Clumsiest moment?

AIS52 · Sep 21, 2002

The other night I hear a pt's o2 humidifier bottle back up, usually because water is in the o2 tubing or it has kinked and the oxygen needs to escape somewhere so it makes a whistling sound as goes.

Unfortunately I forgot this also increases airpressure inside the bottle so when I started unscrewing it from the flow meter, the water starting spraying in every direction- all over myself and all over the patient was a sound asleep! Since most people aren't used to being awoken by a fountain of cold water spraying on them, this guy was VERY startled and I was very soaked.

Luckily the next day he thought it was all a dream and I wasn't about to burst that bubble!

jemb · Sep 21, 2002

We have an invisible "speed bump" somewhere along the floor at our nurses' station. I say "somewhere" because I swear it keeps moving! I trip over it at least 5 times a week.

sjsap · Sep 21, 2002

Oh I am soooooo glad to hear tht there are other folks out there who are not as gracefull! I have been thinking I was an only! Once, when in the PACU, getting a patient out of bed to a recliner to move them to the phase 2 pacu- I had my stethescope around my neck. I stood behind the recliner and leaned over the back of it to "snap" a sheet flat to cover the plastic so the patient wouldn't feel cold when sitting up. the sheet caught my stethescope and flung the bell right up into my forehead! I saw stars and had this ugly red mark fight in the middle of my forehead for the rest of the day- not a pretty site! Good thing the patients get versed preop and don't remember the PACU nurse very well......... Another time, I was transporting a patient on a clinitron bed to the ICU after a successful code- and drove over my own foot when pulling the bed into the elevator- the doc who was pushing couldn't fit on the elevator with me and the bed so he just let the door close leaving me stuck there - yelling to the ICU staff when the door opened 3 floors up! I had been so nervous about being alone with the patient on the elevator that I lost track of how much my foot hurt(for a little while anyway) Enjoyed the stories- Love nursing more than ony other job!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 21, 2002

My co-workers call me "Stumbelina". In the past year alone, I've slipped on ice and torn my knee ligaments (earning me several weeks of physical therapy), sprained my wrist, and developed plantar fasciitis....in other words, I've spent most of the time in splints of one sort or another. It gets worse around my periods.....I don't have PMS, I just start dropping things, kicking over trashcans, trying to walk up walls etc. One night several years ago when I was working in the hospital, I managed to knock over a full urinal, then while the CNA and I were cleaning up the mess I turned around and sent a huge flower arrangement crashing to the floor!!! The worst part was getting the giggles....the aide and I both lost it, and we had this elderly patient chewing us out for waking him up, which only made things worse. We ended up having several pts complain about all the noise, and I almost got written up, but it was so FUNNY!!!

I also am notorious among my family members for destroying a bathroom within 5 minutes of getting up one morning. We lived in this tiny apartment at the time, and I was pregnant, which made me even klutzier than normal. When I shut the door, the shower curtain rod fell off the wall---BAM!---into the tub. I bumped my head on the shelf as I was retrieving it, which sent several knickknacks tumbling off onto the floor. Got all of that picked up (cutting several of my fingers in the process), then when I went to wash my hands, the faucet handle came off. Finally, when I finished what I'd actually gone in there to do, I flushed the john.....and the toilet erupted like a miniature volcano, dumping what must've been about a third of the city's water supply onto the floor!!!

It's good to know there's other people out there (besides my 20 YO daughter who can trip over dirt molecules) who are just as clumsy as I am. :uhoh3:

joyflnoyz, LPN · Sep 22, 2002

Daily, my jacket pockets catch on wheelchair handles.

One day I was sitting at the nurses station, and all of a sudden just slipped rght off the chair and onto the floor! Don't ask how, I have no idea...

luvbeinganurse · Sep 22, 2002

My worst was this week. I'm a home health nurse, was sitting in the office at the computer, updating the census, and didn't notice that the loose wiring from the computer had wrapped around my right foot. It was time to leave so I got up and started quickly to walk away from the computer to collect my things and BAM! I fell flat on my face in less than a second and had to lay there a minute to orient myself to what had happened. I started laughing so hard - it was very embarrassing! My supervisor wasn't sure why I was laying there rolling around on the floor - she thought I was looking for something, haha! Of course, then we all left late because I had to fill out an occurence report, she had to call the hospital employee health nurse, etc. Sheesh! My poor leg is so bruised and tender still.

night owl · Sep 22, 2002

Oh those dang scrub jackets catch on everything!! I'm always being jerked around by my own clothes mind you.

Once I missed the last two steps outside the main bldg at work and fell hitting the concrete sidewalk and shattered my left elbow. :imbar Had to have surgery and had pins, wires and screws put in. Another time I broke my finger by holding the stretcher while pushing it through the doorway. Slammed the stretcher against the door frame and my finger was in the way...oooooeeeeee :bluecry1: did I ever see stars...must have been #20 pain level. Once sitting in the HN's office I got up to leave and the wire to her phone on her desk was somehow tangled on my foot so when I got up to walk away, pulled her phone, and a bunch of other stuff onto the floor. :imbar And one time I needed an IV pole in a hurry. Saw one and for the life of me don't know what the heck I was thinking. Grabbed the pole and ran with it not realizing someone was using it???? I pulled out a pt's NGT! Everyone yelling, "Hey you're draggin a tube!" What? OMG! :eek: And the most clumsiet thing I ever done was sitting on one of those stupid chairs at the nurses station, you know the one where you lean on the back and it keeps going back? Well it went all the way back...down to the floor!!! Feet in the air, I was laughing so hard I couldn't get up...:stone :rotfl:

Gremlin · Sep 24, 2002

My name should be Grace (as in NOT so Graceful). When I was younger, my parents used to say they were going to buy stock in window company. This is because some part of my anatomy usually went through the window. Broke every, I mean EVERY window in the house. No injuries thank goodness. I can walk down the hallway and trip on nothing (could be those big feet I have - size 11). Worst hospital scenerio - Was working ER with a one other nurse (small hospital). We were the two most experienced nurses for IV (If we could not get - you were in trouble). Worked for over an hour trying to get IV on CHF pt. (she was a regular with no veins). Other nurse finally got with 24 gauge needle at the base of thumb. Walked away to get Lasix and Lab jacket caught the tubing and rip out came the IV. Other nurse would not talk to me the rest of the shift.

Oh, forgot this one - I used to wear tops that snapped up the front. USED TO! Was in a room with male pt. and male Dr. and caught edge of top on the stretcher. Rip. My shirt came all the way unbuttoned exposing my well endowed chest for all to see.

They laughed, I laughed. I got teased for providing a strip show.

Glad to know I'm not the only clumsy person out there. - Teresa

mario_ragucci · Sep 24, 2002

I have never had, and never will have, a clumsy moment in my vocation. I always am on the ball, and would never consider working in any other state. I don't think I can be clumsy,but I am hyper-alert, which can cause embarrassment.

Once, while cleaning up a BM for a quad PT, with a female nurse and female doctor present, the PT farted forcefully with BM projectile. They were there assessing wounds and acuity, and the PT burst out more BM while I was cleaning him up. I made a strange sound as my body jerked up like a puppet. We were all wearing protective gear because the PT was MRSA, but the Dr's and RN's eyes were bulging and wet after I reacted like that. It was then I learned PT's can make quite a boom when you turn them to their left side :-(

l.rae · Sep 24, 2002

Originally posted by night owl
[b:imbar And one time I needed an IV pole in a hurry. Saw one and for the life of me don't know what the heck I was thinking. Grabbed the pole and ran with it not realizing someone was using it???? I pulled out a pt's NGT! Everyone yelling, "Hey you're draggin a tube!" What? OMG! :
Michele....l laughed so hard l cried...(at both ends!) ..
the visual of this is hysterical!...Glad that pole wasn't attached to some poor old guys catheter.............. LR

l.rae · Sep 24, 2002

Originally posted by joyflnoyz
Daily, my jacket pockets catch on wheelchair handles.

Another good argument for nekkid nursing:roll

joyflnoyz, LPN · Sep 24, 2002

Yeah, and if I don't do my laundry tonight that's how I'm gonna go to work tomorrow!