Sunday, October 12, 2008

Medical flub ups

You know those forwards that sometimes go around where there is a collection of medical statements written with some VERY obvious/scary errors noted by "professionals?" Well, this week on MY unit, there were a couple statements made by a nurse and nursing assistant that I thought just might fit in a collection like such.
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Nursing assistant runs out of the room after answering a call bell pushed by a patient due to their IV pump beeping and says.... " The IV pump in Room ____ is having a collision. =) INSTEAD, she should have said that the IV pump is showing there is a occlusion (meaning either the tubing is kinked or there might be air in the line.)
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Nurse says to another nurse, Pt's IV pump is running 100 miles an hour, INSTEAD of 100 ml/hour.
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Nurse documenting on computer at end of shift = Polident brought in by pt's teeth....., INSTEAD of pt's son.
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Not that there is any excuse for such errors, but what can you expect when you've litterly been running in every direction and trying to juggle everything that needs to get done + answer lights. Sometimes I'm suprised at how sane we nurses stay.

1 comment:

Becky said...

God bless you - seriously! I don't know how nurses do what they do but I am certainly thankful for them. I would rather be with a group of rambunctious children any day! (seems so much easier)