Things you learned the hard way? (funny)

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I'm sure we all have many stories to tell on ourselves how we learned something the hard way.

The first one for me was learning that it's not a good idea to squat down to a little boy's level when you're assisting him with a urinal. Also, that leaving a gown down as a 2nd barrier isn't a bad idea either. :lol2:

Good thing urine's sterile, right?

Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

Never double up 2 ziplock bags and try to use them (it?) when there are no more icebags... The patient was gracious but his wife was furious. It was my first day off orientation working in ortho and ziplock bags were brand new. We were slammed and I didn't have time to leave the floor and get more. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. :imbar

sharpeimom

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I have told my LPN students most of these, and I have told them they will only do them once (sometimes you have to learn by experience)! LOL!!! Great thread!

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.

When testing to see if a woman's milk has come in, stand off to one side and don't 'milk' the breast too hard. I got sprayed in the face and down my front with colostrum. :omy:

When filling anaesthetic machines, DON'T take a deep breath with the empty bottle of Fluorthane pointed top-up under your nose. Even empty bottles hold enough fumes to nearly knock down a plus-sized nurse. :chuckle

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.
When testing to see if a woman's milk has come in, stand off to one side and don't 'milk' the breast too hard. I got sprayed in the face and down my front with colostrum. :omy:

That right there is why I always have Mom squeeze (gently!) herself.

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I,m retired now, but learned this the hard way years ago working in a LTC fac. Never kick at anything brown lying in the floor!!! LOL!! And I had on a brand new pair of nursing shoes.:no:

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Specializes in Geriatrics.
Have someone hold the arms of that sweet little ole confused lady before you give a rectal suppository. You may very well end up with scars on your arms.

When pulling up solumedrol, pull the syringe out of the plunger AWAY from your face. Contacts can absorb solumedrol but the must be taken out and thrown away.

No matter how good of a job you think you have done, someone will complain about you forgetting something.

If you feel you have given horrible care to a patient because of the needy jerk in the bed next door, the patient that took all your time will complain about you to the manager. The neglected patient will give you a hug at the end of your shift and tell you what an angel you are.:rolleyes:

Never think that you can get just "one more" wear out of your old uniform pants. They WILL rip right down the middle when you least expect it.

i must agree with the someone will complain about something you didnt do. i had a teahcer that had a poster on her wall that said "when i do right no one ever remembers but when i do wrong no one ever forgets." and man aint that the truth.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.
and don't inject too much air into that vial of penicillin you're trying to reconstitute. especially if you're allergic to pcn and you have the vial pointed at your own face! it's horribly embarrassing to have your nurse manager wheel you to the er in a w/c because you have a face full of hives and you're wheezing so bad they can hear you two halls away!

you know i never tought about what it would be like as a nurse being allergic to pcn and having to administer it!

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Two more things. If your patient seems dead, but his heart is still beating. Check his chart to see if he has an internal pacemaker. Oops! Also, never say," Boy! Its quiet in here tonight.":no:

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.

When you're putting said pt into a body bag, it generally bad form to roll the 400 pound pt over onto the 95 pound nurse. I promise you, she won't be able to catch him. She really will get trapped under the body, and our cadaver transporter is not geared to getting bodies that are on the floor and half under the bed. It's very embarrassing to call for the lift team for a dropped cadaver/trapped nurse...

ROFLOL! Is it bad that I can imagine that and am laughing my head off at the mental image?? :roll

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
That right there is why I always have Mom squeeze (gently!) herself.

I was a student, and she was a scared new mom who wanted to know how to check. I went to show her how to check first, then was going to have her repeat...and I guess I was a bit too efficient.

At least she knew for sure she was having letdown and Baby was getting his lunch. :chuckle

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.
Also, never say," Boy! Its quiet in here tonight.":no:

I did something like that one time. They needed someone to take call and I agreed, saying, "It's already 6pm; there's nothing brewing. I'll go home and get paid to sleep".

I got home about 2030h and hadn't even put my coat away when the phone rang and my very unhappy coworker told me in a whithering voice that we had a case and get my butt back into work. I got home at 0400h and had to report to my other job at 0900h. Thankfully, it was a scutwork day and I was able to sit in a cubicle, feet up on a stretcher and do my work from there.

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Specializes in Retired OR nurse/Tissue bank technician.

One more...Remember which job you're working at. It's important for patients in the OR to have pulses. Vitally important, in fact.

On the other hand, cadaveric tissue donors don't have pulses-if they did, they wouldn't be tissue donors and they wouldn't be cadaveric. As a result, they can't feel what you're doing to them. That's what death is all about.

I had been working two jobs-one in a hospital OR as a surgical nurse and another doing tissue procurement. I'd usually work the OR during the week, then take tissue call on weekends or days off.

It was one of my first full tissue cases and for some reason, by the time we came to the end of the case, I had become tired enough that my mind was kind of drifting as I worked to stay alert and safe (the highest risk for staff injury in a tissue case happens right toward the end, when everyone is tired out and the work is done completely blind by touch only-scalpel in one hand, feeling your way with the other)

When the senior tech on the case noticed I was lagging behind the person working on the other side of the body, he asked if I was having trouble. I looked right at him and said, "I don't want to hurt him!".

He tried not to smile and said, "I think it's a little late for that now-and you'd better get over that fear pretty quickly".

Embarrassed? Yup.:imbar But not as bad as a few days later, when I returned to the Operating Room to scrub and circulate. We were doing a saphenous vein stripping and I had the patient's legs up in the air so the other nurse could prep underneath and get the first drapes in place. As I held the legs up, my fingers rested on the dorsalis pedis-and felt the pulse under my fingers.

I froze and looked over to the other nurse in a panic, "We have to stop...The donor has a pulse!"

She quickly reminded me that at this job, a pulse was a GOOD thing. :imbar

I couldn't even blame that one on fatigue; it was the first case of the day.

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