What was the funniest/crazy thing you have heard another Nurse doing?

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

One of my friends when she was a very new student nurse was looking after a patient who was on strict bed-rest.

The patient wanted to go to the bathroom and called for a nurse to come and help her.

My friend was found by the RN actually assisting the patient on the commode, which was on the top of the bed!

Nobody had explained to her that you put the commode by the side of the bed and assist her by transferring from bed to commode, when she listened to the nurse giving report and saying strict bed-rest, she actually thought it meant the pt couldn't get out of bed for anything.

[prettymica, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN, NP]

Washing off disposable gloves after cleaning feces off a patient.. thought the gloves were supposed to be saved and used later

[1JerseyCCRN]

Not too long ago, there was a nurse explaining the diagnosis to a patients family, she said the lab tests indicated that the patient had a bacterial virus of some kind, I was like wow, that must be some infection;)

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

You got to be kidding...if I told what I've seen some what are suppose to be called RNs doing I would be sent to an in house psych unit with a Dx of paranoid delusions related to hallucinations. Some stuff you just got to say to yourself "wow" and other stuff you must immediately stop what's happening before the patient is injured beyond repair. Sometimes I think "Why me; why does it always happen in front of me?"

Too funny about the commode thing...

[RN_PICU]

I had another nurse ask me if diuretics give people diarrhea?!?!!?

[esrun00]

When I was in nursing school many years ago, the student I was teamed with had a patient on a sips/chips diet. So she gave her a sprite and some potato chips!

[JSBoston]

I walked into my pt's room the other night and his trach mask over his nose... good thing is was more for humidification than O2... I could've burst out laughing, but my poor alert and oriented pt just sat there and didn't complain

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Well an experienced nurse asked me to assist her with trach care one day. Went in to help hold the trach in place, and discovered the nurse was paranoid of trach secretions. So much was she paranoid that she was putting a wash cloth over the trach hole so no mucous would come out. I don't think she had really "got" that the pt needed the trach hole to be open to breath, and could suffocate with a washcloth over his trach. I had to tell her to stop or else I was walking out.

[blueyesue]

Well an experienced nurse asked me to assist her with trach care one day. Went in to help hold the trach in place, and discovered the nurse was paranoid of trach secretions. So much was she paranoid that she was putting a wash cloth over the trach hole so no mucous would come out. I don't think she had really "got" that the pt needed the trach hole to be open to breath, and could suffocate with a washcloth over his trach. I had to tell her to stop or else I was walking out.

I have a hard time believing someone could be that dumb. LOL.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Well an experienced nurse asked me to assist her with trach care one day. Went in to help hold the trach in place, and discovered the nurse was paranoid of trach secretions. So much was she paranoid that she was putting a wash cloth over the trach hole so no mucous would come out. I don't think she had really "got" that the pt needed the trach hole to be open to breath, and could suffocate with a washcloth over his trach. I had to tell her to stop or else I was walking out.

Ha - I got you beat. We had a nurse who suggested the we "tie plastic bags over the end of the trach to catch the secretions". We just all sat there dumb struck before some pointed out the obvious.

[TonyaM73, ASN, RN]

Speaking of trachs....had a trach pt at a LTC, I used to work for, that needed O2. Came in after shift report and found O2 mask over his nose?!?!?!?!?!?! HUH? Kind of had to let every other nurse on the unit know about that and they seriously didn't know!

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

As long as all these trachs are uncuffed, the patient can still breath orally if the trach is capped or covered. It's obviously not as effective, but just because a trach is covered doesn't automatically mean the patient can't breathe and just because an O2 mask is over the face of a trached patient doesn't automatically mean it's ineffective.