What Is Your Most Gross, Yucky, Disgusting Nursing Horror Story?

Here is my most gross, yucky, disgusting nursing story! Nurses Humor Article

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I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.

We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.

So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!

I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.

As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...

My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.

Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.

As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)

And of course, now so did I! :D

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
When I did m OB rotation for nursing school, a classmate told of a client in labor who had come in with a house-arrest ankle bracelet on. Her partner/father of the baby also had one on his ankle. Obviously they had permission to come out of house arrest for the birth of the baby. Well, after baby was born it too got a security ankle bracelet as part of the security system. My friend thought they should all put their feet together for a family picture!!
:yeah::lol2::lol2::lol2::yeah:
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I'm still in nursing school but I had a good one last week. I'm sure I'll have more stories with time .. . . there was a pt in ER who had very decreased LOC and a fever. I put the suppository in, and diarrhea came back out all over my hand before I had the thing pushed in fully.

We had a pt. with hepatic encephalopathy who was also going through ETOH withdrawl. He was quite out of his mind and hallucinating, cursing, etc. He had reportedly not gone BM in a good long while and was given a stool softener during the night shift. Of course, I was there when he started to stool. Let me tell you it was foul. And of course in his confusion the poor guy was smearing it all over himself, his hair, the bed, and then us as we tried to get him cleaned up. I grabbed an isolation gown and mask from another pt's room and the CNA thought that was a great idea and did the same. So although we didn't come in contact with the poo directly, it was still a hard job. And sad.

And I still want to be a nurse. LOL!

When I was a nurse's aide many years ago, I worked in a nursing home where there were no gloves used to clean feces. And yes, I had many patients who I cleaned up. One particular confused one was covered head to toe very soon after I had changed his linens and gave him a full bed bath and changed his gown. I don't know what was wrong, because back in 1963 there was a lot less talk from the nurse, and we were allowed to do some things that weren't regulated like they are today. Thank God someone had the foresight to require certification a few years later, and for the OSHA requirements that are now in place. I had to do it the hard way.
Specializes in Adult Oncology.

This weekend I took care of a patient who had been transferred in to my unit after a round in the ICU. He hadn't had a BM since admission 4 days previous, and he felt the need for one after transfer, thank god. NP, got him a BSC, got him settled. He was embarressed about using a BSC, had been ambulatory and self-sufficient prior, and kept apologizing. About 30 minutes later he was done, and his enormous but soft BM promptly clogged the toliet when I went to flush it. It just sat, like I had sealed the hole with a partially deflated volley ball. And this was in a semi-private! Since he was so embarressed already, I tried not to call any attention to the fact that I couldn't get this... thing to go down. I tried to break it apart a bit, I swear I was wearing gloves, and I used a tongue depressor, but it was sticky and just a thick mass, like trying to carve up a fruitcake with a toothpick. I covered the stuff with a light layer of toliet paper, closed the door, and called maintenance. The other patient in the room thankfully was discharged before he needed to use the bathroom again. Note to self, next time use the water to soften it up before I dump it down.

Specializes in Medical.

I know this isn't the point, but what's a BSC?

Specializes in Mostly geri :).
I know this isn't the point, but what's a BSC?

Bed side commode.

Specializes in PACU, OR.
This weekend I took care of a patient who had been transferred in to my unit after a round in the ICU. He hadn't had a BM since admission 4 days previous, and he felt the need for one after transfer, thank god. NP, got him a BSC, got him settled. He was embarressed about using a BSC, had been ambulatory and self-sufficient prior, and kept apologizing. About 30 minutes later he was done, and his enormous but soft BM promptly clogged the toliet when I went to flush it. It just sat, like I had sealed the hole with a partially deflated volley ball. And this was in a semi-private! Since he was so embarressed already, I tried not to call any attention to the fact that I couldn't get this... thing to go down. I tried to break it apart a bit, I swear I was wearing gloves, and I used a tongue depressor, but it was sticky and just a thick mass, like trying to carve up a fruitcake with a toothpick. I covered the stuff with a light layer of toliet paper, closed the door, and called maintenance. The other patient in the room thankfully was discharged before he needed to use the bathroom again. Note to self, next time use the water to soften it up before I dump it down.

:lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2:

This weekend I took care of a patient who had been transferred in to my unit after a round in the ICU. He hadn't had a BM since admission 4 days previous, and he felt the need for one after transfer, thank god. NP, got him a BSC, got him settled. He was embarressed about using a BSC, had been ambulatory and self-sufficient prior, and kept apologizing. About 30 minutes later he was done, and his enormous but soft BM promptly clogged the toliet when I went to flush it. It just sat, like I had sealed the hole with a partially deflated volley ball. And this was in a semi-private! Since he was so embarressed already, I tried not to call any attention to the fact that I couldn't get this... thing to go down. I tried to break it apart a bit, I swear I was wearing gloves, and I used a tongue depressor, but it was sticky and just a thick mass, like trying to carve up a fruitcake with a toothpick. I covered the stuff with a light layer of toliet paper, closed the door, and called maintenance. The other patient in the room thankfully was discharged before he needed to use the bathroom again. Note to self, next time use the water to soften it up before I dump it down.

Wow what a delicate situation!!

I know exactly what kind you are talking about! I had a pt do that kind in a bedpan and then I was asked (the student of course) to clean the bedpan. It was sticking and I was in there forever trying to get the stuff out. I finally gave up and threw away the bedpan. Oops!

I've been a CNA for about 3 years now. I've spent most of that 3 years on my nursing home's "behavior unit". Basically we have all the patients with dementia, schizophrenia, and most other mental illnesses. Another CNA and I were doing my rounds when we went into one room to check on a pt. We found that she had a BM since the last time we changed her. It was balled up in her hands. So we put gloves on and tried to take it away from her. She started to freak out and exclamed. "YOU CAN'T HAVE MY CHEESEBURGER!!!". And took a BIG bite out of her BM. We spent the next half hour washing her up and cleaning BM out of her teeth!

Specializes in PICU/Pedi.

This isn't really that gross, but the other day I was helping with a pt. who had been in a MVA and broken both legs. She was quite obese, and also had ovarian cancer. The nurse and I were bathing her, and he was cleaning the right side of her very large pannus (belly fat). It was all purple and crusty-looking. He told me later that it was the result of a radiation burn, from treating her CA. Anywho, we lifted her pannus in order to clean underneath, and she had several pressure ulcers underneath the fold. Looked kind of icky, and smelled RANK. The nurse was pretty sure she had pseudomonas in the sores. I said something about the ulcers, and the pt. says, "yeah, I call that one 'hamburger'". I'm like, "Excuse me?" She said "When the doctor first saw it, he said it looked like hamburger meat, so I named it 'hamburger'." I reply that I have never known a pt. to name their sores before! Bless her heart - she's a sweet, sweet lady, but something about that almost made my stomach turn. Not sure why...I've seen worse. Later, at lunch, I found myself eating a hamburger, and reflected on the irony.

Specializes in L&D.
Walked in on my resident completely covered in stool, all over the bed, wall, air conditioning unit (and the heat was on), and she was eating it too. While trying to clean inside her mouth (yes, she was eating it as well), she was fighting us. I told her that we had to clean her mouth because she had poop in there. Her reply? "Leave it there. That's the best stuff I've had in a long time."

:eek::lol2: Is it bad that this made me laugh?! ha!

I had a friend that had received a homeless pt as an admit from the ER. I offered assistance bathing the pt as he was exceedingly odiferous; and, from experience, I knew moral support was required for this particular bath. So, as we are cleansing his genitalia, we noticed his 'shorties' moving; upon further investigation, suddenly his bush erupted and THOUSANDS (well, probably less that that- but it SEEMED like thousands) of spiders evacuated and ran for dear life!!! I was so grossed out. They WERE spiders, by the way- but he did have scabies and other fun little roomies on his person in addition. Oh my word! What fun we nurses have! Keep the secret, because if the world knew how glamorous our jobs were, they would all want in on the action- and, of course, the massive paychecks. hehehe

Specializes in Adult Oncology.

This weekend I had a patient who needed to be manually irrigated "as needed". After 4 hours of no output, I bladder scanned and went to manually irrigate (my first time doing this). I got instructions from a more experienced nurse first, then went in and explained to the family what I was going to do. They elected to stay in the room. (Pt was sedated). I don't know about you, but when I see a nurse coming in in full PPE with goggles on and a 60 cc syringe and she explains that she is going to attach this to my male relative's foley to try and unblock it, I'd be singing "Feet don't fail me now."

I got my syringe ready and went to attach it, but when I went to push the syringe in I got it caught on the drape and sprayed a bit of the saline solution. I think I got the daughter a bit. I explained it was just saline solution, that it wasn't even on the line yet and did they still want to stay? (you can see where this is going I'm sure.)

I got the syringe attached and was pushing and pulling on the syringe plunger a little bit at a time, when suddenly the "fluid" backsprayed all over my face. The wife was sitting RIGHT behind me. It was probably only 15 cc of fluid based on how much I had in the syringe still. *A refreshing spritz of saline solution with a light hint of stale urine.* Bath and Body Works, you have competition.

My only consolation was they had been dutifully warned, I took the brunt of the spray, my mouth was closed, and I hadn't cleared the blockage. But it was still fluid from a foley that had previously had urine running through it. I quietly and as low profile as possible wiped my face with a towel I had there at the ready. The wife said nothing (maybe it didn't get her? I can only hope. I did have a drape). Once I was finished I was able to go wash my face (read: soak my head for 10 minutes in very hot water). I smelled urine for the rest of the day although my co-workers told me they didn't smell anything, once they got their breath back from laughing. I've taken 3 showers since I've gotten home last night.

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