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:

[dr.lecter]

Pretty much!

[Cat_RN, ASN, BSN, RN]

Worked with a RN who had order for a UA on a pt with a foley. RN went in room with syringe et sterile cup, got the UA. Went into room about 15min later to find foley on floor, urine everywhere. She deflated balloon, got the the sample (the saline used to inflate balloon) that way.

Ok, so I did this as a student nurse, but I CAUGHT myself when the 'urine' was clear and Foley falling out!

:thankya:

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

i'm late to this thread but i have a few that some of the other old bats may remember:

1) when i was a nurse aide (waaaay before there was a "c" in it), i worked with nurses who would insert butterfly ivs and then check for placement by sucking on them -- with their actual mouths-- for blood return. needless to say, this was also waaaaay before anybody thought anything about blood-borne illness...and apparently, not mouth-borne, either.

2) i had an icu patient who was supposed to get iv replacement (d5ns with kcl in it) to equal the amount of ng drainage q4hours. you guessed it-- somebody on the floor had emptied the gomco...and put the gastric drainage in the buretrol, and ran it right into the cvp line. "replace ng drainage iv" is what the order said, true that, unless you read the second line, which said, "...with d5ns with kcl 40meq." it's thirty years or more and i still can't forget it. ever get a blood gas with a ph of 6.04?

3) lpn admits an intubated patient into our pacu where i was a new grad. our standard practice was to secure an o2 cath to the open end of the tube for supplemental oxygen, and then extubate when the patient gave evidence that they had airway protection. i look over and there's this old lady bucking and turning purple...and i notice that her et tube has the o2 taped to it ok, but the entire end of the tube is taped up tight. after ripping all that off and bagging her for a bit, i asked the lpn just how this lady was supposed to breathe with the tube all taped up like that...and she said, "through her nose." we went and had a little look at the big poster on airway anatomy in the nurses' station...

4) i get a cardiac surg patient back, second case, and notice the urine in the bag is kinda dark, like coca cola. i send off the usual postop k+ and hct, and the report comes back, "hemolyzed, draw another sample." now, i never hemolyzed my draws. then the patient turns as orange as your halloween pumpkin right before my eyes, really, over about 20 minutes. turns out he got two bags of blood in the or that had been left over from the first case in the room, a total mismatch. somebody didn't check, huh. he hemolyzed, all right. patient died.

5) last blood story... i got called in to give some blood to a psych patient in the locked ward, because none of the nurses there could start an iv or something. so i'm getting it all ready, and ask why she's getting it. "she's been having some bloody stools," comes the response. "ummmm, how long has this been going on?" sez i, ever the alert history-taker. "since monday (this is thursday)," comes the reply, "but she does it in her bed, she's just acting out."

i thought maybe someone could think about calling the general surgery resident...gee, that's an idea, they said. next day i came in to work general surgery and there she was in the bed, crazy as a loon, but recovering from her bowel resection.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

i'm late to this thread but i have a few that some of the other old bats may remember:

1) when i was a nurse aide (waaaay before there was a "c" in it), i worked with nurses who would insert butterfly ivs and then check for placement by sucking on them -- with their actual mouths-- for blood return. needless to say, this was also waaaaay before anybody thought anything about blood-borne illness...and apparently, not mouth-borne, either.

2) i had an icu patient who was supposed to get iv replacement (d5ns with kcl in it) to equal the amount of ng drainage q4hours. you guessed it-- somebody on the floor had emptied the gomco...and put the gastric drainage in the buretrol, and ran it right into the cvp line. "replace ng drainage iv" is what the order said, true that, unless you read the second line, which said, "...with d5ns with kcl 40meq." it's thirty years or more and i still can't forget it. ever get a blood gas with a ph of 6.04?

3) lpn admits an intubated patient into our pacu where i was a new grad. our standard practice was to secure an o2 cath to the open end of the tube for supplemental oxygen, and then extubate when the patient gave evidence that they had airway protection. i look over and there's this old lady bucking and turning purple...and i notice that her et tube has the o2 taped to it ok, but the entire end of the tube is taped up tight. after ripping all that off and bagging her for a bit, i asked the lpn just how this lady was supposed to breathe with the tube all taped up like that...and she said, "through her nose." we went and had a little look at the big poster on airway anatomy in the nurses' station...

4) i get a cardiac surg patient back, second case, and notice the urine in the bag is kinda dark, like coca cola. i send off the usual postop k+ and hct, and the report comes back, "hemolyzed, draw another sample." now, i never hemolyzed my draws. then the patient turns as orange as your halloween pumpkin right before my eyes, really, over about 20 minutes. turns out he got two bags of blood in the or that had been left over from the first case in the room, a total mismatch. somebody didn't check, huh. he hemolyzed, all right. patient died.

5) last blood story... i got called in to give some blood to a psych patient in the locked ward, because none of the nurses there could start an iv or something. so i'm getting it all ready, and ask why she's getting it. "she's been having some bloody stools," comes the response. "ummmm, how long has this been going on?" sez i, ever the alert history-taker. "since monday (this is thursday)," comes the reply, "but she does it in her bed, she's just acting out."

i thought maybe someone could think about calling the general surgery resident..."gee, i guess, if you really think so," they said, dubiously. next day i came in to work general surgery and there she was in the bed, still crazy as a loon, but recovering from her bowel resection.

[klone, MSN, RN]

I'm really starting to appreciate how specialized OB is, because half of what I'm reading in this thread is like Greek. That, or I'm like "Oh, are you not supposed to do that?" (Percocet crushed up into the central line, for example - I mean, I think I would have enough common sense to not do that, but I didn't have the same "OH MY GOD!!" reaction as some of you).

[klone, MSN, RN]

Recebtly heard a secondhand rumor about someone who drew up gastrograffin in a syringe, injected it into some NS and hung it.......

Like I said....Greek!

[klone, MSN, RN]

I once sniffed a patient's chux because the triage nurse couldn't tell if her membranes had ruptured or if she had just peed herself.

She wasn't ruptured. :)

[klone, MSN, RN]

This should go for doctors too! I've seen so many doctors dictate full "assessments" while I was in the room the entire time and the doctor did not get within 3 feet of the patient. I had a doctor the last time I work dictate a normal cardiac assessment when 2 minutes later I went in the room and the patient had a heart rate in the 160s. I've previously seen heart rate regular dictated for a patient in a-fib, lungs clear to auscultation bilaterally for a patient with audible crackles and admitted for pneumonia, PERRLA for a patient with a prosthetic eye, BLE pulses palpable and equal in a pt with a prosthetic leg, etc. Not to mention the number of access devices, drains, surgical incisions, pacers, etc not documented on by nurses and assessments ordered Q4 or Q2 hours documented once in a 12 hour shift, only to get there and there be an obvious change since that assessment was done, then you are left calling the doctor and now explaining not only is there something wrong with the patient but that the last assessment that was done was 12 hours earlier I once had one poor exasperated very nice doctor ask me "Why did they do this? How could this have happened?" Trust me doc, I wonder that too.

I went to my PCP once because I had mono, strep throat and pneumonia at the same time. I watched the MA type "lungs clear to auscultation" and "RR 16" on the EMR (my RR was more like 24).

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

- Gave beta blockers to someone with an apical rate in the 30s (I blew up at her and told her to get out of my way and go home...not my finest moment)

- Confused an order for IV fentanyl with a fentanyl patch (thank goodness she was lazy and didn't get around to administering)

- Was eating dinner in the cafeteria and did not come back to the floor when a code blue was called overhead on HER patient (the guy dropped dead without any precipitating symptoms, but still...)

- Gave 4 mg IVP Ativan to a benzo-naive elderly man who was simply anxious, not even agitated (BTW, he slept for like 4 days!)

- Called an RRT because a 19 year old physically fit female had a heart rate in the high 50s (not a bad thing, really, but scary that she thought this couldn't possibly be a norm!)

[DixieRedHead, ASN, RN]

Out of the facility to take stat blood work to the lab. Gone 15 minutes literally. I spoke to the LOL who likes to sit outside my office door on my way out. I get back, and the call me to the LOL's room. Major stroke signs. Left side flaccid, looking to the right, BP 220/150, blown left pupil. The nurse tells me "I gave her an aspirin." OMG OMG

Granted the LOL was on massive doses of blood thinners due to PVD but an aspirin? She's been a nurse for several years.

[EDNURSE20, BSN]

On a another note, I worked a shift with a nurse who had to do a manual evacuation of a old man rectum that day. The story alone ? 

[Delia37, MSN]

This is more of a head scratcher....A few months ago, we got a new float traveler coming to our unit for orientation (as floaters, they orient 1 shift in every unit). At some point during the night, the nurse who was orienting the traveler comes to me (I am charge), to verbalize having some serious "concerns" regarding the nursing skills of the traveler (especially when she stated she had never taken care of a patient with an arterial line). Pulled the traveler aside; turns out she was a med/Surg traveler, who was supposed to orient in the step down unit. We have ICU and Med surg float pool and often get travelers in the last minute for orientation.  Seven hours into the shift and she never questioned why she was being orienting in an ICU unit....