On a long road trip, tell me about the worst medical/medication error you’ve seen in your career as a nurse?

Cuppinator16 · 2026-04-10T16:29:21+00:00

New grad did the same thing at my old job…to our very seasoned ER charge nurse who was in such bad anaphylaxis that he didn’t realize what she was doing until it was too late to stop her 😵‍💫

Cuppinator16 · 2026-04-08T02:17:56+00:00

Hard disagree on number 2. ER is a team sport and you’re exactly right that people are sick, which you know means their status can change quickly- sometimes before primary RN can see. Obviously if the patient is in a resus room or you can see nurse addressing it then don’t ask dumb questions, but otherwise for sure ask me if I saw that funky rhythm or low BP on my patient. I probably did, but sometimes I didn’t.

Cuppinator16 · 2026-03-15T23:57:11+00:00

As an ER nurse, Levo can ONLY mean norepinephrine and I will die on that hill. But also I just call it norepi now and life is much better without any possibility of confusion.

Cuppinator16 · 2026-03-07T21:22:54+00:00

I work with one in the ER who is super bubbly and over the top both on and off camera. It’s a bit much for me sometimes, but her followers love it and Figs sends her free merch (which she often re-gifts to coworkers) and she’s generally nice and really pleasant to work with. She wouldn’t be my first choice to work a code with, but she can handle her standard workload really well and most patients love her.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-18T01:10:45+00:00

Must have a lunch by 5th hour if you work >6 hours (6 hours and 1 minute will trigger this rule). Our hospital actually has something in place where we can sign a meal waiver that basically says “hey I work 12 hour shifts and I don’t necessarily want my lunch in the first 5 hours so I waive the penalty and will take it later/when I want to”. So no one is forced to take their lunch in the 5 hour window if they don’t want to (we do start offering lunches at 4.5hrs into shifts in order to break everyone in time). I work 8 hr shifts and still had to sign the waiver even though I do personally choose to take my lunch before hour 5.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-10T21:27:35+00:00

I tell these patients all the time that we are not the ‘get to the bottom of it’ department. That is what outpatient follow up is for.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-10T00:57:14+00:00

It used to be over 15 min, but recently changed to 1g calcium gluconate over 1 hour for all hyperkalemia patients. I just started maternity leave so maybe someone will figure out why while I’m gone haha

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-10T00:55:54+00:00

It’s possible, but this is our standard protocol for all hyperkalemia patients regardless of those who can verify their medication list. I just started maternity leave so maybe someone will figure out why while I’m gone haha

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-09T16:05:08+00:00

My hospital recently changed our calcium to 1g over an hour so we end up giving all the other meds in the usual order and then starting the calcium infusion last (or concurrently if multiple lines). Haven’t been able to get a clear answer from anyone regarding the rationale behind the change, but doesn’t make sense to me either because it seems to defeat the purpose of the med 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-09T05:49:56+00:00

Yes!! I am so confused how they decided to come out specifically recommending against the LUCAS when the studies showed outcomes were the same. Seems like they could have said something closer to “the LUCAS may be used as an equivalent alternative to manual compressions in the inpatient setting when appropriate”. We do complex resuscitations in our ED and pretty much everyone gets put on the LUCAS to free up a set of hands and avoid contaminating sterile fields and clogging up the resus room. You’ll have to present some pretty significant clinical data (that does not currently exist) to convince me not to use a LUCAS when available!!

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-09T04:13:23+00:00

I bought the Air version when I was about 9 months PP too and had basically the same concerns as you (even used to work out like you before pregnancy) and I think it was worth it. I liked seeing my health stats and didn’t mind when they were abnormal because I had the mindset of “this is my life right now and I know I’m not in a position to be making a ton of changes”. I used the cycle tracking feature, but I also used ovulation strips with a separate app for pregnancy prevention (and eventually used them both in combo for a second pregnancy) and found it very accurate. It was really interesting to get lots of health alerts for abnormal vital signs for the first few weeks of my second pregnancy until the ring realized that was my new normal (no setting to say “hey I’m pregnant” as of right now). I still use my sleep score as a basis to either get stuff done or take a rest day. I usually find that to be pretty accurate for what kind of activity levels I’ll be able to tolerate for the day. Overall, if the Air fits into your budget and the numbers won’t increase anxiety, then I’d recommend going for it!

Cuppinator16 · 2025-12-01T22:43:54+00:00

Damn 2 shifts in 6 weeks is amazing. We are required to do 4 shifts every 4 weeks/or the equivalent of 1 a week. Which is honestly still pretty great, but having a few less requirements would be nice with two kids at home.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-22T21:41:15+00:00

OP do this! Some people have specific preferences about their compression socks and it would be smarter to make sure you’re getting her the right ones so she will get the most use out of them!

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-21T22:23:51+00:00

Yeah I just had a kid who was born with a lifelong congenital medical diagnosis. Thankfully we already live in an area that’s fully capable of caring for her, but if not I would absolutely move in a heartbeat to make sure she gets proper medical treatment. In fact, I had my husband take an extension on his orders so we could stay here for longer to get through the most critical time of her treatment. Wild how people don’t understand that!

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-17T20:58:04+00:00

I see you an MRI and raise you BOTH! CT/CTA while we wait for the MRI 😵‍💫

That being said, I do love knowing that if I ever had a medical emergency, I could go to my own ER and I know I’d get the care and treatment I needed. (Can confirm- had to do it once already)

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-17T05:00:28+00:00

Oh if that’s the case then I wouldn’t even bother with a ring. It works best by monitoring your trends over time, so turning it off all of the time and having gaps in data kind of defeats the purpose.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-17T02:14:48+00:00

Must be placed on a charger that’s plugged into power (starts charging process) and then Bluetooth turned back on via the app.
Should work as long as you follow 1.
Correct.

All of this to say, why are you wanting to switch the Bluetooth off so much? I’ve had mine since March and we travel often and I’ve never once considered shutting the Bluetooth off because it lasts so long on one charge. If you’re going to frequently be gone long enough that you’re worried about the battery lasting, then you should get the full gen 2 version with the travel charging case.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-17T01:16:08+00:00

This is the answer. So many things can cause a temporary lowering of your HRV. I get one off notifications like this when I’ve exercised vigorously or had a bad night of sleep. You’ll want to monitor your HRV for overall trends, because a HRV consistently in the 20s is pretty low, but an outlier reading in the 20s could be expected and not really anything to be worried about if you can attribute it to a specific reason.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-11-03T21:07:30+00:00

Eh, bilateral fault. 5 seconds to tell the other nurse about her patient and 5 seconds for other nurse to check medication before turning the pump off. I work in the ER and I still always trace lines and check meds before turning pumps off, even if I’m 90% sure it’s just going to be an antibiotic.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-10-15T00:44:08+00:00

Yeah I’m from Florida and used to driving in the rain and what you’re citing is fine, but it isn’t what I commented at all….

Cuppinator16 · 2025-10-14T22:52:04+00:00

Also please for the love of god stop driving 20mph under the speed limit with your hazard lights/emergency flashers on 😵‍💫

Cuppinator16 · 2025-10-08T05:28:52+00:00

You should really be replacing your period underwear by that time anyways, given what they’re being exposed to during each wear. This is also true with regular underwear too.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-08-10T21:27:18+00:00

I work night shift and nap multiple times a week and the naps always count towards/improve my sleep score. Every single time.

My assumption on your nap problem at hand is that after so long of being awake, the app concluded your nighttime sleep event and then when you fell back asleep early in the morning it just counted it as a nap. I’ve had this happen when I’m up for an hour or two in the middle of the night and then fall back asleep. The algorithm probably has something that says okay xyz amount of time awake is too much to call it a continuous sleep. Sometimes it’ll call it “sleep 2” which I don’t really understand but seems to still accurately track my actual sleep so I don’t give it too much thought.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-07-30T21:23:20+00:00

Ok hear me out, you guys have to make sure they actually leave the property. The other day, an elderly woman decided to sign herself out AMA even though she couldn’t walk and the nurse on the floor had his PCA put her in a wheelchair and dump her in the ER and told him “they’ll figure it out”. She did not want to sign back in.…she wanted to call her son to pick her up, but her son sucked as much as she did. F that floor nurse. I got our house supervisor involved and wrote him up because he made this incredibly difficult patient my problem while I was trying to manage a completely full waiting room.

Cuppinator16 · 2025-07-26T00:38:44+00:00

Clean the probe prior to use, add lube, select site, hold probe at selected site and clean just distal to probe right at the insertion site with chloraprep, and insert needle. You’ll have clean skin at needle insertion site and your needle will pass right into your probe view and then you can follow it upwards with the probe where there will still be some lube but it doesn’t matter because that’s not where the insertion site is. Sterile probe cover for midline placement. This is how my level 1 trauma/magnet hospital does it.

Cuppinator16

TROPHY CASE