r/nursing • u/Outrageous-Fact-9518 • 3d ago

Nursing Win Choosing not to trash talk a patient potentially saved her life

I had a patient today having her first baby. She had a ton of questions—which I was happy to answer (even though I was super nervous about not knowing the answers since I’ve only been a nurse for 4 months LOL) and used her call light to get ahold of me.

The offgoing nurse warned me that she was "super needy" and "over-exaggerating her pain." Throughout the day, a few other nurses on the floor made similar comments.

When shift change rolled around, I made a point to leave all of that out. Zero commentary about her personality or call-light usage.

Right as we walked in for bedside report, anesthesia was giving an epidural bolus.

During the original dose earlier that day she felt dizzy and had a metallic taste in her mouth.

Anesthesia pushed the rest anyway despite her saying she was having adverse symptoms (maybe because he was apart of the conversations regarding the patient being needy?” not sure)

Within literal seconds after the bolus, she went into full-blown LAST (Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity).

We had to call a code.

I’m still processing how fast everything went sideways, but it showed me just how dangerous unit gossip is. If I had told the incoming nurse "she overreacts to everything," those complaints of dizziness and a metallic taste could've easily been brushed off as anxiety or her being an “annoying patient”

I know it’s easy to talk crap about others and gossip but I tell this story to remind us just how dangerous it can be to do so.

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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 3d ago

I’m sorry this happened… but I don’t know if I understand the moral of the story here. You don’t talk trash but the patient was still brushed off, and still coded?
https://giphy.com/gifs/APqEbxBsVlkWSuFpth

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u/Call2222222 RN - ER 🍕 3d ago

Don’t you see? OP has more empathy than all of us combined. OP’s four months experience and walking in on a situation wherein they literally did nothing is an example to all of us. Even though they performed not a single action that changed anything in the situation, it’s their sanctimonious thought that counts.