Most Embarassing Nursing Moments

I worked in ICU with an experienced nurse. During the shift her patient had died. She was on a clinitron bed (the air beds) and once she was pronounced, the nurse turned off the bed, causing the air to deflate. We proceeded to clean the patient up for her family to come visit. About 1/2 hour later we got a phone call that the family was there. The experienced nurse decided to turn the bed on so the patient would look natural - so on goes the air. The bed we had, however did it in sections, and the top was the first to inflate - causeing the patient to ""sit up" right as the family came in the room!

A few months ago, I was taking care of a 15 year old who had an extensive psych history who had just come out of PICU after drinking 2 bottles of vodka. I was preparing to leave at the end of my shift when one of the peds residents told me that she was going to tell the kid that he had to go back to the psych hospital that he had previously been discharged from. Knowing that he was going to be very upset about having to go back, I decided to go into the room with her. She was chit chatting with him, gaining a rapport with the kid. He all of a sudden pulls something out of his pocket, looks at it, giggles, and shoves it back in his pocket. The resident asks, "What was that?" He laughs and says nothing. Again, she asks, "What was that in your hand?" He says he doesn't know, but takes it out of his pocket and holds it in his hand. "What is that?" "I don't know." He opens his hand and puts the object on the table. It was small, had rubber spikes, and lit up. I am trying to figure out what it is and so is the resident. I ask him what it is and he still says he doesn't know, while laughing. All of a sudden, I realize what it is...a bullet shaped "love toy". I have no clue how to react. I am still a new nurse! And the resident still hasn't figured it out! She asked him one more time what it is and he says, "I think it is for a woman's vagina." Then he turns it on and it buzzes all the way across the table while he laughs his butt off!! The resident and I just looked at each other, our faces both red, and just walked out! He bought himself a nice long stay in a psych inpatient facility. Poor kid though. He told me that he drank all of that b/c he got into a fight with his mom. He also said that he got the toy from his mom's drawer. Sad to know how he knew it was there...

I had a young (sad case) 20 yr old with leukemia- was in for induction chemo. This kid was a "chef" at 99 Restaurant- hardly a high end place, and he weighed over 450lbs. I was in and out of his room all shift, went in to hang 10pm antibiotic, and found his girlfriend on the floor, he's sitting in a chair and there's a blanket over her head while she... right. Now I've been entering and knocking all night- you'd think they would expect my presence. We had to counsel them about appropriate activities when his counts were low.
Sadly, he died right after his bone marrow transplant but before he did, it took us 6 nurses to turn him. Horrible.

I love this thread by the way!

I'm still a student, and everyday is a fight to keep my confidence up.
I was in my Peds rotation, and in Peds there's 2 beds in every room except a few iso rooms which I always somehow got the privledge of getting......until today.

I was so excited that I didn't have to do iso stuff, I think I had a minor brain fart. I walked into the room and I was assigned bed 2. Both patients were around four months old. Well, bed 1 was a male, and bed 2 was a female. I walked into the room with my usual spiel, in my cheerful voice "Hi! I'm Jessica, I'll be your student nurse today.... blah blah blah." THen I started commenting on how beautiful their baby girl was etc etc. Mom and Dad looked at me like I grew horns and fur. I was definetly at the wrong bed. They we're slightly offended, but played nice. I apologized profusely and I felt even more dumb when I did the whole speil to the other bed all the while the other parents who WERE at my assigned bed were laughing hysterically.

Oooops! They all look alike at that age anyway right????

Lesson learned: If you can't laugh at yourself, then you just can't laugh period.

Darn, this is embarrassing....One nightshift I was making my rounds and I felt the most intense urge to..you know.."toot". I didn't want "it" to happen in the hall and I knew I wouldn't make it to the bathroom for privacy. My first impulse was to head into my confused patients room. "It" happened. Would you not know it but the nursing assistant popped into the doorway after "it" happened. The only thing I could think to say was, " I think we need to check mrs. so in so." "I think she may had a BM." Of course, the patient was not incontinent. The nursing assistant did comment on the patients, "bad gas". I ,of course, chimed in and agreed!

OMG!! I just about choked on my tea! Oh Ruby...

Last summer one of our housekeepers had quite a burn on his top lip. I asked him what happened-- his reply:

"did you know that it's a bad idea to reheat a boiled egg in the microwave?"

I burst out laughing and said "yes....I'm surprised it didn't blow up"....he replied "it did...when I cracked it open"

I cannot imagine how much that must have hurt. Frightening thing....he was in school for biomedical engineering!

This is a fantastic thread! I'm still a student, but I am really enjoying all the stories!!

Thanks to all of you for sharing!

I'm not a nurse but have worked with nurses for the past 30 years as a public safety officer.
(ER nurses are the best, no disrespect to the rest of you ladies and gents)
We have our share of embarassing moments. My Sgt. and I were attempting to calm down an unstable psych patient in a seclusion room. As we were trying to establish a rapport with him the patient made a childish movement with his hands and dropped down to the floor. Not thinking my Sgt quite innocently says "What are you crazy?"...I couldn't help it I busted out laughing and we havn't let him live it down yet.

one time I enter the patient room, I asked the lady who sat in the bed do you want to eat now?
she laugh and said I am not the patient he is, I am just take a rest in the bed

((she was the patient's wife))