We Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

During a recent change-of-shift report, I heard an IV infusion pump alarm. I asked one of our nurses’ aides to go into the room and press the ‘pause’ button to stop the alarm. Our infusion pumps flash a message describing the problem, like ‘air in the line’. When the aide returned to the nurses’ station, I asked her what the pump was saying.

In earnest, she replied, “It was saying, ‘beep, beep, beep.”