tell me a story that ends in "i can't believe they just did that!"

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i've been reading the 'don't understand nurses' post, and there's a lot of people saying 'i can't believe that would happen', but then there's a fair few saying 'believe it, i've seen stuff like this'.

this has left me curious, so i'd love to hear your stories of strange goings-on. I'm leaving this topic nice and wide, so it can be anything from having a doctor refuse to renew a patient's chart for regular medications because somehow between writing up the first one and being asked for a fresh one, he'd decided it wasn't his job, to kitchen staff nibbling scraps off patient trays, to catching a patient wiping their botty and sniffing the paper before flushing it.

so spill, what's happened that's left you thinking 'i can't believe they just did that'?

ps. those three examples are all true.

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I have one. Two of my adult daughters had emergency appendectomies done (within 1 month of each other, but that's another story!) and my younger daughter was given a lady partsl exam by the surgeon prior to the operation. She had a friend in the room with her and they both watched the surgeon as he was finishing up. He lifted his gloved fingers to his face and sniffed the glove!!! IS THAT NORMAL PROCEDURE?? The elder daughter didn't see anything like that with her surgeon a month later.

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Had a patient last night, MCA, TRASHED his bike, and had broken wrist and clavicle that we know of. MD absolutely REFUSED to give pain meds, lots of documentation, until we obtained urine specimen. Xrays come back, fx his first rib. Yes, he eventually got his pain meds, after each one of the nurses refused to do any of his other orders (none were life-threatening patients) until he medicated this poor man. Every once and a while, nurses do stick together...

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Specializes in M/S, home health, LTC, rehab/orth.
I have one. Two of my adult daughters had emergency appendectomies done (within 1 month of each other, but that's another story!) and my younger daughter was given a lady partsl exam by the surgeon prior to the operation. She had a friend in the room with her and they both watched the surgeon as he was finishing up. He lifted his gloved fingers to his face and sniffed the glove!!! IS THAT NORMAL PROCEDURE?? The elder daughter didn't see anything like that with her surgeon a month later.

I have heard of this, I think in a book, about how some drs are taught in med school to sniff lady partsl secretions to look for a sign of infection, I've never seen it myself though.

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My daughter was either 3 or 4 months old when I went to check on her in her crib one evening. She was blue and not breathing. I grabbed her up in hysterics and she started breathing again. We rushed her to the hospital where they ran all kinds of tests. The hospital was a teaching hospital, so it was mainly students doing all these tests. No big deal.

UNTIL....one student came in to do a catheter. My daughter had labial adhesions at the time. The idiot looked at us with concern and said that my daughter had no URETHRA. I just looked at him in disbelief, refused to allow anyone else in that hospital touch her, and walked out of the hospital.

The next day, I took her to the pediatrician and the ped came in the door, slammed the file down on the counter and was outraged that they told me that my kid said I had no urethra. She was furious! She said I should have told the student "Oh, I know....she pees out of her nose" just to see what he would say. :lol2:

BTW...they never could determine why my daughter stopped breathing in her sleep. The pediatrician said that it may had been a case of SIDS had I not checked on her when I did.

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i just thought of another..

I had a patient, a young male who had been suffering from chronic back pain, and was in for med review, and he was sent down to MRI in a wheelchair by the am shift just before i came out of handover. about 45 minutes passed, and i was wondering where he was. I was looking up MRI's number to call and see what was happening, when a very grave looking MRI receptionist brought him, crying hie eyes out, around the corner.

I hurried to take the chair and get him up to his room, with him sobbing about being in so much pain, and waiting for ages for someone to collect him. Apparently the nurse that took him down dropped him off on her way to clock out. The receptionist hadn't realised that, and had told her 'just come back for him in 20 minutes', and the nurse had smiled and said 'ok', then proceeded to go home!

I have no idea why they didn't call us when we didn't come for him, but the poor guy was in absolute agony from sitting in the chair so long, so bad that he couldn't get up out of his chair to lay down. In the end, i had to give him IM morphine while he was in the chair, and stand there for about 20 minutes, rubbing his back with a hot pack.

I felt absoultely awful for him, so was repeating how sorry i was that it had happened etc. and in true 'really sick patient' form, he was apologising right back!

the next day, spoke to the nurse that had taken him down, who confirmed that she had agreed to come back and pick him up, but stated 'i was going home, it wasn't my problem!', and flatly refused to apologise for it.

i couldn't believe she was so uncaring!

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My daughter was either 3 or 4 months old when I went to check on her in her crib one evening. She was blue and not breathing. I grabbed her up in hysterics and she started breathing again. We rushed her to the hospital where they ran all kinds of tests. The hospital was a teaching hospital, so it was mainly students doing all these tests. No big deal.

UNTIL....one student came in to do a catheter. My daughter had labial adhesions at the time. The idiot looked at us with concern and said that my daughter had no URETHRA. I just looked at him in disbelief, refused to allow anyone else in that hospital touch her, and walked out of the hospital.

The next day, I took her to the pediatrician and the ped came in the door, slammed the file down on the counter and was outraged that they told me that my kid said I had no urethra. She was furious! She said I should have told the student "Oh, I know....she pees out of her nose" just to see what he would say. :lol2:

BTW...they never could determine why my daughter stopped breathing in her sleep. The pediatrician said that it may had been a case of SIDS had I not checked on her when I did.

I am so glad you walked in to check on her! The same thing happened to me. Randomly went to check on my 4 day old baby about 2 AM and she was mottled and bluish. Just like you, she spontaneously started breathing when I grabbed her in my arms. So glad our girls are ok!

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I saw a doctor throw a chair across a patient's room when the patient asked to many questions about why he had to be transferred (he was 18 y/o). The pt's father was in the room too.

I had my ER doc disappear on me a few weekends ago (we're a small ER with one doc per shift). He had discharged a mental hold pt to policy custody for a transfer to the state mental hospital without telling me and without arranging transfer with the receiving facility. I finally found him in the OR assisting on a procedure. He hadn't told anyone where he was going.

Yes - they both received formal written complaints from me to administration.

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I am so glad you walked in to check on her! The same thing happened to me. Randomly went to check on my 4 day old baby about 2 AM and she was mottled and bluish. Just like you, she spontaneously started breathing when I grabbed her in my arms. So glad our girls are ok!

I was one of the people that didn't believe in SIDS. I always thought it was an excuse for people that killed their own babies. Now I'm a firm believer that it really is a true syndrome. It's hard to imagine that our babies could have died. Ugh....scary.

I'm glad your baby is ok too.

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
I have heard of this, I think in a book, about how some drs are taught in med school to sniff lady partsl secretions to look for a sign of infection, I've never seen it myself though.

Well, if the person doing the exam has any discretion at all, you wont see it!

A "fishy" odor is common wth bacterial vaginosis, so a discreet "sniff" of the speculum, while still sitting down and out of the patient's line of vision, can tell you if the odor is present (assuming you didn't already notice it).

The actual "sniff test" I was taught was to use a glass slide, put some lady partsl secretions on it, put on a cover slip, and then a drop of KOH- that brings out the odor and you can do that away from the patient.

The "sniff" is something there is a legitimate reason for doing, but there's no need to make the patient even more uncomfortable by doing it where they can see. :trout: :trout:

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I worked with a nurse, many years ago, who would collect and save the plastic spoons, forks, and knives off the disposable isolation trays. She took them home with her! She took the used ones.

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Specializes in tele, ICU.

i had a patient who was crying and upset about how her hospital stay was going. i was in her room giving her a shoulder to cry on when i see her doc peek around the curtain. the doctor saw her patient was crying, got startled, and quickly went to hide behind the curtain again! and i could tell she stayed there listening to me & the patient's conversation for a while before she left. i couldn't believe her nerve and lack of compassion.

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