Tell on yourself, if you dare...

[audreysmagic]

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...

[No Stars In My Eyes]

On my clinical rotation a few weeks ago, I was assessing a diabetic patient and he had both big toes missing, but his feet looked great otherwise and not like "diabetic feet" that would have needed amputation. I asked if he had them amputated because of his diabetes mainly because the amputaton didn't match with how his feet looked. he replied "No, my dog ate them" he was totally serious, and i just did a double take. definitely not the response I was expecting.

So I guess "this little piggy tasted like roast beef???? "

That is simultaneously hysterical and frightening.

[audreysmagic, RN]

Never heard of 'House of God' ... but I've 'only' been a nurse for 4+ years. Will have to look for it.

It's SO good if you can find a copy! I read it several times in nursing school. I found out about it through an Emergency! (the TV show) fan forum. :)

[audreysmagic, RN]

After all that, I had to admit that "positive Q sign" was from "House of God", a hilariously funny book about one guy's internship and wasn't real medical jargon at all. Whole pages of the paper chart had to be scoured for references to the + Q sign and corrected . . . and the nurse, the intern, the Fellow and the nurse manager were all mad at me. The neurology resident, however, found it hysterically funny and so did the admitting physician. In fact, the admitting physician found it so funny that he guilted everyone into forgoing their usual consulting fees. He was famous for his nasty temper, but after that episode he always had smiles for me. Fortunately, the nurse manager was on her way out and the new nurse manager had heard about the whole + Q sign fiasco (from the attending) and SHE thought it was funny -- which was fortunate for my continued employment outlook.

Ah, yes, the positive Q...looks something like this:

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

This sounds exactly like something I'd have done, though knowing my luck, I wouldn't have had people who were quite as amused. :)

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Ah, yes, the positive Q...looks something like this:

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:

This sounds exactly like something I'd have done, though knowing my luck, I wouldn't have had people who were quite as amused. :)

Not everyone was amused, although I was extremely fortunate in WHO was amused!

[NurseLife88, ADN, RN]

This story occurs before I became a nurse and did different types of in home care. I had a pt. who was scheduled to toilet every 3 hours throughout the night. One night I proceed to scheduled toileting, I leave the lights off and use only the nightlight as that was just routine. I place him on the commode, exit the room, and give it a few minutes. Once I re enter the room I go to step around the commode and get my pt back to bed, being this was overnight and not a hospital setting all I had on was socks. Suddenly felt myself step in a soft but huge pile of warmth. Turns out I had made two mistakes here. One I hadn't turned on the light. Two I hadn't double checked that the actual bucket was beneath the commode. So I quite literally had found myself stepping in a pile of crap. I also was not informed of a suppository given that evening so the pile was HUGE. Bare socks in a pile of poo. That was a night to remember if I do say so. It was horrible at the time but I can laugh about it now lol!

[caffeinatednurse, BSN, RN]

Not mine, but one of my coworkers sent a formed (as in, fully formed) stool specimen to the lab for a c-diff culture.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Not mine, but one of my coworkers sent a formed (as in, fully formed) stool specimen to the lab for a c-diff culture.

You know, I have such mixed feelings about this.

Obviously, on one hand, it's stupid.

But on the other... when the attending physician INSISTS on a culture for c-diff being sent down, the on-call is going to be hellaciously mad if I call him and potentially wake him up at 0130 to D/C a c. diff culture order because the patient's stool is solid, and that annoying little icon telling me I have a late task for that patient won't go away so I'm wasting time checking my work list 500 million times to make sure the late thing is just the c. diff culture and I haven't missed anything else... I just send the dang thing down myself once the patient poops so it will get off my dang work list and I'll actually know at first glance if I'm late on a real task. Guilty as charged.

[ukuleleCat]

This thread just gets funnier. I stayed up for 2 hours reading this thread before going to bed.

[WKShadowNP, DNP, APRN]

On my clinical rotation a few weeks ago, I was assessing a diabetic patient and he had both big toes missing, but his feet looked great otherwise and not like "diabetic feet" that would have needed amputation. I asked if he had them amputated because of his diabetes mainly because the amputaton didn't match with how his feet looked. he replied "No, my dog ate them" he was totally serious, and i just did a double take. definitely not the response I was expecting.

So I guess "this little piggy tasted like roast beef???? "

I had a home health patient this happened to. So many issues at that house.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

You know, I have such mixed feelings about this.

Obviously, on one hand, it's stupid.

But on the other... when the attending physician INSISTS on a culture for c-diff being sent down, the on-call is going to be hellaciously mad if I call him and potentially wake him up at 0130 to D/C a c. diff culture order because the patient's stool is solid, and that annoying little icon telling me I have a late task for that patient won't go away so I'm wasting time checking my work list 500 million times to make sure the late thing is just the c. diff culture and I haven't missed anything else... I just send the dang thing down myself once the patient poops so it will get off my dang work list and I'll actually know at first glance if I'm late on a real task. Guilty as charged.

Or when someone is on contact-plus precautions for "rule out c-diff" when the person hasn't had a stool in 2+ days. Seriously???

[Peepsimus, BSN, RN]

I'm still a student (2nd career), am seriously considering ED, and was talking to a friend who's been a paramedic forever. He asked if I'd like to ride a shift or two between semesters to understand what happens before people get to the hospital. Heck yes I wanted to do that. I go, his guys are showing me the stuff in the ambulance and talking through how they work. They show me how I can help prep supplies when we pick people up and how to stay out of the way. Awesome. I am READY for this and am determined to not do something stupid.

We go on a call where the cops have a driver that's not doing well and was swerving. They can't find any drugs, but he's gray and clammy, pupils blown, limbs not cooperating, and has been awake after getting off work for over 14 hours. Off we go to the hospital. I help do the vitals and assemble the IV kit perfectly. The medic reaches, and it's already there. I am feeling pretty proud of myself. He's starting an IV as we drive through bumpy construction and asks for gauze. I see no little gauze packets anywhere. We go over a big bump, his finger slips off of something, and suddenly blood is going everywhere. The medic gives a head jerk and I see a giant pack that says gauze on the front, rip it open, and unfurl something that could be a maxi pad for an elephant. He takes it gamely and shoots me a look. After we finish taking the guy to the ED, I ask about where the right gauze is. Literally, it filled the entire shelf beneath the one where I found the giant gauze. An ocean of 2x2 squares at the ready.

[maporcrn1]

As a student,I was raising the electrical bed to waist height, so that I could change the bed sheets. The telescopic IV pole was in the low position, not in use for that patient. The IV pole sheared the O2 flow meter off the wall! Lots of noise and commotion to my dismay.