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 Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

I work inpatient pediatrics. I admitted a 15 year old one evening for observation after he used his Epi Pen for a nut allergy while eating at a Chinese restaurant. I started to go through my whole routine spiel that I gave to all admissions, which includes "we keep snacks on the floor if you're hungry including bread and supplies to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." He just looked at me confused and said "uhhh that's what got me here in the first place." How embarassing!

Thank god his parents weren't there at the time.

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18 hours ago, Seeing Myself Out said:

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

Heh, I got that beat. New nurse trying to be impressive and spike the bag while its hanging up and harpooned myself in the palm-gushed blood everywhere.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

Pt had a mastectomy. Someone had taped the crap out of the JP tube. I mean there were layers upon layers of tape. JP was not draining so I tried to remove the tape. Too many layers. So I got some scissors and started to cut away the tape, figured I knew what I was doing and I would be careful. Yep, I nicked the JP. Had to tell the surgeon. He was pretty good about it. Said eventually, drainage would be reabsorbed. Pt was discharged on time, with extra follow up.

He told me later that she came to a follow up appointment and said “Look! It’s regrowing! Yep, the area was swollen with the drainage that did not come out of the JP drain.

learned my lesson, I have never used scissors around a drain ever again.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, CVICU.

Was changing the dressing of a pt with a non-healing foot wound scheduled for a metatarsal amputation the following day.

He was watching tv and said “that’s so gross!!” I told him “don’t worry, after things start to heal up after your surgery, it will start to look much better!”

Well, apparently he was talking about the Olive Garden commercial being gross, and not his foot. Didn’t have a good comeback for that one.

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Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
20 hours ago, Crash_Cart said:

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

The first part of dealing with a problem is identifying and/or recognizing the problem.

"Hello. I'm Davey Do.

And I'm a bonehead."

"Hi Davey Do.Welcome to BA (Boneheads Anonymous)."

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Specializes in Ortho, CMSRN.

This one is truly awful. I was in a patients room, as a new preceptee/versant nurse giving medication to a patient that I had temporarily forgotten was a cancer patient with a hat to cover her hairless head.

She and her guest were watching a TV show that was going over a recent news story where a "chupacabra" washed up on a beach of Mexico. It turned out to be a hairless something-or-another. I commented "Wow, animals almost look like aliens without their hair.

After I walked out of the room, it hit me that I had just made that comment to a hairless patient. I felt like a jerk, and went back in and apologized to the patient, who might have been feeling a bit like an alien without her hair already and didn't need that. She said she didn't notice a thing... which was nice. I've always tried to be more careful of my comments since.

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Specializes in Community health.

For some reason, during clinicals, I just never got the hang of the IV hanging deal. Like, spiking the bags, hanging the bags, piggybacking... it just all baffles me. This is one reason I work outpatient care. MORE than once I ended up with saline running out onto the floor. It is pretty hard to convince a family member that you’re taking top-notch care of their loved one when you’re sweating as you mop NS off the floor, try to hang a new bag, and frantically try to make distracting small-talk all at the same time.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
22 minutes ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

For some reason, during clinicals, I just never got the hang of the IV hanging deal. Like, spiking the bags, hanging the bags, piggybacking... it just all baffles me. This is one reason I work outpatient care. MORE than once I ended up with saline running out onto the floor. It is pretty hard to convince a family member that you’re taking top-notch care of their loved one when you’re sweating as you mop NS off the floor, try to hang a new bag, and frantically try to make distracting small-talk all at the same time.

At least it wasn't TPN, which is so sticky there was still a sticky patch on the floor months later, and I overheard a colleague telling the medical student, "Yeah, that's where Ruby had a little accident with TPN . . . and over there, that brown stain -- that's where Ruby started the blood without plugging it into the patient."

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.
2 hours ago, ClaraRedheart said:

This one is truly awful. I was in a patients room, as a new preceptee/versant nurse giving medication to a patient that I had temporarily forgotten was a cancer patient with a hat to cover her hairless head.

She and her guest were watching a TV show that was going over a recent news story where a "chupacabra" washed up on a beach of Mexico. It turned out to be a hairless something-or-another. I commented "Wow, animals almost look like aliens without their hair.

I cringed for you just reading this. I’ve almost made similar type of comments to my teenage oncology patients without even realizing or meaning it, and I’m only lucky that it hasn’t happened.

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Specializes in Practice educator.

Manually primed a blood set then put it through the pump, unbeknownst to me this IV pump pushes a tiny amount of the fluid out of the end when it accepts the line. I was holding the IV set over the patients head and approx 0.2 mls of blood spurted over the patient and looked like a blood bath.

I always hate handing over after a nigth shift, my brain just goes off all over the place.

I told a guy I was setting up an IV fluid for him and jokingly said, as I had done before with other people, its vodka, he was a recovering alcoholic...

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.
On 7/20/2019 at 3:13 PM, Crash_Cart said:

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.

haha! but what did they really want?

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
1 hour ago, Nurse Beth said:

haha! but what did they really want?

It's like in the Army when we ask young soldiers to go find the glowstick batteries ...

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