Got to thinking about this one today, and was reminded of it when I read another thread on here...what's teh dumbest thing you've ever heard in nursing, as an explanation for a malady?
For example, the one that sticks out for me is one that I heard as a new nurse, many moons ago. I was doing an assessment on a patient, and a family member of said patient had her sone with her, who was profoundly mentally and physically handicapped. Of course, I would have never presumed to ask the nature of his complaint, but she was only too happy to volunteer it.
"When he was born, the nurse in the room had long fingernails and she scratched his head. That's why he's like this. It's all her fault. We tried to sue her, but the judge threw out the case."
I was stunned, to say the least, and didn't challenge it as hogwash outright, but I did ask,
"Did she puncture his scalp with her nails?"
"No, she just scratched him on the head. It didn't show, but she did it."
You can bet money I was VERY thorough with that assessment. Heaven forbid the lady get staph or some other dread condition because my hair or eyelashes were too long.
Anyone else ever heard a completely absurd reasoning for someone's ailments?
My dad was a country doctor. So we got phone calls at home from patients all the time.
One night when I was little, shortly after my sister and I had gone to bed, the phone rang ... then my parents started laughing and my mom came into our room, saying,"
"I figured you two were awake from all the laughing. That guy on the phone thinks he is having a heart attack because his big toe is hurting. He heard that sometimes your left arm aches when you have a heart attack --so now he is worried that is the cause of the pain in his left big toe."
She didn't say it, but I suspect a little alcohol may have been involved.
My mom & grandma believed that if you have undiagnosed cancer and have surgery, once the body is opened the cancer multiplies and you will die shortly thereafter. (Understandable as the cancer detection tests in the 60's/70;s were no where near the accuracy/availability they are now. So a found lump might be explored surgically but by the time the lump is discovered & surgically examined it is likely stage 4 with no real cure or treatment. The correlation of surgery = raging cancer all over the body/terminal diagnosis would seem accurate to someone with minimal medical knowledge.)
I recall something about the dangers of tumor manipulation. So, I googled.
Use the search phrase "tumor manipulation and metastasis," then click on the "scholarly articles for..."
Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
Had one come in last week claiming that her mother told her she was diabetic, because her arm went numb. That was it. Just because her arm went numb.
Yes, I do know that DM can cause neuropathy, but not just of one arm and not in the presence of normal glucose readings and a normal A1C. That was how I had to explain it to her. She was adamant that she be treated immediately.
We finally determined that the arm numbness likely came from her laying on it for a prolonged period of time.
"When he was born, the nurse in the room had long fingernails and she scratched his head. That's why he's like this. It's all her fault. We tried to sue her, but the judge threw out the case."
i had a medical malpractice RN turned attorney who told me that there are many lawsuits filed against medical personnel for the "lifelong damage inflicted by MD/RN/xray tech/assistant/janitor at birth" typically around the time the child is approaching graduation from HS gotta get college money from somewhere. she said 98% of the time it's obvious what they are after and it's thrown out.
her favorite was a lawsuit against a L&D RN blaming her for the girls severe dyslexia from "swaddling newborn after birth." the girl was dyslexic and it was deemed mild and incidentally hadnt affected her ability to get into several top notch, very expensive schools...
Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
Oh, and a classic...pardon the offense, I am NOT my mother.
When I was in college (undergrad), it came to my mother's attention that there were (Gasp!) GAY people attending the college I went to. She informed me of this tragedy very seriously and told me that I needed to 'watch out' and that if one of 'them' touched me, I was to immediately run to the bathroom and 'wash off'.
I was aghast, more at the sheer idiocy than anything. That, and the fact that a few of my 'big buddies' at college were in fact, homosexual. Never made a difference to me.
So, me being me, I asked, "OK, Mama, what do I do if one of 'them' hugs me? Burn my shirt?"
"I'll buy you another one."
That was 12 years ago, and her views have never changed. So, so sad.
in the nicu had a baby with anencephalocele (missing large parts of the scalp & skull leaving the brain exposed). The baby was not going to survive but mom wanted us to "do everything" but mom wouldn't visit...anyways both mom and baby tested positive for cocaine at birth. Mom denied cocaine and all other drug/alcohol abuse during her pregnancy stating that they both tested positive because of the father! (you know, his cocaine infused sperm just had that much of an effect!)
As an ER nurse in an inner city hospital, I have my fair share of what some will do to get their fix...the most memorable from last night....
Upon entering said patient's room (one of our frequent fliers) at the start of my shift, I find her elbow-deep in the sharps container, which by the way was almost full
Her reason? She dropped her ring in there!!!
Keep in mind, we don't waste narcotics at the bedside for this very reason
i worked at a college with a big deaf community; one of my students was not deaf but his parents were, and he wanted to be a nurse because he wanted to help deliver health care to them. one of the biggest problems is that they don't have access to a lot of the popular media-- they don't hear the radio on the bus or the tv as they walk through the student lounge, and many didn't read papers. and of course, there weren't very many providers who spoke sign, and not too many interpreters. as this was in the early 80s when aids was just coming on, we were concerned when we heard that the news in the deaf community was that aids was caused by macdonalds grinding up earthworms to extend the meat in the burgers. this was very seriously believed. and none of us would have known about it had he not been conversing with some of them. (we put together some resources for them and he did a presentation.)
As an ER nurse in an inner city hospital, I have my fair share of what some will do to get their fix...the most memorable from last night....
Upon entering said patient's room (one of our frequent fliers) at the start of my shift, I find her elbow-deep in the sharps container, which by the way was almost full
Her reason? She dropped her ring in there!!!
Keep in mind, we don't waste narcotics at the bedside for this very reason
OMG!!! that seriously makes my skin just crawl....ewww!!!:chair:
Before budget cuts there was consideration to moving our outpatient transplant program to a different hospital in the city. Our manager was meeting with consultants to discuss our needs in a new space. She advised that we needed offices for some many kidney transplant coordinators, this many for liver transplant, this many for heart transplant and this many for lung transplant coordinators. She also mentioned that we needed a space for the lving donor coordinator and her clerks etc. The consultant looked at her and asked what kind of living donors we look after. She said mostly kidney donors, and perhaps in the near future we would see liver donors. And apparently this guy, straight faced asked our manager if she thought we would ever be doing live donor heart transplants. She said it took all she had to explain to this guy that if we took a heart from a live donor the donor would no longer be alive....
As an ER nurse in an inner city hospital, I have my fair share of what some will do to get their fix...the most memorable from last night....
Upon entering said patient's room (one of our frequent fliers) at the start of my shift, I find her elbow-deep in the sharps container, which by the way was almost full
Her reason? She dropped her ring in there!!!
Keep in mind, we don't waste narcotics at the bedside for this very reason
gotta get college money from somewhere. she said 98% of the time it's obvious what they are after and it's thrown out. 
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llg, PhD, RN
13,469 Posts
My dad was a country doctor. So we got phone calls at home from patients all the time.
One night when I was little, shortly after my sister and I had gone to bed, the phone rang ... then my parents started laughing and my mom came into our room, saying,"
"I figured you two were awake from all the laughing. That guy on the phone thinks he is having a heart attack because his big toe is hurting. He heard that sometimes your left arm aches when you have a heart attack --so now he is worried that is the cause of the pain in his left big toe."
She didn't say it, but I suspect a little alcohol may have been involved.