What have other nurses done that have freaked you out?

[texas_lvn]

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:

[twotrees2]

I was an LPN with deep respect for RNs. My "supervisor" checked an O2 tank by lighting her lighter next to it to see how full it was OMG I ran out of the room so fast and called the DON.

Different RN (still an LPN) tried to open a g-tube stoma with a pair of bandage scissors before inserting the g-tube. OMG another call to the DON. Needless to say I HAD to go to RN school so I didnt have to work with supervisors who had no clue what was going on. I'm sure I'll think of more later.

LOL scary yes - but ya should have lived the "good ole days" when smoking rooms were prevalient and residents just went right along with thir portable oxygen on and smoked away with the o2 in thier nose - skeery thinking back thatfar - how many could have really been injured and not just the one with the o2!!!

and dumb as we were as cnas back then we were allowed to smoke with them and wow - i still shudder thinking how things could have went. some rule changes have been great lol.

[twotrees2]

I have to surrender to the fact that people in the health care profession are simply crazy. I thought that I have seen some stuff, but reading these posts lets me know that I have been beat out by the best regarding witnessing horrors! This is a great thread! I run to my computer every few hours to see what else creeps up here!!

they are good and addicting - i have to get up early with boys ( kids bday shopping day lol) and i just am so adicted to see whats next and have a good laugh or uhoh moment :) i really do love this place :)

[Jayne LPN]

a nurse crushed percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line iv. :eek: :eek:

ni way...that is insane.......do i dare ask what happened?

[Jayne LPN]

a nurse crushed percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line iv. :eek: :eek:

no way...that is insane.......do i dare ask what happened?

[Jayne LPN]

:

a nurse run heparin 25,000u/250ml in one hour (she thought it was an antibiotic)

:uhoh3: again.....oh my god.....how do some of these people get their license...or how do they keep it? :idea: :uhoh3:

[nursejohio, ASN, RN]

i hit all the call lights - bathroom both beds and pulled em outta wall which makes a more serious tone letting others know help is needed -

had i not had it that day no telling how much longer id have been in that position or what would have happened meaning someone may have been hurt

I'm assuming the violently kicking guy was between you and the door and you couldn't get out? Sheesh, I woulda had him tied down with a blanket or something. I'll give the crazy old folks 1 shot at me, then I'm taking actions to protect myself.

[k3immigrant]

md orders morphine 2 mg q 2 hours written q 2 and a little zero next to it, pharmacy transcribes in the pyxis & mar q 20 mins...*****s have been giving it in med surg floor, lo & behold so as expected, pt was having respiratory distress...how i found that out?i took care of the pt in the step down unit & as i was checking my meds(take note one by one) on the mar, I came across that morphine q 20 mins w/c did not make sense to me so i went back to the chart & found the order.called pharmacy & made them aware.it's funny for some people who just put their signatures on meds w/o checking.

[Rnandsoccermom]

One RN where I work called the physician with a PT result but reported it as being a pTT. She bolused the patient with heparin and he bled out of his wound all night long!

The same RN came in one morning while we were coding the patient she was to receive (in the SCU). She refused to come in and help because she hadn't received report yet.

BTW, she still works there, is friends with an administrator.

[twotrees2]

How awful for the pt! When I was 17 I had my first of two kids. He had several VSDs and ended up with open heart surgery. I was so young and did not know that I could stand up to a nurse. She tried over 8 times:angryfire :angryfire to get his IV during a CHF hospital stay. It was horrible. I then let loose. I will never allow someone to stick more than 2 times now.

Also, I do not want anyone to flame me for having a child so early, ect. He is the best thing that has happened to me.

i also was young - 17 - but when i got pregnant i went BACK to highschool and eventually became a nurse - had it not been for him and my daughter i wouldnt be hwere i am today i honestly believ that :)

[twotrees2]

I knew a lady once who had serious issues about getting pregnant if you weren't married. You were a horrible person if you did. Yet she had no problem with premarital sex, just pregnancy out of wedlock, (and as, ahem, experienced as she was, she got lucky). Most teens don't plan to get pregnant when they're in the backseat. It was okay to be in the backseat though. I never got that.

when i went BACK to high school it was in a day our small town had never ever had anyone pregnant stay at school( they either dropped out when started to hsow or they graduated before anyone knew ) it wasnt esy back then - LOTS of shame on yous and etc etc - but i couldnt be prouder of him ( marine - 3 tours in iraq right from the begin of this war) and me ( who went on to get a dgree cause my hubby left me and i had to be able to support 2 kids) everything happens for a reason. :)

[twotrees2]

just caught up on the thread and remembered a good one...i might have posted it before, though....

I was working as a CNA in a neuro ICU. We had a patient with a frontal lobe injury from being thrown off a horse. He spoke no english, but he communicated his feelings quite well with his hands- he had what I learned were typical frontal lobe injury-related behaviours, and continually pantomimed masturbating (even in restraints) whenever a female passed his room. If you had to get anywhere near him, he grabbed your boobs and held on for dear life. he was a strong little dude, and was constantly working his way out of the restraints- he had the order because he kept trying to pull out his ventricular drain. I spent a LOT of time with him, as he wasn't a 1:1 and the charge seemed to always assign him to a nurse with a very critical 2nd patient.

One morning, I came in to get his vitals and empty his foley. The night nurse was a traveler who was known for being lazy- both on our unit, and at another hospital where she'd worked as a new grad. I always checked to make sure lines and dressings were still intact when I did my rounds, as the nurses often ended up stuck in another patient's room for long periods (I never touched the lines, of course, and only resecured dressings that I was able to touch within my scope of practice).

On this particular morning, I looked at the tegaderm covering his ventric- ms. lazy had stuck 3 additional tegaderms on top of a ventric that was ALL THE WAY OUT. He had CSF leaking onto his pillow. (This was right at change of shift, and the day shift nurse was still assessing her other patient.)

I hit the call button and yanked one of the residents, who happened to be walking by the room, in to help. At shift change that evening, the charge nurse confronted this nurse, who had initialed the tegaderm and charted that the line was intact at 0653. Ms. Lazy responded with, 'oops. i didn't notice- my bad.':angryfire

But- as a tangent- the REALLY interesting thing happened later that afternoon....

I walked by the room and saw this patient- still in wrist restraints- STANDING BY HIS BED. he'd flipped himself over, so his arms were completely rotated inward behind him. He was pulling and bucking like a dog on a chain. Ventric was all the way out, laying in the floor. I yelled for help, and another resident and I got him into bed quickly- the attending came running, and announced that they had to drill another hole in this poor dude's head.....NOW.

I was lying across the patient on one side of the bed, holding his opposite arm and leg down- he was going for his central line by this point. Ten docs and nurses run in and place the sterile field over me, as there was no time to restrain him any other way.

As they were positioning the drill, the patient got his hand around my waist and stuck it RIGHT DOWN THE BACK OF MY PANTS. :stone He proceeded to full-on grope my rear end- but I couldn't move, and nobody could reach to remove his hand- plus, we couldn't exactly break the sterile field at that point.

So, for ten minutes, I had to stand there while he basically felt me up. Once the surgeon realized what was happening, he asked if I was okay- I said I was- and the surgeon started giggling a little. The other four nurses restraining the guy (he was strong) got to giggling, too. Once the new ventric was in, I yanked his hand out of my pants, moved back- and totally cracked up. I mean, I understood it was his injury making him act that way, so it's not like I could've been angry at him. Everyone in the room was laughing out loud by then, and the surgeon said, 'well, rach, looks like you have a new boyfriend.'

The rest of his stay in the ICU, this patient was referred to as 'rach's boyfriend' amongst the staff. I visited him a few days after he transferred out to the floor, and he was as nice and polite as could be. I still laugh when I remember that day.

lol have had a few gropes in my yrs working with dementia - ya just have to laugh - you know its not thier fault and i have seen some nurses and cnas get all worked up "sexual harassment" ummm yeah right - IF they knew what the word meant and they knew what they were doing - heck lol - have one right now grabs your butt and boobs and this person is a she LOL. ( trying to get in your pockets and get whatever you have in there to tuck in her pants roflmao) you sound like a great nurse for the dementia /head injury/a;alzheimer's etc patients :)

LOLOL thinking of my little lady who pinches butts etc - a teen voluteer was sent down to our locked unit - his pants baggy and pockets filled with whatever kids carry - my resident nealry depants him and almsot had all his pockets empty by the time i was able to get to help him - rolfmao - he ran off that unit as fast as he could ( and was also talked to about baggy pants and pocket fulls of stuff lol) just had to be there i guess cause his face was priceless with this lady near depantsing him HAHAHA>

[twotrees2]

I'm assuming the violently kicking guy was between you and the door and you couldn't get out? Sheesh, I woulda had him tied down with a blanket or something. I'll give the crazy old folks 1 shot at me, then I'm taking actions to protect myself.

no i was on the top of the bed trying to prevent him from hurting himself - guess working dementia/alzheimiers so long i just dont worry about me lol. its second nature to do what i have to do to protect the residents from themselves or others rather than protect me -may cost me someday i suppose but to date i have never been seriously injured - few bruises and strains lol.