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

Had a pt lose their dentures. Come to find out they were mixed into the poop in his diaper. He spotted them and popped them back in his mouth before I could clean them.

That made me gasp out loud! :eek:

Specializes in CCU.

Ok so after reading 4 pages of these my ribs are killing me... I have 3 stories both from before my nursing days but are notable...

I was a tech in the ER for a couple of years while in nursing school this gentleman came in and stated that he had something stuck in his member... well we all thought he was crazy, but after the physician ordered the X-Ray the radiologist came out of the x-ray room(which is connected to the ER) and said, "you have to come see this to believe it" so of course all of the nurses went running along with the doc. This gentleman had obviously felt the need to stick a BIC brand ink pen into his urethra. The radiologist adjusted the digital x-ray on his computer and you could actually read the brand of the ink pen!

Number 2 about a year after I started in the ER a lady came in with the chief complaint of having a tampon stuck in her lady parts for several days, upon further inspection by the nurse it was discovered that it was not a tampon but a generously sized cucumber. It had OBVIOUSLY been there for several days as it had started to rot. The smell in that ER was completely unbearable. The housekeepers and nurses had to bring out the peppermint oil just to get through the 4 hours it took to de-scent the ER.

and last but not least, a gentleman in his late 40's came into the ER and as they were rolling him back you could see that he was a grayish-blue color. Everyone knew what was coming.. So EKG is done, and one of our male nurses was sitting on a stool at the bedside starting the man's IV. As the nurse was finishing the IV the poor man CODED, he sat up and vomited all over the nurse's head back and into the floor along with evacuated his bowels full of blood. It looked like a flood of vomit and blood on the floor. So as the ACLS protocol is started there are about 4 nurses, resp therapist and doctor, all wading in bloody stool and vomit. There was no time to clean the floor as the man was dying.. Needless to say the ER had blood and vomit tracked all over by the time this code was finished. It took 2 techs and 3 housekeepers just to clean the floor and the room afterwards..

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
it was not a tampon but a generously sized cucumber.

Well, it's a good way to help on those "heavy flow" days...

Specializes in Adult Oncology.

Ok, this was totally my bad. The other day I was helping my confused patient clean up after the bedside commode, another nurse was holding him up while I wiped him with those wipes that can't be flushed. I wiped him and dropped the dirty wipe into the big black hole right where my trashcan had been last time I did this 2 hours before, and oops, that wasn't my trashcan. It had been moved, and this was... it was his wife's big black leather purse! Luckily I had folded it so the dirty side wasn't exposed. Me and the other nurse just lost it, giggling, tears running down our faces while we got him back into bed. Ah, a moment of levitity does the heart good after a really bad day.

I know this isn't a nursing story, but I was sitting here reading through these stories and for some reason it popped into my head. I taught Karate for a few years and mostr of my students were ranged from ages 3-7. Well, during class one day I walked by one of our four year olds and noticed a puddle. My first thought, my blonde mind kicking in because it was raining, was water. Then it hit me..This little boy had peed himself. In class. And was standing there grinning at me. I had to press my lips together to keep from giggling as I whispered this to the sensei so none of the other 30 students would hear(Somehow they hadn't noticed). The clean up job fell on me(Thank the gods the floors were green, so it looked clear). I had the student walk on paper towels(He was still grinning, mind you) all the way to the bathroom and proceeded to quarantine and SCRUB the area until it smelled like chemical warfare in there. I know this isn't exactly a nursing story, but so many of the stories around here revolve around bm and urine that I just felt the need to post this. It's good for a giggle, if nothing else. I still laugh when I think of that little boy grinning up at me in his soaking wet gi, as if proud of his little accomplishment.

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

I like your story, Sergeant's Daughter. Thank you for posting it.

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.

Had something like this happen me I have a new suppuivic catheter and up till this happend no one at work knew about it tell one day I was talking to a co- worker and the plug came "shouting out "and pee was just well shooting everywhere all over me , her, the floor, chair, desk and so on I will never forget the look on her face "it did not help that I forgot to empty my bladder so there must have been at least 1200 mi " at this pont I am trying to find the plug my co- workers all played the game of find the plug . The plug comes out at lest twice a week and one day 2 times in 1hour my boss said you need back- up clouses for your back-up,s

Specializes in geriatrics, dementia, ortho.

I work in dementia long-term care, and we have an outbreak of norovirus right now. We were completely out of emesis basins so when one of my residents started gagging, I just grabbed the nearest towel, cupped my (gloved) hands, and did my best to catch it as she vomited. Best part? At the end she had a vomit-soaked towel on her chest as I went to grab supplies to clean her up, and she says "Wow, this is really nice and warm!".

Specializes in none.

some stories are really funny

:bowingpur

You guys are the S I C K E S T.

I have just finished the last few pages and I have to say any stories I have are not worth **** for this thread. Sigh, maybe some day I can triumphantly post something worthy of the high caliber posts on this thread. :barf02:

Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care Transport.

Honestly it wasn't so bad...

But I did my first disimpaction in the ER. It was either me, or the second year resident, and honestly, I had kinda bonded with my patient, who was FOS (full of... well, figure it out) but had nothing else wrong with her. She was about 50ish, AOx4, totally embarrassed, and hadn't pooped in a week. Poor thing. That would make me grumpy.

I gave her what we call a Pink Lady (enema) and that didn't work. So it was time for...

The. Fickle. Finger. Of. Fate.

(cue music).

Fortunately, her husband was asleep. I got as much out as I could, and left a bedside commode for her.

Apparently, when you disimpact, once the "cork" is pulled, it all flows.

And what came out? My. God. I cannot believe a human could pass that. I've seen baby heads that are bigger.

And she was so proud. And honestly, I was really happy for her, but holy cr#p it smelled like rotten onions.

But the best part? The docs WANTED TO SEE IT.

And she was proud, and you know what? I was proud of her. That was a week's worth of backup, right there, in a little tub.

Ah, the small victories.

Yep, gross. And awesome. And that's why I love being an ER nurse, because well, if it's truly an emergency, it's probably both. And that took the cake. And I felt like I actually helped someone.

But it still made me vomit a little bit in my mouth when I had to flush it.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Had a pt lose their dentures. Come to find out they were mixed into the poop in his diaper. He spotted them and popped them back in his mouth before I could clean them.

I just ate lunch and had a coffee and then read this. For the love of God that is so utterly revolting! Did this patient have dementia or short term memory loss?? What is wrong with some of these people?!

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