Worst doctors orders ever received

Specialties Emergency

Published

I have a two nursing degrees, going for a third and have a whole lotta common sense. When I see stupid or hear stupid orders I may or may not carry them out..here are my all time favorites:

1) Male patient with active lower GI bleed...HGB of 5...Hypotensive and tachycardic..has 2 large bore IVs running with NS wide open as fast as it will go...blood bank working as fast as possible to get me my units of PRBCs ASAP...BP barely 90 systolic.

Order from resident: "We need orthostatic vitals on this patient"

Specializes in transplant case management.

my all time favorite is very close to ambulating the double amputee.

Chart clearly indicated patient had been wheelchair bound for a number of years, order written that patient MUST ambulate at least 150 feet before she can be discharged. Well guess she is not going home anytime soon.:banghead:

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Specializes in Critical Care.
rectal temp on a pt with an ostomy.

Why is that a bad order? The purpose of the rectal temp is to get a (closer to) core temperature reading. As long as they have the rectal part of their colon in tact you can get one, regardless of whether or not the tract is fully connected.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
ua c&s on a hd pt that does not urinate, has been on hd for 8+ years and tells you" i don't pee"!

i have seen more of these orders than i can count on one hand.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
Why is that a bad order? The purpose of the rectal temp is to get a (closer to) core temperature reading. As long as they have the rectal part of their colon in tact you can get one, regardless of whether or not the tract is fully connected.

there was no rectum, it was closed.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
there was no rectum, it was closed.

Well in that case...

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Here's an order..

OOBTC

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Here's an order..

OOBTC

Out Of Bed To Chair....

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Yea I'm ER and I stilll knew what OOBTC meant...hmm.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept.

Okay - the one who talked about 2 units of insulin for a blood sugar of 150 - I can top that - our hospital's standard protocol is for 1 Unit for a blood sugar of 120 or above!

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Yea I'm ER and I stilll knew what OOBTC meant...hmm.

What's the "hmm" for? Are you judging me because I didn't know what that meant? I've been a nurse for three years too and have never seen that as an order before.

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

Sorry, just thought it was a fairly common order.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Sorry, just thought it was a fairly common order.

Never seen it before. I looked at it and was thinking "*** is that"

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