Level of Familiarity and Relevance to Clinical Practice

Breaking a mirror causes 7 years of bad luck (UB) (general)

Saying the “Q” (quiet) word causes an increase in workload/activity (UB)

Death/bad luck comes in threes (UB)

A full moon means chaos is coming (UB) (general)

Some patient rooms are cursed/bad luck (UB)

Some staff carry a black cloud (bad luck follows them) (UB)

People have a lucky number or totems (i.e. lucky uniform, socks, charms (UG) (general)

Moving the code cart close to the room of a patient doing badly prevents a code from happening (UG)

Opening a window to let a soul leave; giving permission to die (UG)

Not opening a sterile package early prevents the need for the procedure (UG)

Knocking on wood prevents the undoing of a previous statement (PR) (general)

Tying a knot in the bedsheet keeps the patient from dying (PR)

Never mention frequent flyers by name or they will show up (PR)

Do not say “see you soon” when dismissing a patient as that results in a re-admission (PR)

Seeing a black cat brings bad luck (SC) (general)

When you drop a pill (in packaging) walking into a patient’s room, do not give it to them right away because they will choke on that one pill. Wait until all other meds are swallowed then give them the dropped medicine.(SC)

Printing out the death packet too early makes a long drawn-out death (SC)

If you bring something to work to read/do you WILL be busy (SC)