This is the stupidest thing I have ever done.

Nurses General Nursing

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celticqueen

125 Posts

Specializes in medical with other stuff chucked in!.
I did something so stupid that it astounds me. I was working a third shift last night and decided to ride a soiled linen cart like superman, oh I hope no one from work hears about this. Well after about two feet on the linen cart one of the wheels snaps off, I roll of it and land in the floor with a linen cart on top of me. I went and got the housekeeping/laundry woman who takes it to the laundry room and puts a sign on the cart, basically "cart broke". The nurse and I quickly scrambled to make up the "truth". I am sore all over tonight. I attribute it to lack of sleep and temporary insanity brought on by listening to a resident screaming for her medicine for 10 hours, having one woman use her clip alarm as a call light despite the fact that her roomate has one too and has recently developed a bad habit of getting up and falling very hard (basically me running up and down the hall trying to keep roommate from falling only to find out she's too cold and wants the blanket pulled up. Plus I took one woman to the BSC about 20 times last night, she fights against you trying to position herself the way she wants and it just makes me crazy!!!!! Anyway, I am basically waiting for them to call me and tell me I am fired or that the "truth" didn't fly. It was made of PVC pipe, I guess they can fix it by going to the hardware store. I would even be willing to pay for the pipe it takes to fix it. It was PVC for goodness sakes, I should have known better than to think it would support me.

when i worked in a nursing home, we used to have wheelchair races along the corridor. Not very professional i must admit - but alot of fun. I'm just amazed no-one broke their necks.....................

You got to let off steam or you'll go mad :eek:

Emma

Tweety, BSN, RN

34,248 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

As I think I'm much older than you, let me be the bad guy and give you the lecture. While it may be "fun" horseplay can have dangerious consequences and you were very lucky you weren't seriously hurt. Don't do it again.

Sorry, but someone had to say it. (This is the position your higher ups is going to take, should they talk to you, but surely won't fire you.)

Now, let me try to get the image of you flying over a cart full of dirty linen out of my head. :rotfl:

Specializes in forensic psych, corrections.

Um, all I want to know is... when you fell, and the cart toppled over, did the soiled linen fall out of the cart and onto you?

The next time you want to do something crazy, ride around on the floor buffer, or something that's not a receptable for vomit and feces stained hospital linen.

(Trust me, the buffer is fun!)

stidget99

342 Posts

As I think I'm much older than you, let me be the bad guy and give you the lecture. While it may be "fun" horseplay can have dangerious consequences and you were very lucky you weren't seriously hurt. Don't do it again.

Sorry, but someone had to say it. (This is the position your higher ups is going to take, should they talk to you, but surely won't fire you.)

Call me a stick in the mud but I agree here. While we all need some insanity at times to relieve stress...doing so at the work place in such a manner was NOT a smart idea. The consequences could've been huge. Injury to yourself resulting in poor care for your residents or injury to someone else. Injury to yourself at work....there are worker's comp issues. (They would not pay, your insurance would not pay...you would be liable for any bills). Also, I disagree the the posters who state that "it's just PVC pipe" and "it was probably on it's last leg anyways". Bottom line, you destroyed property that was not yours to destroy. If I were one of the staff working that night, I would have personally written you up.

Fun can be had at work but not in the way you did. Believe it or not (which I am sure many posters won't believe me..), I am considered to be one of the "fun" ones at work. We get into squirt gun fights w/ previously used syringes that contained saline, we tell jokes, we pull practical jokes on each other (i.e. lube stethoscopes, tape up drink cans, etc), read the funny posts on here, etc. I've also provided a desk calendar w/ daily "funnies".

Horseplay should not be an accepted practice at work....EVER! There are too many things that could go wrong. And, IMO, those who engage in it should be disciplined, including you. However, I have read your previous posts and am in agreement that you strive to provide your residents the very best of care. Please don't jeopardize that care by doing something like this again ultimately ending up in you getting fired.

boulergirl, CNA

428 Posts

Specializes in Home care, assisted living.
Um, all I want to know is... when you fell, and the cart toppled over, did the soiled linen fall out of the cart and onto you?

Ewwwwwwwwwww............:no: :barf02: I'm sure you went home smelling to high heaven that day...

We don't have that kind of fun at my workplace...last time I did anything stupid was when I helped a couple of other women toilet-paper a friend's car and write on the windows with soap at 2:30 in the morning (this was at a hotel during a women's retreat). Upon returning to the hotel we found our panties and bras strewn out in the hallway and our beds short-sheeted. The instigator of our prank got her bra stolen and decorated with smiley faces. :uhoh21:

boulergirl, CNA

428 Posts

Specializes in Home care, assisted living.
Horseplay should not be an accepted practice at work....EVER! There are too many things that could go wrong.
When I worked in fast food some of the workers used to snap each other with wet dishtowels (usually the teenagers would do this). Then the boss gave us a memo stating that this would no longer be tolerated because snapping a towel could cause physical injury (to one's backside, I imagine...).

Jolie, BSN

6,375 Posts

Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Give yourself a break! We all need one once in awhile.

A length of PVC pipe sounds a whole lot better than the Hewlitt-Packard monitor I once dropped and watched shatter into pieces before my very eyes. believe it or not, my boss still liked me! :)

Chad_KY_SRNA

423 Posts

Let me describe the conditions on the unit that led up to my "incident". I had been on the unit for over 13 hours, I had been listening to one of my residents curse me out for about 8 hours because I wouldn't let her drink from another residents water pitcher, I have the woman who talked to me like a dog because she thinks that we don't like her and put her on thickened liquids to be mean to her, the one woman who had to pee 20 times, each time she had to go pee she pulled her clip alarm and I had to run down the hall each time because her roommate has begun having syncope and has had multiple falls in the last few days. I was so frazzled that I threatened to jump under a train on my lunch break if things didn't get better. Whoever decided to build a nursing home between a river and freight train tracks was a genius by the way. Not to mention the violent man that beats on us and tries to break our arms and twist our fingers off if we try to keep him from eloping who was talking about leaving. It was about 85 degrees and we aren't able to leave the windows open because they are about the right height to walk right out of. So I was more than a little stressed.

I am sorry that I destroyed facility property and yes I could have been killed. I promise to be better.

Specializes in forensic psych, corrections.

Um, wow, your place of employment sounds stressful... or was that just 'one of those' nights?

Lawnurse

129 Posts

The linen cart couldn't hold the weight of one person?I think it is foreseeable that a linen cart could be used to carry a load equal to the weight of one person. You could even argue that it was forseeable that a person would try to ride the cart. In that case, they're lucky you didn't get hurt. You wouldn't have climbed on it if you didn't in good faith believe it could hold your weight.

When was the last time that cart was checked for proper function?

Tell them they're lucky no one got hurt from their poor maintanence.

boulergirl, CNA

428 Posts

Specializes in Home care, assisted living.

Wowsers, Chad, your workplace makes our dementia unit sound like Disneyland! If I was in your shoes, I'd be chilling out with a rum and coke after work. :beer:

Specializes in forensic psych, corrections.
The linen cart couldn't hold the weight of one person?I think it is foreseeable that a linen cart could be used to carry a load equal to the weight of one person. You could even argue that it was forseeable that a person would try to ride the cart. In that case, they're lucky you didn't get hurt. You wouldn't have climbed on it if you didn't in good faith believe it could hold your weight.

When was the last time that cart was checked for proper function?

Tell them they're lucky no one got hurt from their poor maintanence.

Ok, how is it forseeable that a person would ride a linen cart? Is this common practice in facilities today? Sheesh.

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