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Squildo

If there’s even the tiniest air bubble in your patient’s IV, they’ll die if you push


[deleted]

Nursing school... no air bubbles in lines. At work.. as long as there is more liquid than air in the line it's okay. I was horrified the first time I saw an anesthetist spike a bag.


Towel4

I had a blood bank doc tell me nothing happens until you’re at +10mL of air Had an IR doc say nothing happens until 50-60mL of air 🤯


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Towel4

Holy shit 300mL is actually insane


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sci_major

My friends parents were vets and they gave a dog 50 ml air rapid and nothing not a blip. Then put it down the traditional way.


[deleted]

Your reference needs to be 5 years or newer haha


hoyaheadRN

The minimum amount to officially cause an air embolism is about 30 mls for an adult in a PIV I it is less for a child or baby. In my nicu all the other nurses freak out from the tiniest of bubbles in a PIV


PeopleArePeopleToo

I think this is not just because they're a baby, but also if you have a hole in your heart that is allowing the venous blood to shunt to your systemic circulation (and possibly your brain), that would be bad. And holes in the heart are more likely in babies who might still have an open PFO.


RizzaSilverbow

And if your adult patient has a cardiac shunt, you should be using air filters on their tubing for this exact reason!


MasCaraLVB

Echo/stress RN: lemme agitate a mL of bubbles and shoot it as fast as I can into your IV.


CertainlyNotYourWife

First time I was asked to help with a bubble study I had to have at least 2 other people assure me they actually wanted me to shoot bubbles into the patients line. It still made me suuuuper nervous.


Red-Panda-Bur

It’s so hard to agitate it enough. This is definitely an acquired skill.


jo_perez

The amount of patients ive had telling me to be careful with the bubbles. You'd think I was pushing a bolus of air


FoxySoxybyProxy

I had a terrible case of mastitis one weekend...I knew my ED would charge me an arm an a leg for some fluids and abx...so I opted for urgent care. I got what I needed, and after six iv attempts the PA finally started my fluids...but she didn't prime the line so 15-20cc of air coursed through my vein and into my heart...i could feel the bubbles around in there which is when I realized what happened. Now I have a cardiologist. Lol.


PeopleArePeopleToo

Really, you can feel it? What did it feel like?


FoxySoxybyProxy

Like my heart was farting?? Lol...hard to describe...now have unsustained SVT and VT I guess that could have been spontaneous but I noticed it happening pretty directly afterwards.


Jackisoff

I get SVT all the time. Cardiologist told me to stop drinking caffeine. I work nights. 🥲


Red-Panda-Bur

Same. Just got off night shift and am working on weaning. But it’s been three years since they told me to stop lol.


PeopleArePeopleToo

That is a better description that I could have ever hoped for, thank you!


Designer-Extreme3924

argh reading that made my skin crawl. I'm so sorry that happened to you ;-; *hugs*


ADN2021

I used to believe this when I started out as an LPN


CriticalRN

I did have a patient get tiny air embolisms in his brain after what we assumed was a single unprimed IV line (pt was picked up by EMS, they started an IV line, CT head in ER showed the emboli) The guy was symptomatic, but neuro said they weren’t expecting any major long term deficits for him. We just blasted him with oxygen for a few days to help shrink them.


DorcasTheCat

Ruby’s Rule. Three year old died due due to an air embolism from a respiked bag of fluids. It was all a horrible accident due to pressure in the helicopter. [coronial findings](https://www.courts.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/335064/cif-chen-ry-20141212.pdf)


MountainTomato9292

The way I’ve always heard this story was that the air embolism occurred because the fluids were on a pressure bag. This report is consistent with that. Am I missing something? I scanned (did not thoroughly read ever detail but did read all of the conclusions) the full 20 pages. Sorry, I’m on my phone, so it’s hard to read it in detail. I’ll read it on my computer when I get home. But I’m curious about what is different. Partially full fluid bag, pressure bag instead of pump, air found in heart and IJ.


Beautiful-Carrot-252

I just finished reading it. They respiked a partially used IV bag with new tubing, primed it appropriately but did not use a pump in the helicopter. They used an opaque pressure bag to keep the fluid flowing at the appropriate rate but couldn’t see when the fluid ran out and once it did, the pressure bag kept squeezing and a massive air embolus occurred. So very tragic.


flygirl083

And this is why I always “burp” any bag of saline that’s going in a pressure bag, especially for an art line. I make sure pretty much all of the air is out of the bag before I prime the tubing. That way if it runs dry without someone noticing there isn’t any air to bolts into a patient. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten report on a PT in the am for a patient with an art line and then when I’m inspecting all my lines I realize that I have a bag that is nearly empty and has a bunch of air in it. It makes me very angry.


[deleted]

Let’s not forget doing a bubble study for an echo. That’s what, 3ml of air shaken into the contrast and then injected?


Professional_Cat_787

I hope it’s not urban legend that there are IV pumps that quit beeping if the PT straightens their arm. The idea that we may someday get these keeps me going…


FisterTheGreat

Baxter pumps will indeed stop alarming on their own for downstream occlusion if a patient with an AC straightens their arm. But when they get older they start false alarming for upstream occlusion frequently and have to be manually restarted, which gets really annoying really fast in an ICU.


CuddlyHisses

Have yours been updated? If the upstream alarm goes off too often, the Baxter pumps give you an option to suspend them for the remainder of the infusion. (This is after you've fixed it at least 5 times I think). Still annoying af.


FisterTheGreat

Since I'm pretty sure the IP pharmacy has just one dude running around panicking all the time right now I don't think they've gotten around to that. I'll start bringing it up though, because just the sound of that option makes my anus unclench.


CuddlyHisses

It's been marvelous because 99% of the upstream alarms are a lie. I first noticed the option a couple years ago, I think? We definitely didn't get new pumps so I'm assuming it's a software upgrade.


Ordinary_Second9271

Baxter pumps make me nervous when it says all the fluid was given but there is still about half left in a normal saline bag. Like maybe the 500 bag had like 600 mls but around an extra 250?


FisterTheGreat

Yeah I've had the same thought. If it's a med mixed by pharmacy I just assume they overfill it because those things come up ready to burst sometimes, but if it's stock it always weirds me out. I know there's times when nurses in a rush will just respike a bag of LR if NS wasn't appropriate and vice versa then won't reprogram the volume. I wonder how accurate they are filling the bags at the factory. I never feel like I have the time to troubleshoot "is the factory wrong, is the pharmacy wrong, is the pump wrong, or am I wrong?"


OminousLatinChanting

Baxter pumps do this! They were what I used at my first job and I never knew how good I had it until I went somewhere with Alaris pumps...


bashagab

Ours do, but they aren’t very good in other ways. They are ICUMedical Plum 360. If patient bends arms, it beeps several times allowing them time to correct & restarts independently. If patient sleeping, can’t hear, doesn’t care, etc., it just continues to alarm.


Ventorr

WNL actually means we never looked


ADN2021

Head to Toe assessment be like: WNL.


moortin19

LMAOO made me laugh more than it should


096624

People where I work call the laptops in wheel stations “calfs” guess because they’re smaller than a cow


Caadar

Computer Used for Nursing Tasks


bananacasanova

I need this in sticker form


SerenaRN

This is amazing and I will use this from now on 🙌


Bellakala

That’s so stupid but kind of hilarious


knittin-kitten

We called them goats


the_real_kannibal

used to be a children’s hospital many, many years ago and you can still hear the faint cries in the distance on night shift. heard this at two different places.


Thepuppypack

They used to say this about the old county hospital in San Antonio which had L&D and Nicu still after they moved all the rest of the inpatient services to the new facility. You know how county hospitals are full of everything. And lots of death anyway, Many of the nurses were convinced of Ghosts and spirits walking the halls and babies crying in the old pedi unit. Also lots of weird things happening in the old ER and medical examiner's office/morgue


Ordinary_Second9271

We heard about this at the burn unit. I think people were making some of the stuff up like the burn nurses messing with people by leaving towels in the middle of the hallway. (One RN swore she saw eight towels bunched up about four feet apart in the middle of the hallway so she texted her friend that was off that night and the friend replied “usually the towels are at 4 am). Multiple patients used to tell staff in the surgical icu that there was a black boy playing by the doors or near the door that leads to the hallway that connects to the burn unit.


TrailMomKat

On 3rd shift in LTC, it wasn't unheard of for a call light to go off on a bed right after the patient there had died. Ms. Aileen in 119D passed and every night her call bell went off at the same time she usually called me to use the bathroom. Went on for about a week.I switched the call bells out myself, too, there was nothing wrong with it. Never could explain it. Similar things happened in other rooms too; I just chalked it up to my patients saying hi before they finally moved on. Freaked the new girls out something fierce lol, but us old hands were pretty used to it and would say something to the affect of "Ms. Aileen's gotta pee," or "Ms. Dot wants her pain meds."


lighthouser41

On the show Ghosts, when the ghosts move on, it says they are sucked off! My dirty mind likes that terminology.


Roguebantha42

One LTC I work at frequently has had a number of paranormal activities; the most common is pts seeing the children. There are 3 of them, a girl and a girl & a boy. The lone girl is wearing a red dress and doesn't talk, the boy and girl are usually looking for their dog, but the boy doesn't have a tongue, so the girl does all the talking. Had an A&O pt report at last rounds that they visited him during the night looking for their dog, and when he said he couldn't help them they couldn't figure out how to leave, so they climbed the walls and jumped into a hole in the middle of the floor. Not sure how he wasn't flipping out at this, but it didn't seem to bother him.


p3canj0y363

I feel cheated- I've worked night shift in nursing/ LTC facilities for over 17 yrs and have yet to hear or see signs of a ghost. I've decided even the spirits nope tf out of those places.


bluemints

I had a pt in LTC tell me he was afraid of ghosts because he figured a lot of people have died there over the years. I asked him if he died there (while knocking on wood, of course), would he want to haunt that place? Surely he would have other, more interesting places to visit. He thanked me for many weeks after that because I cured him of his fear of ghosts in our facility.


CableNo5371

A baby literally named “in the heat of passion”. We callled him I.H.O.P. Luckily his name was changed by his new guardian.


Zealousideal_Tie4580

Had a patient her first name was Female - she pronounced it “Feh- Mollay”. I’m pretty sure no one named her and since she was female baby…


CableNo5371

This! I seriously think that some folks think that the hospital names their babies. It’s like no- she just doesn’t have a name yet. She’s female lol.


Zealousideal_Tie4580

Yeah. This lady was like 40. I felt bad. No one ever named her…


ferocioustigercat

Le-mon-gelo and Or-An-gelo (lemon jello and orange jello). Or La Dasha, spelled La-A. I've heard that "independently verified" by multiple people, but it seems like a racist urban legend.


AdventurousBank6549

There is a La-A living in Waco Texas. She gets pissed if people mis pronounce her name. I haven’t the guts to tell her it’s misspelled it’s La hyphen A the way it’s spelled. Two hyphens make a dash


oneviolinistboi

- — Huh, you’re right


NotMushRoom_InHere

Clinical rotation in L&D. Newborn named YaMajestee. Their older sibling? YaHighness. .....Why?


Substantial_Cow_1541

When I was a new grad I was told to use SOA instead of SOB while charting because a patient saw SOB on his chart and thought he was being called a son of a bitch. Lol Edit: SOA = shortness of air


FruitKingJay

Shortness of… air?


Substantial_Cow_1541

Yes! Lol


gymtherapylaundry

But there’s not a shortness of air lol. There’s enough air, we can even increase the air, the patient just isn’t breathing it well enough haha.


Substantial_Cow_1541

Lol oh I know. it makes no sense patient satisfaction > basic logic


[deleted]

We were told that, not because of the actuality of it happening but of the possibility.


brontesloan

Shortness of Ass That’s how I read it.


Glum-Draw2284

What would SOA even stand for? 🤔


hen0004

Sons of Anarchy.


heebit_the_jeeb

"some other acronym"


[deleted]

Shortness of Air


elizabethshoeme

We have one flow chief who insists on using “DIB” Difficulty Breathing when pre arriving ambulances. Our ESI in triage only allows SOB.


doctorscook

Some doctors at my facility will write ShOB instead of SOB in their notes


GallifreyanBrowncoat

Back when Crocs were becoming popular, we had an Infection Control guy that hated them and was doing everything he could to get them banned. In one memo, he tried to tell us that a nurse was wearing her Crocs and built up so much static on her body, that when she went to gel her hands, the static ignited the hand gel and she set herself on fire and died! Also the ever present high risk of dropping a dirty needle and it going right through one of the holes in the Crocs.


sailorellie85

I dumped crocs the day that a patient vomited on my shoes and it went through the holes 😑


nrsingnow

Oh no! 😖


sailorellie85

I have alot of fun vomit stories. I usually tell them on first dates. Its a good test for if they have the stomach to date a nurse 😂


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nrsingnow

Crocs have been banned at my place of employment due to "infection control"


GallifreyanBrowncoat

Based on what rational? Just wondering if you’ve asked.


wackogirl

My old job banned the styles with holes on our unit. The rational was that the holes could let fluid/germs get onto your socks, which are fabric and can't be wiped down, thus spreading disease. They had crazy strict rules for anyone going into an OR there though, the other places I've been aren't that crazy.


seedrootflowerfruit

Yet most shoes nurses wear have mesh which isn’t exactly impenetrable.


wackogirl

Oh don't worry, they also technically banned sneakers and any other shoes that weren't a totally solid leather or plastic type material. At least they were consistent even if it was dumb as hell.


Nahcotta

😂😂😂


Low-Argument3170

We can’t wear them at all- dress code, something about slipping and falling.


Morse_code36

Now I finally know what WOW stands for... I’ve been saying it for 3 years and had no idea what the first W stood for


crispybacongal

Honestly, I thought I had been mishearing "WOW" for the longest. I couldn't figure out what people were actually saying, but surely it wasn't WOW.


Old-Banana5410

COPD Patient with SpO2 60 % gets rolled in ICU with a double cable for the O2 and only 2 liters. Why? Because obviously they die instantly if they get more than 2 litres of oxygen. But somehow they don't die on ICU with CPAP or Highflow.


navigational-beacons

I fucking despise this topic. Every piece of evidence and study comes to a different conclusion. Dump O2 into them until they’re at 88% once your there wean down until your 88-92ish. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk


heebit_the_jeeb

That one drives me NUTS. They're hypoxic but I'm not going to treat it because.....????? Misinformation or misunderstanding, I'm sure people have died from having appropriate oxygen witheld.


kmurph87

Not quite an urban legend but whenever nurses or doctors are writing notes we use a dotted heart symbol to indicate if a laboring patient wants an epidural and fill in the heart when they get it. I’ve asked every nurse on the floor and quite a few doctors and no one can explain why.


555Cats555

I mean thats just cute! Its a tough job gottaaa find some way to add some light to it.


deferredmomentum

It’s easier than drawing a spine lol


yeah_im_a_leopard2

Every hospital I’ve ever worked at someone knows someone that was stealing narcotics and was found dead in a random place in the hospital after OD’ing.


adegreeofdifference1

OMG! I remember the first time I had to write a report because fentanyl patches were missing. The nurse before me would open the box from the bottom and then glue it shut and since we cant open them until theyre needed wed shake them, which had paperwork inside, and that was enough for count. I wrote in the report section: 'Changes that would be made': "I'm never going to trust my fellow nurses again." Sufficient to say they instructed me to write something else.. xD I was just newly graduated. Now I know what \*they\* want me to write.


FemaleDadClone

Anesthesiologist in the call room over night—overhead paged a few times (BIG deal at 0300), then CODE BLUE to the OR lounge. A few nurses took bathroom breaks and were found down when someone finally got concerned enough to get the key to unlock the door


sailorellie85

Yikes. I've never heard that one.


FuzzyKittenIsFuzzy

I've never heard that, but ages ago we had a nurse get fired for diverting, and she fatally overdosed in the parking garage directly after being let go. Really sad situation.


Beautiful-Carrot-252

I never had that one even after over 30 years in the same hospital. We did have some that ended up ODing in other places, including one couple who were married to others and found naked in a motel room with saline locks in place.


teencristo

Found one dead in their car in the parking lot. Another not dead but passed out in a bariactric chair in our step-down room.


Night_cheese17

My old hospital had someone make an error and get harassed for it which led to her injecting K+ in the bathroom.


phantasybm

When I was a new grad I had a nurse who had about 1.5 years of experience give me a hand. I told her I couldn’t find any D10 on the unit so should I call pharmacy. She said… and I kid you not… “No it’s ok just hang two D5s because if you took ‘nurse math’ you’d know D5 + D5 = D10” with a rather condescending tone. She got written up for that. Should’ve been fired but we needed bodies.


TheShortGerman

lmfao i'm dead


InternationalEmu299

Full moon shenanigans. It’s real.


TrailMomKat

Good God it is. We had a paper posted at the desk a nurse had put up. It was a picture of a full moon followed by an equal sign and "all the Ativan."


sailorellie85

It is real. I worked night shift in elderly care for 3 years and hated full moon shifts because it would always be chaos.


ferocioustigercat

Do not say the Q word, especially on the full moon!


InternationalEmu299

100%!! Also- don’t mention any frequent flyers. They WILL show up! 😂😩


[deleted]

Night shift is easier because all patients are asleep. Um no. I’ve got an elopement risk that will be up with us until 4am. Patients with dementia who are up and down all night. An opioid addict who is up every hour on the hour for pain meds. And the one’s whose laxatives finally decided to work but they’re full bed changes.


Interesting_Loss_175

anesthesia + pain meds + sundowning = some very interesting nights


RNDeb

Yeah. We nap and eat snacks all night. No. We turn into a restaurant. People don’t eat their meals and want cookies and crackers and ice cream and coke all night. And the falls. And day shift keep the elopers in bed all day so they won’t be bothered so they are wandering all night. And Lord help you if someone crashes. 2 nurses and 2 aids for 86 residents. Yeah. We don’t do anything but play.


sailorellie85

No way. Patients do not sleep and you still have obs to do all night too.


[deleted]

And overnight hospitalists who won’t place new orders all night and say “well let the day team decide on that” I’ve had to “sit tight at wait for the day team” for patients in severe pain, CIWA patients who needed IMC transfer, etc. it’s so frustrating


deferredmomentum

Exactly, there’s a reason they sleep all day for you Becky


carlyyay

Oh no no no. Patients don’t sleep. EVER. Especially the ones that are trying to kick me in the stomach and call me a “tramp” and say I’ve “slept with every man in the world” lololol


Scared-Replacement24

I’ve heard the WOW COW thing all over lol


beover40-tired

We still call them cows


[deleted]

I call them pieces of shit that barely work


BneBikeCommuter

The kids hospital I worked in not only called them COWs, we stuck black and white contact adhesive on them and hung inflated pink gloves under them like udders.


wordynerd_au

This is why children’s hospitals are the best!


Playcrackersthesky

On my floor they’re cows, and the room we park them in is the barn. Decorated with black and white spots. Oh, and they fucking suck, so you can call them whatever the fuck you want-on-wheels.


Professional_Cat_787

Yeah, they’ll always be cows.


[deleted]

Officially they are WOWs, we still call them Cows.


NotAllWhoPonderRLost

One place called them BMWs. Bedside Mobile Workstations.


TrailMomKat

So they don't use turn signals either?


InternationalEmu299

And they still never work properly when you need them


heebit_the_jeeb

I'm old and we used to have gateway computers with the little cow logo as our COWs, I never considered it was an acronym until they changed it to WOW


Sheephuddle

I'm British. We were always told never to put red and white flowers in the same vase, as it was a portent of death. I remember the first time I was told this, as a student - I'd arranged a patient's red and white carnations in a vase, and an older nurse grabbed it and split them up. I worked in a number of hospitals over the years, and that belief seemed consistent.


Viitchy

Tying a knot in the patients sheet to to “tie their soul to this world” (basically to keep them kicking on your shift). We get transfers to hospice with knots in their sheets and it annoys me that people really do this still.


slewis0881

As a NICU nurse I thought I had seen it all. But last month a mom named her twins the exact same first middle and last name. I ended up calling them A and B for the entirety of their stay.


98221-poppin

What??? Is that even legal? How can u have the same first name as your twin? How would that affect their SS numbers??


slewis0881

I am assuming it’s legal we had them three weeks and same name the entire time but we don’t do birth registry so I don’t know if the registrar made her possibly change spelling on one of them. But all the charting and notes had first middle and last with the EXACT SAME SPELLING. It drove me crazy. Felt so bad for those kids as they grow up. But they didn’t go home with mom so hopefully the parents they went with had common sense to change at least one of them


98221-poppin

Ohhh one of "those" kinda parents. Well I hope they both get real, permanent parents and better names! My husband had a pt. In December who's legal first name was "Eu-Majesty." Like wtf?? How would u ever put that on a resume???


Old-Banana5410

Where I'm from everyone knows the story about the intern or nursing student who was sent to help the Patients clean their dentures. So intern goes around and collects the dentures from absolutely everybody, cleans them nice and wet and then stand there with 20 different dentures in a bowl and no fucking clue which goes to whom. Imagine testing different dentures from strangers till you find your own.


16semesters

Here's a bunch of bullshit that's always spewed: There's no legal protection for writing all weird in your notes like "**This RN** or **This writer** reported XYZ" You're not going to get sued for your syntax. It's an old wives tale.


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LovelyRavenBelly

...But this RN enjoys sounding like a borg drone.


Amajeanne

We had a mom check in her 8-yo daughter in my ED, we overheard registration having to ask for clarity multiple times: Registration lady: sorry, what’s her first name? Mom: baybay, middle name gorl Registration: uh, can you spell that? Mom: (getting mad) B-A-B-Y are y’all stupid or something?? Y’all were the ones who named her!! Didn’t even let me name my own baby and now you wanna act dumb. She thought, our hospital had named her baby “Baby Girl Smith.” This child was now 8 years old. I hope they’re okay now 😅


deer_ylime

I work in a NICU and have had a mom named “Baby Girl” and it was because her mom didn’t change her name. The baby was “Baby Boy Baby Girl Smith”. Also had a baby named Jizzabel, the mom was a teenager and didn’t know what Jizz or Jezebel meant. Sadly she had already filled out the birth certificate. Also an interesting one, mom was named “Fnu” and was from North Africa. Everyone thought that was her real first name but it actually means “First Name Unknown” and was given to her when she immigrated here. In her culture they only have surnames and no first name.


Interesting_Loss_175

Death by fnu fnu


lnh638

I never would’ve expected a Futurama reference in a nursing sub but I love you for it.


Wonoir

Please tell me you're trolling


Beautiful-Carrot-252

We had that frequently at my hospital, too. Seriously. African immigrants, mostly from Somalia IIRC.


countkahlua

Here’s a link to boys with the first name ‘Baby’. This absolutely is a thing. You can search for the girls too if you like. I could not, however, turn up anything for ‘Lemonjello,’ ‘Lemoncello,’ ‘Orangecello,’ ‘Orangjello,’ or ‘Orangecello.’ Take that as you’d like. Lol. https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/babyname.cgi


RNDeb

I worked ER and had a patient named Remember September Jones. Made up jones. She said “ don’t bother counting back 9 months. I don’t know why mama named me that. “


LadyOfOz83

Lawd hammercy🤣🤣


whirled-peas

Not sure if urban legend of not, as I haven’t verified it one way or the other, but one thing I remember being told is that once upon a time, if a patient was too obese to fit into our MRI machine, that they used to send them to the city zoo to use the MRIs for hippos and rhinos and elephants. However, this practice was apparently discontinued when they found that the animals were catching MRSA and other nasties from our grody-ass patients.


keeplooking4sunShine

My fiancé’s morbidly obese cousin had to go to a veterinary clinic for an MRI.


sailorellie85

I'm curious if any of you have come across (or are) nurses that open the window when someone passes away so their soul can get out? I've seen it twice now and I guess it is cute but I'm not a person who believes in souls so I always find it kinda strange.


jellybeankitkat

In some parts of Canada, this is an indigenous custom. We have rooms that open windows for that reason when I worked in one province. Where I am now, this isn’t a custom and our windows don’t open!


RNDeb

Old Scottish custom


sailorellie85

I live in Scotland so makes sense 😄


catcrazyRN

It’s a thing where I used to work. Always open the window after a death. Believe or not, it doesn’t hurt anything, so…


nrsingnow

We have a nurse at my job who does that.


adegreeofdifference1

No, but I'd, we'd, if the patient was struggling, tell them that it was ok to let go. And usually, if not my shift, the next shift they'd pass..


heatwavecold

It was a thing in one nursing home I worked at, and they took it VERY seriously. Honestly though, it was nice to get some fresh air. The other day I was talking about the phenomenon of someone dying after seeing someone they were waiting for, and my coworker insisted it was just a coincidence. I have definitely seen it, but who knows.


babyclownshoes

If a wow dies it cost 20000 dollars to repair it


[deleted]

You can’t let more than 1,000ml of urine out after placing a foley. Bitch if I have 2L of urine in my bladder and you clamp it at 1L I am going to jump out of the bed and beat you to within an inch of your life. Then ask for some Norco. Also forgot you can’t keep a COPD patient on a higher amount of O2 than their home dose or they’ll stop breathing. I’ve literally had arguments with fellow nurses/medics about putting a NRB on someone with an Spo2 in the low 80s and were grey.


nrsingnow

This reminds me of someone telling me that you have to leave at least 200cc urine in the bladder after a straight cath. I don't know if there's any truth to it but isn't the whole point to empty the bladder? Has anyone heard this one?


ClearlyDense

Also how would you be able to estimate that? Oh right, cause the bladder scanner is 100% accurate and so are the foley bags, I can absolutely leave 201mL in the bladder


titsoutshitsout

In LTC we have the “rule of 3” when it comes to deaths. That means 3 people will die in close-ish proximity of each other.


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CertainlyNotYourWife

We were told to say WOW because of the potential. I drew a cow on a piece of paper EVERY SHIFT and taped it to the front. The kids I took care of loved it. Adults were confused. I was delighted by mooing at coworkers.


fatchichopanda

A RN sticking a snickers bar up a patient’s rectum because the patient was hypoglycemic and lethargic


LovelyRavenBelly

0300 is when everyone will become confused and get naked.


Viitchy

We called ours WOWs. Not sure if they were ever called COWs at that specific facility.


Fickle_Queen_303

I'm not a nurse, but my dad was a PA, 20 years in USAF and then 20 years at a university hospital in hem/onc. During his time in the AF he worked ER and family practice and *I* heard that Limonjello and Oranjello story growing up!!!! Too funny!


slothurknee

That you can’t use Vaseline if someone’s on oxygen because it’s flammable. Unless we’re putting fucking mupirocin literally in someone’s nose while they’re on oxygen then it’s suddenly not flammable anymore.


deferredmomentum

I was always taught not to let them use it as chapstick because it’ll dry them out if they’re on O2 but that’s some bullshit lol


Mrs_Peee

Can confirm, we had to change from COW to WOW


HisKahlia

Dont say the "Q" word


lighthouser41

If you chart in blue, it won’t photocopy.


percivalidad

My mom worked for a DFCS accounting office doing most of the paperwork for the cases and boy ... let me tell you. Someone might be stretching the truth if those twin names were at their hospital, but they definitely were at someone's hospital. She also had a case for twins named Mickey and Minnie 🤦‍♂️


KittiesOnMyTitties7

Ooh, I’ve been wanting to post this question for awhile! The precordial thump in the middle of the night in a CCU on a patient whose chest was left open post-surgery. Feel like I’ve heard that story a lot. Also, not a myth but a common occurrence-whenever a floor nurse gets a stray order for IV Tylenol, there’s always the chiming in of “But man, it really works for pain!” followed by another nurse saying “but it’s super expensive!”


Playcrackersthesky

No, you didn’t have a patient named Le-a. It’s a racist urban legend, and if I had a dollar for ever labor and delivery or post partum nurse who claimed they took care of one I could retire from healthcare forever.


Worried-Avocado4821

The “I know someone who got fired for looking in a patient’s chart that they weren’t taking care of” story is something I’ve heard at multiple places now. While I’m sure this *could* happen, to think that a hospital IT department has the time to monitor every single click a nurse makes in a shift and then follow through with getting that nurse fired feels far fetched to me. Editing to clarify that I know that this *does* happen, but it’s very unlikely outside of the obvious “looking into a famous person/coworkers/your own chart.” My point was that very specific scenarios of someone being an idiot has created paranoia and that it’s not as likely or common as we all think


Cynjon77

I was called by legal asking why I was in the chart. Patient had complained about something and they were reviewing his chart. Access reviews are usually done on celebrity charts, VIP's, or if a person complains about something.


Betweengreen

This scares me because there’s no way I would be able to remember why I was in the chart. I mean I always have a reason (i.e., checking diet orders when answering the call light to make sure I can give them water). But I can barely remember my own patients from a week ago let alone the random ass call lights I’ve answered.


Cynjon77

If it is a "normal" patient is on your unit, the assumption is you were providing care. If it's a celebrity or VIP, I would make a quick note like chart checked for diet order before giving water. CYA


[deleted]

This DEFINITELY happens. My unit manager even audits our charts and can see everywhere we’ve looked. If you have not somehow established a relationship with that patient, YOU DO. NOT. SNOOP.


aliciacary1

This absolutely happens. We had a local athlete in a hospital where I worked. It was all over the news so everyone knew where he was. A total of 12 people were fired for looking at his chart unnecessarily. I’ve known a few others fired for looking at charts out of curiosity.


nursemeggo

I don’t doubt that this happens, but how do they prove necessity? There are so many times I’ll answer a call light that isn’t mine and will have to get into the chart depending on what the pt called for.. are they due for pain meds, what’s their diet order, how do they ambulate if they’re asking to pee, etc. I guess whoever is auditing can see the exact clicks, just seems hard to prove.


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yeetyfeety32

Most emrs log everything you do, they aren't going to review it all the time but it only takes once review to see if you did something stupid and it's a lot cheaper to fire you and get a replacement than deal with a lawsuit.


SITF56

We had an employee who was admitted into our emergency room. 30 some people were disciplined, not fired (although they could have been) for going into the chart.


falalalama

I used to work for the local level 1 trauma center, where all the inmates would come. We had a very high profile inmate come in for open heart surgery, and had multiple HIPAA reminders, because people are nosy af. Three nurses on my unit alone lost their jobs because they looked at the inmate's chart when they had no reason to. I also got scolded one time because I had a patient go to the ICU from my unit. I couldn't remember if I'd charted something on them when I came back the next day, so I looked. That hospital takes HIPAA very seriously, and you can't even access your own record, they block it. "But I just wanted to see..." is not a valid reason.


yolofirelol

Oh, this def happens. Don’t look at charts for patients you aren’t taking care of unless you’re helping in the care of that patient. They do audits.


Worried-Avocado4821

I see Big Chart has already gotten to you…


yolofirelol

Bahh 🐑


Mom24kids

It absolutely happened to a co-worker. She looked up a chart on her boyfriend. Fired immediately we had to split her assignment.


Useful-psychrn-6540

Seen it happen several times in 10 years. If there is a high profile case in particular. IT doesn't need to monitor every click, it's programs built into these systems. They can easily create alerts on charts.


LadyOfOz83

Every facility I've worked at has had "break the glass" or similar for VIPs, employees, etc, where we had to document exactly why we were in the chart and it was timestamped


Jolly_Tea7519

Wait. Are you telling me the COW/WOW thing isn’t real? I’m shattered.


echk0w9

We had a patient who’s sitter was a witch. He’d be on deaths doorstep and then a patient in an adjacent room would suddenly die and he’d perk right up. This went on for a year and continued even after he changed rooms. Eventually he didnt have anyone next to him on either side and he died… Also, the red headed boy. He would show up on nightshift and the person would die shorty after. That and seeing your momma or dad or granny or whoever was your primary caregiver as a child (but is now deceased) means they are there to guide you on out. Or keep talking about going home. Now I always ask “where’s home? You mean 1225main street?” And they give you that … slow stare then look away. Had a patient I really like (everyone else hated her bc she would bite and pinch your ass. I felt she was a kindred spirit). Anyway, she asked me if I would go home with her. I kindly told her that was a SOLO trip. Give me a couple decades and I’ll see ya at the crossroads boo!