What did you see at clinicals that shocked you (re/the nurses and doctors)

Nursing Students General Students

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Hello: I just finished my last two clinicals. I hope some of the things I saw are not the norm in the working world. Okay, here's a few things: doctors who did not wash their hands, even after touching a baby's bottom, and then go on to the next patient, nurses who changed peri pads without gloves, the funniest - nurses who wore patterned underwear (way too small) with their see-through white pants. Nurse helping a new mom breast-feed and to latch on, did not wash her hands before and then even put her fingers in the baby's mouth to check suck reflex. :uhoh3: :uhoh21:

Specializes in Emergency Dept, M/S.
please tell me you reported him....thanks

It wasn't my pt., but the clinical instructor did file a report with administration, with the student to back her up. I don't know what, if anything, has come of it. It happened about 7 weeks ago, so I'm guessing it may take a while? I don't even know what a hospital would do in terms of reprimand. I hope something though. Inexcusable to treat any human being like that.

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Specializes in NICU.
I'm abit confused. What's wrong with eating food off a plate, isn't that what you're meant to do ???????:rotfl: . Or did I completely miss the point?

Emma

I think that she's saying her dad will take a bowl of macaroni salad, for instance, out of the fridge and instead of putting a spoonful of it on a plate and eating it that way, he'll just eat what he wants right out of the serving bowl and put it back in the fridge. Kind of on the same lines as double dipping your chips :)

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Specializes in MICU, CVICU.

So this isn't an "ewww, gross" story but I still couldn't believe I heard it. In my psych clinical I was on the chronic unit one day and the head nurse told a pt with chronic uncontrolled schizophrenia that the nurse was her "big black baby" and continued to ask her if she'd ever had a black baby before. Needless to say the pt was white and the nurse was black. Good way to reality orient, don't you think?

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Specializes in home health, LTC, assisted living.
So this isn't an "ewww, gross" story but I still couldn't believe I heard it. In my psych clinical I was on the chronic unit one day and the head nurse told a pt with chronic uncontrolled schizophrenia that the nurse was her "big black baby" and continued to ask her if she'd ever had a black baby before. Needless to say the pt was white and the nurse was black. Good way to reality orient, don't you think?

That is absolutely the sickest thing I have EVER heard anyone say to a patient. Just because it is the psych ward, and their minds are compromised, they deserve the same dignity and respect as any other human being. Shame on her. :eek:

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Specializes in PCU, Critical Care, Observation.

The top two are seeing nurses & doctors not using gloves or washing their hands. In fact, I think I have yet to see a Dr. put gloves on or wash their hands. Numerous medication errors - including one nurse who didn't seem to comprehend the importance of insulin for someone that is diabetic. Same nurse also lacked comprehension of realizing a pt whose BP was dropping needed some quick medical interventions. Sterile dressing changes without using gloves. Watching a pt nearly code during a medical procedure because the nurse accidentally stepped on the oxygen tubing & disconnected it - couldn't understand why the pt's 02 sat was dropping so quickly. I happened to be on the elevator with that pt's family & overheard them telling the story they were told about how the pt simply didn't tolerate the procedure well - if only they knew the real reason as to why.

I think my pet peeve is watching nurses starting IV's without using gloves. It is just stupid to take that risk. I can still hear my first semester instructor repeating a zillion times "if it's wet or sticky & not yours - WEAR GLOVES!"

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OK I DID THIS! I ACCIDENTALLY used a rectal thermometer on a resident in a nursing home. It had a sleeve on it and as soon as I realized what I had done, I was going to pull it out but my instructor said, "Well it's already there, just finish". MORTIFIED is an understatement...

Thank God my instructor was calm. She told me, if that's the worst mistake you make, you learned from it. After that, EVERY time we talked about thermometers, she turned to me so I could tell the class the right color, the correct temps, etc.

Grossiest thing from a nurse? Using diaper cream on a abcessed pressure ulcer without gloves. I could not believe it. It really really upset me. I asked her why she didn't call in a 'script from the Dr. and she said, "He's busy." Then I asked about packing it, she said that was too much trouble since the lady was on deaths door. My instructor was there. She called the facility director ON THE SPOT. I never went back to a clinical at the nursing home.

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MY pet peeve

Lots of nurses do this too...I just don't get it!!!

I hate it when nurses clean an incontinent patient and throw the poopy linens on the floor, or set it in a chair next to the bed, or drape poopy washcloths/towels over the siderails...and THEN throw them in the laundry bin when they are done. SICK. I don't want to walk in it, I don't want patients and families sitting in it, and I don't want to put my bare hands on germy bedrails either. (or ANYTHING else in the room just knowing these other nurses practice this way).. Why people, why?! Remember micro? How about some common sense? I always roll the linen bin to the bedside and immediately toss in what I have used...undo the bed and right in the bin the linen goes! AND yes...ALWAYS GLOVES! I practically live in gloves at work.

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There is a nurse in a neighboring unit who gives rectal suppositories without gloves:imbar

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Specializes in OB, lactation.

Whoa ho ho hooo nellie!!! Heebie jeebies! :eek: :stone

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Specializes in NICU.

Yikes this thread is a real eye opener!!!!

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A nurses who kicked a big metal garbage can away from me post op in the recovery room. Huge clang when it fell and me in tears for 1 hour. I made a formal complaint.[/quote']

I have reservations for going into the nursing field for that reason. I noticed doctors set the tone. Since many of them are nasty and unpleasent, nurses feel they can treat people under them the same way. It's tough to made to feel useless when you're first learning something as intense as nursing. Some people need to abuse other people's feelings to feel better about their life. I'm worried because I stand up for myself, and I don't want to be labled as the angry black man on the unit. I always feel it's just as easy to be nice and courteous to someone as it is to be inconsiderate and rude. Why not treat people like we would want to be treated? I just won't tolerate someone treating me like garbage ...doc or nurse, and I know this is going to be a problem. Some of my friends, including my mom, has had petitions started against them by other nurses for standing up for themselves. They happen to be techs and LPNs.

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Specializes in Home care, assisted living.
My almost-ex, one of my sons, and myself got very, very ill several years ago from e. Coli from pizza. Came directly back to a pizza worker who admitted he never had, never will wash his hands after using the bathroom (his reasons were so stupid they were hilarious - "that's what toilet paper is for, I wipe them on my jeans, soap is for sissies and doesn't clean anything anyway, I cleaned the counters with cleaner afterward, and accidently got some cleaner on my hands anyway, so that cleaned them" etc.)

Okay, this guy doesn't sound very bright. "Soap is for sissies"--WHAAAT?!? I'd like to know how a county health inspector would react to this guy's philosophies about soap. :uhoh21: And, umm, if he figured that some of the counter cleaner getting on his hands got them spic-and-span, what about the rag he touched with his hands? I mean, they touched his little willy while he was taking a pee break, right? :eek: What if he had an STD?

Wouldn't be surprised if this guy is still working for the local pizza place. It sounds like his elevator doesn't quite reach the top floor, KWIM?

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