I now have been a nurse for 3 months and have 2 to share! :)
1.) The patients MAR said give 1 unit of insulin for every 30 above 150. The nurse called the Doctor for a sliding scale to be written out because doing the math was too hard............... ok.
2.) Another patients order was Ativan 2mg/cc 0.5cc q4.... she asked how many mg she was giving and if that equaled 1cc. When I explained to her that she only needed 0.5cc for 1mg she didn't believe me/understand me and I had to GO GET another nurse to explain to her I was right before she double dosed someone!
"Gee, it's not very busy tonight. Hope it stays that way!"
That's the siliest thing I ever heard a nurse comment to me one night, cos as soon as you say that, the phone starts ringing with new admits waiting to come in.
Silliest thing I heard a nurse say was our PC manager: She informed us that it did not take one minute longer to take care of a patient in isolation than one with standard precautions and so our assignments shouldn't take into account whether a patient was in isolation or not. get real, please.
For this one I'd have to nominate myself. Very busy level 1 trauma center on the US/Mexican border. 11 ambulances in the city and 9 are in our parking lot, that kinda night. In the middle of major chaos, a drunk in a hall bed starts yelling and cussing that he wanted another bed just as I'm walking by. Without thinking, I told him this was the best bed because it was aligned North/South with the earths natural energy, and he'd get the best nights sleep right there. I kept going, he went to sleep and didn't wake till 0600 (our unofficial checkout time for the street people).
I guess the force is strong in me, Obi Won Canobi.
I can't think of anything specific, but I KNOW I have asked the pharmacist some pretty stupid questions. Good thing they are so patient ... and only know me by my first name!
I swear this is true..I had a senior level charge nurse ask me what MI stood for.. lol she obviously knew what an MI was, but for some reason wasn't familiar with that terminology. She was from Canada I think, perhaps they don't call it that up there?
Agree with the group who say both orders in your examples were VERY poorly written. The nurse was smart to question the orders. You're not smart to laugh and post about someone's diligence.
carolmaccas66, BSN, RN
2,212 Posts
"Gee, it's not very busy tonight. Hope it stays that way!"
That's the siliest thing I ever heard a nurse comment to me one night, cos as soon as you say that, the phone starts ringing with new admits waiting to come in.