Your most embarrassing experience with a patient

Nurses Relations

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I had a teenage male patient when I was in nursing school who I gave a specimen bottle to and asked him to give me a urine specimen. He urinated in the bottle while standing in front of me. I didn't expect his reaction, and I'm sure I had a red face when I left with his urine specimen in hand.

RobNRN said:
Hahaha wait wait did a doctor really take the time to place member implants for a critical patient on a vent?

I had a patient who got one of those and got a bad infection and never went home from the hospital, died in the ICU about 3 months postop. The saddest part was that his wife told us she told him he didn't have to do it for her, but he insisted. Never got to use it once.

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GrnTea said:
I had a patient who got one of those and got a bad infection and never went home from the hospital, died in the ICU about 3 months postop. The saddest part was that his wife told us she told him he didn't have to do it for her, but he insisted. Never got to use it once.

That's not fair at all.

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Specializes in Private Duty.

Was in the middle of a chaotic admission (kids had to put parents in LTC). It was so uncomfortable in the room you could cut the tension with a knife, so I cut the cheese. Everyone's crying, including me, and I guess on some pathophysiological level my guts decided to liven up a stressful scene.

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Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I was putting a tourniquet on a pt to start an IV and she kept insisting I tie it tighter. I attempted and the tourniquet broke. I ended up accidentally punching her in the face. I blurted out "Oh **** (starts with S)" . The pt on the other side of the curtain cracked up. I apologized to the pt, got a new tourniquet. Was able to place the IV in her finger (Old IVDA pt). Felt like an idiot. I still get teased about it. I just can't believe the stupid blue non latex tourniquet broke.

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Specializes in Emergency Department; Neonatal ICU.

With my very first patient in my very first clinical (I was never a tech or CNA so she was truly my first healthcare encounter), I could not figure out how to use the dynamap. It wouldn't work and kept beeping, even after I unplugged it. She was blind so she couldn't see me sweating bullets but I'm sure she could hear my rapid anxious breathing and the clatter I was making while messing with the machine! I kept thinking, it's vitals - how can I mess up vitals??? I did what I could manually but did not get a sat or temp. It was very embarrassing. I later learned that particular machine was broken (which is why it was free at 7:30 am on a med/surg floor).

1 Votes

I was making rounds one evening on a rehab floor and peeked in on a male pt. He was passed out cold (lots of pain meds), with a dirty movie on his phone still playing and his "instrument" in his hand. He didn't wake up thank god, but I high tailed it out of there trying not to laugh too loudly.

1 Votes
Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

I remember cathing a young male during his nocturnal emission; I told him that if he didn't wake up for the time and cathed himself, I was going to do it...

well....

I'm sure it was more embarrassing for him.

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Specializes in Clinical Documentation Specialist, LTC.
GrnTea said:
I had a patient who got one of those and got a bad infection and never went home from the hospital, died in the ICU about 3 months postop. The saddest part was that his wife told us she told him he didn't have to do it for her, but he insisted. Never got to use it once.

That is so sad

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

We will just say it involves a foley bag, a pts family member, the lights out and a bad case of gas.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Christy1019 said:
3 other nurses, respiratory therapist and myself trying to figure out how to deflate an inflated member pump/implant on a critical pt on a vent, who we were trying to put a Foley in (catheter wasn't long enough to reach the bladder with an erect member). We knew there was some sort of mechanism in the scrotum and we were all taking turns trying to find some "button" that Google said should exist. Finally, the one male nurse in the room tries and says "I think I got it! Now somebody grab the shaft and squeeze all the fluid out!" (The fluid fills implanted chambers causing the erection). Just then a family member opens the curtain and walks in to a male nurse grabbing their loved one's testicles, a respiratory therapist holding the member, and the rest of us standing around the bed watching and cheering that we've figured it out! Can you say awkward? Haha

Literally best.post.ever. that I've read in my four-some-odd years here. I can't stop laughing.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

"Was in the middle of a chaotic admission (kids had to put parents in LTC). It was so uncomfortable in the room you could cut the tension with a knife, so I cut the cheese. Everyone's crying, including me, and I guess on some pathophysiological level my guts decided to liven up a stressful scene."

I like you style and love your Kill Bill avatar...lol

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

How to choose, how to choose.

There are so many:yes:

The medical field provides opportunities to humiliate yourself, like no other.

So in the interest of maintaining my good mood, I will NOT remember things I want to forget.

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