Embarrassing moments

[ixchel]

Alright newbies....

(And oldies, if you feel like sharing your faux pas....)

I'm in need of some fantastic laughs. What kind of stupid things have you done so far?

I had a discharge and saved the IV for last. After taking it out and applying pressure, then bandaging it, we proceeded toward the elevator. We got on, where there was another nurse, and we all made chit chat together. Lo and behold, the patient had apparently swapped hands that their stuff was in, and sprung a gigantic bloody mess. (I don't mean "bloody" like the Brits mean "bloody".)

We (the other nurse and I) were scrambling to figure out what to do as this person bled on themself, their stuff, and the floor. It's not like gloves and gauze are in the elevator just waiting for stuff like this. We dug through the patient's belongings and found a box of tissues, controlled the bleeding, and the other nurse began working on the floor. Meanwhile, we were in an elevator, which is continually moving floor to floor until finally a nice person held it. I realized that actually was pointless, though, because the floor we were on was not a floor that could help us.

I needed to get to my floor where I knew where to find a phone for housekeeping, and bandages and a sink to clean up this patient. So we go to my floor, the door opens, and there staring at us in bewilderment is the unit secretary, 2 nurses, the chief nursing officer/assistant CEO, a case manager, and two people from housekeeping. We apparently left a trail to the elevator and they'd been waiting for it to come back.

I got it all fixed, walked the patient down, and as I was walking back to the unit, I passed the CNO, who saw my incredibly red face and we had a fantastic laugh together. I think if we didn't have such amazing leadership, that would have gone quite differently! Thank goodness for people who have a sense of humor!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Look for the thread called epic nursing fails. It'll keep you busy laughing for a few hours or more.

[No Stars In My Eyes]

Funny at the time: Someone had given a vegetative patient colite (go-lightly was what we always called it) via NG tube as a prep for the procedure to be done the next day. When the nurse went back to check on the patient a few minutes later, it had all run in.......so she hung the second bottle. Soon it was in the process of starting to have some spectacular results. Well, the first time she managed to get the patient cleaned up.....until she rolled the patient over onto clean sheets. Then she had to call for help. Several of us went in the room to assist and the feces was just pouring out of the patient so fast it was literally cascading off the sides of the bed.

I calmly proceeded to roll up my pants legs, put a hospital gown over my uniform,and then fit a pair of large gloves over the front of my shoes, then double-gloved. Everyone looked at me with silence and open mouths; then the laughter started and kept going and going, just like the poor patient. Fortunately, visiting hours were over because we were really quite beside ourselves; it was all so ridiculous because the other nurses decided I'd had the right idea and were similarly geared up and ready for business.

And then the Supervisor walked in and we lost it all over again. After taking it all in she said, "Seems sensible to me, but try to keep it down a little better, okay?" And left the room. We had tears running down our faces and our stomachs and cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. What an evening THAT was!

[Uncle Rico]

Referring to a Intraosseous (IO) as a Groshong infront of the physician

[ixchel]

Funny at the time: Someone had given a vegetative patient colite (go-lightly was what we always called it) via NG tube as a prep for the procedure to be done the next day. When the nurse went back to check on the patient a few minutes later, it had all run in.......so she hung the second bottle. Soon it was in the process of starting to have some spectacular results. Well, the first time she managed to get the patient cleaned up.....until she rolled the patient over onto clean sheets. Then she had to call for help. Several of us went in the room to assist and the feces was just pouring out of the patient so fast it was literally cascading off the sides of the bed.

I calmly proceeded to roll up my pants legs, put a hospital gown over my uniform,and then fit a pair of large gloves over the front of my shoes, then double-gloved. Everyone looked at me with silence and open mouths; then the laughter started and kept going and going, just like the poor patient. Fortunately, visiting hours were over because we were really quite beside ourselves; it was all so ridiculous because the other nurses decided I'd had the right idea and were similarly geared up and ready for business.

And then the Supervisor walked in and we lost it all over again. After taking it all in she said, "Seems sensible to me, but try to keep it down a little better, okay?" And left the room. We had tears running down our faces and our stomachs and cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. What an evening THAT was!

Ewwwwww!!!!!

Referring to a Intraosseous (IO) as a Groshong infront of the physician

Forgive me... What is a Groshong?

[unicoRNurse]

I second the "epic nursing fails" thread on the nursing humor board.