Most embarrasing moment as a nurse/ma/cna

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Anybody have silly/embarrasing stories to tell? please share!!!

Specializes in Assisted Living Nurse Manager.
Was inserting a foley catheter into MY CHILDS PEDIATRICIAN'S WIFE with said doctor in the room. Had just eaten a piece of chocolate that made my mouth water. Was a somewhat difficult insertion due to a combination of her anatomy and heavy vag bleeding- was concentrating so much that I drooled all over her leg.

OMG!!!! You guys are killing me with laughter!!!!!:rotfl: :roll

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Or better yet... How about the time I twisted my ankle wearing my Danskos? While attempting to remain upright, I danced my way across the room, only to land in a heap at my patient's feet. How graceful!

Oh, and did I mention that the room (pre-op/post-op/day surgery) was FULL of patients, their families, nurses, and doctors?

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Specializes in Nursing assistant.

I was doing an intermittent cath in home health, and my patient's Lab was behind me sleeping away quietly on the floor, I backed up, fell over the dog (who just wagged his tail, didn't budge) ending feet up on my back, and the lady was saying "where did you go? where did you go?"

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

This was as a student...week before last actually! I was opening a Foley package in the OR and I opened it upside down and dumped everything on the floor. OOPS! The room was full of impatient MDs, too!

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Specializes in LDRP.

OK, here's one.

Pt was to receive a unit of PRBC. I had the bag spiked, bag was starting to infuse, blah blah. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, the stupid machine was being wonky. Kept saying occlusion. So i decided to get a new tubing set and start over.

NA came in the room to empty pt's Blake's. Asked if i'd ever spilled blood on myself. Told me how once she dumped a Blake all over herself.

I continue on. I unspiked the blood bag, discarding of the old tubing. Keep holding bag upside down. Get new tubing ready. As is habit, before spiking blood bag, i unpeeled the port cover off the spike hole. I spiked it with the new tubing. No big deal. All as habit.

Then I went to hang the bag of blood back on the IV pole.

WHOOSH! THe blood poured all over me and my white scrub top. When i went to spike the bag with the new tubing, I forgot about the hole from where I unspiked the first tubing from the bag.

Yeah, right after i was saying i'd never spilled blood on me. It was like, half a unit of blood too. On me, on the pt's nice nightgown, on the IV pump, on the floor, on the bed rail. It looked like we slaughtered a pig.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Geez, felt like a fool, and I apologized, then I lied to her!!

I told her "Well, I didn't THINK you looked old enough to be his mother, but I thought someone said his mom was in the room."

I'm so ashamed.

Nice save!!!!!!!

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OK, here's one.

Pt was to receive a unit of PRBC. I had the bag spiked, bag was starting to infuse, blah blah. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, the stupid machine was being wonky. Kept saying occlusion. So i decided to get a new tubing set and start over.

NA came in the room to empty pt's Blake's. Asked if i'd ever spilled blood on myself. Told me how once she dumped a Blake all over herself.

I continue on. I unspiked the blood bag, discarding of the old tubing. Keep holding bag upside down. Get new tubing ready. As is habit, before spiking blood bag, i unpeeled the port cover off the spike hole. I spiked it with the new tubing. No big deal. All as habit.

Then I went to hang the bag of blood back on the IV pole.

WHOOSH! THe blood poured all over me and my white scrub top. When i went to spike the bag with the new tubing, I forgot about the hole from where I unspiked the first tubing from the bag.

Yeah, right after i was saying i'd never spilled blood on me. It was like, half a unit of blood too. On me, on the pt's nice nightgown, on the IV pump, on the floor, on the bed rail. It looked like we slaughtered a pig.

All I can see is Carrie during prom night! :lol2: :lol2:

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Specializes in Registry, all over the place.

During first day of clinicals at an LTC, I offered to help a classmates patient to the bathroom when she was called of by the instructor. The patient said she didn't need any help, but to stand next to her in the bathroom as there were no hand rails. I went in the bathroom first, she wheeled in the bathroom after, attempting to push her self out of her wheelchair, she passed out, and had a large BM in her brief that came out over the top of the brief! Being my first day, I was almost clueless but I managed to check for signs of life, and was calling for help but no one was coming. No call lights in the bathroom either! The chair was huge, took up the whole space, she was a heavy woman and the chair wouldn't budge. I stood there for about a minute and I made up my mind to climb over the patient and her chair, the other student comes back with the CNA and a Howyer(?) lift who says "oh, she uses that trick on all students, she's not ambulatory!"

Thanks as I clean the poop off the chair. Lesson... never get between the wheelchair and the exit unless absolutely neccesary.

More recently, a dementia patient in a psych hospital came to me and I figured out she had to use the bathroom. Her room was in the nurse's station and as I was walking her through, she ran to the MD's office, sat on his trash can and went. The Charge was watching the whole thing and says "leave her." He had a nice surprise in the morning as her present sat through the PM and night shift. Lesson, MD's should be nice to nurses!

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I had a self-care patient on the BSC. When she finished, I assisted her to the sink so she could do her ADLs. She was able to stand & walk fine on her own, so I took the bucket out of the BSC to empty it in the bathroom. However, since she often got SOB, I left the BSC near the sink, next to her, in case she needed to sit down before I got back in the room.

She did. Need to sit down, that is. And she DID. Thinking the bucket was there, she relieved herself again - all over the floor. She was quite unfazed, but I was embarassed. I THOUGHT I had made it clear I was taking the bucket. Needless to say, that won't happen to me again!

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Specializes in starting pn school this fall!!.

a couple of years ago i was helping another cna change an incont. pt, i rolled the man onto his side so he was facing me, all of a sudden he started peeing, it went all down my leg! good thing it was the end of my shift and i had extra clothes in my car :smackingf. the nurse i was working with felt horrible as it was her grandfather! she kept telling me how sorry she was.

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Specializes in starting pn school this fall!!.
;) oops...posted same response twice...
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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

Where do I begin, there are so many!!! Helped really large pt with TKR to bathroom, on her way back to bed she was trailing longggg piece of toilet paper, and I had to tell her. Fortunately she had a great sense of humor and we had a good laugh.

Was admitting "really cute guy" and looked down at the floor for something. My glasses fell off my nose onto the floor. I stooped down to pick them up, tripped and accidently stepped on them and broke them in half.

Stopped by my friends house on my way to work one night and locked my van with the keys in it. Tried driver and passenger door and both locked so called police to come and open it. He was having trouble getting it open and I walked to the back of van and lo and behold back door was open. Before I realized what I was doing I locked and closed it because I am paranoid about keeping car doors locked. My friend and the cop where laughing their guts out. Cop couldn't open it so I had to take my friends car to work so I wouldn't be late.

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