I am an RN in my mid-forties. Recently, I was working in our facility's long term memory care unit. One of our residents, a salty little lady of 92, noticed my wedding ring on my finger and stated, "Oh, you got a new piece of jewelry!", to which I replied, "Oh, no, it's not new. I've had it since 1988." She looked up at me with a look that was 50% shock and 50% disgust and proclaimed, "You're OLD!!!"
That made my day. Do any of you have any funny moments you would like to share? I would love to hear some of them.
I don't work in LTC, but we have on occasion residents from nursing homes for an ORIF of a hip or similar things. One such lady was becoming agitated and shouting her home caregiver's name, we'll call her "Sally." She wanted to look for her, so her nurse decided to ambulate the halls in order to calm her. She kept shouting, "Sally," and looking in rooms. When she started to enter one room, the aid said, "You can't go in there, there's a man sleeping in there.". She stared at the aid for a second and said, "humph, Sally looks like a man."
One time I was working on a Med/Surg inpatient unit in a hospital a few months after having our son. I was not exactly in pre-pregnancy shape, and my belly needed some work. Anyway, I was at a patient's bedside hanging an IV when she asked me in a pleasant, conversational tone when my baby was due. I told her as gently as possible that I wasn't actually expecting, just fat. She turned three shades of red and began to try to undo the damage by saying things like, "Oh, I was thinking of that one other nurse, the one who's pregnant" (no one on our unit was at the time) and, "Oh, it's kind of dark in here, now I can see that you're not expecting at all!" Poor lady, I just laughed about it and vowed to lose the post-pregnancy weight ASAP!
Oh man, I used to work LTC at the VA . . . one guy in there was always giving me the what for. One day the aide that was in this room with me was a Filipina girl, tall and skinny. The resident asked me "What are you anyway? Hawaiin? You can't be be Filipina, you're too fat!". I busted out laughing and said " ______ , you're probably right.". The aide was so embarrassed and she kept telling the resident "you can't say that." He promptly told her " I'm 76 years old, I can say what the h* ll I want."
A resident who slips inbetween lucidity and dementia.. was in her dementia mode and really agitated. She was screaming and taking off her shirt. in the hallway. While administrative big wigs were visiting. (and they weren't good looking either so I have no clue why she was taking off her shirt..she just does that sometimes). I grab a blanket and put it over her so shes not exposed and I say to her, "Mary there's men coming down the hallway you have to put your shirt back on."
"I don't care about the men! They can look for all I care!"
Overheard while I was helping feed one of my residents.
Sylvia: What the hell is taking so long, I am ready for bed.
Ingrid: My girl said she would help us in a few minutes.
Sylvia: @$%#$^% I want some water out of that toilet.
Ingrid: What for?
Sylvia: You will see.
Ingrid: You are not going to give my girl toilet water, I will tell on you and then we won't be friends.
Sylvia: That's okay.
I stopped laughing long enough to ask Sylvia if she was conspiring against me.
Me: Let's go for a little walk.
Fred: Where are you taking me?
Me: To the bathroom to change your brief and wash your hands for dinner.
Fred: I'm good.
Me: I know you are but I think you've had a BM. (Whispered in his ear)
Fred: Well I don't know who put it there because I sure as hell didn't $&%# in my pants.
Me: I'll find out who did it for you and tell them not to do it again.
Fred: Thank you honey.
My sweet Fred has a tendency to get combative. One evening he was going to paddle his kids "butts" as they weren't behaving. The kids he was referring to were two of the other residents. I attempted to redirect Fred but he wasn't having it. So I turned on the radio and started dancing to Elvis. Fred went from mad as hell to laughing so hard that he cried. Yes my dancing is that awful.
Names changed to protect the innocent, and not so innocent.
Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
We had a woman who was always looking for her baby. She would become very upset if she couldn't find her baby. There was another woman on the other hall who also loved babies. She had 2 very life like baby dolls we gave her to hold. One day the first woman was screaming about finding the baby. I didn't want to medicate her since she was such a fall risk. So off I went to find one of the babies. I cleaned it, dressed it in a little blue suit, wrapped it up and brought it into her room. "Here's your baby" I said. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at the baby and then said, "Honey, call the doctor. This kid's skin feels like rubber."! I didn't live that one down for months!
We had a woman who was always looking for her baby. She would become very upset if she couldn't find her baby. There was another woman on the other hall who also loved babies. She had 2 very life like baby dolls we gave her to hold. One day the first woman was screaming about finding the baby. I didn't want to medicate her since she was such a fall risk. So off I went to find one of the babies. I cleaned it, dressed it in a little blue suit, wrapped it up and brought it into her room. "Here's your baby" I said. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at the baby and then said, "Honey, call the doctor. This kid's skin feels like rubber."! I didn't live that one down for months!
The little old ladies love the babies.This one lady in her last weeks was shouting and yelling and no matter what we did or gave her she was so violent. So I went up to her. I put my arm around her and said.. 'Shhhh I just put the babies down to sleep for the night. They are sleeping in that room over there. You don't want to wake up the babies do you?" She gave me this very apologetic look and actually was quiet for about 15 minutes. Then forgot that the babies were sleeping.
Another lady had a baby doll on her wheelchair. I showed her the baby..and she said, "Awwww hes cute." I put it in the bed with her and she was holding it like it was her baby. I went to go turn out the light and she said, "Listen, call the doctor and tell him to let the kids come in and see the baby."
I have a good one, I was helping a LTC patient along with a nurse assistant who was at the foot of the pts' bed and out of nowhere, the patient asked " who's that man" referring to the nurse assistant who happened to be a woman in her mid forties:lol2:
I had a resident who constantly said "nurse, nurse, nurse, nurse". One day I said " Madge what do you need?" without missing a beat she said " A million dollars."
Five minutes later she returned to repeating "nurse"
We had a woman who was always looking for her baby. She would become very upset if she couldn't find her baby. There was another woman on the other hall who also loved babies. She had 2 very life like baby dolls we gave her to hold. One day the first woman was screaming about finding the baby. I didn't want to medicate her since she was such a fall risk. So off I went to find one of the babies. I cleaned it, dressed it in a little blue suit, wrapped it up and brought it into her room. "Here's your baby" I said. She looked at it, looked at me, looked at the baby and then said, "Honey, call the doctor. This kid's skin feels like rubber."! I didn't live that one down for months!
Actually we buy dolls that were created for use as "doll therapy" for our Alzheimer's patients, they feel and weigh and smell like the real thing, This really calms many of our patients (male and female). We dress them according to the seasons and this actually helps our patients know when it is winter and when it is summer.
Our only problem is that now they want to nurse the dear things, and we have to go around closing bras and shirts. Funny but none of the men have tried nursing yet....will keep my eyes open!
JeneraterRN
256 Posts
I don't work in LTC, but we have on occasion residents from nursing homes for an ORIF of a hip or similar things. One such lady was becoming agitated and shouting her home caregiver's name, we'll call her "Sally." She wanted to look for her, so her nurse decided to ambulate the halls in order to calm her. She kept shouting, "Sally," and looking in rooms. When she started to enter one room, the aid said, "You can't go in there, there's a man sleeping in there.". She stared at the aid for a second and said, "humph, Sally looks like a man."