What's the goofiest mistake you've made on the job? No, I don't mean the med errors or the medical mistakes you learned from. Those are important and often terrible experiences, of course, but this isn't about danger to patients or trauma.
I just really want to talk about the silly things we ALL do and can have the good grace to laugh about. It seems I find so many great stories in the nursing community because we often are under such stress, that we're so focused on those important details and avoiding the critical mistakes...so our brain tends to reserve less power on the things that don't matter as much.
Here's my confession. (And if any of my coworkers are on this forum, I'm outing myself gloriously, because we ALL had a good laugh over it...) My adolescent psych unit is in a small, private hospital, so though EMR has been promised to us, it's not quite here yet. A frustration of mine, to be sure...but that's another story. The kiddos were being super impulsive and just SO MUCH limit-testing going on, and I'm trying to get meds passed and RN assessments done and also manage patients and such. My awesome techs are working their butts off. The usual. One of my team asks if I can bring him "four soaps." That's a bit excessive, I think, but I also know, hey, sometimes teenagers want A LOT of body wash and our trial size containers aren't that big. Or maybe he's distributing them for hygiene time or something.
THIS IS WHERE I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE QUESTIONED SOMETHING.
Cheerfully, I grab four of the small body wash vials, and bring them to him, and he's like..."what?" Because he meant four SOAPs, as in SOAP notes, which we do on each patient q shift...and he was asking me to bring him the charts...
I mentioned this my 1st year into my nursing career when a seasoned old battle-ax (i.e., me now, 23 years later) of an LPN set me straight! LOL! I still remember the look on her face when I said it!
I went through a recent phase where I'd un-spike an almost empty bag of IV fluid and have it pour out all over the IV equipment like an idiot. After the first time I felt so foolish you'd think I'd have learned but no, I did it multiple times over again after that! I'm sure I didn't inspire too much confidence in my patients that day, haha.
Specializes in ED, Tele, MedSurg, ADN, Outpatient, LTC, Peds.
Triaged a young man complaining of a rash. Asked him where his rash was. Without warning he whipped out his member and started ranting about how frustrated he was with this long standing rash. As he talked he waved his member around! Swallowing my laughter at the waving member, I addressed his frustration and got him a same day appointment. In a very polite voice I asked him to tuck his member back and wash his hands! No thank you handshake please!
This wasn't me, but we had a coworker with a remote control fart machine. She hid it in the fake plants around the nurses station and would make it go off when it was slow at nights, and especially if there were new residents coming through. We had so much fun trying to keep a straight face, a feat at which I am terrible.
I was once rolling a patient when I felt an almost stinging in my foot. I thought "hmm, that's odd...wait...that's warm.
As I rolled the patient his catheter had come unclamped and about 700cc's of urine went onto and into my shoe.
I didn't want to walk into the hall with a urine filled shoe, so naturally, I took off my shoe and my sock. Well, of course I didn't want to walk in the hall barefoot, that would look silly, so I grabbed a large glove and put it over my foot and walked out. (I obviously didn't think this through)
Meet several people in the hall, including my floor educator. Everyone had a nice laugh.
Immediately my mind went to what might have been rolling through that educator's brain lol, something along the lines of "I think we need some re-education on appropriate use of gloving"!!!! Very funny story!
Before I was an RN...I was fresh faced out of high school and got my first job as a caregiver at an Alzheimer's facility working NOCS. The sweet lady training me instructed me to go get the tympanic thermometer from the nurse's station to make gathering VS quicker. I had never used one and asked the RN how to use it. He looked at me for a second but then told me how. I went on my way gathering VS. I couldn't figure out how it was so much quicker and efficient than using the disposable ones for an axillary- it seemed to disturb that patients. I was in my last room, with my pt snorting (yes snorting, not snoring) up a storm, when the lady who was training me walked in. She said "Stop! What are you doing??" I said "I'm thought you wanted me to get vitals?" She said "It goes in their ear, not their nose!"
Looks like he was having some fun at Fresh Face's expense! I hope you found a way to get even :)
As a school nurse it didn't take me long to realize that roughly 20-30 kids per day announce they feel like they're going to throw and it's a big, fat lie. They never throw up and they're just a) trying to cut class or b) trying to go home because they have a test they forgot to study for or there's someone picking on them at school. But, when a kid says the magical words, "I think I'm gonna throw up," teachers that have been at this for years still shove a garbage can in their hands and send them to the nurse. When they arrive to me I roll my eyes and check their temp.
Well, I'll preface this one time with the little fact that I'm almost, almost 5 feet tall. Almost. So most of my kids in 3rd grade and above are taller than me. A 5th grade girl comes in one afternoon with her throw up announcement and I do the eye roll, slow stroll over with my tympanic thermometer and, as I'm reaching up to check her temp, she pukes all over me. Volcano-force vomit. It hit full force on my neck and went inside my scrubs, my bra, down my stomach...so warm, so viscous.
Praise jebus, I had the forethought to keep a change of scrubs in my bag. The poor kid was mortified. And thank heavens a co-worker was walking by and saw the whole thing happen in slow motion and came to my rescue.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I have made many goofy mistakes in my career. One I remember, involved a labor patient. The doctor told me she needed "Vitamin P" (meaning pitocin) but I missed his meaning. Several hours later, he came to the unit to check her progress, only to find she had not had any pitocin at all and her labor was essentially unchanged, progress-wise. He was quite a bit annoyed with me and spelled out what he meant. I felt like such a fool. It was early on in my career, like my first month. I totally missed his meaning.
Specializes in LTC Management, Community Nursing, HHC.
When I was a CNA years and years ago, I worked night shift at a local hospital and one of my responsibilities was filling water pitchers and taking vitals around 2AM or 3AM. I was assigned to a different unit one night and the nurse gave me a list of rooms and bed numbers for vitals. As I filled the water pitchers, I also took vitals if required.
One room was really messy with clothes all over the floor and one of the 2 patients in that room needed a temp based on the list I had. I proceeded to take their axilla temp because the patient was facing away from me and I didn't want to wake him up. Then I picked up all the clothes off the floor, filled up the water pitchers and left the room.
The next morning I was so embarrassed when one of the two "patients" i.e. a young intern came up to me and asked if I was the one who gently took his temp under his axilla the night before and tried hard not to wake him up!! The other intern later thanked me for folding all their clothes. They obviously were teasing me. Turns out the nurse had forgotten to update the info before she gave me the list for vitals, and that was an empty room that the interns had decided to sleep in while on call!
The next morning I was so embarrassed when one of the two "patients" i.e. a young intern came up to me and asked if I was the one who gently took his temp under his axilla the night before and tried hard not to wake him up!! The other intern later thanked me for folding all their clothes. They obviously were teasing me. Turns out the nurse had forgotten to update the info before she gave me the list for vitals, and that was an empty room that the interns had decided to sleep in while on call!
Nurse in MT
52 Posts
Porcine Heparin.
I thought it said porcupine heparin...