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:

Omg!! That is a definite rotfl lmao... Tooo funny... Forgot to put which story I was replying to... This is in response to the cna giving shower to lady with prolapsed uterus

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Omg!! That is a definite rotfl lmao... Tooo funny... Forgot to put which story I was replying to... This is in response to the cna giving shower to lady with prolapsed uterus

I worked briefly in LTC as a GPN. A resident's NG tube, used for feedings, came out. She (the experienced LPN who had just returned from 10 years of retirement) replaced it. Didn't measure, lubricate, etc, just started jamming it down. Awful. The same nurse also couldn't understand why she got a headache after using the "extra" nitro paste as a hand cream.

I worked with one otherwise good RN who would collect the plastic "silverware" off the isolation trays and take them home to re-use after washing. As far as I know she never took anything really ugly home with her.

Rotfl and smh with the nitro being used as handcream

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I've seen a CNA use a sit-to-stand as if it was a hoyer lift. She would place the sling high on the residents' backs and under their armpits and then use the sit-to-stand to lift them up until their feet were dangling 3+ inches off of the ground. I warned her that this was the wrong way and was dangerous and I showed her how to use it correctly NUMEROUS times but to no avail.

It's a miracle nobody fell out or sustained a nerve injury.

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Specializes in Labor/Delivery, Pediatrics, Peds ER.

Just remembered another - this from my student days, so not quite as bad as if an RN had done it, but!!!

Around the start of our second year, a fellow student came across one of her patients and was alarmed by his appearance. She gave him a precordial thump, which had just come into vogue as a CPR technique.

The patient had been sleeping.

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Specializes in LTC.
Just remembered another - this from my student days, so not quite as bad as if an RN had done it, but!!!

Around the start of our second year, a fellow student came across one of her patients and was alarmed by his appearance. She gave him a precordial thump, which had just come into vogue as a CPR technique.

The patient had been sleeping.

When we had bath lab, I walked into the "room" and my classmate was playing dead. I gave him a sternal rub. You could have heard him scream across the lab. Instructor walked in and said "What the hell are you doing to your patient?" I said "He was playing dead so I gave him a sternal rub." "Oh. Well in that case he deserved it.":yeah:

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Specializes in General Surgery, Orthopaedics, ICU, ER.
A nurse crushed Percocets, mixed with water, and gave it through a central line IV.:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

WHOA! :eek:

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

A patient dropped pills on the floor. I went to get a new set from the cart. Another nurse told me to just give them, even though they'd fallen on the floor. Apparently, she does it all the time. Really. :barf02:

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
a patient dropped pills on the floor. i went to get a new set from the cart. another nurse told me to just give them, even though they'd fallen on the floor. apparently, she does it all the time. really. :barf02:

when my mom was dying, she progressed into ca-related dementia and became very suspicious of me, so i had to rely more than i would have liked on the hospice aides. all the rns and all but one aide were wonderful. i will never be able to thank them enough.

the other aide?? she handed my mom her meds (on a day when she became hysterical if i were even in the house) whereupon, my mom dropped them. the aide scooped them up, handed them back again, and down they went, into the wastebasket. i happened to be coming in the kitchen door, saw what had happened, yelled, "stop!!" but the idiot put the pills in mymom'smouth and my mom swallowed them down before i could get there.:eek:

i was a hospice volunteer at the time and am good friends with the special, wonderful, amazing, silly,

caring nun who was nurse/director of the hospice program. by that night, i was so fed up with that dumb aide that i almost forgot who she was and yelled at a nun:eek:!

before i brought hospice in, we had a series of rns doing private duty. that ended fast when i discovered the drug store had delivered halcion instead of haldol. this is a very small area and our pharmacist drops filled scripts off on his way home. his assistant pharmacist had filled it and the idiot

nurse had never double checked and my mom had two halcion doses within a six hour period of time.:mad:

near the end ofmy mom's life, she would not let me be anywhere near her. this was after an almost 40 year long warm loving relationship. staying on top of things became harder and harder.:crying2:

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when my mom was dying, she progressed into ca-related dementia and became very suspicious of me, so i had to rely more than i would have liked on the hospice aides. all the rns and all but one aide were wonderful. i will never be able to thank them enough.

the other aide?? she handed my mom her meds (on a day when she became hysterical if i were even in the house) whereupon, my mom dropped them. the aide scooped them up, handed them back again, and down they went, into the wastebasket. i happened to be coming in the kitchen door, saw what had happened, yelled, "stop!!" but the idiot put the pills in mymom'smouth and my mom swallowed them down before i could get there.:eek:

i was a hospice volunteer at the time and am good friends with the special, wonderful, amazing, silly,

caring nun who was nurse/director of the hospice program. by that night, i was so fed up with that dumb aide that i almost forgot who she was and yelled at a nun:eek:!

before i brought hospice in, we had a series of rns doing private duty. that ended fast when i discovered the drug store had delivered halcion instead of haldol. this is a very small area and our pharmacist drops filled scripts off on his way home. his assistant pharmacist had filled it and the idiot

nurse had never double checked and my mom had two halcion doses within a six hour period of time.:mad:

near the end ofmy mom's life, she would not let me be anywhere near her. this was after an almost 40 year long warm loving relationship. staying on top of things became harder and harder.:crying2:

bless your heart. :redbeathe

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I just changed jobs…have been out of acute care for about 4 years…just got a job in a hospital.

An RN I work with told me that it is not necessary to clean the ports before hooking up meds or fluids to a saline lock. Apparently, they have some sort of anti-microbial properties that make this unnecessary. All of the other nurses clean the ports and there is nothing on the box or the package insert that indicates that cleansing is not needed. I've already mentioned this to the nurse manager, so hopefully I will get an accurate answer on this one.

Same RN dropped an NG tube on the floor…after the patient pulled it out. She picked it up and reinserted it…no gloves.

Same RN nicked the bag when she spiked an IV bag. She put a towel over the pump to catch the drips and let it infuse anyway. I found it when the pump beeped to let us know the infusion was done.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

near the end ofmy mom's life, she would not let me be anywhere near her. this was after an almost 40 year long warm loving relationship. staying on top of things became harder and harder.:crying2:

kathy, that must have been so difficult. i am so sorry. i really admire your strength. sending hugs.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.
While travel nursing I had some interesting situations dumped on me:

1. CNA accidentaly shut of the heparin drip while clearing pumps for I/O's. I came in a good hour after the fact to start my shift, RN never called MD to figure out what rate to restart it at. She was "busy" and "never got around to it." So, the heparin had been off for well over an hour at this point.

2. Walked into somone in bed, ceased to breath. Apparently, pt. had arrived to the unit from the ER like that and the nurse on the unit was battling the ER nurse on who had to do the paperwork (since the pt. was never technically admitted to the unit). Unit RN refused to admit the pt. just to D/C them as ceased to breath, was so busy running around gathering evidence that the pt. had ceased to breath prior to leaving the ER.........she left the body and paperwork for me to deal with.

3. Was called into a room once by an RN (years experience RN we are talking about here) cause she couldn't figure out why the connector for the IV site didn't work right. She was trying to hook tube feeds up to the IV, cause the pt. was on TPN before during another stay and that was where it went. She insisted I was teasing her and "being old fashioned" when I explained you could not do that. Then got mad when I informed her I would refuse to pick up the pt. if she did do it.

4. Had a nurse insist I was being "jaded" and was not "pt. focused" because I refused to give tylenol #3 to a liver failure pt. He had been complaining of pain and she called the doctor, got the order but hadn't had time to give it, so I was supposed to. Why on earth would I want to call and get a different med? It'll just make him wait longer, such a jaded nurse I was.

5. Was called a "know it all" and was told I didn't follow hospital policy BY A CHARGE NURSE when I refused to follow her advice and cross my hip replacement pt's legs "to promote blood flow".

6. Was told I was "a meany" by a nurse when I tried to point out to her she could not give all the meds/interventions the doctores ordered. Why? She called FOUR.............4.......doctors with the same issue all at one time. Told them all about the pt's C/O constipation. So, doctor #1 called back, ordered colace and enema. Doctor #2 called back.....was not told about #1's orders, and ordered magcitrate. So on so forth for four doctors. In the end, she was going to give well over 1000mg of colace, three enemas, magcitrate and dolcolax PO.

I also knew a nurse when I was a CNA who routinely gathered her meds, marked them as given then tossed them in the trash. Couldn't be bothered with "those old bitties who take forever to swallow one pill and have tweelve to take."

I can't determine which of these is worse!

The heparin drip is familiar to me; I once had an RN shut one of my heparin infusions off because the pump was beeping and she didn't have time to find me to let me know... Together, we determined that the patient went without for about an hour. The pump was beeping because it was unplugged and the battery was low...

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