Favorite Infirmary story?

[tining, BSN, RN]

Where are all of the camp nurses? Very quiet on this forum.

Let's get this started - what is your favorite infirmary story?

First summer for me, the camper came in 'stung by a bee and is allergic to be bites.' The lead nurse listened to her and said she heard wheezing (I don't know how with those $2 stethoscopes they had on hand) and MD said to give her the Epi. This was an old Epi Pen that had black on one end. Nurse injects epi pen into her own thumb - yeeeeeeoooooww - now MD and I are rushing her into the next room. MD takes care of her and I go back to camper, get another epi pen, carefully READ instructions and give camper injection. Camper and counselor were more worried about nurse than their own issue. I go back to nurse and they cannot remove the pen from her thumb (the needle had curled around after hitting the bone), a little jerk and it was out. Drama finished, camper fine, nurse still unnerved. Her thumb was still blanched the next day and she did not have full ROM. Personally I would have been mortified, but this nurse proceeds to tell everyone the tale. Ensuring the infirmary had the full confidence of the staff and campers. She returned the next year with a little song to remind people on how to inject Epi. "If they wheeze it's a breeze, give them black, they'll come back." The song was good for one season and then Epi changed to the orange ended pens. I will NEVER forget this!

[Shagce1]

I have never been a camp nurse as I am not even a real nurse yet, but I was a counselor many many years ago. Our camp ran 2 week overnight sessions. Our nurse liked to tell the story about the mom who dropped her kid off, explained that he had significant adhd but wanted him to be a normal kid at camp, so she decided to not send his meds. I guess the kid was a terror the whole 2 weeks at camp. On the last day at breakfast he filled the kid with every sugar filled thing he could just to get him that much more hyper so mom could deal with that the whole ride home. I don't know if it was a completely true story or not, but it was sure funny to listen to him tell it!