Mice on unit

[sistrmoon]

Anyone else have mice on your unit? What was done?

This past weekend, 2 mice were spotted at work again. One wriggling, its worm-like tail protruding, into the heating vent in the break room. This is not a new thing for the break room. After all, we had to replace our fridge due to a dead rat in the coils. But another was spotted in a patient care area, in the area where the most immunocompromised patients stay. It ran across the hallway. Were a family member to see that, can you imagine our customer satisfaction scores? Maybe they'd shut the unit down for a real poisoning. The Orkin man was paged by maintenance, but never responded. Bleh.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I would have killed it for you. I would have taken a shoe and beat the crap out of it!

Thanks! I can just feel their hairy little legs crawling all over me.

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

Many moons ago, when I was unfamiliar with crickets. I tried to neutralize them with hair spray.

I didn't know what else to do.........

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

Roaches. Everywhere. The ceiling, the floor. The walls. Crawling on patients beds. Over their feet. On the meal trays.

The horror of it all:wideyed:

I was traumatized for weeks.

I'm sure I could have qualified for combat pay.

No mice though.

[pookyp, LPN]

Roaches. Everywhere. The ceiling the floor. The walls. Crawling on patients beds. Over their feet. On the meal trays. The horror of it all:wideyed: I was traumatized for weeks. I'm sure I could have qualified for combat pay. No mice though.[/quote']

Oh. Emmm. Geeeee.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

Guess what we had today... Our bat was back! This time he came thru the vent in the bathroom while someone was in there! Yelling screaming ensued while she was trying to pull her pants up and run! I got the honor of catching Peeping Bat lol Yuck! The ID doc took him...things that make you go hmmm or eek!

[TheGooch]

Guess what we had today... Our bat was back! This time he came thru the vent in the bathroom while someone was in there! Yelling screaming ensued while she was trying to pull her pants up and run! I got the honor of catching Peeping Bat lol Yuck! The ID doc took him...things that make you go hmmm or eek!

Don't bats carry rabies?

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

They can, not all. We asked! We live by a Great Lake and they are all over...they eat the lake bugs and mosquitoes.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I was once walking down a MedSurg hallway at 2 AM & a raccoon dropped out of the ceiling right in front of me. Don't know which of us was more frightened. Luckily, it scurried away into a supply closet (where the maintenance guys trapped it) rather than a patient room. But - no, no mice or rats.... thank heavens

OMG! I would have had a heart attack.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

ah! a Scottish Highlander!

We had a skunk! THAT was a nightmare!

We cornered it in the bathroom and called the police. They weren't happy but they woke up animal control to get it out of the ED. That place stunk for WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!

I was once ion the trauma room with a trauma and I felt something brushing up against my legs. It was the most beautiful grey cat I have ever seen. We never found the owner but we did find it a good home. It just waltzed right in behind the ambulance.

I find they wander in more in the cold months.

A place I worked at in a rural area was known for their rare breed of cows getting out

I am a farm girl so they never bothered me....I worked nights and had the farmers number and we would call him to come and get them.

One morning I was leaving and one had cornered the CEO at his car. He was screaming like a little girl saying it was attacking him. That poor old cow was just looking at him like "WHAT is YOUR PROBLEM!". That CEO was such an arrogant donkey. I let him suffer...just a little.

Once I gained composure....I went over and smacked the cow on it's behind and told it "SHOO!" I told the CEO he was safe now...with his dignity in shreds he went inside. He never could look me in the eye again. I'm sure he thought I told everyone.

I never did....until I left that is.....

[poppycat, ADN, BSN]

When I was in nursing school we did some of our clinicals at a county facility that was mostly used as a nursing home. One morning my patient asked me to get her purse out of the bedside table for her. When I picked up the purse it started twitching. I handed it to my patient who proceeded to open it & out ran about 100 cockroaches & many, many field mice! I was frozen to the spot but she just started laughing!

The other really gross place I worked was a private duty case in absolutely the filthiest home I've ever seen. There were bugs (not really sure what kind) in the fridge, everywhere in the house, crawling on the patient (a baby) and in his crib. He had a trach & the parents were horrible about keeping a nose on when he wasn't on the vent. One night when I arrived for my shift, he was laying in his crib with no nose on & not on the vent and there were little bugs crawling around his stoma & up the trach! I got him all cleaned up & worked my shift but the next day I told the agency I would not go back to that house.

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

OMG at the bugs in the trach. That is one of the most horrific things I've ever heard. I thought the maggoty head wound we had was bad.

[annie.rn]

Wow! What crazy stories. I've enjoyed them all immensely.

I think raccoons are cute but I'd probably have a heart attack and make a fool out of myself while "acting the fool".

Esme, that cow is adorable. I'd like to be at work and get to see him out of the window. I might even take my break with him and vent about my shift. I'm sure he's a good listener.

Here's my own terrifying story of workplace pestilence that was told to me by my mother who was a nurse in a VA nursing home at the time. She had a pt. suffering from a neurological disease and was unable to move any part of his body. He could only blink. He could not close his mouth.

One day my mother noticed that he had the most terrified look on his face. Eyes were wide open and filled with terror. She tried to find out why but could not. After a bit, my mom happened to look over and see a cockroach crawl out of this poor man's mouth!!! My mother was in tears, she felt so terrible. She was livid b/c the staff had reported seeing

roaches before and nothing was being done about it. She handed out specimen cups to the more mobile patients and told them to catch any roaches they saw. She also had an able bodied person sit with the victim of this horrific event at all times to make sure no roaches ever went near him again.

I still remember that man. I was in Jr. High at the time. Whenever we'd stop by and see my mom, he'd have full sized giant Hershey bars for us that he'd buy at the canteen in the main hospital. If we didn't visited for a while he'd send things home with my mom to give to us :-)