Worst Nurse Stories

[GoBuckeyes913]

One of them was a nurse, and the other one was a medical assistant.

I can ask you this, since you're female..... but do you feel more tension from female nurses being a female med student? I definitely do.

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[MSKalltheway]

That was clearly not what I was talking about (or so I thought). I'm talking about the student who can't find a supply/chart/doesn't know how to use the pager system, etc. v a pt. needing pain meds, toileting, etc.

Point well taken, I'll agree with that.

If we can't get IVs, we call the 'ologists because the pt. is a really bad stick. No offense, but...

None taken, I feel ya.

 

[geogil]

I'm not on the wards yet, but here's a story from my phleobotomy days as a premed:
It's 0530 and I'm drawing morning labs on an isolation patient with a PICC. Nurses were required to pull the blood from the PICC for us, while we labelled it and put it the proper tubes (don't ask me why they didn't jsut do it all themselves). We're all gowned up and I'm putting the patient's blood into the tube as Nurse McMoron is ungowning and leaving the room. I had to fill out some papers, so I was about a minute behind her leaving the room. As I left (bear in mind this is no more than 60 seconds later), she asked me if I had the results from the CBC for the morning. I though she was dead-panning me, but I wanted to check, so I asked if she was serious. Of Course! she replied, huffily. Umm, I said, not sure how to answer this. I guess I can estimate the crit if I hold it up to the light, but you see, we have to actually get the blood to the LAB, then put it on the analyzer, BEFORE you get the results. Simply drawing the blood doesn't actually give you results, in and of itself. She really thought that I would have the results from a CBC 1 minute after drawing it!


Sadly this is a nearly bottomless well I can draw upon. For the nurses lurking, many of teh floor nurses were good, competant professionsals. But some of them suprised me that they were even high school graduates...

 

[SoCuteMD]

That was clearly not what I was talking about (or so I thought). I'm talking about the student who can't find a supply/chart/doesn't know how to use the pager system, etc. v a pt. needing pain meds, toileting, etc.

Yes, I know you're part of the team. No, I won't roll my eyes if you ask me to get vs (although if we're really busy, there's the BP machine...) And I gotta say, there's just really no way I would ever ask a med student to start an IV; not in the dept. I work in. If we can't get IVs, we call the 'ologists because the pt. is a really bad stick. No offense, but...

Sorry, but what exactly is so wrong about a med student starting IVs? We may not be the MOST experienced people, but in 6 months to a year or so - we'll be the ones you call when you have a tough stick! Wouldn't it be better to let us have some practice now?

Sometimes the nurses are just busy, and I like starting IVs so I'll get a bunch of stuff together and ask them if they want me to. They rarely say no, and I search pretty thoroughly before I stick so it usually works out for all parties - they get their IV access and I get to poke holes in people.

 

[Ypo.]

When you are an intern, you will say, "Okay, thanks" and come back in an hour.

"Sorry sir, your staff told me you wouldn't be here until at least 1:30p."

OMG, you don't know how much I was praying that the afternoon would be canceled. I was supposed to work with him last week, but there was some screw up with his schedule and he was only going to be there for an hour, so I just left. (i might add that when I showed up back then, the same nurse was bitchy for no reason "we don't have you on the schedule. no one told us." I was like "that's OK. I'll work it out with my clerkship director!" And then went home for a luxurious afternoon off.

 

[Ypo.]

I can ask you this, since you're female..... but do you feel more tension from female nurses being a female med student? I definitely do.

Put it this way. I definitely think that women feel more comfortable being passive aggressive (read-"bitchy") with women than with men. Personally I find that passive aggressiveness is more stressful than being direct. But I try not to let it get to me. Some people are downright pathologic.



How that nurse could interpret me asking to see the schedule as ordering her to do something I have no clue.

 

[haveaniceday]

Sorry, but what exactly is so wrong about a med student starting IVs? We may not be the MOST experienced people, but in 6 months to a year or so - we'll be the ones you call when you have a tough stick! Wouldn't it be better to let us have some practice now?

Sometimes the nurses are just busy, and I like starting IVs so I'll get a bunch of stuff together and ask them if they want me to. They rarely say no, and I search pretty thoroughly before I stick so it usually works out for all parties - they get their IV access and I get to poke holes in people.

Word. It is so frustrating being treated like a complete idiot when in a few short months you will be the doctor they call. Not to mention, med students don't start school straight from the womb; most of us actually have lots of experience piled on top of years of higher education. It is the attitude forced upon us that we are completely inept, which can make it appear so.

I don't advocate med students do something they don't feel comfortable with, or overstate their abilities...but have some confidence and self-respect!

 

[HEADintheCLOUDS]

Put it this way. I definitely think that women feel more comfortable being passive aggressive (read-"bitchy") with women than with men. Personally I find that passive aggressiveness is more stressful than being direct. But I try not to let it get to me. Some people are downright pathologic.



How that nurse could interpret me asking to see the schedule as ordering her to do something I have no clue.

I believe this is true. Today I went to shadow some ortho surgeries (awesome by the way). A nurse (female) was taking me (male) to go scrub and talk to the surgeon to let me in etc. (she was super nice btw). We got to the ward with the surgeries and once we entered the surgery hallway the main nurse said, "what are you guys doing?" to the other female nurse taking me. She explained I was a med student and that she was a nurse and etc etc. Mean nurse says "you cant do that" (which we can) and gave her a hard time about it. After I saw the surgery and left back thru that same surgery hall/ward that mean nurse tells me that if I ever wanted to come back and see more surgeries just come talk to her!

Mean nurse turned to sweet nurse when the other woman nurse was not around. I liked it!

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

I believe this is true. Today I went to shadow some ortho surgeries (awesome by the way). A nurse (female) was taking me (male) to go scrub and talk to the surgeon to let me in etc. (she was super nice btw). We got to the ward with the surgeries and once we entered the surgery hallway the main nurse said, "what are you guys doing?" to the other female nurse taking me. She explained I was a med student and that she was a nurse and etc etc. Mean nurse says "you cant do that" (which we can) and gave her a hard time about it. After I saw the surgery and left back thru that same surgery hall/ward that mean nurse tells me that if I ever wanted to come back and see more surgeries just come talk to her!

Mean nurse turned to sweet nurse when the other woman nurse was not around. I liked it!

That's because you are a potential ticket to their "doctor husband" LOL. (Age-depending of course, although I don't know one lady that doesn't like to flirt with a hottie) I see this all the time, makes me want to
To make it worse, I've actually heard a nurse comment on one male doc flirting with a female doc he was dating, saying "He needs to look at the nurses around here and give some of the girls (nurses) who have been drooling over him some attention ...." Please

 

[zenman]

When you are an intern, you will say, "Okay, thanks" and come back in an hour.

"Sorry sir, your staff told me you wouldn't be here until at least 1:30p."

...and be sure to add "I didn't want to bother them while they were sitting, reading newspapers and chatting where the anxious patients could see them."

 

[Anka]

And I gotta say, there's just really no way I would ever ask a med student to start an IV; not in the dept. I work in. If we can't get IVs, we call the 'ologists because the pt. is a really bad stick. No offense, but...

I guess that sort of thing is environment dependent (and probably RN and med student dependent, too). At our hospital, RNs aren't allowed to start IVs anywhere but the upper extremity, whereas as a med student I can (no idea why this is the case, BTW). So, I got called all the time on my subI to put in IVs.

Then there are the RNs who can't be bothered to put in an IV for a transfusion, so you get the "Well, I'm not going to have time to put in an IV for the next four hours, so if you want him transfused before then you come put it in" [uh, yeah, like I'm just hanging out in the break room, but okay].

Then you get the RNs who say "We want you to get a PICC because he's going to be here for a while" and when you point out the benefits of maintaining peripheral IV access for as long as possible to avoid a PICC suddenly develop the complete inability to get in an IV on any of your patients... and then you put in the IVs as a call night ritual.

At this point, I'm very comfortable being the one RNs will call next year to get IVs in. I should add to all this, there are many more of the first type of RN (would put an IV in the lower extremity for you, but aren't allowed to) than the second two. However, I am thankful for all these types of nurses, as I probably wouldn't be as good at doing certain things as I am now, if I were in an environment as wonderful as fab4fan's department.

Anka

 

[fab4fan]

Sorry, but what exactly is so wrong about a med student starting IVs? We may not be the MOST experienced people, but in 6 months to a year or so - we'll be the ones you call when you have a tough stick! Wouldn't it be better to let us have some practice now?

Sometimes the nurses are just busy, and I like starting IVs so I'll get a bunch of stuff together and ask them if they want me to. They rarely say no, and I search pretty thoroughly before I stick so it usually works out for all parties - they get their IV access and I get to poke holes in people.

Nothing, except the dept. where I work is so fast paced that there really is no time for someone inexperienced to try starting IVs. You need people who can get them on the first attempt nearly every time, and that's most of our nursing staff. Like I said, if we can't get them, we call anesthesia, because that means the pt. is truly a bad stick.

On a floor, where you have a little more time to work with, maybe it's not so much of an issue.

 

[fab4fan]

However, I am thankful for all these types of nurses, as I probably wouldn't be as good at doing certain things as I am now, if I were in an environment as wonderful as fab4fan's department.

Anka

LOL...nice. Things are dependent upon the department. I'm not saying if there isn't time I wouldn't let a student do a procedure. But when you're limited in how much time you have to get someone off to the OR, getting the work done first becomes the priority. The OR isn't going to give me a pass on why the pt isn't ready if I say, "Well, I was letting the student try the IV." I'm the one who will take the heat for it, from all directions. If there's time, yes. If not, sorry.

Also, we really don't have a plethora of med students running around looking for procedures, so that may be a factor in why I don't see students looking to start IVs.

 

[MossPoh]

Let me just say that nurses can make or break your residency.

I'm just sayin'...

My mom was an xray tech for a number of years and she has made DAMN sure I am on my best behavior with all nurses and techs. If anything, because it makes your life easier in the end.

There will always be douchebags wherever you go. Whether you live in a trailer park or a mansion, there will always be a mixture of good and bad people. The most one can hope for is a majority of good people. I've met one unusually cruel nurse. While shadowing, I actually given a fair amount of independence and went to check on a patient. Just to talk and see how they were feeling....not any real medical stuff. I got reamed so hard it was unbelievable. I later found out she was just having a bad day and she even apologized later. All of the nurses I've encountered are oddly sexual with me...to the point of borderline sexual harassment if it were a guy saying it to a woman. That is another story though.

 

[D5W]

The OP reminded me of a particularly funny incident when I was on OB/GYN... I could tell from day 1 that the nurses on the floor were malignant and that I was all over their radar (due to my expertice in the culture of malignant nursing wards following my general surgery days). Anyway, knew enough to lay low and stick close to my attending. One day, a patient who had been in the office almost every day b/c she was pregnant with twins and her BP was up, was being induced. I had developed a relationship with her and was genuinely interested in the delivery and helping out. Of course, the nurses were bossing me around all over the place... yelling at me to "get out of the way" no matter, where I was standing, contradicting everything I said, screaming answers at me when I asked the patient a question, just standard abuse stuff. Well, in the throws of delivery the patient started turning green and bitting her lips. I knew she was about to puke, so I said "Mrs. So-and-So, do you need the vomit tray", while motioning to the nurse who was standing close to it to hand it to her. Well, the nurse looked at me and with a know-it-all tone in her voice and one hand on her hip starting explaining to me that the patient had nothing to throw up b/c she had been NPO for so long... the nurse didn't even finish her sentence before the patient projectile vomitted all over her and across the room. None got on me.
Medical school $250,000
Pair of scrubs $25
The look on that nurses pace as her abusive tirade was interrupted by a wave of vomit - PRICELESS!!!!!

 

[fab4fan]

Back to the OP's post, it's possible that what happened had nothing to do with the nurse. Laboring women can reach the point where they get really tired of being, shall we say, "messed with." It may have been that the pt was at the point where she was just sick and tired of dealing with multiple people and wanted to be left alone, and the OP was just one more person who wanted to examine her. She may have felt by that point that she just wanted to deal with the doc and her L&D nurse. It may have had nothing to do with the OP personally.

Just a thought. Like I said, I hated OB and tried to involve myself with it as little as possible when I was a nursing student, but from the few cases I observed, I saw some really nice pts. turn almost "psycho" during different stages of labor, then go back to being sweet as could be once that baby was out.

One of the 50,000 million reasons I never want to work OB.

 

[Ypo.]

Back to the OP's post, it's possible that what happened had nothing to do with the nurse. Laboring women can reach the point where they get really tired of being, shall we say, "messed with." It may have been that the pt was at the point where she was just sick and tired of dealing with multiple people and wanted to be left alone, and the OP was just one more person who wanted to examine her. She may have felt by that point that she just wanted to deal with the doc and her L&D nurse. It may have had nothing to do with the OP personally.

Possible, but not likely. Especially in this day and age of epidurals.

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

Back to the OP's post, it's possible that what happened had nothing to do with the nurse. Laboring women can reach the point where they get really tired of being, shall we say, "messed with." It may have been that the pt was at the point where she was just sick and tired of dealing with multiple people and wanted to be left alone, and the OP was just one more person who wanted to examine her. She may have felt by that point that she just wanted to deal with the doc and her L&D nurse. It may have had nothing to do with the OP personally.

Just a thought. Like I said, I hated OB and tried to involve myself with it as little as possible when I was a nursing student, but from the few cases I observed, I saw some really nice pts. turn almost "psycho" during different stages of labor, then go back to being sweet as could be once that baby was out.

One of the 50,000 million reasons I never want to work OB.

While there is truth to this statement, I am 100% positive it is not the case of what happened to me. My patient would ask me during her antepartum visits if I was going to be here when she was induced, more specifically, she would tell me how much she was hoping I would be there to be part of her care.
I definitely agree with what you say about preggos getting irritated and probably only wanting to deal with the nurse and doc; however, in my particular scenario that was not the case either. There were 3 people involved with her care: 1) my resident 2) me 3) Psycho L&D nurse....who kept pt. on 2 units of Pitocin for 4 hours, hoping she wouldn't deliver on her shift, and only played "dumb" when my resident asked why the patient's pit hadn't been moved up like asked, wtf?. 2 of the other nurses sold her out to my resident, rightfully so (what if something went wrong??) Everything that happened in this experience had to do with that evil, malignant bitch.

 

[fab4fan]

While there is truth to this statement, I am 100% positive it is not the case of what happened to me. My patient would ask me during her antepartum visits if I was going to be here when she was induced, more specifically, she would tell me how much she was hoping I would be there to be part of her care.
I definitely agree with what you say about preggos getting irritated and probably only wanting to deal with the nurse and doc; however, in my particular scenario that was not the case either. There were 3 people involved with her care: 1) my resident 2) me 3) Psycho L&D nurse....who kept pt. on 2 units of Pitocin for 4 hours, hoping she wouldn't deliver on her shift, and only played "dumb" when my resident asked why the patient's pit hadn't been moved up like asked, wtf?. 2 of the other nurses sold her out to my resident, rightfully so (what if something went wrong??) Everything that happened in this experience had to do with that evil, malignant bitch.

Well, like I said, I tried to fly under the radar when I was a nursing student during my OB rotation. I hated every single second of it, I still remember every single second of how much I hated it and that was 24 years ago.

There are some truly rotten people out there and I'm sorry that happened to you.

 

[Tired]

One of the major problems I have with a lot of my Attendings is that they don't make it clear to the ancillary staff what my role is (or any med student, intern, resident): I am an extension of them. I do not make substantial changes to the plan unless they approved it. I do not perform procedures unless they have approved it, or I know they would approve it. When I come to the floor and ask for a Stat lab to be drawn, it's not really me asking, it's them.

I save time. I allow the Attending to be in multiple places at once. I am the reason he gets to sleep at night. When I call a code or tell you the patient needs a stat CT, don't take it as a newly-minted MD with minimal experience telling you what to do; think of it was the Attending telling you what to do (except I'm way way more polite about it than he is).

 

[fab4fan]

One of the major problems I have with a lot of my Attendings is that they don't make it clear to the ancillary staff what my role is (or any med student, intern, resident): I am an extension of them. I do not make substantial changes to the plan unless they approved it. I do not perform procedures unless they have approved it, or I know they would approve it. When I come to the floor and ask for a Stat lab to be drawn, it's not really me asking, it's them.

I save time. I allow the Attending to be in multiple places at once. I am the reason he gets to sleep at night. When I call a code or tell you the patient needs a stat CT, don't take it as a newly-minted MD with minimal experience telling you what to do; think of it was the Attending telling you what to do (except I'm way way more polite about it than he is).

Well, I guess that's how I always thought it was supposed to work. When it's a med student though, it gets a little bit murkier because of the issue of not being able to take orders from students. Unless you asked for something truly alarming, I'm not sure what the problem would be with orders. Heck, one of the scariest orders I ever got came from an attending w/ 30y of exp. When I refused the order, he made me get the intern, who refused to do it. Then he got the resident on call, who also refused.

Ahhh...that was a fun night.

 

[Tired]

Well, I guess that's how I always thought it was supposed to work. When it's a med student though, it gets a little bit murkier because of the issue of not being able to take orders from students. Unless you asked for something truly alarming, I'm not sure what the problem would be with orders. Heck, one of the scariest orders I ever got came from an attending w/ 30y of exp. When I refused the order, he made me get the intern, who refused to do it. Then he got the resident on call, who also refused.

Ahhh...that was a fun night.

Sorry, didn't mean "you" as in you. Started mentally venting at every RN who's asked me, "Don't you think you should talk to the attending first?" or made comments to me about "I hate it when we get new interns writing orders" (yes, I've gotten that one several times, to my face).

I agree with the med student thing when it comes to orders. I never have the med students deliver requests for things that require a signature. Shame on anyone who puts the nurse or the student in that situation.

BTW, I'm dying to know what the order was.

 

[smq123]

Still, I doubt anything will ever surpass my favorite quote from an RN, totally unprovoked and totally random: "I just thought you should know that dealing with med students is the least important part of my job."

I hate nurses like that. I really do.

I realize that a lot of nurses have a lot of clinical experience. But, oddly enough, there ARE times when the NURSE will be wrong, and the MED STUDENT will be right.

** I was reaching for a chart when one of the SICU nurses grabbed it out of my hands. She then spent 5 minutes lecturing me that it was IMPORTANT for MED STUDENTS to UNDERSTAND that they MUST TIME AND DATE their notes. TIME AND DATE them. (BTW, I had never left a progress note without a date and a time. She just felt like I needed an extra lecture that day, for whatever reason.)

I got it. I really did.

The nurse finally relinquished the chart, and I flipped to the nursing note.

Me: Um...did you write this nursing note?
Nurse: Yes...and see? I TIMED and DATED it. This is an example of what you need to make sure that you do.
Me: Yes, I see that, but here - you timed today's note as the 17th. It isn't. Today is the 15th. And it's 5 AM, not 5 PM.
(Nearby anesthesia resident): HAHA! Score one for the med student! High five!

** One of the floor nurses was nagging me, because my attending had discharged a patient that the nurse didn't think should go home.

Nurse: I can't believe that your team is discharging this patient. And I cannot believe how SLOPPY your team is. In my extensive nursing career, I have NEVER seen such a sloppy team!
Me: Excuse me?
Nurse: Well, you obviously misplaced the patient's prescription for Valium.
Me: Valium? What Valium script? There was no Valium script.
Nurse: The patient said that your attending promised to send him home on Valium.
Me: Oh, yeah - he has an extensive history of drug seeking and leaving AMA when he didn't get his drugs. He's totally lying to your face.

Obviously, in that nurse's extensive nursing career, she'd never learned how to suspect drug-seeking behavior (which was why he was being sent home in the first place!).

Yes, I know - med students don't know much. But sometimes, the nurses don't always know best either.... So, I think that blowing anyone's input off is dangerous.

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

I agree with the med student thing when it comes to orders. I never have the med students deliver requests for things that require a signature. Shame on anyone who puts the nurse or the student in that situation.

BTW, I'm dying to know what the order was.

#1: I totally agree, no med student should be able to write orders unless co-signed by attending/resident. Some try, and they need smacked.
#2: I am dying to know what the order is as well!!!

I realize that a lot of nurses have a lot of clinical experience. But, oddly enough, there ARE times when the NURSE will be wrong, and the MED STUDENT will be right.

OMG, reminds me of the time I was rounding on patients in the morning and noticed a vital sign temp of 92.8F... kind of gets your attention. The nurse doing the vitals was outside the room next to me (charts were in the wall outside each room), and I asked her before heading into the patients room about it, to which she replied "I don't mess up on vitals, if it was 92.8 when I checked it that must be what it is" To which I replied: "Was she awake and breathing? Did you check it again? Weren't you alarmed that's not a normal temp." (All in a very appropriate nice tone). She continued to be snappy and protest her story, while I just went into the patients room with the thermometer, who was sitting up in bed awake watching tv Her temp was 98.1.

 

[fab4fan]

Sorry, didn't mean "you" as in you. Started mentally venting at every RN who's asked me, "Don't you think you should talk to the attending first?" or made comments to me about "I hate it when we get new interns writing orders" (yes, I've gotten that one several times, to my face).

I agree with the med student thing when it comes to orders. I never have the med students deliver requests for things that require a signature. Shame on anyone who puts the nurse or the student in that situation.

BTW, I'm dying to know what the order was.

I keep forgetting about "the others" out there who need clarification. I know it's not personal when you say it--it just continues to baffle me. The comment about hating new interns--

I'll PM you w/ the rest of the story.

 

[smq123]

OMG, reminds me of the time I was rounding on patients in the morning and noticed a vital sign temp of 92.8F... kind of gets your attention. The nurse doing the vitals was outside the room next to me (charts were in the wall outside each room), and I asked her before heading into the patients room about it, to which she replied "I don't mess up on vitals, if it was 92.8 when I checked it that must be what it is"

Was it a nurse (= RN), or a CNA/MA? Because most nurses ARE pretty good at actually paying attention to the vitals as they're doing them. But we've had several CNAs who seem to be asleep while doing vitals.

My favorite was this one patient who, according to the CNA, was satting 55% on 2 L. The CNA wasn't at all alarmed, and didn't notify anyone. It was only after the nurse cursed after she looked at the vitals chart that the CNA said, "Hmmm...yeah...55% IS kinda low...."

(Yes - the patient really was satting 55% on 2L. The cannula was poorly positioned, and the patient was not being well oxygenated. The nurse frantically flagged down a med student, who rushed into the room and found the patient confused and practically obtundant.)

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

Was it a nurse (= RN), or a CNA/MA?

It was an RN... which really surprised me. Usually they are pretty good at picking that stuff up, you know?

 

[Anka]

Things are dependent upon the department. I'm not saying if there isn't time I wouldn't let a student do a procedure. [chop] Also, we really don't have a plethora of med students running around looking for procedures, so that may be a factor in why I don't see students looking to start IVs.

It's interesting how much things differ. It sounds like you need to be there to supervise the med student on IVs or something like that? Here a med student can put in an IV, draw blood, and so on. My experience wasn't nurses "letting" me put in an IV, it was nurses paging me at 3 a.m. because I had to put in an IV as they couldn't get it in [or didn't care to try], phleb calling me to tell me they couldn't get it [or couldn't get to it] and I had to draw blood, and so on.

While orders have to be cosigned, the medicine RNs call the subIs, so I'd evaluate the patient, let the RN know what I wanted to do (half so they knew "the plan" and half so if I was doing something stupid they could tell me before I told my resident my plan) and enter orders, then get my resident to click off on them (once every couple of hours for routine stuff, immediately for immediate stuff). This is for medicine floor stuff. You're a PACU nurse or something? Probably a different level of urgency.

How does it work at your guys med schools?

Anka

 

[fab4fan]

It's interesting how much things differ. It sounds like you need to be there to supervise the med student on IVs or something like that? Here a med student can put in an IV, draw blood, and so on. My experience wasn't nurses "letting" me put in an IV, it was nurses paging me at 3 a.m. because I had to put in an IV as they couldn't get it in [or didn't care to try], phleb calling me to tell me they couldn't get it [or couldn't get to it] and I had to draw blood, and so on.

While orders have to be cosigned, the medicine RNs call the subIs, so I'd evaluate the patient, let the RN know what I wanted to do (half so they knew "the plan" and half so if I was doing something stupid they could tell me before I told my resident my plan) and enter orders, then get my resident to click off on them (once every couple of hours for routine stuff, immediately for immediate stuff). This is for medicine floor stuff. You're a PACU nurse or something? Probably a different level of urgency.

How does it work at your guys med schools?

Anka

It is a different level: Day Surgery, so it's pretty much like an all day cattle drive. There's really just no time to wait for all you described. Plus, as I said earlier, we really don't have a lot of med students. But of those we do have, they do not write orders without getting them immediately co-signed. That's just the way it works here.

I don't necessarily need to be there, but if I got a vibe that the student was new at it, yes, I would sort of hang around in a casual sort of way. I'd do that with a new nurse, so it has nothing to do with any animus toward med students. It's actually a policy that someone starting IVs has to be observed staring a certain amt. of lines successfully before he/she can be independent.

I don't think I've ever even seen a med student starting an IV on our unit, come to think of it. They're usually so busy doing H&Ps, fielding calls re: probs. with post-op incisions/drains, missing Rxs for the pt on D/C, etc. I'm not sure they'd have the time even if they wanted to. I've never had one ask me if he/she could start one, now that I really think about it.

If there's time, I'm glad to teach. "If" being the operative word. Some days, we're just too short staffed to take the time, and that's where the problem arises with meeting the need of helping the student learn v getting the pt off to the OR on time.

 

[Kubed]

...My favorite was this one patient who, according to the CNA, was satting 55% on 2 L. The CNA wasn't at all alarmed, and didn't notify anyone. It was only after the nurse cursed after she looked at the vitals chart that the CNA said, "Hmmm...yeah...55% IS kinda low...." ...

Had to laugh because we just had something like this.

We'd been treating a patient with an orbital cellulitis and we were ready to discharge her last Thursday. After talking to her and her family, we decided to keep her for the evening and she would leave early Friday morning. So Friday morning the team is rounding and we have a patient in the room next to our lady with orbital cellulitis. We stick our heads in just to say "adios" and see that she has oxygen on (funny as she hasn't needed it at all during her stay). We ask her what's up with the O2 and she says that her nurse wrote an order for it. Our puzzled looks prompted her to tell us how nursing told her that her O2 sat was critically low and that she not only needed O2 now, and not only would she need home O2, but that the hospital wasn't legally allowed to discharge her without O2.

Well, a few "WTF's" later and the entire team is over at the nurses station. We talk to the charge nurse and the patients nurse and they say "oh, her O2 sat dropped down to 85% overnight so I wrote for home O2" The attending says "well, 1) WTF are you doing writing orders and 2) there is no way her pulseox is down to 85% and 3) if it really did drop down overnight we should have been called."

Cut to a few min later we're in the patients room with the nurses watching them do a new pulse/ox on the pt. The nurse pops it on the patient's finger, get a really, really smug look and tells the entire team "look: she's down to 82% now!"

Attending calmly says "so her o2 sat is 82% and her pulse is 100?.... isn't there the slightest chance you're reading this wrong?" Nurse says "oh... how about that," turns and walks right out of the room.

Patient left about an hour later... without home O2

 

[Tired]

We'd been treating a patient with an orbital cellulitis and we were ready to discharge her last Thursday. After talking to her and her family, we decided to keep her for the evening and she would leave early Friday morning.

At this point you should have known you were screwed.

Rule #76: If you agree to keep a patient overnight at the request of the patient/family, your discharge will get screwed up the following morning.

 

[Kubed]

Rule #76: If you agree to keep a patient overnight at the request of the patient/family, your discharge will get screwed up the following morning.

Another law into the book!

 

[hyperbaric]

It seems as though I spoke too soon regarding my obgyn rotation. The token evil RN just returned from vacation. Unfortunately, the evil RN is just as nasty to the nursing students as she is the medical students. One day last week the unlucky nursing student assigned to Nurse Evil asked if she could follow ME. It is amazing how one nasty person can make an entire unit miserable.

 

[waldenwoods]

I was reading this thread and suddenly needed to share an experience that I had pretty much managed to suppress all my anger about--until now.

Basically, I was assigned to follow this patient on the medical service who had a mental status change, who was a transfer from a skilled nursing facility. I was supposed to find out his baseline level of functioning while at this SNF, how he declined over the past few days (because none of that was in the H&P), medication changes, fall history, and a few other things too. Because it's not only important for us to know when trying to diagnose the specific reason for the rather rapid decline in mental status, but also to get an idea of a goal level of functioning to get this guy to before transferring him back.

So I called the facility, they transferred me to the nurses' station, so naturally I introduced myself as a medical student on the team that is taking care of Patient X, and that I had a few questions. Her initial response was "All of that information is in the papers we sent over yesterday!" And I'm stunned--my goal was to get information relevant to our care of this patient, which should be in line with that organization's goals, and she has to start yelling instead of even offering to call back at some more convenient time! She proceeded to use an angry tone and make caustic remarks while I tried to get some useful information about the patient. It makes me so angry because it's this patient--a patron of that other facility--who ultimately suffers.

To make things even more frustrating, the telephone message that plays when you're put on hold gives all these positive adjectives to describe the nursing care at this facility. Say what?!

The next day, both my resident and attending told me I should have introduced myself as "Doctor." Still, people providing direct patient care need to be willing to take ownership of the care they give, and not be toxic toward people who take over caring for that patient, in this case, it was the medical team.

That said, the hospital where I am has the nicest nursing staff, and it makes me wonder how many "bad apples" exist. I'm confident that there aren't very many. Hopefully now I can forget this experience once again.

 

[87138]

Well, there's a flip-side to this. I work in a dept. where I have only "x" amount of time to get a pt. ready to go to surgery. Everybody and his brother is always snatching the chart away from me, which makes impossible at times for me to do what I need to do with the chart. Yes, that's just part of the job, and most of the time I just suck it up and deal with it. But there are days when it really. gets. on. my. last. nerve. I mean it. So when I finally get hold of the chart only to have one more person want to take it away from me, that's when I want to crack. And sometimes, that hapless person is a med student. I never bark or yell or roll my eyes, but I have been known to indicate my frustration with one of those "persecuted sighs." But yeah, you'd get the chart, and you'd get it for as long as you needed it. I may not be happy about it, but that's life. If push comes to shove, I'll take the papers out of the chart I really need so I can get the bare minimum of documentation done.

Just one of the many reasons I enjoy using electronic medical records. This wouldn't even be an issue.

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

2 weeks ago, I recently ran into the evil L&D nurse who I originally wrote about.

By some stroke of ironic luck, she was covering for someone on a completely different service and floor...where me and my attending were rounding on. I didn't even notice her (mostly because she's like 4'10" and looks like a lagoon creature) until we were looking up a pt.'s old record on a computer and I heard her bitching about med students and residents again, really loud so me and the boss would hear it. This woman has serious immaturity problems. My attending and I laughed to ourselves, then I filled him in on my encounter with her on L&D, which somehow he had previously heard about.

No more than 5 min later, she walks by carrying like 5 charts and purposely drops 2 of them on me thinking this is a funny joke... literally on my friggin head (I'm dead serious), then laughs like a skank and says "oops, my bad". I shoot her the death look and she walks to the nurses station. My attending's jaw hit the floor, then told her to go into one of the break rooms where we both professionally confronted her and ripped her a new one. As an added bonus, I'm really tall so I made it a point to tower over her as I proceeded to tell her how awful she was.... she was scared sh*tless, and CRIED. I guess the bully can dish it out, but can't take it. Still not the best part: after this incident, staff finally started complaining and reporting her, and she got fired. I love karma.

 

[DingleBerry]

No more than 5 min later, she walks by carrying like 5 charts and purposely drops 2 of them on me thinking this is a funny joke... literally on my friggin head (I'm dead serious), .

if she's 4'10" and you're really tall how did she drop the charts on your head?

 

[Blade28]

if she's 4'10" and you're really tall how did she drop the charts on your head?

Maybe he was sitting down on a very low stool. And she was wearing Danskos (which give you 1.5-2" of height) and held the charts high above her own head with arms outstretched.

And then maybe she had to throw them up in the air also.

 

[Kubed]

if she's 4'10" and you're really tall how did she drop the charts on your head?

It's a rule that no matter how tall you are, you must be shorter than your attending. So if the attending was sitting in a chair working on a chart, the student was most likely sitting on the floor, possibly bent over as to make sure their eye level was below the attending's.

I'm 6'2" and I had a surg onc attending who was 5'4". For that month I was required to round on my knees. I once tried it on my hands and knees, but got yelled at for causing the attending to divert their gaze down.

 

[MSKalltheway]

My attending's jaw hit the floor, then told her to go into one of the break rooms where we both professionally confronted her and ripped her a new one. As an added bonus, I'm really tall so I made it a point to tower over her as I proceeded to tell her how awful she was.... she was scared sh*tless, and CRIED. I guess the bully can dish it out, but can't take it. Still not the best part: after this incident, staff finally started complaining and reporting her, and she got fired. I love karma.

Dude, that totally has to be worth a couple charts on the dome. Must be nice to get that payback!

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

Maybe he was sitting down on a very low stool. And she was wearing Danskos (which give you 1.5-2" of height) and held the charts high above her own head with arms outstretched.

And then maybe she had to throw them up in the air also.

You're way off. She burrowed through the ceiling vents and strategically opened the one above my head and dropped the charts on me, MacGyver-style. You're a resident, you should know this! Geez.


Ok now seriously...
We were sitting on those rolling stools, I was elbow-leaning on the counter (i'm 5'10" so I guess my "really tall" only holds true compared to females). She didn't throw them at me or anything, they just "conveniently" slipped out of her hands as she was walking by, and tried (poorly) to play it off as an accident. Better visual now? LOL

 

[Blade28]

You're way off. She burrowed through the ceiling vents and strategically opened the one above my head and dropped the charts on me, MacGyver-style. You're a resident, you should know this! Geez.

MacGyver style? No, that's more SWAT-team, Jack Bauer style!

 

[Winged Scapula]

It's a rule that no matter how tall you are, you must be shorter than your attending. So if the attending was sitting in a chair working on a chart, the student was most likely sitting on the floor, possibly bent over as to make sure their eye level was below the attending's.

I'm 6'2" and I had a surg onc attending who was 5'4". For that month I was required to round on my knees. I once tried it on my hands and knees, but got yelled at for causing the attending to divert their gaze down.

You got it wrong:

attendings are always looking down on something.

 

[Kubed]

You got it wrong:

attendings are always looking down on something.

Oh no! That means they were yelling at me about something else!

 

[maceo]

Eh, best to let it pass by.

You're probably going to have at least 5-8 more years of dealing with nurses like these. Being so low on the totem pole, most course directors aren't going to take these complaints to any administrator because they don't want to stir the pot, and any complaints coming directly from you are going to have little effect.

ll.

this is the attitude that will let the issue constantly be a problem.. I can tell you.. that in every level of training there will always be a nurse who pushes your buttons, questions your judgements with little consequence and simply you let it go because you have more to lose and the fight is not worth it. this gives these nurses wings. Nurses should realize that physician disrespect should come with grave consequences.

 

[Substance]

I can ask you this, since you're female..... but do you feel more tension from female nurses being a female med student? I definitely do.

I find its usually the older nurses who treat the female med students like crap. This could be for a variety of reasons. However, the two that I've most commonly seen are:

1. The med student has a very demanding, b|tchy, prom-queen attitude.

2. The older female nurse is envious of the female medical student, since in the nurse's day women were not allowed in med school. She feels an overwhelming sense of rage inside when she thinks of taking orders from a future female doctor, since she wishes she were the one doling out orders.

 

[JustMe198027]

I recently had a "tiff" with a nurse while on my OB/Gyn rotation that made me want to pretty much punch her in the face (I'm not even gonna lie, I totally fantasized about it). In all my rotations I've never had a prob with any nurses, so this threw me for a loop. Here's the story......

One of my patients I had seen twice in clinic was being admitted to L&D for induction and I went to her room to say hi, make sure her H&P was done, write orders, etc. So I walk into the room and begin to say hello, when this demon-seed nurse I've never met (who is charting on the computer in the room and not even talking to the patient) literally screams at me "You need to leave! This patient doesn't want to be bothered, and a resident-not a medical student- needs to see her". Whatever.

So I ignored the psycho and went up to my patient, who is now laughing and proceeded to greet me by my first name....clearly making it known to the nurse that she knew who I was. The nurse did not appreciate this and rolled her eyes at me. I got my stuff done, and left. Normally, this wouldnt be such a big deal, but it snowballed.

A few hours later, one of the residents and I were looking at her fetal strip and noticed some late decels (sorry to get technical), so my resident says
"Go check on her and see how she's doing, I think she's getting her epidural but make sure it's actually happening". I go to her room, and the "epidural sign" is outside of her room, meaning epidural was in progress. I didn't want to just go in if she was in the middle of the procedure, but then I thought "What if she isn't getting it and they accidentally left the sign on her door, and something is really wrong and i didn't even go in her room". Of course, I enter the room and the nurse screams LOUDER at me this time "Um, don't you know what anything means? Didn't you see the sign outside that she was getting an epi? ARE YOU BLIND?" (verbatim). I ingnored the bitch again and spoke to the patient and told her I was just checking in and making sure everything was okay. The patient again laughed and didn't mind at all, while my pissed off level is rising. Still not the worst part.....

2 hours later, I go to give her a routine cervical check, and now the patient does not want me to examine her anymore. I know I hadn't hurt her during a previous cervical exam because my resident was the one that did it. (Students aren't allowed to do CE until the pt. has an epi) I don't know what happened between the few hours since I had last seen her, but now my patient had an uneasy look on her face when she was talking to me... which was NEVER the way it had been before. I left the room bothered, and a different nurse pulls me aside and tells me how the bitch nurse was telling my patient how awful med students are. I'm sure she added in a few other things as well. I didn't go back into the room after that, and never did her delivery. I contemplated reporting the nurse, but chose not to pick this battle. seriously though.........WTF!?

Anyone else have any nurse-hating stories?

I hate people on power trips... I hope you reported her

 

[Neuronix]

My dad was having a symptomatic steroid induced hyperglycemic episode. Instead of isotonic saline, the nurse hung D5W. My father has been in and out of hospitals enough to be saavy and pointed out the error.

In the ICU one time he had a particularly bitchy ICU nurse. He had serious medical issues (s/p liver tx), and was annoyed with her attitude everytime he had an issue, wanted something minor, etc... So he wakes up from a nap, notices his blanket is really wet, then sees it's all blood. Apparently he lost his antecubital A-line and he's losing blood like crazy. He hits the call button. The nurse comes in and says "now what do you want?"... So he points his wrist at her so the blood can spurt spurt spurt across the room at her.

I have worse intern/resident/attending stories to relate for him, but they're for another thread I guess .

 

[Dr M T Head]

do you want?"... So he points his wrist at her so the blood can spurt spurt spurt across the room at her.

I have worse intern/resident/attending stories to relate for him, but they're for another thread I guess .

I can see why maybe she acts this way towards him. If he is trying to squirt her with the blood? He sounds very immature and difficult. I mean is he like 5 years old. Thats almost disgusting. And From hearing this I am going to assume he deserved the treatment form the nurse.

 

[Neuronix]

Post #3. Keep trolling buddy. I predict a long future on SDN.