Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Overheard in ER

Nurse 1: "I need another urine sample cup for room 17."

Nurse 2: "Didn't you just give him one?"

Nurse 1: "Yeah. I gave him the cup and a Betadine swab. I told him to wipe himself first, then put it in the cup. So he wiped his dick with the swab, then put the swab in the cup."

11 comments:

Heidi said...

I gotta take the patient's side on this one. He followed instructions. Should have been given 2 cups, one for the used swab and one for the urine.

Wendy at Taking the Long Way Home said...

Kind of like the patient we told to have one yogurt a day to prevent yeast infections while taking antibiotics. She didn't eat it....if you catch my drift...

Anonymous said...

PediNP... I saw one of those self help medical shows once that advocated using plain yogurt as an all natural yeast infection treatment... And they didn't suggest you eat it. Wonder which brand they recommend? Fat free? Greek?

Anonymous said...

Worked as a pharm tech in the early 90's and I filled a script for a very young child for "the pink stuff!" I was positive I was the one who input the script into the system because I was the only person in the pharmacy that would add the "shake well" and "give by mouth (most left it off and assumed they'd know or the MD did the same)" in this set of directions (for a child): "shake well and give1 tsp. by mouth three times daily until all taken! I did that because well you need to shake it well and 18 month Sally isn't taking it by herself. Imagine my surprise when a few hours after we sent home one of these scripts the Mom called and told me we did her babies script wrong! I panicked, check the script and to my relief was able to tell her that it's what the doctor ordered. She said, "Well is too much, it doesn't all fit!!!" I was a bit confused, "It doesn't fit where?" And the Mom screamed, "In her ear, she has an ear infection and when I put it in her ear it comes back out!" It took me 15 minutes to explain why she needed to give it by mouth! I even asked her, "When you have a headache how do you take your Tylenol as an example? She replied, "Really?!!!!!!! I'm not an idiot, I take it w/ water in my mouth!" And then the lightbulb when on (you could hear it over the phone)! I advised her to call her MD about the sticky goop in her kids ear & hung up the phone! The RPH was in the corner laughing and was grateful I get stuck w/ the call!


migraineur said...

I did similar as an baby RT. The stuporvising RT wanted me to hit the call light, and her instruction was to hit the red button. "The red square one?" "Yes, the red square button" After I hit the CODE button, she screams "Not that button!" and I attempt to crawl under the pt's bed before the code blue team hits the room. The call light is a BROWN button, with a red light next to it. She was pissed, but really couldn't be with me...I asked for confirmation and did what I was told.

Mal said...

I'm sure you can guess where one patient thought 'analgesic' meant he was supposed to put the medication.


moomoo said...

Have to give him credit for following directions impeccably well! Clear, direct communication is a lost art.

Anonymous said...

We once had an Alzheimer's patient leave a urine sample, but when the nurse couldn't find it anywhere, we had the patient go back into the bathroom and show us where he left it -- he had urinated into the countertop soap dispenser! He even put the lid back on.

Shellye said...

And that is why every single product needs a warning label and instructions that a five year old can understand. *smh*

Jono said...

Here is how House deals with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvwR74XpKUM
It's an asthma patient.

arzt4empfaenger said...

PediNP, my gyn prof even said in a lecture that yoghurt (with live cultures) applied locally can help to keep the vaginal flora intact. It certainly isn't enough to fight of a raging yeast infection, but for people with ph problems, it seems to work quite well. XD

As for the post, I think the patient followed the instructions quite clearly. maybe he thought it was a swab sample? :P That is also why I always explain everything in gret detail, to be sure. Because there will always be people who misunderstand.

 
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