!
Yep...I should slow down when drawing up/spiking the meds I suppose!
OOH, and one more! I had this trauma surgeon who would always criticize everyone in the room during a resuscitation. One day I wasn't squeezing the blood in hard enough (waiting on the Level I infuser), so he came to take over and show me how the experts do it. He proceeded to bust the blood bag and cover himself in blood. I will never forget that day!
Drop bottle of nitroglycerin on the floor, where, of course, it shatters. Start picking up glass shards with bare hands. Cut hand. Get NTG all over cut hand. Pass out and hit head on floor. (Yup, that was me. And I should have known better, because DH had already done the exact same thing. I got a gooseegg, he had a shiner!)
"Trip" over the patient's IV pole and hit the code button by accident, then stand helplessly in the doorway going "I don't know what happened!" as the entire floor runs in to start a code. One of my favorite CNAs, just not her most stellar moment...
What are your normal blood sugar ranges in the US and how are they measured?
I find it confusing when I read posts RE blood sugars because in the UK our blood sugars should be between 4-7 mmols/L (the highest I've known on a DKA patient is 48mmols/L).
Just curious, even though it's clearly measured in different units in the US it still makes my heart jump a bit seeing a blood sugar of 30 being discussed!
Also I love reading all the posts on here, they literally make me laugh out loud some of them.
Shinnichi, ADN, RN
157 Posts
Forgive my ignorance (pre-nursing school) but what does it mean to "spike the bag"?