Nursing School Bloopers

Nurses Humor

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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.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Postpartum.

As a PN student, we were required to pass a pharmacology test with a score of 100 percent within the first week in order to stay in the practical nurse program. My friend failed because she answered one of the questions:72 pills.

When I asked my friend "Did you really think you would be giving a patient 72 pills at one time?" she said "I thought I was going to give the patient a bottle of pills."

She later became a teacher(not math teacher).

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.
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!

Those darn catheters do have a tendency to flip around though. :rotfl:

Here's one when I was a freshman level student that happened to a fellow student. We were in a LTC facility. The instructor, a very prim and proper lady was observing my friend who was assessing a African-American patient, removed his diaper and seemed very put off that he had had a bowel movement and she would have to clean and change him. The instructor just took a peek and pulled her aside to explain to her that what she was seeing was his scrotum. We almost peed ourselves laughing. She never made it past the freshman year.

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

fellow student admired a patient's tan

turned out to be jaundice!

:chuckle

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No treally sure this can be considered a blooper but here goes......I was at my clinical on friday on the cardiac floor and had a great pt. with CHF. When i walked into his room to introduce myself I noticed his foley bag on the floor in a fractured bed pan. So after introducing myself I told him that I just wanted to check and see why it was on the floor, so I grabbed some gloves and lifted it out of the bedpan. It had a very small leak, but never the less it needed to be changed so I went to get my instructer and ask the RN on duty if I could change it. After I got permission, My instructor and I got the new bag and went into the room. I closed the door (leaving a little crack in the door) and went to my pt. bed to let him know what we were going to do. I changed the bag and as I was finishing up housekeeping knocked on the door. I let them know that it would be just a minute. She peeked her head in the door and then closed it all the way. Not a big deal right! Well apparently the door handle was broken and when she closed the door it locked us in the room. So there we were (my instructor, me and my pt.) locked in a room. Maintance was called and came quickly, but they had to break off the door handle to get us out. I'm glad my pt. didn't code or wasn't unrulely. It is funny now, but it was a bit scarey for about 15 minutes. We had a little bit of fun and I had a great chance to get to know my pt. I wonder if that has ever happend to anyone else in the history of nusing?

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Specializes in Infusion, Med/Surg/Tele, Outpatient.

Just a suggestion: don't tell a patient you are just lowering the bed so they won't have as far to fall. ;)

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it was our first clinical exposure, and i was assigned to a patient who needed her daily suppository. by the time i was about to give the meds, my clinical instructor went in to make sure that i would be doing the right thing. i was so nervous because it was my first time, and i ended up telling the patient this:

"Good morning mam, my name is jay and i'm about to insert my suppository inside your butt."

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In a clincal skills sesion in first year we where doing injections so the days starts with some theroy tutor asks where(sites) can you give IM injections

i answer buttocks, their is a shocked locked on his face and from the circle of my group, he asked me again in a questioning tone and I repeat buttocks(very confused as know this is a valid area)

Turns out i may have meant to say buttocks but everyone else heard bollcks(english slang for teste) didn't go down very well, sitll get teasesd

but on one my class on placement during a crash call held on to the end of the bed (to get a good view0 as the pt was defib and got shot across the ward and the soles of her feet slghtly toasted

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I had my oral examination for my Health Assessment class. First I feel of one of those rolling stools twice and spilled my equipment on the floor. My patient was even helping me pick up my stuff. I learned after the second tome to put the tuning fork and percussion hammer on the table. Then I started the examination and partway through I realize that I had forgotten to take out the opthalmoscope kit. Luckily that was right on the top of my bag. Then my patient had a leg cramp while I was palpating his abdomen. Oh and I ran out of time (we had a 1 hour time limit.) But don't worry I still did well on the exam.

Oh and the blooper reel did not stop after the orals. When I was writing up my results I went through 3 pens (had to borrow two.)

Malia ;)

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Specializes in ER.

At the beginning of first semester, we were practicing TPR. A friend of mine was practicing with the thermometers. She had one in her mouth, when another friend walked up to her and said "Why do you have a rectal thermometer sticking out of your mouth?" We almost peed ourselves laughing so hard. Needless to say, she ran to wash her mouth out rather quickly! :rotfl:

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The other day at clinicals, all the other students were talking about the "green" women in one of the pt rooms. I was curious to what they were talking about and i asked one of my friends to come in there with me. i peeked around the corner and saw her dinner tray sitting there so i was going to go retrieve it and give me an excuse to pretty much stare at her. when i went in, i could not believe what i was seeing. she had stage III liver disease and her jaundice was soooo bad that it actually turned her green. on top of that, she thought it would be cute to dye her hair a bright red and wear orange lipstick!?!?!?!! needless to say, i walked right in, her eyes opened and were bright yellow and she looked at me. i couldnt help it, my jaw dropped and i turned right back out of that room forgetting the dinner tray. wasnt worth it to me. but anyway just wanted everyone to know that I have met the incredible hulk :troll:

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Specializes in OB, critical care, hospice, farm/industr.
it was our first clinical exposure, and i was assigned to a patient who needed her daily suppository. by the time i was about to give the meds, my clinical instructor went in to make sure that i would be doing the right thing. i was so nervous because it was my first time, and i ended up telling the patient this:

"Good morning mam, my name is jay and i'm about to insert my suppository inside your butt."

Classy, real classy.;)

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Specializes in med/surg, antepartum, post partum.

Oh these stories are hilarious so I must add my own.

Our very first day in clinical (our first year of nursing school) we were told that the #code for a code blue was #3333. So, as we walked into our patients' rooms one of my fellow students discovered that her patient had expired. Well, she ran frantically out in the hall and screamed as loud as she could "3333, 3333, 3333". Of course there were about 5 nurses sitting at the nurses' station. They looked at this poor student with the most confused looks on their faces! It was hilarious. I was laughing so hard I could barely tell my fellow student that she was supposed to PICK UP THE PHONE AND DIAL #3333 not shout it down the hall. We laughed about that one for years after!!!:lol2:

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