What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

Nurses General Nursing

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What have other peers done intentional/unintentional to freak you out? Good or bad. Happy or sad.

On my FIRST day as an LVN, (LTC) a res was screaming in her room as I was walking out to leave. I went in to see what was going on. She was having an anxiety attack and severe pain (post stroke). I pulled the call light, and no one came. Uggg.

So I peeked out the door and saw my CNA walking down the hall, and told him to come sit with res. I went down to get her a Xanax and a pain pill, well relief nurse was in the restroom, and relief CNA (with call light still going off) was sitting behind nurses station reading a newspaper. I told CNA to tell the nurse to get a Xanax and pain pill for res. She said OK. I go to relieve my CNA. Said goodbye to him, and stayed with res. after 10 minutes, CNA COMES INTO ROOM WITH XANAX AND MORPHINE PILL. She is soooooo shocked to see me still there, she hands me the pills and RUNS to the relief nurse. I could NOT BELIEVE WHAT I JUST SAW!!!!

(I did immediately call DON and tell what happened. Luckily, my CNA was still checking on another res, and saw the whole thing.--------they got a slap on the wrist! that was it!!!):madface: :madface: :madface: :madface:

last night I had a patient come over to my floor admitted with severe pain d/t flareup of crohn's.

Patient came with a dry IV of LR and NO FREAKING ORDERS in her chart. ANYWHERE.

I paged the R1 and waited. And waited. Ten minutes later, I paged the R2. And waited. Went in w/ the patient, helped w/ some breathing, relaxation etc. Finally I call the R1 again, he calls and I say "I need some orders for my new admit"

And his response.

"Okay what would you like?" :uhoh3: :uhoh3:

Yeah, sure its my job to order meds. I told him he needed to come and see her, I had no admitting diagnosis, no notes in the chart from whomever saw her and admitted her, and no orders for pain meds etc.

It took him a whole nother HOUR to come. I was furious. And then, after he wrote the orders and while they are being transcribed, the R4 comes over, looks at the orders, and says "What on earth was he thinking?" and crosses some of them out and rewrites them. Freaking scarey.

This is the same R1 I had to page when my patient with low crit post 2 units PRBC's was feeling 'fuzzy and weird'. He is in and out of her room before my note is even done and tells me she is fine, nothing wrong with her at all.

I go into patient and she said that he walked in, told her she was fine, and left!

Unfortunatly this is a sad but typical scenerio in all fields of nursing, they are dealing with shortages so they allow these nurses to continue. Because most likely charted correctly, you know the saying if it isn't charted it wasn't done, well the same goes if it was charted with some it was never done, but the paper work says it was. Thanks to frivolous law suits!! Bad nurses have no worrry, their jobs are safe, until they are arrested for negligent hommicide or forging presciptions. Sad but true.

Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.
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:

thats soo scary
Specializes in Psychiatry, Case Management, also OR/OB.

I'm working Psych, and we had a youngish fellow who had accidentally blown his renals with Lithium and had a central line double lumen dialysis catheter.

Evening nurse dutifully indicates the pt. had shaking chills/fever. She called the good doctor for a tylenol order, and he ordered a CBC and lytes. She charts BP's 80's/40's and 70's/30's. Nobody does a darn thing. I get there Saturday am for my shift, the guy is still febrile, BP is still down, and the aforementioned CBC shows wbc of 25 thou with left shift and bandemia. Hmmm.... wonder what the problem is???? How's about line sepsis, missy??? I reported this to my supervisor, but she never told the staff person about it. I'd rather work with 10 people who know they don't know what they're doing that with one who thinks they know it all, and haven't a clue. Patient got moved to the Unit, BTW.:nono:

Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.
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:

I'm a CNA, and even before I started nursing school I could have told you that things in swallowable form are not meant to be introduced directly into the bloodstream. This screams common sense problem.

:nono: Well I am a Cna and I have some some crazy things in last 19 years . I work days twelve hour shifts just got to work and the night nurse was agency and he had taking his dentures out left them in front of the computor on the desk and went to pass meds.
Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
:nono: Well I am a Cna and I have some some crazy things in last 19 years . I work days twelve hour shifts just got to work and the night nurse was agency and he had taking his dentures out left them in front of the computor on the desk and went to pass meds.

We need a :faint dead away: emoticon.

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

or a :choppers: emoticon!

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.
That is just freaking sick. I worked with an aide once that did peri care for a resident without gloves, (he had been incontinent), didn't wash her hands, then went to the nurses' station and ate a donut.

Oh good lord, I'm never eating anything at the nurses' station again!!! By the way, at my new casual position at a LTC (privately owned - coincidence??) I've noticed that there are no sinks in the hallways, like you would see in acute care, which is understandable in a older LTC facility as this one. In the residents bathrooms there's a sink and toilet. That's it. No wall soap dispenser. No papertowel. Were are these NA's washing their hands between residents??? Oh, there's a sink and soap and paper towel -- in the bath house. But, if youre in finished in room 103 and the bathhouse is beside room 125 - ummm - yeah --- how often do ya think there gonna do that??!! yuck. Not only that but there's no supply of gloves in the rooms. Oh there's gloves - in the locked med room.??:(

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
or a :choppers: emoticon!

:chuckle

Specializes in Geriatrics, Renal.
Unfortunatly this is a sad but typical scenerio in all fields of nursing, they are dealing with shortages so they allow these nurses to continue. Because most likely charted correctly, you know the saying if it isn't charted it wasn't done, well the same goes if it was charted with some it was never done, but the paper work says it was. Thanks to frivolous law suits!! Bad nurses have no worrry, their jobs are safe, until they are arrested for negligent hommicide or forging presciptions. Sad but true.

I worked with what we called at this facility a 'team leader' for the floor, kind of like a director of care. Any way, she wasn't very good at her job. A group of us were discussing our 'dislike' of the way she performed her job and couldn't figure out how she got hired, or for that matter, why she was still there. As it turned out, we concluded, she was the only one who applied for the position.

I extern in the NICU, and I watched one of the nurses give a baby a glycerine suppository without gloves. I'm sorry, I don't care if it is just a baby. Poop is poop, and that is just gross.

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