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:

I watched an experienced nurse push Phenergan into a hand IV in less than 10 seconds.

The patient started howling about how it was burning and she told him that was normal :uhoh3:

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So I'm starting the nursing program right now. I can relate to some of these stories as I work as a vet-tech, they are just less dramatic and involve animals (like a tech doing kennels on a weekend and forgetting completely about a cat we were keeping in a cage in the closet... it's an isolation closet for animals that don't socialize well or are being isolated from other animals... so the cat went 3 days without food or water).

But what really scares me is this - a lot of these stories (certainly not all) seem like things that really could happen to anyone who forgets that they are dealing with human lives and just how important their job is. I've only had my job for 2 months, and I remind myself every time I go in that I am dealing with people's pets, but... I know there will be a day I go into work, where I have spent all night studying for some practical, my mind will be elsewhere, and open the door for a big mistake that takes such a little action, like mis-reading a label on some meds.

I'm just wondering, how can I not be the nurse who ever has a day like that? That's what scares me the most about nursing, those days I stop thinking of patients as people, and stop thinking my job deserves my full attention.

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Omigosh. To the crushed percocet/water/central line nurse... did the patient die??

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Specializes in Med Surg, Perinatal, Endoscopy, IVF Lab.

Here is the worst thing I heard of a nurse doing... My favorite instructor in school told of an incident when she used to work in ICU... A nurse had pushed Malox through a peripheral IV. Needless to say, when it was discovered what had happened, they immidiately transported the patient to the ICU and she said she just remembers the "terror on their faces" as staff and pt come rushing through the ICU door telling of what happened. The pts lungs became coated with it and pt died from the error.

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I've had a couple of incidents where I picked up a patient on an insulin gtt with NO sugar source! Very scary to think of what could have happened if those situations weren't caught in time...

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On my first day of clinical rotations, I witnessed the (my) charge nurse administer a flu shot to a patient being discharged. She did not wash her hands, she wiped the pt with an alcohol pad, injected (don't think that she aspirated), picked up the same alcohol pad (from the bed, which is where she dropped it originally) and gave the injection site one swipe with it. Never put on a glove! Never washed her hands before or after.

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No biggie right? Well to us (2 students, first day on the unit), this procedure has been beaten into our heads for like 2 months. Not to mention this hospital did not do well with their JCAHO evaluation for this exact type of thing.

he most up to date guidelines state that one does not aspirate when giving immunizations.

I don't wear gloves while giving immunizations, I do when starting IVs or drawing blood and I always wash my hands. Studies have shown that wiping down with alcohol is more or less useless. I have had one of my docs who didn't want an alcohol swab. Also, why would anyone swipe the injection site with alcohol? It would just sting. I apply pressure to the site briefly with a cotton ball or a 2x2 gauze.

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Why is that such a bad thing? Now the standard is NS, but quite a few years ago, you wouldn't have heard of blood hung with anything EXCEPT D5.

I have been a nurse for 30 odd years and blood products were always hung with NS- never D5.

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

I had a doctor write an order for a combative/disoriented COPD pt "Obtain exorcist stat"

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he most up to date guidelines state that one does not aspirate when giving immunizations.

I don't wear gloves while giving immunizations, I do when starting IVs or drawing blood and I always wash my hands. Studies have shown that wiping down with alcohol is more or less useless. I have had one of my docs who didn't want an alcohol swab. Also, why would anyone swipe the injection site with alcohol? It would just sting. I apply pressure to the site briefly with a cotton ball or a 2x2 gauze.

What studies? There's a proper way to do it and one swipe is not it. If using alcohol for IV sites is useless then it's useless to use hand sanitizer. You also need to let the area dry before inserting the needle. Alcohol only stings if it is still wet, which is also why it might be "useless" because it needs to dry before it is effective.

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I had a doctor write an order for a combative/disoriented COPD pt "Obtain exorcist stat"

:lol2::lol2::lol2:

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What studies? There's a proper way to do it and one swipe is not it. If using alcohol for IV sites is useless then it's useless to use hand sanitizer. You also need to let the area dry before inserting the needle. Alcohol only stings if it is still wet, which is also why it might be "useless" because it needs to dry before it is effective.

I will give you the link for that study. I still do use alcohol however, old habits are hard to break. Obviously one has to let the alcohol dry before injecting.

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Hey! I would ask if this was me, but I wasn't giving her a shower. Yep, I did the same thing. I was a young CNA, took a brand new patient to the br, then went and asked the nurse if the patient was a hermorphadite. (we used that word back in those days. Not politically correct now.) The nurse came and checked it out and boy did she laugh at me!

Ok, not sure how this ended up here, thought I was replying with a link to a post on a previous page. Oh well, you get the point anyway.

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