What's the scariest thing you've ever seen as a nurse?

Popwhizbangz, LPN · Feb 1, 2011

Wow, thats tough. There is no way, none whatsoever, that a student should be expected to deal with someone getting thrown off the unit, at least in my experience, that's generally unusual and always far above the call of duty for a student.

My first student clinical placement was on a Thoracic Surgery Floor in a teaching hospital in Boston - chest tubes, major cancer, vents, etc. I only had one patient at a time, but the nurses were quite busy and I was mostly on my own - that was scary (and also a abuse of nursing education).

But the most scary was probably when a group home resident attacked me with a hammer - I once previously did construction for a summer, so I can tell you this was a 22 ounce, serious hammer (available to pt thanks to a very irresponsible repair dude, thankfully fired soon thereafter), one blow in the right place could def kill. I didn't see any viable escape option, had little time to think (a second or two maybe, prob less), and fortunately took the hammer away unharmed. You surely can't plan ahead for everything, as much as we try.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2011

Not really scary...had a pt that decided to melt and inject his methodone. All of the flesh around both anticubitals had rotted off requiring an I&D in the OR. The dressing changes were quite painful. You could see every ligament/tendon and part of the bone.

Just had one of those recently. Meth lab explosion.

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Feb 1, 2011

easy to say if you don't work with life and death in seconds and are mixing multiple drips all at the same time, while tending to 50 family members falling out in the room and a crashing patient. Of course the standard is to double check, that s why it was caught. When running frantically to save a life you grab the wrong thing easily, your internal double check system catches it... but you are still scared to your briefs because of "what could have been". That second nurse checking is the one you hug. The post was about the potential... not the procedures in place, which are there. Otherwise that poster would have had a different outcome. In critical care we all have near misses. the poster is simply sharing one. GEEZE...... and the "ALWAYS" in your post.... a touch lecturing to a nurse that had the guts to share it. Not needed at all IMHO a touch beyond what was needed here. OUCH, may you never have a near miss and have to read your response.

OK you are obviously very angry about something. So here is my reponse:

1) I don't see that she said it was an emergency situation.

2) In OUR AUSTRALIAN hospitals - not talking about the WHOLE WORLD here - we ALWAYS double check anything, even in emergencies. And yes I have had another RN/medication endorsed EN (like your LPNs I think) running to the crash cart/med room with me to quickly check something for patient who have bradyed down or in MI. If you stop and think logically about it, it takes only a few seconds not to make a fatal mistake. No point not doing that and killing the patient you are trying to save!

3) I did not direct this at you. I'm just curious as to why you are so angry?

4) You do not know anything about any emergency situations I have been in. I have stopped and helped car crash victims on the freeway, at work, right outside of work in the carpark, and have also had to go work in EDs/ERs in emergencies with NO TRAINING OR ORIENTATION. I think that takes some sort of backbone and knowledge, don't you? The Director of Emergency Medicine on one shift apologised for my lack of orientation, and told me I was one of the most mature and level-headed people he had worked with. I also used to work as a volunteer with St John Ambulance, many years ago.

5) I'd like you to answer me as to why you are so angry? I'm really curious as to why I deserved a response like this.

6) It wasn't directed at you therefore do not understand the anger.

7) And yes I'm talking about AUSTRALIAN procedures in hospitals/facilities. Just wondered if procedures in other countries were not the same. We ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS double check any meds, even NS - it is standard procedure and law in our country.

And it's good nursing practice.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Feb 1, 2011

Scariest thing that I ever dealt with happened before I was actually a nurse; at the time, I was a CNA working as a tech on the maternity floor the day a meth addict gave birth to a baby who also tested + for the drug. Of course, the child-protection people were all over it and promptly separated mom and baby, and they banned the baby-daddy from the hospital as well, since he was a known user who'd been caught tweaking in the patient's bathroom during her labor.

I was putting orders into the computer at the front desk late that afternoon when he returned, red-eyed and bristling with anger. He told me that he had a gun in his car, and if I didn't let him go into the unit, he was going to get that gun and start shooting people until we allowed him to see his girlfriend and baby. Well, being first in the line of fire, I was scared spitless, but I told him he'd have to talk to my supervisor; stupidly, he snarled at me to "go get her!" and I promptly ducked behind the double doors, locked them, and called Security and then 911.

The police got there about the same time our 400-lb. guard named "Tiny" and the ancient rent-a-cop who patrolled the parking lot made it up the stairs to the third floor. The officers took the fellow into an empty isolation room and talked to him, rather intensely, for about 20 minutes while the nurses, housekeeper, and myself stood outside watching. Country hospital staff all, we'd never had our lives threatened before, and the whole drama was both frightening and yet somehow kind of exciting........especially since the cops were there and the guy was obviously NOT going to shoot anyone in their presence.

They escorted him out of the building and off the hospital campus after he agreed not to hurt anybody (he did have a gun, but they took it away from him), and the rest of us went on about our business. But when I went back to that hospital a couple of years later to work as a nurse, that incident was still being talked about by the security supervisor as a cautionary tale of what can happen in the acute care setting when emotions get amped up and people lash out against the staff. I guess it had even shaken them up!

rn undisclosed name · Feb 1, 2011

OK you are obviously very angry about something. So here is my reponse:
1) I don't see that she said it was an emergency situation.
2) In OUR AUSTRALIAN hospitals - not talking about the WHOLE WORLD here - we ALWAYS double check anything, even in emergencies. And yes I have had another RN/medication endorsed EN (like your LPNs I think) running to the crash cart/med room with me to quickly check something for patient who have bradyed down or in MI. If you stop and think logically about it, it takes only a few seconds not to make a fatal mistake. No point not doing that and killing the patient you are trying to save!
3) I did not direct this at you. I'm just curious as to why you are so angry?
4) You do not know anything about any emergency situations I have been in. I have stopped and helped car crash victims on the freeway, at work, right outside of work in the carpark, and have also had to go work in EDs/ERs in emergencies with NO TRAINING OR ORIENTATION. I think that takes some sort of backbone and knowledge, don't you? The Director of Emergency Medicine on one shift apologised for my lack of orientation, and told me I was one of the most mature and level-headed people he had worked with. I also used to work as a volunteer with St John Ambulance, many years ago.
5) I'd like you to answer me as to why you are so angry? I'm really curious as to why I deserved a response like this.
6) It wasn't directed at you therefore do not understand the anger.
7) And yes I'm talking about AUSTRALIAN procedures in hospitals/facilities. Just wondered if procedures in other countries were not the same. We ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS double check any meds, even NS - it is standard procedure and law in our country.
And it's good nursing practice.

You double check every single med. Well, I think that is a bit over the top. I understand certain medications being double checked but NS. Good nursing practice. I don't think I would say that. We are not staffed appropriately to have someone double check all meds. Heck, sometimes I have a hard time getting another person just to check blood with me. Perhaps you should have someone double check your assessment, your iv start, documentation, and wound dressing. It is standard here to have someone double check high risk medications and chemotherapy. Definitely not all meds. During a code someone is not double checking. Time is of essence when you are trying to save someone's life. You're being handed a medication that is labeled and it is administered.

I read the posts and don't think you were being attacked anymore than what you have typed here. I didn't get the hostility that you think was directed toward you. The way you worded your post you were attacking the original poster for not double checking a med. It really depends on what the medication was and if it requires a double check.

DizzyLizzyNurse · Feb 2, 2011

Not quite as dramatic as the above posts, but scary nonetheless...I had a very arrogant surgical resident get her panties in a wad because we would not let her pt go back to the OR from the holding area until she was marked. We paged and paged, but she never returned the page. She came up to the holding area in a total tizzy, grabbed a marker and went over to the patient and marked her so hard that the pt started to cry. Then she looked over at the pre-op nurses and said, "There, are you happy?!? Can we get on with it?" She marked the wrong site.

Wow if I had been that pt I would have requested another surgeon right away!!! Did she get in trouble? Did she get to operate? What happened? Did she become more humble???? What happened????

The other one was a very mentally disturbed patient who set himself on fire. He burned for a *long* *long* time. When we got the patient to the burn ICU he was a 95% burn, close to 100% and it was so bad he had split like an over cooked hot dog down the front and the back, down the legs.... This patient wasn't only burned but he was CHARRED. He literally looked like a movie prop, I have seen bad burns, but never anything quite so graphically awful. We weren't even able to draw labs on him until he has 12 liters of fluid in him because of the complete lack of plasma... it was really, really bad. The patient, of course, died a few days later.

If I saw this, it would have given me nightmares. I could never work with burns.

Cecilia1949 · Feb 2, 2011

My scariest moment was in 1989 when a psychotic patient grabbed me when I entered his room and pinned me to his bed. I went backwards and somehow drew up my knees so that when he threw himself on me, he was balanced on my lower legs. He was as they say "naked as a jay-bird". My staff heard the noise and came in to try to help but my all female staff couldn't budge him. It took a 300lb transporter to pull him off. Needless to say, he spent the short remainder of his stay in handcuffs.

GitanoRN, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 2, 2011

I have been in nursing for over 15yrs. when I decided to become a flight nurse. One rainy weekend our unit received a call of a 2 vehicle and a eighteen-wheeler collision involving 6 victims. For whatever reason our unit arrived to the scene first, I began to triage the victims which most of them had lacerations and minor injuries. However, as I approached the last vehicle I encountered a white male passenger in a convertible by himself, the scene was horrific the victim had been decapitated his hands where still gripping the wheel. For a moment I was in total shock then proceeded to access the situation, the victim's head was on the back seat with a glazed eyes stare, my partner came over and he stop right on his tracks then he began to vomit. For the longest time I had the the events embedded in my brain.

srerrn2 · Feb 2, 2011

Well, I can't speak for the person who originally responded to you but I was also put off by your original question. When you use a public professional forum then really you are addressing everyone on here.

i think just about every nurse has had a near-miss. If they say they haven't they are either lying or didn't catch it. We are human and we do the best we can.

You just seem a bit judgemental in both of your posts. One should probably not use the words "always" or "never". I would say that I "always" have my drips double checked. As soon as I say that we will get 4 gunshot wounds into trauma within 20 minutes or maybe running 2 codes at the same time with docs and nurses running all over the place.

By the way, that little parting shot at the end of your post about it just being good nursing practice wasn't really necessary was it? That was just mean spirited of you. Don't be so quick to judge.

srerrn2 · Feb 2, 2011

Just curious, isn't it policy at your hospital/facility that you ALWAYS check your meds before mixing them with another RN, to ensure you haven't got the wrong drug?

WOW!!! Pretty judgemental of you after only 2 years as an RN. Tread lightly as Karma tends to get back at us.

Wishinonastar, BSN · Feb 2, 2011

Lots of scary things over the years, but I will never forget the time I walked in and a patient's sheets were on fire! I scooped them up and threw them in the shower. He was smoking in the bed and fell asleep. This was in a hospital private room. What if I had not walked in? I also found an IV pump burning once- disconnected it and pushed it into the utility room. The sheets were scarier though.

ka1sid · Feb 2, 2011

One of the most disturbing PATIENT thing I have seen is going to be a toss up - The first one was a cardiac patient who was super sick with an open chest. Our medical director wanted to withdraw care, the family didn't want to so his orders were for NO pain medications and NO sedation on this patient, even while we re-packed her chest everyday. He ordered the husband to be in the room to WATCH her suffer to try to manipulate the code status. -- It worked

This is absolutely insane! Why would the nurses continue to actually treat the patient under these abusive orders? That doctor should have been charged with something!