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

Nurses General Nursing Video

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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.

Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Doctor with heavy accent is dressed in sterile garb at the bedside in ICU, hands gloved and up in the air, gown on, yelling “Pants! Pants” Everyone tries to figure out what he wants.

Finally the nurse comes up behind him, reaches around, unties the drawstring, and yanks his scrub pants down to his ankles in one motion.

I’m sorry, I don’t know what he was really saying but this is a true story as every nurse in my community will attest to.

His underwear were jockey style, blue.

14 Votes
Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

As a student I spent a Friday morning in the "eye room" of the day surgery unit. First cataract patient on the table and the opthalmologist invites me to observe through the microscope. Scalpel to eye and I am out off that seat so fast and into the decon room. I didn't actually vomit but it was close.

When I come back in and apologise to the patient and surgeon he asks me if I was hungover as Thursday night is student night in the town (Ireland, legal drinking age 18). I responded no, don't drink when on placement after an incident on the colorectal ward....but I don't like eyeballs! He asked the very valid question why I did I agree to get up so close?

P.S. the one and only time I came to placement hungover I was working on a colorectal ward and my patient had a terribly placed stoma....yep total explosion which involved me, the walls and a mop. Never again came to placement or work hungover apart from the day after my dept was shut down and I was decommissioning the ward with the engineers.

7 Votes
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

One time, back in the days when doctors wrote orders, I couldn't read one medication the doctor had written. He didn't mind us calling him, as he was a very nice Vietnamese MD, so I told him I could not read one medication he had ordered, and he asked,

"What does it look like?"

I said, "Well, sir, it looks like ... Napalm."

"Oh hee hee hee hee hee hee!" he laughed, "I ordered Niacin!"

11 Votes
Specializes in Reproductive & Public Health.
On 7/20/2019 at 4:53 PM, 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 this had me literally laughing out loud. My worst one -

Admitting a labor patient as a new nurse. She was in rip roaring labor and I was feeling the pressure... And, oh god I cringe to admit this, but I went ahead and inserted her IV cath... pointing distally. I'd put in enough IVs and drawn enough blood at this point to be relatively competent, its not like it was my first one lmao.

I realized my boneheaded error as soon as the needle pierced the skin, so maybe... no one noticed? ? ? ?

And to make it worse, her husband was an EMT! OMG. I died. Just died.

I still cannot fathom what came over me.

4 Votes
11 hours ago, Davey Do said:

One time, back in the days when doctors wrote orders, I couldn't read one medication the doctor had written. He didn't mind as calling him, as he was a very nice Vietnamese MD, so I told him I could not read one medication he had ordered, and he asked,

"What does it look like?"

I said, "Well, sir, it looks like ... Napalm."

"Oh hee hee hee hee hee hee!" he laughed, "I ordered Niacin!"

did the nap...I mean Niacin smell good in the morning?

4 Votes
Specializes in Dialysis.

During my maternity rotation in nursing school I spent the day on the post-partum unit. My patient had a foley that needed to come out, so my clinical instructor walked me through the steps and we went into the room to do the removal.

I deflated the balloon and grabbed the catheter several inches away from the patient and pulled it out in one fluid motion just as my instructor was reminding me how long the tube was...

As the foley exited the patient it whipped the air spraying myself, the patient and my clinical instructor with urine. I was mortified!!

The patient was a very kind woman who apologized to me!

10 Votes
Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.

I walked into a pretty dark pt room to do something, can’t remember what, and when I neared the end of the bed, I said oops excuse me. The pt was s double amputee and his legs were standing up in the corner. I thought it was another person. Lol

10 Votes

Pulled IV tubing out of the bag of fluids that was still half full.

9 Votes
Specializes in Wound Care, Med-Surg, Rehab.

About to do a debridement on a patient and the PA ask me for a “loop” (curette)... I thought she said “lube” and brought her some KY.... ??‍♀️

8 Votes
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).

Back in the late 80's, I worked in a chemical dependency treatment program at Weed Rover Township Hospital (WRTH). Rob, a person I liked and held in high regard, directed the unit and was, himself, a recovering alcoholic/drug addict.

During that time, Rob's sister was a patient on the medical floor at WRTH and had a rather grave condition. His family gathered in the waiting room as a vigil. After getting off of work one night, I stopped by to offer my empathy and support. Rob's family sat in a large half circle in the waiting room, with Rob seated at the far left.

I began my interactions with Rob and moved to my right around the half circle, meeting each family member and exchanging a few words with them.

The last seated person was an elderly man (to me at the time, being around 30 years of age) to whom I immediately said, "And I know who you are! You're Rob's Dad!", shook his hand and began relating a few known tidbits.

During a pause Rob said, "Dave- he's not my Dad" and informed me that the gentleman was his other sister's boyfriend.

My cheeks flushed, I got hot, and I felt embarrassed. I immediately stood behind Rob's sister's boyfriend and launched into a humorous story for the entire gathering. Soon, the room was filled with laughter.

I left soon thereafter with the sound of their laughter still ringing in my ears, feeling good that I could spread some joy at such a traumatic time.

The good news is: Rob's sister pulled through with a miraculous recovery!

The bad news is: For the life of me, I cannot recall that humorous story I told!

8 Votes
Specializes in ER OR LTC Code Blue Trauma Dog.

I don't have any bonehead moments in nursing, because I am perfect and have no such flaws.

?

11 Votes

Took a CBI fluid bath many years ago. One irrigation bag up high, the other lower, emptying from one to another as it was supposed to. I was changing out the depleted bag for a fresh one and didn't pay attention, did something stupid with the clamps and ended up soaked with NS. Patient laughing, visitor looking concerned that I was an idiot, and me quite certain I was an idiot!

5 Votes
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