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.

Ok.. I can not spell.. at all.. but I usually catch my mistakes.. my last CI, who I think is amazing, told me I was going to make a great nurse, I got all excited, then she goes.. "Your one real weakness is spelling, you might want to work on that." When I just looked at her like what, she explained that on all my care plans I had written "ASSES the pt" instead of assess.. she said that might look funny if I ever had to go to court :) everyone still teases me about it.. asking if I have grabbed my pt butt today.. :)

I have made the same spelling error myself on a care plan. The instructor circled it in red, and it took me a while to figure it out.

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i remember this funny thing that my classmate has done during our clinical duty.. we were assigned in the ER then our CI has asked her to dilute this certain med, then she asked me to get the distilled H2o from the cart..so as i was getting it, i noticed my classmates fumbling over the med and hell she was aspirating the powder contents of the vial. i was like what?! the CI saw that and she approached my classmate and said, "WHAT ON EARTH ARE U DOING?".. then my classmate regained her common sense then put 10 cc of distilled water inside the vial with a red face :p:bugeyes:

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I am sorry but I have to ask what was wrong with this? I start cliniclas in the fall and I would have done the same thing. I do not want to make a worng mistake if I can help it so please tell me why if the orders said to take the staples out and she did then why was it wrong? Is there a rule that says only take staples out of a certain part of the body or something?. Eek.

If you take 1/2 of the staples out, you must take out every other staple. If you take out the "top half" or "bottom half" you could cause the wound to reopen:down:, which it definately not a good thing.

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Ok.. I can not spell.. at all.. but I usually catch my mistakes.. my last CI, who I think is amazing, told me I was going to make a great nurse, I got all excited, then she goes.. "Your one real weakness is spelling, you might want to work on that." When I just looked at her like what, she explained that on all my care plans I had written "ASSES the pt" instead of assess.. she said that might look funny if I ever had to go to court :) everyone still teases me about it.. asking if I have grabbed my pt butt today.. :)

Due to a typo by the administrative assistant, one of my classmates' e-mail address showed up on the roster as "asscrapper@whatever"...she was upset that it was spelled wrong but couldn't understand why we were all laughing...and kept trying to explain that it was "ascrapper, you know, A SCRAPPER? Scrapbooking?" She was about to blow her top when someone said to her, "we know, but right now it says @ss cr@pper!" and then she fell over laughing.

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Specializes in keeping all options open right now..

The first time I had to use a Carpujet insulin pen, I was all nervous. The instructor showed me how to dial up the correct amount, how to hold it, and explained that I had to hold it in place for a few second after the injection. All in all, a relatively easy procedure (as opposed to drawing everything up, etc.) I walked into the patients room, introduced myself to the patient, as well as her family (parents, in-laws, husband, and three aunts...) I asked where she had the last injection, prepped the site, and did everything exactly as my instructor had showed me. I was so proud of myself!

It wasn't until I was walking out of the room that I realized I hadn't removed the end cap from the pen, and the patient never received the dose she was supposed to. I was so embarrassed turning around and having to explain what just happened in front of all those people, and having to re-do the procedure!

Never again will I forget to remove the cap!

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Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

My first injections were drawn up in a med room the size of a small closet, taken up by pyxis machines, etc. Not much room to maneuver. So I bent the needle in half on my first lovenox. I was told to loosen it 'in here' so as to not be flailing around trying to get the darn cap off in the patient's room. Good thing I was there, as I had to waste it and get another one.

I still don't know why they can't make those things easier to uncap. I could break my nose, or someone else's, trying to get them open.

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Specializes in neuro, critical care, open heart..

Here's a couple that I have witnessed.

1. In LPN school back in the early 90's, there was a female student that was, shall we say, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. One day we were preparing to go to post-conference, and my instructor asked me to go check on her. I went into her pt's room to see what she needed help with. She was looking very flustered and about ready to cry. I asked her what the problem was and she said " I have been shaving this man for over an hour and I can't get him shaved!" Upon further inspection, I noticed she had failed to remove the protective cover from the razor!:banghead: No, this girl did not pass LPN school!!!

2. During ADN school, we were in our last semester and doing our Psych rotation. One of my fellow students had a particular pt that she had delveloped a repoir with and she was being discharged that day. We were back on the same floor 2 weeks later, and the same pt was back. Well, this fellow student saw that she was back and wanted to talk to her, so we went to the pt's room. As soon as we walked into the room, the pt looked at my fellow student and said " You *****! You are the one sleeping with my husband!:eek:" and proceeded to chase her out of the room and down the hallway!!!:chuckle We later learned that the pt, who was schizophrenic, stopped taking her meds a few days after going home. Needless to say, my fellow student doesn't work psych!!

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Specializes in NeuroICU/SICU/MICU.

I was in my Med/Surg I clinical last semester, and one moment really stands out..my patient was sleeping, but had a very fast respiratory rate (40+), so we needed to find out her o2 sat. I had to run around looking for a pulse oxiometer that actually worked..so my instructor and some other students and I were in the hall, and I stuck it on my finger to make sure it worked. I wasn't paying attention, and my instructor said "Is that you??" She was looking at the oxiometer, and my pulse was 120+ and I was all out of breath from running around..she made me sit down before I could finish with my patient :)

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I was giving my very first IM injection -- now, I'd given a ton of sub-Q's, but this was an elderly alzheimer's pt getting his flu shot into the deltoid. I explain what's going on, he seems pretty with it, and I put my left hand on his arm to stabilize it for the stick. The pt screamed, I jumped about a foot and dropped the syringe. All flustered, I said, "What was that for!?!"

He smiled and said, "Just practicing."

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Well during HLT I forgot to provide drapes so I used the patient's blanket carefully to provide privacy for the patient (it was a public/charity ward/very crowded), then I really don't know what came in to my mind that I placed my head inside the feet of the patient's blanket.

My instructor asked me. "What're you doing?"..Then I said "Inspecting the perineum?"

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Specializes in Emergency/ Critical Care.

The first time I had to take a clean urine specimen from a cath bag was awful! I had never even touched a catheter bag in my life and my (very intimidating) instructor stood over me and told me to take a specimen. After fiddling with the clamp for what felt like forever, I managed to open in and get the specimen... problem... then I couldn't figure out how to do it back up! I tried to squeeze the tubing with my hand but needless to say I was completely embarassed and made a very large mess on the floor! It's ALMOST funny to me now lol

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It's my second week into nursing school. I'm going to school for my LPN. My nursing instructors... Ms. D and Ms. C are professional at best, but very nice in their own way. One kinda reminds me of nurse ratchet in some ways though lol.

Well anyway. We had just got back from lunch and I had to use the bathroom. I had flipped the sign on the outside of the door to say "Closed" which means occupied (if that wasn't obvious...). Well anyway... after I was done and on my way out I heard someone trying to open the door really hard which really didn't make me upset but I screamed out, "IT SAYS CLOSED FOR A DAMN REASON!" thinking it was my classmates who we all joke with each other all the time. I wasn't being serious of course, but if you hadn't known you would have thought I was having a REALLY bad day. Low and behold, I open the door and guess who's standing in front of me doing the pee-dance.

Yeah...

She kind of looked at me like I was special in someway then started laughing. Rolled her eyes and whispered, "It's okay."

I was SOOOOO embarrassed. When I got in the class I could not stop laughing lol. All my classmates looked at me like I had just kicked a puppy. It was priceless. I'm just lucky she has a good sense of humor lol. :stone

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