Black Humour

[Tenebrae]

That sort of humour that seems completely funny when shared with your colleagues, you know though if an outsider was to hear it they would be completely scandalised/offended

Its happened before when I've worked with palliative patients, this queen song keeps running through my head.

We've had two palliative patients who passed today and I've had to keep giving myself some mental slaps every time I start humming it.

Anyone else find they have a black sense of humour?

[ixchel]

If you can agree that patients should never be judged for the way the process grief and mourning, then perhaps you can stop you'd judgment of how nurses do. I have a dark, rude, and crass sense of humor. My patients and their families will never, ever see that part of me. If I didn't find humor in terrible things, this job would destroy my will to live. I feel things way too deeply any have a horrible talent for counter-transference.

I make absolutely no apologies for the terrible things I might find humor in and really think it's appalling that nurses judge other nurses for their coping mechanisms.

[CamillusRN, BSN]

I had the very lucky experience to help take care of the body of a toddler who was brain dead and was getting ready to have their organs donated. It was a rough night on the PICU I was assigned to (this toddler wasn't the only child who had died that night and it was overall just a big clusterfugazee of a night, I guess) and all the nurses had been singing praises of the doc who had lead them through that hellish night. He had gone off to sleep and returned about 4 hours later, as rested as could be, to do his rounds. He popped into our room and asked the nurse I was precepting with, "How's everything going?" and, without missing a beat, "Besides the pt being dead."

.......................

.......................

HAH!

I wanted to freaking die laughing but I just smiled, my nurse laughed and it helped lighten an otherwise dark day. So, yes, even as a student, I know the dark side of my sense of humor is rapidly developing. You need to laugh. It isn't unprofessional. You would drown in your own tears if you didn't laugh about this. The universe is a giant practical joke. Just laugh.

Oh my - I have a hard time even with teens. Takes a very special person to deal with a dying/dead toddler. Kudos, my friend - stay strong.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

That song that the OP posted-- I have not read through to see if anyone shared this yet-- but when I first learned CPR, this was taught to us as the song to use in our heads when doing compressions. It's the perfect rate and beat.

[Farawyn]

I have no sense of humor.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Unapologetic sick sense of humor here. If there is a topic that's off-limits, I haven't found it yet.

People cope in a lot of ways. Gallows humor beats the hell out of going home, getting hammered, and kicking the dog/children every night.

(I don't usually play the nurse card when seeing a doctor, but in this case it felt appropriate....)

I accidentally got a knife impaled in my arm a few years ago - that's a polite way of saying I accidentally stabbed myself. Should've used scissors to cut a plastic tie off a baby gate we'd bought, instead used the knife that was closest by. It slipped and my kitchen knife ended up about 3 inches into my LFA. Blood is pouring out of my arm, dripping all over my kitchen and livingroom while I find something clean and absorbent to put on it. My newly mobile toddler is fingerpainting in the blood all over my kitchen, meanwhile I'm trying to keep him out of the mess, call my husband to come home from work, and not bleed anywhere else.

A trip to the ER and several stitches later, the very nice ER doc happened to see that I was on Zoloft for postpartum depression (very bad postpartum depression, I might add). He did his job and asked me if I had intentionally tried to hurt myself. My response: "Sir, I am a nurse. If I am going to off myself, I will do it right. This [pointing to my cephalic vein] will not be my vessel of choice." He roared laughing. Was my joke inappropriate? Probably. Did it bother me that my doctor laughed too? Absolutely not. It got us both through the day, and I got a chance to flip the bird at the illness that had at one point nearly cost me both my job and my life.

[ixchel]

I have no sense of humor.

Good thing Ralphie doesn't get his mouth soaped for lies.

[CamillusRN, BSN]

I have no sense of humor.

Haha! I just read your post in another thread about naming a hemorrhoid - had to come back to this one and see if it was the same person!

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Worked in fresh spinal cord unit, 4 bed ward-room. The guys were talking about the possibility of having their memberes transplanted above their level of injury in order to be able to continue to have sex. Fourth of the four guys, a quadraplegic among the other three who were paraplegics, had been quiet, taking it all in, and then he whined, "Aww, hell, I'd have to wear a bow-tie all the time!" A momentary pause of complete silence was followed by howling laughter; we were all in a state of hysterics., and it took us thirty minutes to finally stop laughing.

Once someone made an observation to me, "You never talk about your father."

Me: "No, I guess I don't."

Other: "Well, why not? What does he do?"

Me: (shrugging)"He doesn't do anything."

Other: "Why not?

Me: (eyebrows raised)"Because he's dead!"

As soon as that came out of my mouth it struck me as extremely funny and I laughed, and laughed even harder at the perplexed expression of horror on the other's persons face.

I STILL think it's funny.

[CamillusRN, BSN]

Poop - I realize that this is about death but dark humor rises in me over poop. We had a patient on tube feeds - literally looked like a murder scene - he outlined himself on the bed in liquid feces. The more I wiped the harder I laughed. (in my head of course), A few giggles snuck out when the guards that were with him (he was a prisoner and unresponsive anyway) started making comments.

Dunno if you're a fan of this guy, but I love this parody . . . about poop!

[Nonyvole, BSN, RN]

Once I heard that the song "Stayin Alive" was the correct rate for chest compressions, I always hear it in the back of my head during codes. And naturally, the vast majority of the codes don't make it!

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

For NRP (neonatal resuscitation), our chest compression/ventilation ratio is 3:1.

We learned the rhythm as "BREATHE-please-don't-die-BREATHE-please-don't-die..."

[0.adamantite]

One time a coworker and I were doing post mortem care on a patient that had died in a not so pleasant way. Think fluids oozing out of orifices. Family wailing all around the room. Very tense and tragic situation. They wanted to be present during the post mortem care but when the time came to bag up the body we asked them leave and we shut the curtain and closed the door.

Then something very simple happened during the final cares (don't want to give any details) and me and her just started cracking up in laughter. It was like weird, nervous laughter that we both needed to get out after this horrible event. It made me feel a camaraderie with her. It also allowed me to go on with the rest of my busy day instead of letting this awful situation linger. We needed to get it out instead of internalizing this awful event. I think we need to do this to protect our mental health.