Most embarrasing moment as a nurse/ma/cna

kellyo, LPN · Aug 6, 2006

While working as a tech, I was starting my glucose checks on the am shift. I had not yet received report on this group of patients, as the nurse was on the phone. I strolled on into the room and saw a kindly older gentleman in the bed. I looked over to the side of the room, and there were two nicely-dressed, nicely-built (large and broad shouldered) younger gentlemen. This was a Sunday morning, so it's not unusual to see people dressed up, as they visit family before or after they go to church. The two men actually resembled the gentlemen in the bed.

Now comes the part where I should keep my mouth shut and do my job. I say good morning to the patient and to the young gentlemen. And then ASSUMING that these two are the patient's sons or grandsons I say something like "wow, it's nice to have such strong young men around to make you feel secure". Then I draw back the man's sheet and realize he's SHACKLED to the bed! He was a prisoner for goodness sake, and the nice large boys are the corrections officers! They usually wear a uniform, but for some reason, they were wearing plain clothes. I felt so embarrassed!!!

SaraO'Hara · Aug 7, 2006

Oh, where shall I start?

1. Res. pulled the "but I'm ambulatory!" trick on me. Needless to say she's not, and the out-of-date care plan didn't tell me this... Attempted to assist her to the bathroom; she slid to the floor, luckily, uninjured. Yipes :uhoh3:

2. Traded showers with another CNA (his wanted a female). I shower his res; lunchtime comes around, and my resident's family comes to visit. It seems that my co-worker hasn't kept up his end of the deal. I was screamed at to the tune of "YOU GIVE MY MOTHER A SHOWER RIGHT NOW!!!," no buts or explanations. After I put her back to bed... her son starts giving her a bed bath, like it wasn't good enough. I cried.

3. Entered a res. room to wake them up for breakfast. Apparently he likes to sleep with the sheets over his head - but his breathing wasn't discernible. Thinking I had a death first thing in the morning, I carefully pulled the sheets down to make sure - and the man sits up like a jack-in-the-box. I shriek and almost catch my feet in his cath drainage tubing.

4. Got feces, urine, axel grease, and red Popsicle juice on my uniform, all on the same shift. Was to be seen sitting in the nurses' station, grimly scrubbing at the body fluids with alcohol prep pads.

moodyhotrod · Aug 7, 2006

I was a student nurse in clinicals. We got to observe a peg tube insertion in a trauma ICU room. The room was small, with lots of machines and 2 nurses, a doctor and 2 student nurses. The patient was not sadated enough and they were having trouble inserting the tube. I was getting tired of standing and trying to stay out of the way, so I leaned back on the sink behind me. All of the sudden we heard a flush. The doctor looked up and everyone looked at me. I had leaned on the button to flush the toilet that was in the corner. The doctor was not amused, everyone else laughed. I was bright red but thought it was kindof funny. It kindof lightened up the mood anyway. :devil:

Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2006

Whipping out my kinda rusty spanish on a REALLY cute RN as a second-term student, I wasn't busy, so I asked her "que me quieres hacer?"
Which I thought meant "what do you want me to do?"... she started cracking up and said that the way I mixed up the words I actually asked her "what do you want me to do to you?"
Smooooooooth. God, I turned red.
For any spanish speakers out there, you may enjoy the time I ordered "cabrones" instead of camarones in a restaurant, too. I'm always doing stuff like that.

ouch..... :uhoh3:

Don't feel bad, my spanish isn't much better.

rach_nc_03 · Aug 11, 2006

Was working as a CNA in a neuro ICU. We had 'quiet time' for two hours every day- theory was that the patients needed a period where lights were off and nurses and docs weren't traipsing in and out, that it would aid in recovery.

We had a patient- a very sweet old man s/p CVA and with mild dementia- who was delighted he was able to sit in a chair for the first time in months. He'd just gotten to his chair right before quiet time started, and asked if we'd let him sit in it through the 2 hour period (ususally everyone had to be in bed during that time). The nurse agreed, and she and I sat down at the nurses' station just across from his room so we could keep an eye on him.

So, the lights were off in his room, and dimmed in the halls. He started shifting around in his chair, then yelling for our help. We scurried over and realized he'd had a tremendously smelly BM. Remember, it was fairly dark. As I reached over to turn on the light, he started to try to stand up. The nurse and I each grabbed an arm to steady him (he was confused + strong, a bad combination)...but he had some momentum going, and took a step forward....then his foot slipped on a big puddle of theretofore-unseen liquipoo.

The good news is, we were able to maneuver him back to his chair so he plopped down in *it* instead of the floor.

The bad news is that the chair was FULL of said liquipoo.

The effect was similar to doing a cannonball into a pool. I was covered in it- literally- from shoulders to knees. The nurse and I looked at each other and just cracked up- I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face.

The best part is that the patient totally cracked up, too. :chuckle

RebeccaJeanRN · Aug 11, 2006

So many embarrassing moments as a nursing student...I remember when I had to give heparin shot once to a patient. I looked at the needle and couldn't figure it out. It was the new fangled safety kind (the kind where the needle automatically retracks into the clear plastic syringe via a spring). Well no cap was on it. All I could see was a grey tip that looked like the rubber condom kind of tip that the needle would come out of and retract back into. So I swabbed her leg and pressed it against her and shot it. It was a wonderfully smooth event, and I saw the needle spring right back into the clear plastic shaft. I loved it. Thought it was a kewl design afterall. Especially when the patient jumped up and exclaimed that I was the best 'nurse' she ever had- she didn't feel a thing! Then I saw all the clear liquid running out and realized that I gave her the shot with the cap on. Gulp- that grey 'tip' was a cap!!! Imagine my embarrassment as I explained to her (and the RN I was working with) that she would probably feel the real shot when her new 'nurse' could figure out just how to give it...

Rivals the time when I left the G-tube valve on 'off' and pushed the patients' benadryl into it and shot it back all over myself. nothing like the subtle purple color of Benedryl all over a solid light pastel uniform...learn to keep an extra set of scrubs in the car for days like this. No reason to have to wear a Benedryl colored scarlet letter all day like I did...

I also learned the hard way the right and wrong way to ask a patient questions. I asked a patient once if he smoked and he said no. I wrote that down and when I was walking away, he said he just quit last week after smoking for 45 years. I forgot to ask if he EVER smoked. Same thing when I asked a patient 'how much' he drank. He said just a little. Being a newbie student, I stopped there. But then I remembered my smoking experience, so I asked that important followup question: how much is very little? He said 'oh...only a case or so of beer a day'. Remember new nurses, that which you don't ask, WILL come back to bite you!

Just remember, nobody ever died from embarrassment, even if they wished they did, and...That which doesn't kill us, makes us stronger.

Pheebz777, BSN, RN · Aug 11, 2006

I guess mine had to be the time I played a practical joke on some co-workers. I mashed a brownie in a diaper (a clean one of course!) to make it look like poop. Brown stains and everything. So with a brownie laiden diaper in my hand in full view, I went up to them and told them that I saw some worm like critters and asked them if they can verify this with me. They looked at me with disgust but took a good look at the diaper anyway. They told me they couldn't see anything and one of them made a comment, "that's weird it doesn't smell that bad either."

I replied, "Really? I thought I was the only one that couldn't smell anything as well." Hmmm.. I wonder how it must taste?" Then all of a sudden I took a big bite out of it and started chewing it.

"Mmmm!! This is some pretty good s---!" I replied. They all held their breath for a while, eyes gaping, and jaws dropping. One of them almost barfed and said, "That's gotta be a brownie or something!".

All of a sudden my mom shows up from behind bringing me my supper (she couldn't cook that night since the stove was busted during the day). She saw me eating what she thought was poop in diaper and said, "Phoebe, I know sometimes you don't like my cooking but dam!! I didn't know it's been that bad!"

I turned beef red just trying to explain the whole thing to everyone!

TheOneWithGlasses · Aug 13, 2006

One night at the end of the shift I needed to empty a catheter bag. I was in a hurry because I was running behind and still had several other patients to check, so I hurried into the room, gloved up, grabbed the graduate out of the nightstand, yanked it out of its privacy bag, and hurried into the bathroom. I was actually standing in front of the toilet before I realized that I'd forgotten to actually empty the catheter into the graduate. And of course the (fully alert) resident had woke up and saw the whole thing.

Trauma_Team_1 · Aug 14, 2006

I had a female PT grab my butt once as i was bending over to adjust the bed rails....she then asked if i was free after she was DC lol

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

Okay...well I was a rather new agency nurse at this facility. And I had known many of the MD's, but not all.
I had to page this one MD for a high glucose level on a pt outside the range of prescribed tx. I called and had him paged to my phone and it never rang. SO I paged again...
Needless to say the MD's and RN's around the desk (tons of them) knew that particular MD was right next to me. LOL! So he told them to shhhhh and watch!
So he went to another phone on the opposite side of the RN desk and called me back. He answered, and I did my typical hello Dr. Soinso, and on the the probelm. He then told me "okay first thing I want you to do is really important so read it back to me okay? Turn to your left!" So I did very perplexed and there he was waving at me! The whole desk busted up laughing so hard and I was too...and red faced!
The worse thing..I kept talking on the phone to him! LOL!!!!!!!!!! He said.."okay number two...put the phone down and come here". Oh man!!!!!! LOL!!!!!! I was sooooooooooo embarrest, but since I have a sence of humor like this I loved it!!!!!!!
Believe me, I know him now! LOL!!!!!!!!!

Lol, that's a riot! :lol2:

I had a recent similar experience when I accidentally dialed my own unit instead of another dialysis unit across town. Of course, my call rang right next to me. The the nearby sec'y saw I was already on the phone and answered it. We got a good laugh out of it.