Nursing School Bloopers

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Anyone have any funny nursing school stories from their past?

I had to change an IV bag and went in with my instructor to do so. My instructor always made me nervous but I was determined to remain confident and do the task....it wasnt difficult. She proceeded to ask me what was in the bag and I told her normal saline. She told me "ok, go ahead" and stood back to watch. I proceeded to pull out the line to put it into the new bag, but didn't take it off the IV pole before doing so. I received a saline bath with the remaining fluid that was in the bag. My instructor ran to get a towel and we cleaned up the wet floor. She then asked me to step outside the room. I thought I was going to hear it. What I heard was her laughing and telling me that I had to laugh sometimes and "everyohne has a saline bath once and then it never happens again." I still don't believe her but its funny looking back now.

what I think is her urethral meatus is actually her privy parts.

A student in my class actually tried 4 or 5 times to stick a cath into some poor lady's privy parts! I kept asking her if she wanted me to hold a flashlight for her but being stubborn she refused! She hasn't lived that one down yet!

As for mine....

It was my last day in OB. Our instructor brought us donuts and I was all excited b/c I love them so much, so needless to say, I had them on the brain. Well, I asked my postpartum mom if she was comfortable and if I could get her anything before I left the room. She laughed and said "yeah, you got any donuts?". Since EVERY SINGLE PATIENT I have ever had *NOT exagerrating here* has asked me for food such as Mc Donald's, steak, milkshakes, etc, I just assumed she wanted a donut to eat. She had just gotten her breakfast tray and I lifted the lid and said "Hmm...what do you have on this tray?". She just looked at me blankly and said "No, a donut to sit on"! I could have died right there!!!! :imbar

Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.
Some memories from when I was in school...

3. When I was doing my psych clinical, I was assigned to a manic depressive man and had to write a paper about him. I interviewed him one day, and he started telling me about this super-religion he was creating - he read about all religions, took all the good parts and scrapped all the bad parts, and made this wonderful non-denominational religion. My instructor was nearby and boy was she mad when she saw me nod my head and agree that it was a wonderful idea he had. That was the day I realized that I could never do psych, LOL!

I don't understand why it's wrong to humor a psychiatric patient. It's not like he was telling you of his plan to assassinate the president or blow up the local kindergarten. Are you supposed to try to talk him out of his obsession? That sounds like a recipe for frustration on both sides. What would have been a better way to respond?

I was preceting a new grad nurse and she was giving a pt a triple H emema (hi hot and a ***of a lot) when she finished she seated the pt on a commade and...forgot to put a basin underneath. 1000 cc of fluid was on the floor coming out the door. The poor grad was devastated but we could not stop laughing.

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
Anyone have any funny nursing school stories from their past?

I had to change an IV bag and went in with my instructor to do so. My instructor always made me nervous but I was determined to remain confident and do the task....it wasnt difficult. She proceeded to ask me what was in the bag and I told her normal saline. She told me "ok, go ahead" and stood back to watch. I proceeded to pull out the line to put it into the new bag, but didn't take it off the IV pole before doing so. I received a saline bath with the remaining fluid that was in the bag. My instructor ran to get a towel and we cleaned up the wet floor. She then asked me to step outside the room. I thought I was going to hear it. What I heard was her laughing and telling me that I had to laugh sometimes and "everyohne has a saline bath once and then it never happens again." I still don't believe her but its funny looking back now.

One of my fellow students did the exact same thing except with a unit of blood. ehew! We laugh about it now, I can still see the look on her face. She actually pulled off the whole tab before attempting to spike the bag, the entire bottom seam ripped open and the blood just poured out. The patient was sedated which was a good thing at the time.

I recall as a student nurse (Hospital trained) having just finished having handover; therefore the 'sisters station' (yes a long time ago) was full of the afternoon shift and some morning shift staff. Another student nurse, looking very frustrated having been directed to apply condom drainage to Mr X, stood waiting for a lull and then exclaimed "I have done everything I can think of and I just can't get Mr X to get an erection so I can get the damn thing on!!" I remember absolute shocked silence that continued until a kindly ACN took her aside and explained a few elements of applying condom drainage. That poor girl never lived it down.

Specializes in MS.

try it during a blood transfusion

Catheters sure seem to cause a lot of bloopers. Here's one on my friend. She was taking out a catheter in front of our most intimidating instructor. As it came out, she accidentally flicked the instructor in the face with the slimy end of the catheter. He was not pleased!

During my preceptorship I was putting crushed meds in a stomach tube. I had most of them in, and I set down the syringe to get the last med. (It was still connected to the tube, and the plunger was out as I was pouring the meds in, and they were going in nicely with gravity.) Well, once the syringe was lower than the stomach, everything I put in, came out all over the bed!

Oh these are great! I am committing them all to memory as I start Block 1 on Monday!

As an Aide my biggest oops was that I started my day by checking all the patients charts in my assignment for pertinent info; diet order, specimens that needed to be collected, did they have bathroom privledges, were they an accu-check (I work on a diabetic unit and do MANY a day). I then went to the med-station to the white board where we write blood sugars so that the nurses can take a quick glance and get the proper insulin without going to the chart and noted that one of my patients was an accu-check and I had missed it in the chart. I assumed this because there were blood sugars on the white board for his room number.

When I went in for the a.m. check he was so nervous. Turns out this was his first time in the hospital (He was 36 years old) and scared to death of needles and hospitals. He jumped a MILE when I poked him and kept saying that he didn't know why people kept poking him. He told me he wasn't diabetic, but that they thought he might be as it might explain why his infected foot hadn't healed...made sense to me...I see that all the time!

After the 5:30 before dinner check (I've now poked him 3 times and his blood sugars were completely normal!) the nurse asks me if I'm charting blood sugars on the white board in the wrong space. I looked and said, "No. Why?" and she says that the patient in that room is not diabetic. I go check the chart and sure enough I hadn't "missed" it, there was no order for accu-chks.

It turned out that the blood sugars were from the patient that had been discharged and this guy had been admitted not even 30 minutes later. In the rush the previous NA had failed to clear the white board for that room number and I made the mistake of assuming it was for the new patient having not been there in 2 days.

I felt sooooooo bad! I did go in and tattle on myself and apologized by starting, "I have good news and I have bad news!". he appreciated the honesty and forgave me all the while shaking his head at the needless blood letting I had subjected him to. Oooops! :uhoh21:

Specializes in Geriatrics, Wound Care.

Not exactly "nursing" related, but it happened at clinicals...

One of my classmates comes and finds me in a patient's room and tells me that several nurses/CNAs from the facility have been asking around about our students, saying someone from our class is parked in a no-parking zone and needs to move their car. My classmate says she checked and it's my car.

I was completely stumped. I was parked in the same, clearly marked spot I usually parked in. She starts walking with me towards the back of the building to the door that leads out of the parking lot. The whole time I'm asking her "Are you sure it's MY car?" "I know where I parked." She assured me it was my car - it's distinctive and has personalized license plates. I peek out the back door, certain I'll see my car right where I left it, legally parked...BUT IT'S NOT THERE!

I run outside in a panic...and finally see that it had rolled out of the parking spot, downhill, and (VERY LUCKILY) hit the curb and run up onto the lawn. If it had been parked in any other space it would have hit another car or the building. It was blocking the WHOLE driveway! I was SO embarrased! I forgot to put the parking brake on and it's a stick. I just couldn't believe that all the employees thought that I would be so rude to park blocking the whole entrance/exit! Now I park on a nice, level lot next to the facility! :uhoh21:

I still can't forget my first day at clinicals. Now having been a CNA for almost a year prior, I felt pretty confident in my bedpan weilding skills. I was partnered with a fellow student and a rather large patient. The day went progressively from bad to worse it seemed every which way we turned him there was a open area to be found somewhere.

By the time we finished washing and assessing him, he asked for the bedpan. All this particular facility had to offer were fracture pans unless an act of god granted you a real bedpan. Can you see where this is going? We get him on the bedpan, and step out to look over his chart, come back the instuctor pratically follows us in to let us know it's time for post conference. I almost forgot about the pan but stopped and checked to make sure I hadn't forgotten it.

I called for my partner because there's no way I could have rolled this man on my own, by habit I rolled him toward me but happend to look down at the right moment. I discovered that somehow we had gotten this poor man's scrotum dangling over the edge of the bedpan and under his leg.:uhoh3: Let's just say I am glad the edges of the pan aren't any sharper than they are, I'm sure the patient was too.

Specializes in pediatric critical care.
anyone have any funny nursing school stories from their past?

i had to change an iv bag and went in with my instructor to do so. my instructor always made me nervous but i was determined to remain confident and do the task....it wasnt difficult. she proceeded to ask me what was in the bag and i told her normal saline. she told me "ok, go ahead" and stood back to watch. i proceeded to pull out the line to put it into the new bag, but didn't take it off the iv pole before doing so. i received a saline bath with the remaining fluid that was in the bag. my instructor ran to get a towel and we cleaned up the wet floor. she then asked me to step outside the room. i thought i was going to hear it. what i heard was her laughing and telling me that i had to laugh sometimes and "everyohne has a saline bath once and then it never happens again." i still don't believe her but its funny looking back now.

never happens again?!?! i must do that at least 2-3 times a month!:rolleyes:

Specializes in Pedatrics, Child Protection.

In my second year of nursing school one of my fellow students made this blooper:

In our post-conference discussion, she was to present her patient. Diagnosis, treatments, medications, nursing diagnosis....the whole thing. She started out with the diagnosis: endometriosis. She went on to describe what she had done for this patient today...pretty much reading us the kardex and MAR. None of it was making much sense, so the instructor asked her to explain the diagnosis. Her response......

I dunno, but it has something to do with the brain.

Needless to say, we didn't see her in class the next semester.

Oops.

RNAnnjeh

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