Urban legends in nursing

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

15 years ago when I was a graduate nurse working in Texas, I came in to work one day and my preceptor told me "A GN over at Vista Hills gave Maalox through a central line last week so I am going to be watching you very closely today!" Since then I have heard that story again at nursing orientations I've attended here in Georgia and each time, the story is told as if it just happened. Just recently, somebody referenced it on a post here on this board. I think that story has reached urban legend status.

Another one, I've heard frequently is the NG tube fed into a patient's brain. The story goes that a patient who recently had sinus surgery needed a salem sump and the physician insisted that it be inserted over the protests of the nurse. When the nurse refuses, the physician grabs the salem sump out of his hand and inserts it himself and the patient immediatly begins to convulse. The physician then removes the tube spraying grey matter all over the nurse. I've been told this story twice by two male nurses at two different times and they both insisted that they were the nurse who got brain tissue all over their scrubs. I decided that this too had to be an urban legend or had the beginnings of one.

I'm sure that they have their origins in the truth but since they are always repeated with a new little detail and the person telling it insists that they have some intimate knowledge of the event. Have you ever heard of these or know of any yourself?

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There have been many malpractice cases involving medications being administered through the wrong route. Here's a case involving an infant who had a milk feeding infused through a jugular vein catheter: http://www.nso.com/case/cases_area_index.php?id=43&area=Pediatrics

Here's one case where an NG was found to have been inadvertently inserted into the brain:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=15636338&dopt=Abstract

It's also possible to break through the bones in sinus cavity while inserting an NG.

Another case involving an NG insertion that resulted in a pneumothorax:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8717293&dopt=Abstract

I don't know if either of the cases you presented actually happened, but both scenarios are possible. At one time there may have been some truth to both stories, but as you pointed out, more details tend to get added with each retelling of a tale.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

In nursing school, I always heard the story about "two student nurses talking about a patient's Ca diagnosis in the elevator, and the other person in the elevator was his wife who hadn't been told yet" to illustrate the need for confidentiality. I swear I heard it at least 4 or 5 times!

Also with the growing popularity of computer charting, we always heard about nursing students in other schools who were expelled for looking into other people's charts on the computer. I know personally of some RNs who have lost their jobs for doing that, but I think the "expelled" stories were just to freak up out too.

I don't care too much about the urban legends you brought up because at least the need to double check what line you're giving your med through sticks in your head after hearing that!

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What about all of the orangjello and lemonjello's running around? :uhoh3:

Maybe there is one or two in this world. Maybe. But people are always claiming to have met one which always strikes me as odd b/c you're not adding to the funny name conversation, you're lying. Or your friend/relative met one... Sorry, you're friend/relative lies.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

Another one, I've heard frequently is the NG tube fed into a patient's brain. The story goes that a patient who recently had sinus surgery needed a salem sump and the physician insisted that it be inserted over the protests of the nurse.

As far as the NG in the brain, it was either AJN or Nursing that covered a story about a case similar to it. However, I believe that it was a nurse that inserted it. It provides the basis for a rule in many teaching hospitals that only interns/MDs insert NGs.

As far as your fellow nurses being involved and/or sprayed with gray matter, that I doubt - though have no info on. If the tube was attached to suction, there should have been little to nothing "loose" to spray. If it was a feeding tube in use, the more likely substance was tube feed. If it had been in place for any extended time, infection/discharge would be a possibility. And if the tube was removed almost immediately after insertion, would there have been loose fresh material to come out in anything but a minor amount.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

I don't know if either of the cases you presented actually happened, but both scenarios are possible. At one time there may have been some truth to both stories, but as you pointed out, more details tend to get added with each retelling of a tale.

Yeah, I realize that it's possible in fact it's likely that both incidents did occur. The point is that each time the story is told, the storyteller claims to have been personally involved somehow or know of the people involved and it always happened right there in their institution. That's what is odd to me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
What about all of the orangjello and lemonjello's running around? :uhoh3:

Maybe there is one or two in this world. Maybe. But people are always claiming to have met one which always strikes me as odd b/c you're not adding to the funny name conversation, you're lying. Or your friend/relative met one... Sorry, you're friend/relative lies.

Those little kids really get around. We were just discussing them at my book club meeting Saturday. :lol2:

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Specializes in Cardiac.

I've heard the Maalox story around here a few semesters ago, so I think you are right. It might have happened somewhere, but everybody thinks it was just the other day!

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Yeah, I realize that it's possible in fact it's likely that both incidents did occur. The point is that each time the story is told, the storyteller claims to have been personally involved somehow or know of the people involved and it always happened right there in their institution. That's what is odd to me.

Well I guess that's how they become nursing urban legends, the stories get embellished with each retelling, details get left out, and sometimes the story teller implies or inserts their presence in the events at some level, as in they were there or knew the person that was, etc. I think these stories also tend to get repeated to nursing students in particular as cautionary warnings. Notice how a lot of these stories are either told to nursing students or involve nursing students.

When I was a student it wasn't Maalox, it was dilantan suspension inserted into an IV line. I never did meet anyone that actually was present at that event.

There was also the story about the student nurse that attempted to put a bedside commode on the patient's bed, with the patient still in the bed, because the patient was on bedrest with bedside commode privileges.

We also heard about the story about 2 student nurses discussing a patient's diagnosis in the elevator and the patient's family member being present and overhearing.

By the way I'm still waiting to meet the orangjello and lemonjello twins and the kid named Sh@!thead:D :D

I've only heard about them here.

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Hello!

Wow....It has been a while since I last posted and visited this site. It feels good to be back! An urban legend I have have heard happens in surgery. Evidentally, once a patient signs the papers to have the surgery done, the surgeon can do anything he sees fit. Rumor also has it that residents can come into surgery and have come into surgery to practice doing lady partsl exams on the unconscious patient. One pediatrician I work with, swears up and down that this actually happens! WOW! I would feel so violated! I would think that would be against a code of ethics! Next time I have surgery, I am definately going to make sure that does not happen by clarifying it with the surgeon. I sure hope there is not truth to this!

(N) KuteNurse

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Specializes in Critical Care.
sometimes the story teller implies or inserts their presence in the events at some level, as in they were there or knew the person that was, etc.

There's a guy - I don't remember his name - that writes books about urban legends and he says that a necessary element is the infamous 'FOAF': friend of a friend.

"I have a friend who has a friend that actually SAW the guy in the bathtub of ice with a fresh surgical incision: my friend's friend was on the ambulance team!"

That's what gives the stories credibility. In the beginning: the stories are near first person: "happened to me", or, no connection: "it happened somewhere".

But as the story gets well ingrained it becomes both too un-credible to be first person and not credible enough without there being some connection. And so, FOAF is born.

That, according to that writer is the true definition of an urban legend: when it becomes so ingrained that it was witnessed by a FOAF.

(Edit: from wikipedia for 'FOAF': "Friend of a friend (FOAF) is a phrase used to refer to someone that one does not know well — literally, a friend of a friend.

In some social sciences, the phrase is used as a half-joking shorthand for the fact that much of the information on which people act comes from distant sources (as in "It happened to a friend of a friend of mine") and cannot be confirmed. It is probably best known from urban legend studies. The term was popularized by Jan Harold Brunvand, the best-known writer of that field. ")

~faith,

Timothy.

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what the heck is the orangjello or lemonjello?

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