5 West Nursing

“Stupid is as stupid does.” – Forrest Gump

I never knew what that meant. Some attempt to explain it as “the quality of your substance”, or that you shouldn’t judge the book by its cover but by its content. I guess you can say, “if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck!” Philosophy aside, we experienced what stupid did one night.

We got an admission from the ER at 0600, one hour before the end of the shift. The admitting nurse stumbled upon a vague order as she was getting report from the ER nurse. Here’s what the order read:

“Give small dose of Lopressor and repeat EKG when heart rate is slower”

Surprisingly, this order was carried out by the ER nurse claiming that it was the previous shift who wrote it. On top of this, the patient did get a dose of Lopressor (documented on the MAR) despite the fact that the order did not specify what “small dose” meant or defined the meaning of  ”slower heart rate”. Eventually it was written up as a medication error. I’m sure you’ll agree that the ER nurse should have clarified the order.

What can I say? I guess sometimes we just have to get back to the basics and use common sense. In this case, I think I know what Forest Gump was saying about stupid. It’s a good thing that in our ICU…

“Nursing is as nursing does!”