What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

Nurses General Nursing

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  • Specializes in Med/Surg, ER and ICU!!!.

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Specializes in pediatric critical care.
God bless America, that's just nasty.

How about our poor hosekeeper had to put a sign in the employee restroom to remind the ladies to wrap up used feminine products and place the in the proper recepticle. Apparently someone has just been tossing them UNWRAPPED AND UNFOLDED right onto the trash can for the dirty paper towels!

:confused:

HAHAHA! I am such a dork! We don't hire HOSEKEEPERS we hire HOUSEKEEPERS!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :roll :roll :roll

Lovin' my job!

31 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.
A nurse crushed Percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line IV.:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I work in LTC with dementia residents. I am full scope there. I have also done 3 + yrs in acute on renal and didn't do IVs (or meds for that matter) on that floor and even I would know that that's sooooooo wrong!:nono:

Specializes in NA, Stepdown, L&D, Trauma ICU, ER.
Yes, slipping medications into a nurse's food is low down. I have seen that done before as well where I worked as a psych tech about 15 years ago. At that facility, we were certified to give medications, and there was another tech that used to sneak into the employee's lunchroom and eat our food (even if it was labeled with your name). Anyway, someone got sick of her stealing their food, and someone slipped some sort of liquid psychtropic medication in a soda bottle. The woman had a great deal of nerve stealing food, so, she sort of got what she got, but I would have NEVER done that.

Oh wow, I think that's even worse. I used to work with a nurse who'd bring in homemade goodies to share with coworkers on her shift. Got tired of the vultures from the other shifts taking what they weren't welcome to :nono: One day she made a batch of "caramel apples". Looked yummy, but tasted surprisingly like the onions she had dipped and covered with nuts.

:monkeydance: Mean as anything, but it fixed the problem of people sneaking away with food she'd brought in

Lovin' my job!

31 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.
The few posts here about nurses slipping drugs into other nurses food really gets me. I would never have thought about doing that--or to think that someone would do it to me. Nursing is a very trusting profession...nurses have to be able to trust each other too! What a horrible thing!

Here's a recent "drugging" story in Alberta, Canada. I copied/pasted from the web:

Grande Prairie nurse has pleaded guilty to administering sedatives to her co-workers.

Sarah Christine Bowes, 27, was to face a preliminary hearing Monday. Instead she pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including administering the drug, using credit cards obtained through crime, and public mischief for trying to implicate someone else.

In early 2004, staff members at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Grande Prairie began reporting flu-like symptoms, memory loss and spending more time than usual sleeping.

They said the illnesses continued for 17 months before suddenly stopping.

The hospital closed the floor and conducted air-quality and environmental tests, but lab results found nothing unusual.

Around the same time, staff reported stolen personal belongings and credit cards. They also told hospital authorities that they couldn't find some of the hospital's prescription drugs.

The case baffled police for two years until Bowes was charged in March.

At the time, police alleged Bowes gave a prescription sedative in the benzodiazepine family of drugs to at least seven co-workers.

Alberta Union of Provincial Employees president Dan MacLennan said the plea comes as a relief to members of his union working at the hospital.

"Things were going missing and people were getting sick," he said.

"This had been something that had been going on for a long time and I think today it's really good news for moving forward for all the staff."

Bowes had been released on bail into the custody of her father in Little Current, Ont., who vociferously defended his daughter's innocence at the time of her arrest.

She is expected to be sentenced after victim impact statements are read in court later this week.:(

daisey_may

103 Posts

Specializes in med surg.

Seriously! Sometimes when I watching court shows on tv...you know what I'm talking about...and you see a registered nurse on there as the plaintiff, and you think "oh he/she is a nurse, surely they must be right" but they did something so *stupid* you wonder how they can possibly care for other people with no common sense. Whenever a nurse is involved, I always change the channel because I don't even want to know.

Lovin' my job!

31 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.

I've just recently started a casual position in a LTC facility. I worked for almost 4 yrs at my previous job. They set a very high standard there. I now see the differences between them. I read policies etc on my first day re narcotic controls and such. I soon learned they don't follow them. There was a descrepency with a bottle of oral morphine. I asked "so, do we do an unusual occurence about this?" "Oh, no, we'll just adjust the number and leave it at that." I asked, "but I see you haven't done a count between shifts. Don't you guys count??" The LPN and the RN said, "NO, you just keep track yourself." ---- UMMM---OK, I thought, as I stood there with the narcotic keys in my hand all day. My license kept flashing in my head. Later in the day I noticed a bottle in the narc drawer with the label now torn off. It looked like the other bottles of morphine. I had to assume it was morphine and felt it need to go back to pharamcy, like any nurse with common sense. The other LPN said yes, "Just return it back to pharamcy. Write it on this return sheet. Put it in the pharmacy box on top of the fridge in the med room." OK....only the med room was locked. Not the pharmacy box. It just sat on the fridge in the open. And the door was not always locked. What if the next nurse or even attendent decided to empty the bottle and replace it with water?? My name is on that return slip!! Good lord, I thought this was a legal thing with narcs! At the last job I worked at, we had to put the narc to return in a tackle box and put a controled numbered zap strap on it to secure it so that even the delivery person could not have access to it! Boy, some places do things so differently. PS I'm going to bring my concerns to the DOC.

Lovin' my job!

31 Posts

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.
Seriously! Sometimes when I watching court shows on tv...you know what I'm talking about...and you see a registered nurse on there as the plaintiff, and you think "oh he/she is a nurse, surely they must be right" but they did something so *stupid* you wonder how they can possibly care for other people with no common sense. Whenever a nurse is involved, I always change the channel because I don't even want to know.

Having to be a strong team leader and role model as part of my job, I've learned that: I can teach someone something new, or show them a more efficient way, or guide someone etc. But there is one thing I CAN NOT teach ...... Common Sense! :( Too bad there isn't an entrance exam to nursing school to determine whether someone has common sense :rolleyes:

DusktilDawn

1,119 Posts

usually it has more to do with feeling superior to the posters here.[/quote

i certainly don't feel superior. perhaps it was poor choice of word(s). i simply mean, this is a place to enjoy yourself and learn a little something. we are in a profession which lends itself to seeing humor where no one else can. i've learned alot from my own mistakes and those of others. i admit to mistakes that i make and value every learning opportunity. it's true we learn every day of our lives. that said, .............on with the fun ladies and gents!

that comment was more a reference towards this post that you quoted:

originally posted by kaeri

thankyou lacie - someone who has a self-deprecating humour is so refreshing.

yeh - i get the title - which goes back to my point.......and why do all the story-tellers have to have such a righteous tone?

and no i don't think the majority of the posters on this thread are posting with an air of superiority or self-righteousness.

simbaRN

15 Posts

Hi, I have one and just recently happen, Charge nurse takes a glass vial of medication and states out loud "I don't need a fliter needle, looks like no glass broke in the vial" :nono: I shoke my head and told them you better use a filter needle, u can't see the broken fragements. Shook my head, reminder: the medication was for IV push.:nono: Scary..

zudy

475 Posts

This happened over 20 years ago, and it still creeps me out....

I was working in an acute neuro unit at the time. I had been off for a few days, and when I got back I had a pt that was new to me, but she was was 3 days post op from a craniotomy for a bening tumor. She was doing very well, in fact the only reason she was still in acute care was because there were no empty step down beds. a very nice, spry 78 yr old lady.

After introducing myself to her and talking a little bit, I told her I needed to do neuro checks on her. SHe got a real cute grin on her face, and told me to go ahead.

When I checked her pupils, her right eye was reactive, but her left was fixed and dilated. I kept calm, she kept smiling and talking while I cooly(I thought) checked the chart for her previous pupil checks. ALL WERE PEARLA! I checked again, trying to act like nothing was wrong, and the pt kept grinning at me, but that left eye just looked, well, a little odd!

I finally said,"Have yoiu ever had any problems with that left eye?"

She said,"Now, honey why would you ask me something like that?"

I started to explain pupils reacting to light,etc, and she laughed out loud!She said,"I have had a glass eye for 25 years, And not one person has noticed before you!" She was right, she had had 5 nurses in acute neuro before me, they had all charted PEARLA in her neuro checks. I also read all the progress notes, the neurosurgeon hadn't caught it, either!:uhoh21:

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.
I think somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed. There are many threads on here where we share mistakes we have made. Some of us are just amazed at things that go on and wonder if we are alone. This thread allows us to share our feelings on this subject in an arena with others that understand. This is also a good learning tool, ie, mistakes that have been made and how to avoid them.

well said .:yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.
I work in a LTC facility on day shift. On another shift there was a nurse that was upbeat, chatty and laughed a lot. Well apparently she got on another nurses nerves so the other nurse took it upon herself to pour some liquid medicine, I can't remember what it was, into that nurses tea!!! TO CALM HER DOWN!! That nurse didn't find out til the next night because one of the cna's heard her talking about it. Thank goodness she had no ill effects and made it home safe. The other nurse got fired after that.

that awful.i would hope she waas fired:nono:

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