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:

[fiveofpeep]

(Doctor's order: Dilaudid 2-4mg IVP Q 2 hrs prn pain. Monitor patient closely for 10 minutes after administering, patient is very sensitive to narcotics.)

do you mean .2-.4mg? 2-4mg is insane for an opiod naive person :-/

[meluhn]

I have not had nurses make major errors in a long time that I am aware of, but if I had a nurse who crushed meds and pushed them in an IV I would have to immediately wonder if that person was indeed a nurse. Anyone who makes that type of mistake is either seriously impaired or not a nurse. That would scare the hell out of me. I have had a nurse break a patients arm, give medications without a doctors order, be unable to recognize critical changes in patient condition etc but for the most part I have not seen too many patients that have been that unsafe. If I ever catch a nurse giving a tube feeding in an IV or crushing pills and putting them through an Iv line I will FIRE THEM ON THE SPOT AND THEY WILL GET A QUICK EXIT FROM THE BUILDING with a call to the board of nursing and my manager. I will get them out then, right there, on the spot. That is so scary.

Just wondering...How did the nurse break the patients arm?

[hijabiRN]

Phew. I made it all the way through this thread. All I can say is :uhoh3::rotfl::hdvwl::omy:

A few of mine. These are a couple of things I did as a new grad.

I gave a pt their iv abx BEFORE drawing blood cultures. Oops.

I had an order for a stat uric acid level. I asked my preceptor how I was supposed to get urine out of the foley and into this tiny little tube. Oops, and duh!!

A CNA on my floor did not report a HR in the 180's on my pregnant, H1N1 pt. She was in Afib!!!! Had to transfer her so she could get a cardizem drip.

When I was a new grad, a nurse on the floor had been working with a pt for hours trying to get their SBP up. The pt was basically on their head. I think the pressure was in the 70's. CNA goes to get vitals, and lo and behold, their bp was a perfect 120/80. Guess what, it was the same CNA as the 1st incident with the swine flu pt. He was fired.

A nurse I worked with would come in and administer everyone who had pain meds ordered at the same time of their evening meds, whether it was time for them or not. She did this because she wanted them on the same schedule and "didn't feel like walking up and down the hall all night".

When we admit a new pt, we put their home meds into the computer. Then we have to print the list and put it on the chart for the doc to continue whichever meds he wants to continue. This is done for every single pt. I had a nurse who has been on our floor for atleast 2 years now, ask me to show her how to print the home meds sheet.

The same nurse as above was trying to transfer an elderly pt from the bed, to the BSC. She had a CNA heling her. The pt's leg was stuck under the bed rail (don't ask me how), and they broke her ankle. The daughter was in the room, and she said she heard it crack.

[TreehuggerRN]

We have an older lpn who's charting kind of makes you cringe. She charted, "Resident had skin tear to right elbow and I fixed it."

This is just one example.

[hijabiRN]

We have an older lpn who's charting kind of makes you cringe. She charted, "Resident had skin tear to right elbow and I fixed it."

This is just one example.

We had a nurse that charted "pt pitched a fit when I put her IV in".

[belgarion]

Knew an LVN at a LTC once who was ex military. He insisted on calling the dining room the "mess hall" in his nurses notes. For some reason this drove the folks from the BOH absolutely nuts on inspections and they gave the home a deficiency on charting every time they showed up. Always had to wonder what he called his dining room at home.

[sharpeimom]

we have an older lpn who's charting kind of makes you cringe. she charted, "resident had skin tear to right elbow and i fixed it."

this is just one example.

:eek: :eek:

eeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkk! omg!

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

Knew an LVN at a LTC once who was ex military. He insisted on calling the dining room the "mess hall" in his nurses notes. For some reason this drove the folks from the BOH absolutely nuts on inspections and they gave the home a deficiency on charting every time they showed up. Always had to wonder what he called his dining room at home.

Maybe he was trying to make the WWII vet residents feels right at home

DeLana

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

How about the GN who asked me to witness his insulin dose of 5 units... he had drawn up 5 cc.

DeLana

P.S. He never did pass the NCLEX - I wonder why?!

[nurse441]

non native RNs looking at the medications and trying to pronounce them and have no clue what they're holdiing.. and said "what the hell is this med, oh well i have to give this." without any knowledge of what they're giving!

[GoECU]

OMG, perfect timing for this post! Last night was the shift from he**! It was clean up the day shift screw ups! First, we got the most shotty, report you can get...basically it was reported everything was good. I'll let you all decide. This was our 3rd and last shift of this week...Our first patient had been on a heparin drip on our last shift, we had been monitoring his PTT and titrating the drip per protocol. In report we told the day nurse that another PTT needed to be taken q 6hrs to determine dosing needs. (We were having trouble keeping this patient in therepeutic range, he seemed to be under or over). The patient was also scheduled for a cardioversion this day for atrial tach. The day nurse did not draw the PTT before the patient left. The heparin drip was shut off for the procedure and when he returned to the unit it was off. The nurse still did not draw a PTT, he just continued the infusion.:angryfire He also did not perform the 1830 PTT. At report at 1900, we insisted that he draw the PTT before he left so that we would be able to address whatever was facing us. Of course the patient's level was way low and was at risk for throwing a clot. We had to bolus him and increase the infusion rate. This is just an example of slack nursing care, that patient could have thrown a clot or bled to death!!! The next issue was that the day nurse received an admit at approximately 1845. He had not checked on the patient. This patient was on an amiodarone drip (PIV ) and upon assessment, we discovered it had infiltrated!!! Plus the other PIV that the patient had was kinked and unuseable! This is just a couple of examples that we walked into. Anyways, I'm so glad that we were able to resolve these issues without any serious harm...It makes you wonder why some people go into nursing if they aren't going to go to the measures to assure their patient's safety!

[sharpeimom]

we have an older lpn who's charting kind of makes you cringe. she charted, "resident had skin tear to right elbow and i fixed it."

this is just one example.

with what? crazy glue or duct tape?? :dzed::omy:

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw: