Take the IV out... yourself.

Nurses General Nursing

Published

So, I spent some time in the emergency room. Turns out I strep throat, so that's why my fever was being cruddy and throat getting worse. I never honestly get sick and the one time I do... it's not so pretty.

Funny thing is, I am also a nursing student so I attempted to keep a keen eye and just watch. However, I never told the nurses I was a nursing student, when they asked what I did for a living I told them I was a Mom and smiled.

When it came time for them to discharge me, the nurse came in and started to take my IV out. Another nurse came to ask her for something while she was in the middle of doing it. Focused on talking to her. I ignored it, but wished she would hurry up and just take the dang IV out. I wanted to go home and go to bed. I was tired and feeling like crap, plus I missed my son. Then she turns to me and says the unbelievable...

"Here take it out yourself."

She walks out and NEVER comes back. At this point I am fuming. So I start picking the rest of the tape off my arm and as I finish taking the tape off, another nurse walks in to see me getting ready to carefully pull my IV out. She asked what I was doing it and why I was doing it. All I could think of and manage to say was to "ask the ***** nurse that told me to do it myself." Thankfully the other nurse helped me take it out. I've never been told to do it on my own and honestly the woman should have just finished taking the IV out without leaving me hanging...

Oh and what she left me for... was to go get blankets for another patient. :eek:

Specializes in Cardiology, Oncology, Medsurge.
That happened to me too. The floor I was on knew I was a nurse. I had a c-section. I did a bird bath the first day because i was on Mag. The second day I wanted to shower and was no longer hooked to the IVF. My evening nurse came in to look at my incision and said "You havent taken that off yet" refering to my bandage. I was like no. She didnt offer to wrap my intact IV lines so that I could shower, and because I use to work OB, I know it was not my job to take off that bandage. Heck I couldnt even see it without looking in the mirror. So I said to myself "ok fudge it". I d.c'd both of my IVs and took a shower and had my bf to help me take off the bandage. Noone ever asked me one thing about either one. The cna's did keep up with my urine and BP seeing as how I had elevated BPs and on Mag for 24 hours. To think about it now, I just say oh well.

Two nurses in report:

Nurse I: Your patient is a registered nurse, so you really don't need to do anything for her, she's independent.

Nurse II: Really, you mean i get to be on facebook instead, and chart willy nilly that i did the tasks required for her care, great!

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.
Why would she tell you that? Saying "take it out yourself" tells me she thought you (1) could take it out (2) were indicating somehow you could do a better job. Sorry to sound doubtful, but you've got to understand from my point of view it seems improbable.

Did you file a formal complaint against her?

WHAT?? Who tells a patient to take out their own IV? It doesn't matter if she was waving a Red Cross flag and it doesn't matter if the nurse was angry, put-out, or peeved. That nurse was waaaayy out of line. :down:

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Report her but also make note of the nurse that did come in and help you. Include both names if you can.

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Originally Posted by Nurse80sbaby viewpost.gif

"That happened to me too. The floor I was on knew I was a nurse. I had a c-section. I did a bird bath the first day because i was on Mag. The second day I wanted to shower and was no longer hooked to the IVF. My evening nurse came in to look at my incision and said "You havent taken that off yet" refering to my bandage. I was like no. She didnt offer to wrap my intact IV lines so that I could shower, and because I use to work OB, I know it was not my job to take off that bandage. Heck I couldnt even see it without looking in the mirror. So I said to myself "ok fudge it". I d.c'd both of my IVs and took a shower and had my bf to help me take off the bandage. Noone ever asked me one thing about either one. The cna's did keep up with my urine and BP seeing as how I had elevated BPs and on Mag for 24 hours. To think about it now, I just say oh well."

ooooooooooooh, that does just ....me off! I would so make such a stink and refuse to pay for anything beyond PACU!!!

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Specializes in Just school!.

Maybe because I am a new grad and still pretty green, but if something comes out of my patient...I want to take a peek at it. Not to mention, that was very crass!

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Specializes in mostly in the basement.

As I really don't see a lot of strep in our ER......

Quick question: Did they even bring your D/C instructions to sign?

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All I know is I work in an ED, and some of my patients take out their own IV's all the time. It is usually a person who is either a "seeker" or someone who is of poor health, in and out of the hospital all the time. I hate it when patients do this. I always make sure to document: Pt pulled out his/her own IV without RN in his/her presence. There have been cases where pt's come back with phlebitis or what not from a previous IV site. I do not want to be held accountable. If you document IV d/c'd with catheter intact, you better be there to witness it, or document otherwise. I'm in awe after hearing you were asked to remove your own IV by an RN. Sure, it can get really stressful, when your trying to do 10 things at once, but it literally takes all of 10 seconds to undo a tegaderm and slap some gauze with tape on top. Then you can ask the pt to hold pressure to site and raise his/her arm for 1 minute before getting dressed.

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The nurse was inappropriate. And I wonder what you'll write in the Press Ganey form:uhoh3:

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Did the OP say she'd stayed at a Holiday Inn Express? :D

I'm not sure how else to account for the do-it-yourself Pt care. :uhoh3:

As to the Press Ganey, you can bet the answer of the Pt that got the blanket will trump anything like having to d/c an IV.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

i had a patient take his dialysis needles out one time. i had run to the med room to get the pain med he was requesting and while i was gone, he turned off the blood pump and took out the needles. i was a brand new dialysis nurse and nearly freaked. the old dialysis nurses were sitting at the nurse's station chuckling -- i guess he does this often and they wanted to see what i'd do.

and then there was the time my husband was in the er, and he was so dehydrated they couldn't get an iv in. he kept saying "i'm a nurse, i'll do it." that didn't impress them much, so he said "my wife is a nurse. she'll do it." i think they might have let me try, but the anesthesia fellow got it.

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

This whole thread reminds of the time my mom was going in for breast cancer surgery. I had worked the night before, and drove 50 miles after work to be at the hospital with her. Still had my scrubs on. (Nowadays I would have taken something and changed before I went).

I was sitting in the room with Mom, her nurse comes in to start her IV, gets called away for something, and she says to me, "Can you go ahead and put that in for me?"

This was 20 years ago and stil amazes me. That nurse didn't know if I was a nurse, an aide, or what.

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As I really don't see a lot of strep in our ER......

Quick question: Did they even bring your D/C instructions to sign?

Yeah they did. So I signed it after the other nurse had taken the IV out.

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