What the Heck Moments!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 22, 2009

sounds as if your friend was missing the necessary ammunition for a battle of wits.

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[color=#483d8b]years ago, when hiv was the big topic of conversation, my father was in favor of legislation (proposed in wisconsin) that would require health care workers to report their hiv status to their patients. at the same time, it was illegal for healthcare workers to know the hiv status of their patients unless they were actively being treated for hiv or aids. so if your little old man with a cabg was hiv+ from a transfusion he got with his last cabg (or a hooker he met in tiajuana) you were not allowed to know that. but you were supposed to be wearing a big, fat nametag that said "ruby vee, rn. hiv +" or whatever. fortunately, the legislation didn't pass, but my father was worked up about that for years.

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[color=#483d8b]i could not convince him that healthcare workers are far more likely to get hiv from their patients than to give it to them.

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mama_d, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2009

Although it shouldn't anymore, whenever discussing code status and the patient/POA says "CPR is OK, but don't intubate them" it makes me go "WTH?"

I just found out that one of our recent patients is suing the hospital and some of the staff b/c when she coded during a prior stay, they broke her ribs doing CPR. I'm not necessarily shocked that she is suing, since the common perception is that CPR is not only painless if you survive, and also 100% successful with no residual damage from hypoxia, but I am appalled that she found an attorney to take that case on. Can you see the ads on TV now? "Have you or a loved one suffered a rib fracture from CPR or burns from defibrillation? Call Brown and Brown now. We'll help you get the money you deserve from those evil nurses who saved your sorry butt."

WalkieTalkie, RN · Mar 22, 2009

We had this idiotic resident from some Slavic country. For one thing, it was hard to understand what she was saying in general. The other problem was that she was also just plain dumb. She would say things like "Start PCR!" Huh? Do you want us to draw blood or do you mean CPR?

She also once said and actually wrote in a chart "Give 25 mg albuterol IV." Um, no thanks, I'd rather not give the patient an air embolus!

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 22, 2009

I was watching this reality show last summer I think it was and there was a girl that was a paralegal for I am guessing a medical lawyer because she kept going on about how much medical stuff she knew from her job. She was telling a few of the other house guests about STD's and was giving out so much inaccurate information I was yelling for her to shut up from my TV. These people stood there totally believing her too. I had always kept myself well informed on STD's already but at the time of the show I was also taking Micro Biology and doing my project on bacterial STDs and we had just covered the HPV vaccine which this girl was rambling on about and also giving so much misinformation on. I just kept thinking that i hope people watching this don't blindly believe whats being said. Altough I see it happening all the time.

An law on mine was convinced she had no urethra and had inverted nippled because her mother told her so. She thought she peed out of her lady partsl opening,and had to be extra careful when having sex because of it being the same place :stone When she had her second child I was with her and she said she wanted to BF but can't because she has inverted nipples. I was like, well I have heard you can still do it, it just might take more of an effort. She was not modest and had went to give it a shot and asked me to hold the baby while she got ready and hand him to her. She had her boob out and ready and I went to go hand her the baby and was like, UMMMMMM you don't have inverted nipples. The Nurse came in to see if she needed any help with BF'ing and agreed.

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2009

I had a pt who swore that "all her veins" we removed from her legs.

And someone else who stopped taking her Halcion because "it made her sleepy" - she was taking it in the morning with the rest of her pills! Then she asked if the doctor would prescribe her a sleeping pill to take at home when she was discharged. I had to leave the room and gather myself before going back and telling her the Halcion was a sleeping pill.

We have a pt who can be inbubated but no chest compressions! We are still debating what to do if she is found with no pulse/resps.

allnurses Guide · Mar 22, 2009

We have a pt who can be inbubated but no chest compressions! We are still debating what to do if she is found with no pulse/resps.

We often intubate when someone is in distress, but not yet in arrest; is the only explanation I can think of. If you find them pulseless/no resps there's no point to intubating if you can't pump the oxygen you're putting in!

"Ah, yes ma'am, Ill fill your gas tank, but you aren't allowed to turn the engine on!":yeah:

'

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 22, 2009

This one was to be expected since my son is only seven, but when we were coming home from Cali in Jan we had a very long car ride in front of us which made a lot of interesting conversation when you have various aged kids. Well this colon cleansing commercial comes on the radio a lot and my boys thinks it's hysterical, one son will turn to the other and say "Do you feel fat today" cause the commercials asks that. So anyway, Son#2 asks me what does constipated mean. He is 9, I tell him it means you need to poop but can't. So than he says "well if you have to poop and can't where does it all go?", before I can say a word Son# 3 who is 7 chimes in and says, "It gets backed up into your inTESTicles." Me and Son#1 who is 12 were laughing so hard we were crying.

BEDPAN76 · Mar 23, 2009

Years ago when I went to the DON of a small LTC and complained about cockroaches running all over the place on night shift (including under the sheets!) she told me not to worry , that the doctor said that they don't carry diseases. I resigned a week later... :no:

diane227, LPN, RN · Mar 23, 2009

I like the ones who want "meds only codes" but no CPR. How are you going to circulate the medication?

1TachyRN, RN · Mar 23, 2009

Once had a patient complain that her chest pain was so bad that she had to take a nitroglycerin every time she smoked...

Melindy06 · Mar 23, 2009

I have a friend who up until the age of 20 thought that women had one "hole." He thought that they peed, pooped, and got their period all out the same place, and was really disturbed by this. I guess he didn't pay attention in Sex-Ed. . . . :bugeyes: