Your most bonehead moment in nursing. Or 2. Or 3.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

As promised, here it is. Post your bonehead moments in nursing.

1. I'm a community psych nurse and I have more than once gotten to my patient's house and realized I had forgotten to bring the needle for injection. Had to drive 25 minutes back to the office and then right back to patient's house. Sorry for wasting state funds for gas and travel time guys. I'm a bonehead.

2. Could not remember "QTC" while talking to the ICU nurse taking care of my patient. Just brain farted. My mind just locked up. Stood there and said "NP discontinued the seroquel because of prolonged Q... prolonged Q... uhhhh.... abnormal ekg."

3. As a nursing student I squirted a patient in the face with saline. Duh.

4. One of our checklist assessments has a typo on it that says cynotic instead of cyanotic. I got so used to it that I thought cyanotic was the wrong spelling and cracked a joke about someone being the color cyan when I saw the correct spelling. Derpity derp.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Working in LTC, had state observer following me as I did treatments. As I was doing a dressing change I managed to tape my gloved fingers together.

Showed up for work on night shift with my scrub pants inside out once, and front to back another time.

[sevensonnets]

I once put my scrub pants on backwards and could not figure out where my pockets went! I wrote down my office number for a patient's family member and was baffled why this strange man called me at home to inquire about his mother! There's another one involving a new puppy with a habit of chewing on certain things he found in the laundry basket but you don't need to know the specifics of that. Let's just say there are reasons I don't get dressed in the dark anymore!

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

So a colleague of mine was assisting a doctor who was putting in a femoral line. He said, "Hold the pannus out of the way" and turned his back to get something from his tray.

He turned back, looked up, and yelled, "I said hold the PANNUS, not the member!!"

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

3 minutes ago, Nurse Beth said:

So a colleague of mine was assisting a doctor who was putting in a femoral line. He said, "Hold the pannus out of the way" and turned his back to get something from his tray.

He turned back, looked up, and yelled, "I said hold the PANNUS, not the member!!"

OMG, I just squealed with laughter over this. My workmates now know for sure I'm crazy!

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

Went to work two days with two different shoes,my gym sneaker and a nursing sneaker.Gross.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

asked a BKA dialysis patient if the floor got him out of bed to weigh him that morning...

[Crash_Cart]

When I was a new student someone asked me to get them a number 7 fallopian tube from the supply room cart.

I must have spent a good 10 minutes looking for that thing.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

At my first ICU job, all of the patients got Metamucil down the feeding tube. It was tricky to administer -- you had to mix it with cranberry juice and then give it quickly, before it had a chance to congeal. But very few of our patients had tube-feeding induced liquid stools. In those days, we put blue food coloring in all tube feedings, so the stools would come out looking like little round, rubber bouncy balls. Our unit was 8 beds, fairly close together and surrounded by privacy curtains that ended about a foot from the floor. I'm sure you can guess where this is going.

My friend and I were cleaning up a patient, and set the used bedpan at the end of the bed, where the patient promptly (and most likely accidentally) kicked it off the bed. Those little blue turds went bouncing out of the bedpan and under the curtain, where they bounced across that patient's area, surprising a visitor whose shriek caught everyone's attention, then rolled two beds over. The worst part was going from bed to bed, looking for errant bouncing turds.

And then there was the time Dr. Worldfamousinfectiousdiseasespecialist came walking into my patient's cubicle for a consult just as I was pushing liquid Tylenol -- that obnoxious red stuff -- into a feeding tube that turned out to be clogged. I sprayed myself, the patient and Dr. Worldfamousinfectiousdiseasespecialist with bright red, sticky liquid Tylenol. The patient was pretty forgiving, his wife thought it was hysterical but Dr. W was decidedly NOT amused.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Looking at a monitor to check the patient's rhythm/make sure they still had one when their chest was open right in front of me and I could SEE the heart beating. Duh. Habit!

[CharleeFoxtrot, BSN, RN]

I was in clinicals, first rotation, and I was helping a post surgical patient try and get comfortable. The man was moving around, and complained the bed did not fit him. I nodded, and said "you are a tall man no wonder the bed doesn't fit! How tall are you?" He looked at me and busted out laughing and said "not as tall as I was when I came in!"

He was there for his second AKA ?? ...I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. He thought it was hilarious and told everyone who would listen the story. Including my proctor and the Charge.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

I was working in a small hospital in a town with a high French speaking population. My French was limited.

Pt complains “mal au coeur” “mal au couer”. I think mal sick, couer, heart. OMG chest pain. So,I give him nitro and take his vitals. Normal. 5 minutes pass. “Mal au couer” “mal au couer” so I give him more nitro. No effect.

i am starting to panic. What should I do next? Another staff member walks by and the ot reaches out to him”mal au couer!”. He looks at me, notes the panic expression and I say “ chest pain! I’ve given him 2 rounds of nitro with no effect. He looks at me and say “mal au couer is heart burn. He needs Maalox”

Maalox given, problem solved.