What are some crazy things you've seen since being a nurse?

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Specializes in Flu clinics, Med/Surg, Acute Care.

Since becoming a nurse I feel so much more obserbant in everyday life. Lately I keep finding myself in situations where I'm like :eek: when it comes to how I am treated in the hospital or how patients are treated. I thought the crazy would end after leaving nursing school. Like walking past a pt room at clinical and seeing a student confuse the order of insulin with heparin. It was scary but it was caught. Just recently when having my blood drawn pre-op before my own surgery the nurse was trying to start an I.V. on me without any gloves or or anything. Then before she started she primed the I.V. line, hooked up everything to the pole, opened the sterile tubing part and sat it all on a chair then started the process of starting the I.V. in my arm. So I feel bad for given her a talk about sterile procedures and she gets mad and I get a new nurse to start the I.V.. So she is doing everything great but since she can't find a vein while the needle is in my arm she starts slamming my are where the needle is in the vein. I'm like, "hat are you doing". And she's like what does it hurt or something? I don't want to take the needle out of the arm or you will have to get stuck again. She tried to rationalize why it was okay for her to have to needle hanging out my skin while she drummed away on my arm. Of course that didn't work so she got an attitude and just went to the other arm. So I don't know if I am being over vigilant since i a a nurse now too. But it just seems standards are so lack lately. So I am just curious about any other new or experienced nurses coming across crazy errors or situations while working or in their everyday life.

Sorry if its hard to understand I am 4 days post-op and allnurses is helping me not be bored to death while I recover.

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

I am scared to even go near enough to a hospital to find out.....:smokin::smokin::smokin:

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Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

We've all seen crazy things. I've been a patient too many times to count.

During my last inpatient experience, post cardiac-cath, I got really disgusted when a doc listened to my femoral artery (we all know where that is, don't we?) and then wanted to listen to my heart and lungs. He then draped his scope around his neck. I pointed out to him that his scope had been in my groin, wouldn't he want to clean it before wearing it? Never occured to him. He did the 'alcohol swab to the diaphragm' routine. EWW!

Only one of MANY infection control issues I have become aware of...

BTW - please don't write in huge blocks of print, it is hard to read.

Best wishes with your recovery.

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I went to the ER when I first found out that I was pregnant. Anyway, I had three different people ask me if I was pregnant when the urine sample was sitting on the counter. At another ER I had a nurse tell me that it does not make a difference how tight a bp cuff is on your arm you will get the same reading. I was a CNA and have taken many bps, but what do I know.

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Specializes in Flu clinics, Med/Surg, Acute Care.

lol thanks for sharing the stories. Those are funny. Does anyone ever have an urge to announce that they work in hospitals or are a nurse just to have people not try anything crazy?

Recently I took my two year old in to get his hearing checked. Long story short they didn't want to do it. The doc goes, "Is he deaf?" and starts screaming my sons name. My son freaks out and starts to cry. Long story short I was was right and he needed to have an operation to help him hear.

Thanks fpr the well wishes..sorry about it being hard to read. I blame it on the pain meds.:jester:

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Specializes in Peds Medical Floor.

I love when I go to the dr's for a routine checkup and in my chart is my pulse written down and noooo the nurse did not take it. I monitor my pulse myself (is that weird? At work if we have extra time we take each others' vitals; it started when someone kept having high BP.) so I know I'm WNL.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I concur with some of the things mentioned above. I've had my pulse counted wrong more times than I can count...I am always tachy, and I KNOW it's not 64 or 72 when I get to the doc (if I'm sick or in pain, it's even FASTER than normal). I'll check it right after they leave the room, and sure enough, it's always higher than what they wrote, by an obvious amount.

People that do lab draws and IV starts without gloves rankles me too, especially in this day and age! Some nurses will say they can't feel a vein with gloves on.......well, you'd better learn then, you know?!

At work, it bugs the heck out of me to see doctors go in to isolation rooms without gowning up, and we have one doctor that will remove dressings and such without gloves. YUCK. I don't even know if he uses the hand sanitizer between patients. We've complained about it, but it doesn't seem to change. I also hate when you round with them, and they talk to the patient for half a minute and don't do anything, and then write a note with all kinds of assessment details. They haven't assessed them! They don't use our notes to get that info, either, because during the day the our assessment forms are kept in holders outside the patient rooms. They don't even ever look at them, really, even the ones that ARE in the chart. Not that it would make it ok if they DID use our assessment data, but they don't even do that! (mind you, it is NOT all doctors that do this, but even one is too many!)

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Specializes in Flu clinics, Med/Surg, Acute Care.

Speaking of no gloves as a brand new student rn shadowing in the ER I witnessed a doc lance a boil on someones bottom without gloves!!! The whole time I'm think okay when is he going to use gloves? :chair:

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Specializes in OR, peds, PALS, ICU, camp, school.
I love when I go to the dr's for a routine checkup and in my chart is my pulse written down and noooo the nurse did not take it. I monitor my pulse myself (is that weird? At work if we have extra time we take each others' vitals; it started when someone kept having high BP.) so I know I'm WNL.

LOL. The tech took my daughters BP manually at her check up last week. One try, fast and easy, and then announced that it was 114/78.

Yeah. Right. Typical number to announce when you didn't hear anything and don't want anyone to know. Problem? She's 3. If you work for a ped and don't know how to take a BP, at least know what the normal range is for a kid.

I was a peds nurse... I admit that even with years experience, it often took 2 slow tries to hear a manual BP on a kid. Never one swift (and I mean swift) release.

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Specializes in LPN, Peds, Public Health.

I use these gloves that smell like grapes. Dont remember the actual brand name but they are the BEST thing ever!!! Not because they smell good, but It feels like I am not wearing gloves, I can feel everything. Just FYI.

I am sooooo OCD when I take my kids to the Doc or anything, myself, not so much. But last year, a nurse gave my daughter a flu shot, about an inch above her elbow!!!! I didnt see it at the time because I was hugging her (she freaks) but when we got to the car and she showed me, I threw a fit!! I have always given my son (hes younger) his shots, and now I will do the same for my daughter...

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Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Oh gawd, confession time, I cut the index finger tip off my gloves when I draw blood because otherwise those little wrinkles in the tips totally screw up my palapation of the vein.

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Oh gawd, confession time, I cut the index finger tip off my gloves when I draw blood because otherwise those little wrinkles in the tips totally screw up my palapation of the vein.

I see that all the time, especially with phlebotomists.

My mom stabbed herself in the arm with a steak knife last week. Blood was shooting every where both at home and after she got to the hospital. There is blood everywhere and there's the nurse, doing all kinds of stuff with NO gloves on. Finally, my mother says "Shouldn't you be wearing gloves? I mean, you don't know if I have something."

The nurse actually says "Oh I didn't realize you were bleeding."

Eh?

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