I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I seem to have a knack for remembering pointless things.
I remember the names of restaurants that I've eaten at on vacations, the servers' names, and other useless information that I will never need to recall in my life again.
This also applies to my time in nursing school, which admittedly wasn't that long ago, but long enough that a lot of the non-vital "nice to know but not need to know" information that we learned has become a little hazy.
The one random nugget of seemingly useless information that I remember from nursing school is what a scleral buckle is and what it is used to treat. It was briefly mentioned in my second semester of nursing school and for some reason it stuck with me. I've never encountered someone that has had this procedure in clinical OR in my personal life and I really have no justification for remembering it, but I do.
Does anyone else care to share a random nugget of information they learned in nursing school that they still remember, but never actually came in handy to know?
as others have posted about documenting p***y drainage instead of purulent, I did that on one of my practice nurse's notes while in school. If we scribbled something out to the point where it cant be read or used white out, we would fail paperwork that day. We were only allowed to put one line through any errors (of course I understand the rationale for this, legal reasons blah blah blah) I was so embarrassed that the teacher would see that I wrote p***y instead of purulent that I just scrapped the note and re-did the entire thing
The top sheet should always be folded at a 45 degree angle and the pillow case should never be near the nurse's face. Hand inside the pillow case, grab the end of the pillow and pull it through. I still do this at home.
And it's okay to ask a patient to lift their bottom to place the sterile sheet under their buttocks when preparing to insert a catheter. Not all patients are helpless like our mannikins. :-)
Its not useless but I haven't needed this information in 6 years as a nurse.
It wasn't even talked about much, but I never forget "red man syndrome" which is an allergic reaction to vancomycin where the upper body, usually especially the face, turn red soon after the start of an IV vancomycin infusion. Edema and itching can be seen as well.
I have given vanc sooo many times and it always pops into my head but I've never seen it. I think properly diluted vanc can help prevent it though I am sure it still happens.
My 19 year old son had this happen when he was in for a day surgery. I am allergic to vanco and I warned the nurse that he might be as well, she looked at me and literally smirked. Two minutes after she left after starting the drip I saw the red creeping up and he started looking funny and scratching his scalp. I grabbed another nurse and she DC'd it, got an order for Benadryl. His BP was so low after surgery and it took him hours to come around he was so sedated. I'm still steamed about her ignorant response.
Chvostek's sign...spasm of the facial muscle when the facial nerve is tapped which is seen in hypocalcemic tetany. Has ANYONE seen hypocalcemic tetany? I think I just like all the big words and that's why I remember it.
Pheochromocytoma. That one came in useful to me recently. It's always nice to be able to respond appropriately when a patient throws a random disease at you which they assume you've never heard of.
I don't think we were even formally taught about that one. One of the people in my clinical group had a patient with it, and our clinical instructor was totally enthusiastic about it, so it stuck with me.
Not from nursing school (not mine, anyway), but... My mom was an infection control nurse in LTC for many years, and my first STNA job was at her facility. During orientation she taught the infection control portion and her favorite saying was "if it's warm, wet, and not yours, don't play with it!" Of course she elaborated about gloving, etc., but that phrase in particular stands out in my memory.
I don't care what the article says, several years ago, a nurse I worked with changed a foley cath because the one that a female patient had in was blocked. This nurse, an LPN, inserted the new foley cath and when she saw urine left the room. The patient put out almost 1,000 mL's of urine in less than 20 minutes. The patient became shocky and had to be sent out to the hospital. She died shortly after that from shock.
tell me it's an old wives tale all you want...I know patients can go into shock and die from it.
She probably went into shock from urosepsis from having a bunch of urostasis from an occluded urethra for however long it took the presumably elderly patient to make >1000 ml of urine.
Probably. My personal experience was having a catheter inserted for a procedure, my bladder filled up to about 3000 mL and was suddenly released. It HURT!!! The spasms were awful & I had clots passed for 2 days.
Mu grandma was put on an iron supplement for anemia and this nursing school nugget popped into my head and told her to take it with OJ!
I has pretty much totally forgotten about that, then I got my Lucky Iron Fish (I have iron deficiency anemia) and the directions said to add some lemon or lime juice to recipes when using it to lower the pH and increase the benefit.
I have never worked peds a day in my life but I remember Hirschsprung's disease has a symptom of ribbon-like stool. I think I remember it because my nursing school BFF and I would say Hershey Hershey squirt Hirschsprung! Haha
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as others have posted about documenting p***y drainage instead of purulent, I did that on one of my practice nurse's notes while in school. If we scribbled something out to the point where it cant be read or used white out, we would fail paperwork that day. We were only allowed to put one line through any errors (of course I understand the rationale for this, legal reasons blah blah blah) I was so embarrassed that the teacher would see that I wrote p***y instead of purulent that I just scrapped the note and re-did the entire thing