The worst or strangest orders you have seen...

[MadisonsMomRN]

This may have been done before but I would like to hear about some off the wall orders you've seen MD's write...

Here are a couple from me...

Give 2mg Coumadin qd and prn :uhoh21:

Zantac 150mg q6hours and prn

I have more too but need to think:lol2:

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

And I have heard of patients that want foleys, beg the nursing staff for them; mostly older ladies that know that they don't have good mobility and that they are in to get majorly diuresed.

.

if you are going to do significant diuresis it could be a valid consideration ...

certainly i'd rather catheterise someone that needs significiant diuresis than some of the pointless catheterisations that are ordered by surgeons ( someoen needs to tell juniors in surgery that a catheter is not for the convenience of theem havign been seen to do somethign and that urine outpuit in a with it individual can be monitored very easily if the patient is asked ... rather than leaving a message i nthe notes, not asking the Nursing staff and then kicking off - if the cath was that damn important perhaps you should have placed it yourself instead of going and sleeping in the mess)

[HeatherB,CST]

My brother's chart at the hospital he visits frequently r/t recent transplant, lists "doesn't like cheese" as an allergy. He's not allergic, I think after turning his nose up at too many meals (he was diabetic) his nurse/doc had to do something permanent so his meals come cheese-less.

Always fun to explain to the new residents the first time they do rounds. "No, I'm not lactose intolerant, I just hate cheese":smackingf

[MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN]

Well you learn new things all the time. I haven't came across a patient that desired one... but it makes sense (I guess) that a patient is really sore or knows they will be up a lot (due to diuresis) and would like a foley to assist. :)... with major diuresis that would probably be a good thing.

Like I said before, I really did not know about caffeine medically but it totally makes sense. Just curious, why do you give it to premature infants? I have never worked with babies before.

[nites]

at 5:00am 500mg of IV caffeine sounds really good to night shift. Maybe we could get the DR. to order for the nurses

[katiebug913]

it stimulates the premies to breath

[nurseklw72]

Dr. wrote "Ambulate pt TID & PRN in halls"

Patient was a double amputee. I asked him if he preferred for me to take the patient piggyback or drag them down the hall.

Not an order but it is printed on our MARs:

Ducolax suppository per rectum (is there any question?)

Please remove foil before inserting

...Makes you wonder who the idiot was that forgot to remove the foil.

[EmmaG, RN]

given recent discussion about how "nurses can't do anything without a valid medical order (for billing purposes) " does this perhaps not indiciate the level of bureaucratic idiocy that has been reached in some systems due to the way in which their finances work?

Perhaps that and CYA from the docs

[Xbox Live Addict]

Dr. wrote "Ambulate pt TID & PRN in halls"

Patient was a double amputee. I asked him if he preferred for me to take the patient piggyback or drag them down the hall.

Not an order but it is printed on our MARs:

Ducolax suppository per rectum (is there any question?)

Please remove foil before inserting

...Makes you wonder who the idiot was that forgot to remove the foil.

Indeed. My wife (also a nurse) was an Army medic, and she says that if there's a warning like that on something, someone screwed up somewhere. She says that Claymore mines carried the following warning on their packaging: "This end towards enemy. Not a food product." Hmmmm....

[nursekathi]

When I worked child/adol. residential psych, my all time telephone order from a doc, when I described 8 of our under 12 year old boys beating the living tar out of each other & staff, "pick the 4 worst, give them each geodon 10 mg IM, and tell the other 4 if they don't stop, they will get the same".

The "other 4" ended up not needing the same.

I cried the day that doc resigned.

I've seen med/surg docs way to easy with their long time pts, give orders like " do not wake between 11p & 6a unless tele off", and "may have ice cream regardless of glucose level" grrrr!!!

I hope their stricter with their kids!

[puggymae]

"Beep me if the patient dies."

Okay - since we do it all the time anyway.

"If the patient won't walk in the hallway send her home."

Was I suppose to carry her to the car?

[puggymae]

Andreas - we had a nurse let some one chew up a dulcolax suppository when the patient said "You aren't sticking that up my butt!"

[MadisonsMomRN, BSN, RN]

Andreas - we had a nurse let some one chew up a dulcolax suppository when the patient said "You aren't sticking that up my butt!"

Blech! Thats disgusting... I guess they were out of dulcolax pills that day??