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?
Recent revelations in the news media about unconsented pelvic exams performed on anesthetized patients by medical students for the education of the students, not the medical benefit of the patient, highlighted a stunning chasm in communication and thought between 2 groups: medical educators and potential patients. I first found out about this issue when a member of a bioethics "chat group," hosted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, posted an article about the practice. The responses by chat group members were astounding: nonphysicians (primarily female) reacted with shock and outrage. Physicians and physician educators often responded by saying, "This is the way everyone learns to do pelvic exams. What's the problem?"
I'll think long & hard about having any planned surgeries at non-teaching community hospital ... :stone
Had a doctor tell me and my fellow nursing students that she suspected this guy had parasites and gave this guy the necessary kit to collect stool samples at home. So he brought back the little baggies with pieces of vinyl in them.
I'll bet she isn't the only doctor with that story.
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!
I actually did see this happen when I was a student. There was a big hoo-haa with a drug gang back in the day and a resident and a nurse were talking about the case. I was in the elevator giving them dirty looks, trying to get them to look at me and take the hint. There a fourth person in the elevator as well.
Nobody at the time knew the other person was a reporter until all this confidential information was printed on the front page. Needless to say law enforcement investigators were not happy.
I've been accused of spreading an urban legend about a former doc that used to write: "do not call md about sbp unless > 400"
But, I am a personal witness to that one.
Every ER has a few urban legends about the pt(s) that visited 170 times in a year, etc. . .
~faith,
Timothy.
We actually had patient who visited over 200 times in one year. A psych patient. This person would sometimes come in several times a day. If the patient didn't show up for a few days we'd get worried.
Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.
We had one FF in my old ER that would come in several timesa week, sometimes twice in a 24 hour day. It was a cycle of get drunk, come in sleep it off leave and get drunk again. I don't know his actual annual visit count but it had to be up there.
And then there is the one about the one room where the pts always died on the vent unexpectedly and so - they put a camera in the room to see what was happening. . .
And it was the room with the least amount of outlets. So, the cleaning lady comes in, unplugs the vent, plugs in the vacuum and goes to work . . .
And then plugs the vent back in and leaves. After she leaves - it's been just enough time for the monitors to start to notice the lethal results. . .
Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.
My fav is the whole bubble of air in the IV line will kill ya thing!!!!!!!! Oh Please!!!!!!!!!!
I have patients that won't sleep or eat because they are terrified that a small bubble will kill them!
I ask them this..."your heart had blood right? It has gasses like oxygen, carbon dioxide right??? okay..the bubbles in that are just so small you can't see them...a single bubble of basically the same stuff????" That usually calms them down.
Sheesh..what TV show made up that a single small bubble in an IV line will kill you???? UHGGGGG!
As a nursing student - rumor had it that a former student of the school I attended had given a patient a backrub using nitroglycerin ointment and both were found in a rather hypotensive state on the floor.
Anytime I hear of anything being accidentally injected into an IV line or a BP monitor conencted to an IV or arterial line - I wonder why the heck nobody has come up with a way to make it so the things that shouldn't fit together DON'T fit together. Seems all too simple to me. You'd think nobody would hook up the wrong stuff, but in the dark, with 9 patients, a large number of inexperienced staff, no techs to help, and as short staffed as some places are, nothing surprises me anymore. Color code em all and make em different sizes. Feeding tubes are one size and the connectors are yellow. IV tubing is another size and the connectors are blue. IMAP connectors are yet another size and are black. Oral syrynges will not fit in an IV line and they are brown. Meds come up from the pharmacy already packaged in the syringe they should be in. It's so simple it's silly.
What about all of the orangjello and lemonjello's running around?
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.
Way before I started nursing I worked in an insurance office. My manager told me that she had a black friend who gave birth to twins and named them, yep, orangejello and lemonjello.
Why would anyone lie about something like that?? lmao
As a nursing student - rumor had it that a former student of the school I attended had given a patient a backrub using nitroglycerin ointment and both were found in a rather hypotensive state on the floor.
Anytime I hear of anything being accidentally injected into an IV line or a BP monitor conencted to an IV or arterial line - I wonder why the heck nobody has come up with a way to make it so the things that shouldn't fit together DON'T fit together. Seems all too simple to me. You'd think nobody would hook up the wrong stuff, but in the dark, with 9 patients, a large number of inexperienced staff, no techs to help, and as short staffed as some places are, nothing surprises me anymore. Color code em all and make em different sizes. Feeding tubes are one size and the connectors are yellow. IV tubing is another size and the connectors are blue. IMAP connectors are yet another size and are black. Oral syrynges will not fit in an IV line and they are brown. Meds come up from the pharmacy already packaged in the syringe they should be in. It's so simple it's silly.
I remember seeing a movie in nursing school about med errors and how easily our checks and balances can be violated, leading to catastrophic errors. They referenced the airline industry, where there is also no room for error, and how they standardized everything so peg A could ONLY fit into hole A, peg B into hole B ONLY. I don't understand why the medical industry hasn't gotten to that point yet. Yes, they've gotten better with safety needles, and oral syringes that have the tip offset, but if you aren't paying attention, it would be pretty easy to make a mistake still. Why not make it so you can only hook up NC tubing to the O2, not medical air? Yes, congrats, you colored one yellow and one green. Wahoo.
I forget the name of the movie, but the contents really stuck with me. I remember a child died, and there was a hospital pharmacist in the movie taking responsibility and talking about all the internal errors that contributed.
I just Graduated in December and heard both of the stories about the wrong med in the central line. But they actually showed us a picture of the NG tube in the brain, and the aspirated contents was not GI but Cerebral fluid. She said she heard it gurggle with the air inserted to check placement.
Way before I started nursing I worked in an insurance office. My manager told me that she had a black friend who gave birth to twins and named them, yep, orangejello and lemonjello.
Altra, BSN, RN
6,255 Posts
I'll think long & hard about having any planned surgeries at non-teaching community hospital ... :stone