Halloween at Work

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

what is your most memorable halloween at work story?

i'll go first. i was working in ccu decades ago, and one of our cardiologists thought it would be fun to come to work in costume. the costume he chose was rather unfortunate -- he dressed up as the devil, complete with a set of red horns that would light up when you pressed the tie tac that came with them. it was still dark when he walked into a patient room, woke the patient and then pressed the magic tie tac. it was the "tombstone t's" that caught my attention . . .seems that he'd scared the patient so much he infarcted!

after the code, the cardiologist was kicking himself so thoroughly i did not feel compelled to point out what an idiot he was. the patient told me later that "i woke up, and i thought i'd died and gone to hell. i'm gonna get right with my maker!"

[Riseupandnurse]

Gosh, Ruby Vee, that is just terrible. I don't have anything like that to report. What I do remember, though, is that our hospital used to let the employees wear costumes for the day, until the Halloween all the lab techs dressed like vampires and terrorized the little children there to get their blood work done, not to mention some of the adults.

[psalm, RN]

I had my hysterectomy on Oct. 30th one year. The next day in my demerol fog, I couldn't understand why Elvira was on the TV in a coffin... or why my 2nd shift nurse was dressed in a red outfit complete with hood (Little Red Riding Hood). Third shift comes and a creature enters my room; wearing KISS makeup and hair, a silverly sack dress and red tights. I screamed "get out of my room!, go away!". She said, It's me, Darlene, your nurse from yesterday." I made such a fuss a mess of nurses came to the room and "proved" that Darlene was indeed the same night nurse I had the night before.

Moral of the story; dress up, have fun, but don't be anything scary!

[Tait, MSN, RN]

My kudos button is missing, but that is a great story, though not for the patient!

Tait