Most ridiculous question from a nurse while on call

[scalpel007]

Let me preface this, before there is the typical huge uproar from the nursing population, that the vast majority of nurses excel at what they do. This is not meant to be mean or condescending in any way, shape or form. That being said, I got a page last night at 345am that I have to share.

Pager goes off: 14520 (Constant Care floor)
Me (who was trying to close my eyes before the morning labs start coming back and the barrage of pages ensues) calls back.

Me: Hello?
Nurse: Yes, are you the orthopedic resident on call?
Me: Yes.
Nurse: Well, your patient in 523 is not eating.
Me: Why would he be eating at 3 in the morning?
Nurse: I woke him up because he didn't eat his dinner last night and asked him why. He said he hated our food, and also would not eat breakfast unless we had pancakes. I called the cafeteria and they said they don't have pancakes. What should I do?
Me (blood pressure rising): Let me get this straight. Are you calling me at 345AM . . . for pancakes?
Nurse: Yes.
Me: utter silence . . . and then hangs up in disbelief.

Looking at this now, I have to admit that it is pretty damn funny. I mean, seriously, f_c_in' pancakes? Unbelievable.

Anyways, I was hoping that you all would have some similar stories that we could laugh about. Just something to kill the time left on call

. . .

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[ashter]

Let me preface this, before there is the typical huge uproar from the nursing population, that the vast majority of nurses excel at what they do. This is not meant to be mean or condescending in any way, shape or form. That being said, I got a page last night at 345am that I have to share.

Pager goes off: 14520 (Constant Care floor)
Me (who was trying to close my eyes before the morning labs start coming back and the barrage of pages ensues) calls back.

Me: Hello?
Nurse: Yes, are you the orthopedic resident on call?
Me: Yes.
Nurse: Well, your patient in 523 is not eating.
Me: Why would he be eating at 3 in the morning?
Nurse: I woke him up because he didn't eat his dinner last night and asked him why. He said he hated our food, and also would not eat breakfast unless we had pancakes. I called the cafeteria and they said they don't have pancakes. What should I do?
Me (blood pressure rising): Let me get this straight. Are you calling me at 345AM . . . for pancakes?
Nurse: Yes.
Me: utter silence . . . and then hangs up in disbelief.

Looking at this now, I have to admit that it is pretty damn funny. I mean, seriously, f_c_in' pancakes? Unbelievable.

Anyways, I was hoping that you all would have some similar stories that we could laugh about. Just something to kill the time left on call

. . .

That is hilarious. I have one but not nearly as dumb as yours.

I got a page at around 3AM the other night.
Nurse: Hi sorry to bother you but I just wanted to let you know that the patient in room 300 has not had any urine output in the past six hours.

Me (a bit concerned): alright, let's start by checking to make sure the foley cath is in place, you can flush it once and see if there is any urine output. If that does not work then page me and we will do further workup.

Nurse: oh the patient doesn't have a foley cath.

Me: sooooo, is he complaining that he can't pee??

Nurse: no, he's been sleeping since 10pm.

Me: so you're calling me at 3AM to tell me that a patient who does not have a foley cath, who has been sleeping soundly all night, has not had any urine output for the past five hours!!

Nurse: umm yeah..

I felt like hanging up on her but I couldn't, without first asking her what her usual urine output is when she is sound asleep through the night. no answer ofcourse.

seriously, you've gotta be kiddin' me.

 

[GoofyDoc]

From my sub-I.

Time: Early in the morning in the middle of the night.

Me: Hello.
Nurse: Patient so-and-so's foley came out. What should I do?
Me: Put in another one.
End.

 

[southerndoc]

Scalpel, I think you pissed off the nurse and got that page just to disturb your sleep.

In all honesty, this thread was discussed before a few months ago and severely annoyed the nurses that peruse this board.

Please, let's end this discussion now and stop any heartaches. Keep it clean, or the mods will be forced to calm things down.

 

[Axon]

3:00 AM

Pager goes off....

"Hello"
"This is XXXX"
"Yes, Mr. Smith's morning labs came back and his creatinine is low. "
"Huh? "
"Yes, its 0.3 and the computer defines this as 'low.'"
"Are you kidding?'

Click.

 

[scalpel007]

Scalpel, I think you pissed off the nurse and got that page just to disturb your sleep.

In all honesty, this thread was discussed before a few months ago and severely annoyed the nurses that peruse this board.

Please, let's end this discussion now and stop any heartaches. Keep it clean, or the mods will be forced to calm things down.

I wish this was the case. I actually make it a point to establish a good rapport with each and every person I meet at the hospital, whether they be a nurse or janitor or x-ray tech, etc. My mentor in orthopedics told me a long time ago that a nurse can make your life the best its ever been or the worst you will ever see based upon your demeanor and your attitude. My parents raised me to treat all with respect, and I feel that I am a very laid back guy who really hasn't upset anybody in the hospital thus far. Maybe she was tired, maybe she wasn't, it doesn't really matter. It was ridiculous and pretty damn funny.

This is not meant at you southerndoc by any stretch of the imagination as I understand clearly what you are saying. However, I am tired of this be politically correct nonsense with the premise being "don't upset anybody." I did not start this thread to upset anybody. I started it to have some fun, and that is all. When you are on the floor, you can hear nurses making fun of both residents and attendings alike. Should I get in a huff and ask then to stop "making fun of my fellow residents?" Give me a break. That kind of action is destined to ensure a humorless enviornment, which makes for a crappy daily work day. We all know that nurses are underpaid and work their asses off, and those of us who are residents can attest to that. But they are just as capable of being dopes as we are as residents, and it is fun to sit down and laugh at each other now and then. Nobody is being malicious here. If any nurses want to post the idiotic things we residents do, by all means do so. I will laugh at that story as much as I will laugh at other stories.

Sorry to soapbox here, but I'm on my 79.75th hour this week , and I think I need a nap. Carry on . . .

 

[southerndoc]

Yes, I hear nurses making fun of attendings and residents... usually those people are insecure about their own abilities. Nurses and residents are often poking fun at one another for ill happenings, failure to recognize things, blowing things off, etc.

Maybe I'm a sourpuss, but I mind my own business, treat the patients, and don't belittle fellow residents or the nursing staff.

 

[gwen]

i'm sure the nurses have a network out there in cyberspace where they have "so the attending ordered for physical therapy, pt to ambulate...on a post bilateral AKA surgery patient" (actually one of my co-residents did...it was hilarious). so relax! funny stuff happens, and we're here to laugh at ourselves, the nurses, the students.

 

[spalatin]

3:00 AM

Pager goes off....

"Hello"
"This is XXXX"
"Yes, Mr. Smith's morning labs came back and his creatinine is low. "
"Huh? "
"Yes, its 0.3 and the computer defines this as 'low.'"
"Are you kidding?'

Click.

About the same time from the ICU:

"Did you know your DKA patient has gained 9 liters of fluid?"
"Over what period of time?"
"I don't know."
"Can you find out?"
"Well, no, he's been here for three weeks and the chart's been thinned several times."
"You mean the diabetic ketoacidosis patient didn't gain the 9 liters since you started your shift at midnight?"
"No"
"g'night"

 

[ivan lewis]

4:30AM in my first 10 minutes of sleep after all night of running around in a trauma heavy hospital.

Me: Hello, someone page surgery?
Nurse: Yes, doctor. Mrs. X's potassium just came back
Me: okay, what is it?
Nurse: It's 4.1
Me: Uh.....that's normal, right?
Nurse: I think so.
Me: Thank you.

 

[medlaw06]

Yes, I hear nurses making fun of attendings and residents... usually those people are insecure about their own abilities. Nurses and residents are often poking fun at one another for ill happenings, failure to recognize things, blowing things off, etc.

Maybe I'm a sourpuss, but I mind my own business, treat the patients, and don't belittle fellow residents or the nursing staff.

True, there are alot of reasons why nurses can RIGHTFULLY make fun of physicians/interns/residents since we screw up as well. However, there is a fundamental difference b/w nurses and us...it's called respondeat superior ("captain of the ship" doctrine, which is an antiquated term anyways). When we screw`up, there is oftentimes (literally) a huge price to pay, and when a nurse screws up, it's usually "well....just following doctor's orders...wasn't my fault!" Yeah...yeah, we can say what we want, and I am sure there are ALOT of counterarguments from what I am saying, but if you REALLY think about it and when the poo-poo hits the fan belt, every person is looking out for him/herself and when something like that happens, the first thing that often happens is the nurse uses the respondeat superior theory to shift liability....can't blame them since physicians do the same to shift liability away from them onto another group (the surgeons say the internists screwed up, but the internists say that the patient was fine until they went into surgery)...

In any regards, I have no problems with nurses, and I have ALWAYS been nice to all of them (especially since a nurse who doesn't like you can make your life miserable)...AND MY OWN MOTHER IN LAW IS A NURSE! HOWEVER, if you think about it OBJECTIVELY, it is the physician who get slammed at the end. Yes, there are nursing laws and such, but there are ALOT of loopholes in that...the main one being what I mentioned earlier (the "classic" defense). I have a couple of stories about nurses who didn't tell the intern about a GI bleed (or something) in the middle of the night b/c the nurse was sleeping, and the next thing you know, the patient is dying and its the intern's fault when the intern had NO IDEA that there was anything wrong with the patient in the 1st place. One could say that it is the intern's responsibility to make sure everything is ok with the patient AT ALL TIMES, but that is rediculous....who in their right mind rounds on their patients on the hour every hour....

So, yes....there is NO need to poo-poo on the nurses....the way I look at it, they do things that physicians refuse to do and they take a lot of abuse from many let's-just-say not-so-nice physicians and there is no need for that, but the law is the law!!! i didn't write the law....

 

[southerndoc]

I am familiar with respondeat superior, and I'm also familiar that it doesn't always hold up. Nurses have been ordered to give wrong medicines or wrong dosages before, and have been reprimanded when they failed to recognize the wrong drug/dosage prior to administration.

 

[Poety]

I am familiar with respondeat superior, and I'm also familiar that it doesn't always hold up. Nurses have been ordered to give wrong medicines or wrong dosages before, and have been reprimanded when they failed to recognize the wrong drug/dosage prior to administration.

I can so attest to this - and I would have killed the patient had I followed the order - granted, it was an NP who gave the order but you get my drift.

 

[McDoctor]

I have a couple of stories about nurses who didn't tell the intern about a GI bleed (or something) in the middle of the night b/c the nurse was sleeping, and the next thing you know, the patient is dying and its the intern's fault when the intern had NO IDEA that there was anything wrong with the patient in the 1st place. One could say that it is the intern's responsibility to make sure everything is ok with the patient AT ALL TIMES, but that is rediculous....who in their right mind rounds on their patients on the hour every hour....

....

Funny that you bring forth this concern in a thread that has an axe to grind with nurses who give you too much information. Maybe said nurse in this situation has been repeatedly chastised by grumpy interns for paging them with information that they deem unimportant.

The gist of the OP I think is good-natured. However, the nurses working third shift have just as much potential to be inexperienced and unsure of what info needs to be passed on and what info can wait until the AM as the Intern who doesn't know when to call the Senior Resident or Attending or when to wait. When in doubt you call the next person higher up. I'm not sure how well this post would go over if it were initiated by Attending doc's and titled "The Dumbest Question Ever Asked By an Intern", so I'm out of here before it inevitably gets ugly.

 

[Flopotomist]

Uhm - not saying it happened in the OP's case, but if nurses are paging you at odd hours for things like pancakes, it is quite possible that you need to pay a little attention to building a better rapport with the nursing staff. If you have never brought donuts by the nursing station, or don't know the nurses names (and no, "nurse" is not their name) then don't complain.

 

[8744]

Finally getting some sleep. Pager goes off:

"Can you write an order for a sleeping pill for Mr. Smith."

"Ok, what does he usually take at home."

"I don't know, he's asleep."

 

[inositide]

Maybe I am a little too uptight, but I actually prefer that a nurse or a med student or whoever asks me to clarify anything that they are unsure about. If out of every 50 pages, even 1 minor mistake is rectified or something is done differently which is better for the patient, then I don't mind the other 49 pages. I agree that when you are doing cross cover the pages can get annoying, but I still prefer the annoyance over the pt not getting the absolute best care.

 

[snoozz]

I'm not sure how well this post would go over if it were initiated by Attending doc's and titled "The Dumbest Question Ever Asked By an Intern".

haha, that's funny. i am sure the attendings would have hell of time with that ... or residents starting a post "dumbest qs asked by med student" which i am def guilty of.

in all seriousness, i have alot of respect for nurses in general. but as a med student, i wish they would treat us better - they have a tendancy to roll their eyes at us. does that change when we become residents?

 

[Hitch]

Maybe I'm a sourpuss.....

I'll confirm that for you. Wonder no more.



Great thread. Keep the funnies coming.

 

[ericdopt]

This is not meant at you southerndoc by any stretch of the imagination as I understand clearly what you are saying. However, I am tired of this be politically correct nonsense with the premise being "don't upset anybody." I did not start this thread to upset anybody. I started it to have some fun, and that is all. When you are on the floor, you can hear nurses making fun of both residents and attendings alike. Should I get in a huff and ask then to stop "making fun of my fellow residents?" Give me a break. That kind of action is destined to ensure a humorless enviornment, which makes for a crappy daily work day. We all know that nurses are underpaid and work their asses off, and those of us who are residents can attest to that. But they are just as capable of being dopes as we are as residents, and it is fun to sit down and laugh at each other now and then. Nobody is being malicious here. If any nurses want to post the idiotic things we residents do, by all means do so. I will laugh at that story as much as I will laugh at other stories.

Abso-f***ing-lutely right on target!!! Let's have some fun here.

Nurse: Patient in 3XXX is hot and needs a fan.
Me: Excuse me?
N: We need a doctors order for a fan.
Me: are they allergic to them?
N: (laughing) no
Me: any preferance to box or oscillating?
N: (still laughing), no
Me: Just verbal order one from me
Nurse: thanks!

Not really a nurse thing, more of a hospital wide policy thing I found hilarious at 3 am.

 

[u_r_my_serenity]

I have the utmost respect for nurses. Anyway, here is mine (observing this):

[11 PM, Pt X is soundly asleep]

Nurse: Pt X's fluids stopped 30 min ago!
Resident: That's fine. We will restart them in the AM.
Nurse: But he's NPO! He's not getting anything now and he will starve all night.
Resident: Most people are NPO all night while they sleep.

Most memorable intern mistake (again observed):

[2 AM, Anesthesia intern is calling staff cardiologist on call at BAMC (military hospital)]

Intern: I have this pt with x,y,z...
Cardiologist: What are the cardiac enzymes?
Intern: Uh... uh... That is an excellent question, sir, but I do not have that information on hand.
Cardiologist: What is the [test]?
Intern: I haven't ordered that yet, but I will, sir.
Cardiologist: [Another question]
Intern: [Doesn't know]
Cardiologist: [Another question]
Intern: [Did not order that study]
Cardiologist: [YELLING] Work this up BEFORE you wake me up! [A lot more yelling]

[Phone is hung up]
[Intern is trying to save face in front of me]

[Approx 10 min elapse...]

[Phone rings. It's the cardiologists again]
[Another 2 minutes of yelling at the intern]

I have never seen someone call back just to yell somemore. I guess he couldn't go back to sleep.

 

[fuegorama]

However, the nurses working third shift have just as much potential to be inexperienced and unsure of what info needs to be passed on and what info can wait until the AM as the Intern who doesn't know when to call the Senior Resident or Attending or when to wait. .

More to the point-
Q:Guess who is working that third shift?
A:That's right! It's the new grad. Most of these folks have <2years under their belt. In many cases, they may have been out of their respective programs for just a few months. There is no internship in nursing. The depth and breadth of undergraduate clinical training is highly variable. That idiotic page is part of the training.
Docs have residency. Nurses have their first 2-5 years of OTJ learning. Just like residency, that curve is steep!

Like every aspect of medicine, nursing has the scut/crappy slots going to the inexperienced. The tragic irony of this situation is that bad things happen at night during that shift no one else would take.

As a former nurse who has witnessed some of these witching hour calls I can tell ya that very few are actually malignant. As creepy/awful/scary, and sometimes hilarious as these queries are, most are genuine pleas asking "I don't know...please direct".

With a whiff of personality you can turn these irritating encounters into a pretty satisfying learning experience. As tempting as it is to end these encounters with a click, a little precious time and humor can create a relationship, and help a new nurse be a better health care provider.

 

[Loopo Henle]

With a whiff of personality you can turn these irritating encounters into a pretty satisfying learning experience. As tempting as it is to end these encounters with a click, a little precious time and humor can create a relationship, and help a new nurse be a better health care provider.

And also that inexperienced young nurse might not turn into a doctor hating malignant pager in the future thus perpetuating the cycle.

 

[Blade28]

I'm not sure how well this post would go over if it were initiated by Attending doc's and titled "The Dumbest Question Ever Asked By an Intern", so I'm out of here before it inevitably gets ugly.

While that may be an equally funny thread, the big difference is that in this thread, us interns are getting paged IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT for silly questions. Attendings aren't usually getting paged by interns for silly things, nor are interns getting paged by med students (usually).

I think that's what irks some people here...getting their precious 20 minutes of sleep interrupted by pages involving pancakes, normal lab values, and the like.

 

[McDoctor]

Attendings aren't usually getting paged by interns for silly things

I wonder if you'll still feel this way five years from now.
its really easy to forget how much you didn't know as a pre-med vs. as a med student vs an intern vs a resident etc...

I'm only asking the posters on this thread to put themselves in a situation of the nurses they are ridiculing. In most cases, a nurse who is paging you with an irrelevant piece of information has genuine concern for the patient as a motive. In many cases the nurse may be unsure of the relevance of some info such as creatnine value, potassium value, urine output as i have seen posted about on this thread that is more apparent to someone who has completed four years of medical school. There are different areas of emphasis in nursing school, I'm sure, than in medical school.

I guarantee you that as an intern, at some point you will be waking up an Attending with a question that on some level the Attending will find incredibly basic and irritating in the middle of night but he/she will politely answer because they know that you as the intern have the best interest of the patient at heart. If you never have found yourself as an intern paging an Attending in the middle of the night with what may be "a ridiculous question" in the more experienced doctor's eyes then you are either the most brilliant doctor to come along the pike in the last 50 years or are in an incredibly weak program in terms of volume of work. (I doubt it is the former, that title is taken ). You would not appreciate seeing humor derived at the expense of your inexperience in an open forum, especially when your motivation was noble and in the best interest of the patient.

I can laugh and commisserate with other interns and residents about some of the calls I rec'd in the middle of the night with the best of them. I do this in private, and never in earshot of nursing staff. The problem I have with this thread is that it is on a site that is perused by nurses and makes our profession look incredibly arrogant. I stay humble with the nurses new or old and trust that they will not take advantage of the gratitude that I direct at them for doing a difficult job. It's makes work more enjoyable and its why I don't get paged about pancakes.

(Again, I don't think the nature of the OP was malignant, but we need to be careful. Some subsequent posts bordered on arrogance IMHO).

 

[McDoctor]

in all seriousness, i have alot of respect for nurses in general. but as a med student, i wish they would treat us better - they have a tendancy to roll their eyes at us. does that change when we become residents?

Unforunantely, these nurses also exist. They fall into the arrogant category and I suspect are taking advantage of their one chance to feel superior to you. Don't sweat it, if they are rolling their eyes at you then they are probably also rolling their eyes at the residents, attendings, and patients but are just more discreet about it. I would not try to seek their approval at any point in your training.

 

[AznTrojan]

me - hello.. night float

nurse - hi.. the primary team have the following orders written for the patient (cbc, cmp, pt, ptt, inr).. should i draw the labs?

me - yes *click*

 

[fuzzyerin]

me - hello.. night float

nurse - hi.. the primary team have the following orders written for the patient (cbc, cmp, pt, ptt, inr).. should i draw the labs?

me - yes *click*

I had a similar one the other day on a patient who was a direct admit for malnutrition:

Nurse - can the patient eat?
Me - what does the order say? (the order that I just wrote and is sitting in the chart with the rest of the routine admission orders)
Nurse - the order is for a low residue diet.
Me - then yes, the patient can eat.

 

[DRDARIA]

I too think the vast majority of nurses are wonderful. One of the surgeon's I work with has been helpful in teaching us ways to avoid unnecessary pages and if a nurse pages him with an order a student wrote that he co-signed, he has them page the student.

Rounding this morning with a surgeon in the ICU-- nurse on a patient we are not seeing bemoans the fact that on a standard orders sheet the intern used she had selected she had indicated she wanted something, but hadn't checked a box needed to indicate dosage. Surgeon's reply to nurse, "Page her and make her come back-- she won't forget next time."

Another recent experience-- I was bemoaning the fact that when I order the BMP, if I want Mg+ level, I have to order that separately (hence I find it easy to forget). Experienced ICU nurse reply? "It's our job to make sure you don't forget." Bless her. My biggest fear as intern will be working with the nurses who are as inexperienced as I am.

On the other hand, this post is funny. I KNOW I've asked some pretty stupid questions (or provided pretty stupid answers to questions). Thankfully I'm in a program that is overall pretty kind. I'm going to try to remember to be that way when I'm on hour 29 post call. Don't know that I'll succeed though!

 

[doctawife]

I got paged at three am for a hangnail.

Any notion that I was well liked by nursing went out the freaking window.

But, two years later, I took an intern call and didn't get any calls at all from the same floor - no admission, no one got sick, no orders to clarify.

Ahh, the beauty of experience!

 

[Hotsauce21]

this isnt a ridiculous question, but it does make me wonder. Why the HELL are you paging me normal vital signs...fyi at 3am? And yes, I am nice to the nurses

 

[jvarga]

Pretty interesting stories so far. Here's two stories I find pretty amusing (of course one for each side to keep the karma gods happy):

Time: 0230
Nurse: You know how you ordered tylenol every 6 hours for pain?
Me: Uh huh
Nurse: Its been six hours since her last dose. Is it Ok for me to give her another dose?

Time 0450 (After an obvious long night)
Nurse: I have a question about a prescription you wrote for a patient
Intern: Yes?
Nurse: Are you sure you want to give Trichomonas 2 grams PO and not Flagyl?

 

[southerndoc]

Time 0450 (After an obvious long night)
Nurse: I have a question about a prescription you wrote for a patient
Intern: Yes?
Nurse: Are you sure you want to give Trichomonas 2 grams PO and not Flagyl?

That's funny.

I recently had a nurse catch one of my mistakes during a critical care shift. I wrote for 1 gram of ceftriaxone and 500 mg of doxycycline. Luckily she caught it. I'm so accustomed to writing for 500 mg of azithromycin, which we use at one of our sister hospitals, that I must have been thinking azithromycin when I wrote the doxy dose.

 

[BKN]

Most competent private duty night nurse ever: In the 70's these were mostly retired nurses who were called in for rich people admitted to the wards.

Elderly patient comes to nursing station at 4 am: "Could you come look at my nurse? I think she may be dead."

Sure enough, she was. But she had done her job, the 6am vital signs were recorded.

 

[Lizard1]

Elderly patient comes to nursing station at 4 am: "Could you come look at my nurse? I think she may be dead."

Sure enough, she was. But she had done her job, the 6am vital signs were recorded.

 

[MD'05]

My favorite 4 am call (just as I fall asleep after a miserable night on call),

Me: Doctor Happy answering a page
Nurse: Dacturrrr Happi?
Me: Yeeeeeesssss.
Nurse: The pachient in room 9 has a ceeebeeeeceeee reeeesoooolt
Me: Ooooookay ...
Nurse: white bluuud cells 10.1, hemoooglooobin 13.4, plaaaatlets 250,000
Me: Thank you nurse Ramalamadingdong
Nurse: Bye Dacturrrr Haaaaappppi

*falls asleep while gouging eyes out*

 

[MollyMalone]

Most competent private duty night nurse ever: In the 70's these were mostly retired nurses who were called in for rich people admitted to the wards.

Elderly patient comes to nursing station at 4 am: "Could you come look at my nurse? I think she may be dead."

Sure enough, she was. But she had done her job, the 6am vital signs were recorded.

That's going on my all-time favorite stories list.

 

[fourthyearmed]

My two favorite calls were not really dumb nurse questions but definitely entertaining.

#1 - Nurse called me because my 7 yo patient had lost his IV and she claimed "mom" refused to let them put it back in (very common excuse made by nurses in peds, actually translates to "I don't want to put the IV back in so you should get out of bed and walk all the way down here to hear the mom say it's fine to stick the child again before I try again"). When I got to the room the patient had locked themselves in the bathroom and refused to come out. I left the nurse in charge of finding the key and putting the IV back in. Never heard back so either it worked out or he's still in there.

#2 Got paged by a nurse that an 16 yo patient with meningitis was wandering the halls and going in patients rooms to "look at the babies". Along the way she happened to wander into a room on droplet precautions for pertussis.

 

[doctawife]

On the heme onc floor -

RN - Docta, critical lab result!
Me - drowsy, hating 4am lab draws - yu-huh?
RN - WBC's 0.9, ANC 150
Me - cool - yesterday she was 0.0 and 0
RN - But it's a critical value!
Me - MD notified, no action taken.
-click-

I dislike the float pool.

(And yes, I know that being a float nurse is incredibly tough, but that doesn't mean I have to like it at 3am. Polite, yes. Like, no.)

 

[DOtobe]

I think I wrote this in the old thread, but this is still my favorite so far:

Nurse: "My patient has an order for Ativan for anxiety."
Me: "Okay."
Nurse: "He's anxious, should I give it to him?"
Me: (in my head) "WTF do you think I ordered it for?"

And another one from the floor telling me that one of the pt's threw two PVC's per the monitor. I probably threw 2 PVC's during my conversation with her...

 

[dawg44]

3:00 a.m.
Nurse: Hello doctor we have a patient that can't move his ankle and we are worried that he might be developing a compartment syndrome
Ortho Resident: Is this a recent surgical patient?
Nurse: Yes
Ortho Resident: What procedure did he have done?
Nurse: It says here "pantalar arthrodesis"
Ortho Resident:Yeah, he's not going to move that for a while. I'm not worried. Thanks (click)

 

[Vince]

3 a.m. early in my internship while I was on Ob/Gyn...and I was NOT on-call...this was early in my internship before I made it a habit to turn my pager off or silence it...live and learn.

Dr: This is Dr. X?
RN: Yes, I'm calling because I have a patient that hasn't had a PPD placed yet and I need an order for one.
Dr: Are you kidding?
RN: No.
Dr: Well, I'm at home asleep right now. I'm not on call and don't know why you called me.
RN: I saw your name in the chart.
Dr: (sighs) Well, please check the on-call list next time. Oh, and please don't call the on-call doctor for a PPD at 3a.m....I'm certain he or she is too busy and it can wait until morning.
RN: Sorry doctor.
Dr: Goodbye.

(I would love to call the nurse at home at 3a.m. in exactly 48 or 72 hours and say...what was the result of that PPD?)

 

[cchoukal]

My favorites from my 2 weeks on general medicine night float:

Pager goes off at 3 am
Nurse: yeah, john doe is sweating.
Me: When did that start?
Nurse: he says about 4 days ago.
Me: 4 days, huh?

Or this one:

Pager goes off at midnight
Nurse: I noticed Jane Doe had a fever of 100.5.
Me: oh yeah, when was that?
Nurse: oh, about 6pm.
Me: is that right? So that was like 6 hours ago, 2 hours before I even got here, and probably when the patient's primary team was still here; did you tell anyone at the time?
Nurse: No, I just got to the end of my shift and was reviewing things and wanted to let you know.
Me: Huh. What's her temp now?
Nurse: 98.2.
Me: Awesome.

 

[DrNick2006]

Funny thread.

I had a nurse pick up a pericardial rub for me in a uremic patient, which lead to an echo, which disclosed impending tamponade. When she called me and said she heard the rub I kinda rolled my eyes to myself because she always seemed like a nurse who over-reacted to things. I didn't hear it but I paged my attending (it was during the day) It was obvious to him and to me after he pointed it out. He probably rolled his eyes to me when I paged him. I'll always remember that because it reminded me to be humble,value those "underneath" me who spend 100X more time with patients and therefore can be much better than I at interpreting how they are doing.

 

[sacrament]

A intern I know once got paged in the middle of the night with the information that a patient's BUN was low. The intern sarcastically ordered a stat BUN transfusion, which the nurse dutifully attempted to order, and when the computer wouldn't accept the order she frantically called up the pharmacy, the lab, and anybody else who would listen. The intern was disciplined the next day.

 

[kutastha]

At 3 am, during my medicine AI: we had a patient who had been on the floor for a week with renal failure. As usual, the patient was prn Tylenol for pain/fever...

Pager screams
I call
N: Hello, nursing station
Me: Yes, this is the Med AI, I received a page
N: Oh yes! I noticed Mr So and So is written for Tylenol.
Me: yes, it's for pain/fever.
N: Yes, but I'm concerned because of his renal failure.
Me: Okay, but Tylenol is metabolized by the liver and his liver is fine.
N: [Silence]
Me: Hello?
N: You're right.
Me: By the way, is he having pain or fever?
N: No, he's been asleep all night
Me: Alrighty then, good night.

No more calls after that.

 

[tripod]

here are a few I or one of my colleagues have had
#1
Doc: hello
nurse: we have a pt here on a drip at 1.5 g/hr. The orders says if his lab is too high to drop it by 30%. What's 30% of 1.5?
doc: #$^@%&!^#$%$@#%@#$%@#%$@!%$ not a @#$@#%#$!@%@ calculator!!! Figure it the !@#$@ out! *click*

#2
doc: hello
nurse: Hi doc! Uh I dropped the patient's food tray. can we make him NPO?
doc: what?! NO *click*

 

[MD'05]

Funny thread.

I had a nurse pick up a pericardial rub for me in a uremic patient, which lead to an echo, which disclosed impending tamponade. When she called me and said she heard the rub I kinda rolled my eyes to myself because she always seemed like a nurse who over-reacted to things. I didn't hear it but I paged my attending (it was during the day) It was obvious to him and to me after he pointed it out. He probably rolled his eyes to me when I paged him. I'll always remember that because it reminded me to be humble,value those "underneath" me who spend 100X more time with patients and therefore can be much better than I at interpreting how they are doing.

Excellent story. I would kill to have a nurse like that. Our medical assistants spend more time with the patients than the nurses do, therefore I always listen when the MAs speak.

 

[bell412]

you woctors are so cool. everbody wants to be as smart as you woctors.

why write so many order woctor? fill whole woctor page with worthless woctor orders. woctor gets many call from dumb dumb nurse.

 

[kima]

huh????