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:
Hemodialysis patient came up to my floor-had been admitted through the ED w/1 wk hx of fevers of unknown cause. I was doing my exam and realized that her vascath was covered by a BANDAID with a small piece of what looked like clear tegaderm over that! I asked her what had happened to the dressing that was on it before (thinking that at some point, somewhere, somehow-at least at her dialysis clinic-someone had done a proper central line dressing). Nope-she said that she'd been told at her dialysis clinic that "just a bandaid" covering this central line was okay. When she came through our ED, she complained to the nurse that this bandaid was "itching" her, and told me that in response, the ED nurse had replaced the bandaid (!!) I quickly educated the patient and her mother about the importance of dressing the vascath like a central line and did the dressing change myself, but the two of them seemed pretty annoyed with me actually. Oh well, hopefully I scared them enough that these bandaid happy nurses stay away from that site.
Makes you wonder where those fevers were coming from, right? (I'm sure you can sense my sarcasm!)
I was working a night shift and was getting report from the nurse who worked before me. After i had left, i went into my patients rooms, doing my assessments. I can kind of be a neat freak with things (Not OBSESSED) i just don't like clutter...and he is a slob. So i'm straitening up the rooms and i notice a medicine cup full of pills. the patient saw me looking at it kind of puzzled and she said "Oh no i forgot to take those this morning." I replied "What do you mean you forgot to take them? Didn't your nurse give them to you?"
She replies "No. they were sitting on my table when i woke up. I asked him what they were and he told me they were my morning pills and to take them whenever i'm ready"
....he just LEFT the pills at the bedside table for her to take on her own at her "own time."
Through talking to CNLs and charge nurse, this has not been the first time this has happened.found out this nurse does this ALL THE TIME!!!
what he does in the morning.....puts his patients pills in a medicine cup, leaves them at the bedside and tells the patients to take them when they are ready.
So i had to consult one of our CNL's to figure out what each pill was, what pills this patient had missed. It ended up being some things like a Lasix, 1 narcotic, some BP medications, things the patient needed.
I've known of some nurses to leave pills at the bedside. I don't think its good practice, ESPECIALLY narcotics. Who knows who might wander in and take the pills?
I never leave ANYTHING at the bedside anymore (well, unless it's like a colace with a pt who is AAOx3 when I'm super busy). Had an experience where I *thought* a pt was taking all of their pills (including calcium-which was important in their case b/c they were admitted with severe hypocalcemia) until I made their bed one day and several pills that I'm almost positive were calcium popped onto the floor. I'd been in the room to *watch* pt take the pills but apparently I was not watching closely enough and she managed to avoid taking them! Long story short-unless you see that the pt took the pills, you never really know what happened to them!
after 20+ years, this is the first time i've ever heard of this .... a new grad hired in a long term care facility reported that during orientation that her 'preceptor' another nurse, told her that if the residents refused to take their oral medication - to give it rectally!!!
oh my god that is wrong is so many ways. wrong route, the fact that some meds are engineered to change once they reach the gut to the usable form of the med (specifically the liver), the wrong ph, the fact that it might not be absorbed at all, or absorbed all at once, etc....
has anyone ever heard of that? i told the new grad to report it immediately to her don. (i didn't work with her, but if i had i would have reported it - and i'm not one to run to the boss but that is soooo wrong).
when i was still in nursing school i had one of my instructors tell my entire class that every drug that you can give po you can give pr. (i'm not about to test that theory)
Percocets in central lines. Feedings going into the wrong lines. Feedings going into central lines. Crazy old nurses taping babies mouths shut.........AND I AM IN TROUBLE FOR RAISING MY VOICE TO MY CNL??????? And those people are still working??????!!!!! THIS WHOLE THING IS FREAKING ME OUT!!!!!!!
Oh my .... oh no .... are you kidding or did these things really happen?
taping babies mouths shut!!!!!!! are you joking...if this really occurred they should be facing criminal charges for abuse!!! What the f***!!!:madface::madface::madface::madface::madface::madface::madface::madface:
OMG...this is SO sad. I, myself, had both my children in the NICU due to prematurity. One was there for 112 days, the other for only about 2 weeks. This is exactly why I want to work in the NICU. Can't believe anyone would be so stupid.
Wow, I have a good but really sad one. I was a nurse extern on a peds floor when I was in nursing school. We had a very large and very busy NICU and we often would get some of their "graduates" on the floor to gain some weight and monitor them (this was 10 years ago) before they went home. One of my favorite babies, had miraculously survived, graduated from the NICU, was on our unit for a few weeks and went home on a pulse ox and apnea monitor (if I remember right, he had some residual BPD/RDS). He had 24 hour nursing at home. One morning, the night nurse reported off to the daytime nurse that the pulse ox probe must not be working b/c it kept going off during the night. When the daytime nurse went in the room, and turned the lights on to assess the patient (which the night nurse never did) the baby was blue with sats in the 70's. They called 911, got him admitted to the PICU on a vent and he died 3 days later. This baby had a good prognosis and ended up passing away b/c noone bothered to assess him and just assumed something was wrong with the monitor!!! ALWAYS assess your patient not just look at the monitor!
OMG! This is SO sad, & exactly why I want to work in the NICU. There will be one less spot for someone so careless & stupid to be handling these precious babies. I, myself had both of my children in the NICU - one for 112 days, the other for just about 2 wks, & had to deal with nurses who clearly should not have been nurses. My daughter was eating well & less than a week from going home & a nurse came in on the weekend & sedated her because she was "crying so much" when I was just down the hall, resting, & my phone number was taped to her bed in case she needed to be fed or held or anything. Instead, she sedated my child for hours while I slept, tube fed her in her sleep so she could do something else instead of feed my child who had FINALLY succeeded at bottle feeding, & caused her to have to stay another TWO WEEKS. I can't believe anyone would be so stupid.
Anyway, that nurse has to live with the fact that she cost that precious baby its life. Hope she learned her lesson & found a desk job somewhere AWAY from any patients.
My first clinical ever was at a major teaching hospital in an urban area. I was in the vascular ICU taking care of a patient who had had a femoral popliteal bypass graft, diabetes, and CHF. She was severely obese and I was helping wash her up. She kept complaining about pain in her stomach area all day even after being given pain meds. When I lifted up on of the folds of her stomach to help wash her, I found a line of about 10-15 surgical staples completely infected. I had not seen anything about this in her chart and the patient had NO IDEA that she had staples in her stomach. I immediately went and found her nurse for the day who also had no idea that she had staples in her stomach. The nurse immediately called the resident who had no idea about this either. No one could justify why the staples were there or how long they had been there. As I was leaving for the day, the nurse and the resident were contacting the attending and clearly were very nervous about the whole situation. This was my last day of clinical for the semester so I have no idea what ended up happening, but I still shudder when I think about it.
First day as newly licensed RN at SNF...The only other RN on the floor was orientating me. We recieved an admission that in report from the hospital apparently had a "Cabbage" completed. I wanted sooooo badly to ask my orientator to remind me of what a 'cabbage' was...but I didn't.
Recently we received an admission pt has contact iso r/t "Mercer". I just couldnt get over how many times this nurse had documented 'Mercer' rather than MRSA. Sometimes its the little things...
:madface: 
I asked her what had happened to the dressing that was on it before (thinking that at some point, somewhere, somehow-at least at her dialysis clinic-someone had done a proper central line dressing). Nope-she said that she'd been told at her dialysis clinic that "just a bandaid" covering this central line was okay. When she came through our ED, she complained to the nurse that this bandaid was "itching" her, and told me that in response, the ED nurse had replaced the bandaid (!!) I quickly educated the patient and her mother about the importance of dressing the vascath like a central line and did the dressing change myself, but the two of them seemed pretty annoyed with me actually. Oh well, hopefully I scared them enough that these bandaid happy nurses stay away from that site. 
(I'm sure you can sense my sarcasm!)
LouisVRN, RN
672 Posts
Holding all of a patients meds for an hour period of time because they didn't have time