What are some of the dumbest things you've seen or heard from another nurse at work

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Specializes in LTC.

Ok so it's after 3am and I get ready to get narcotics that need to be sent back to the pharmacy & find 3 different ones out in the open in the locked cabinet. The count sheets are nowhere to be found. The locked box that they shouldve been in is intact with other narcs inside. To send these back you have to match all the lot numbers 3x on different sheets and verify that the amounts you have are right. I put them in the box & passed on to the next shift that they were found not double locked with no sheets and that til I had original count sheets they'd stay there because I'm not signing anything and have it come back to bite me.

Narc records are by law kept on file for at least 5 years.

Found out later that the nurse that knows all and never does her work put them there and says she didn't know narcs have to be locked!!!!!

Ummmm.... That's why med carts have locked narc drawers! Pathetic. This isn't a new nurse just a lazy one they've got doing care plans pt which lpns are not supposed to do in my state.

I call her a halfway nurse cuz she only halfway does anything. I just thought this was absurd!

What kind of idiotic things like this have you guys encountered on the job?

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Specializes in LTC.

Found a fax to MD from a nurse for BP parameters for Allopurinol.

It was sent too.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Had 3 homecare nurses hold a patient's short course of methylprednisolone because they were waiting for a clarification about what "as directed" meant and none of them opened the box to see the whole deal all nicely layed out in a blister-pack.

Another one left me a note that I must call the pharmacist and tell him he made a horrible mistake as the Ambien tablets were "too big". It was generic zolpidem.

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how about we switch it up abit....what have you yourself done or said as a nurse....why pick on someone who cannot defend themselves?...

every day i run into cnas,nurses who say the most off the wall things....and i often wonder what i have said as well that was just as off the wall according to them..

ok..i will start.....sort of new to this position i have now...at the old position i had 12 residents with g-tubes. meds were mostly liquids...SO....an order called for colace.....i looked and looked for a bottle of colace everywhere!!....asked another nurse where i would find it...she came in,opened the drawer and took out the blister pack....oops...use to liquids not pills.....felt somewhat dumb...but hey...

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Specializes in LTC.

hmmm....lemme think here.....when our supplier was changed they used a totally different word for duoderms...not hydrocolloid but some weird name I cant remember now.....I too looked and looked ...many times right over the very thing I needed....finally figured it out after about 30 mins of searching. I found a sheet the supplier had sent and was able to match it up. Dont know why I didnt catch it sooner but we were left with NO info on the new supplies and names.

As for those who cant defend themselves...well....thats what this forum is all about...voicing different sides of things and sharing experiences no matter how irrelevent they may seem to others.

I dont claim perfection but I do have common sense to know that you never ever just lay narcs out in the open like that. The halfway nurse knew better than do that. Even if she hadn't known, theres a huge NEON orange sign on the front of the cabinet specifying what to do with narcotics.

Its sometimes amusing to hear about what we've encountered at work with coworkers, families etc. Occasionally hilarious, other times infuriating.

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Specializes in Wound Care, LTC, Sub-Acute, Vents.

"oh i did not know percocet 5-325 mg has tylenol in it."

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"Its sometimes amusing to hear about what we've encountered at work with coworkers, families etc. Occasionally hilarious, other times infuriating."

HEHE...oh i know that all to well...ya just have to shake your head sometimes and wonder....

ok..so how about "some friendly jabbing at co-workers"...hehe....:D

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A tube of charcoal became clogged but before I realized it, it spewed charcoal all over me and another nurse that was in the room with me. That was no fun to clean up and I felt like a total stooge. We got a good laugh out of it for a long time.

One of the stupidest things I have ever seen/heard a nurse do......a co-worker held Plavix on a post-cath stating the dose was "awful high".

Also, "Can I give 2 B6 instead of a B12?"

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Specializes in geriatrics, geripsych.

:jester:there is just so much you could say about little spoofs at work. my favorite one that i did, was ask someone why there is an order for oyster shell calcium, if they have an allergy to shellfish. i forgot that oysters are a mollusk, not shellfish!! my favorite one from another nurse was asking for help in turning over a 72 lb gentleman, who did not have a rigid body tone!! :lol2:

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"oh i did not know percocet 5-325 mg has tylenol in it."

gulp. my first week as a nurse i said that.:lol2:

to myself, thankfully.

the narc box issue is kind of scary. i hope management is aware of that...

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Specializes in Adult Care- Neuro ICU, Ortho, IRU, Pedi.

Overheard from a student nurse during foley catheter check off--- "I don't know who made up this sterile stuff...it's stupid"

I think she thought it was something like a Japanese tea ceremony...she really had no clue what a sterile field was after 6 hours of one on one remediation.

:mad:

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Dumbest thing I ever did as a brand new CNA years ago.

First trach patient I had seen. Stood at foot of bed discussing something with a co-worker, patient coughed up thick...ugh!! It got in my hair. I was so grossed out. Learned the lesson though.

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