Nursing school bloopers

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Specializes in Critical care.

I thought it would be funny to start a thread to share silly things you've done in nursing school. I know we've all done some ridiculous things; we're learning after all and we can't expect to be good at this right out of the gate!

I can start with three personal examples:

-I was in ICU clinicals this past semester. I'm 3/4 of the way done with my program, I'm starting to feel more confident, and the fact that I've made it to the ICU clinical portion means I presumably know more about what I'm doing, right? So, the RN asks me to go get her a top sheet. Easy, simple, first-semester-in-RN-school request. But... I don't know if it was the clipboard in her hand full of papers, or the fact that I'd just gotten back from lunch and hadn't turned my brain back on yet... but I just looked at her blankly. Top sheet? What is a top sheet?! I was thinking she meant like, a piece of paper they use for shift hand off or whatever. Top sheet. I was amazingly, wholly embarrassed when the poor RN had to walk me to the supply closet, scan in, and grab... a top sheet. For the bed she needed changed. I'm sure that RN will forever think I'm an idiot.

-ER clinical. I get to start an IV... yay! I've been getting them all day, 5 good sticks, this one is one more to get some practice in. Different nurse than I've had all day though and this one makes me nervous. Try to ignore it. I poke- get flashback- yay! Start advancing the catheter in and that, my friends, is when something in my brain decides it would be a great idea to retract the needle... before the catheter is fully in and before I hold pressure above the catheter. I had been doing it perfectly all day so WHYYYY did I do that?! You know what happens next. Bloodbath! This patient was a BLEEDER and even after putting my finger above the catheter and holding pressure, it looked like I had just tried to murder the pt. Luckily the patient just kind of laughed it off, and we were able to float the cath the rest of the way in so the pt didn't have to be restuck... though afterwards the RN went around the ER announcing loudly to any other RN who would listen that she'd never seen such a bloodbath in all her life. *facepalm* 5 good sticks and praise from the RNs erased by one idiotic moment. Sigh. I did redeem myself after with one more good stick (with the RN who didn't make me nervous supervising!), and I will say I learned from this and I've never done that again!

-First time emptying a foley bag. Bucket got full, foley bag still had some urine in it, so I was going to have to come back for another trip. But... I forgot to re-clip the little tubey-thing. You know where this is going... yep. Pee everywhere.

So those are my bloopers/embarassing moments. I take comfort in the fact that none of them were particularly dangerous mistakes and I learned from each one of them (except the sheet. I SWEAR I knew what a top sheet was..).

What're your bloopers?!

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I can easily think of my two lowest moments in clinicals so far. One was getting fired by a patient. She wasn't getting her accustomed dose of anti-anxiety meds she took at home and got all bent out of shape when I asked her to ambulate. I hope I learned a bit about reading my patients from her.

The other was trying four glucose sticks unsuccessfully before it occurred to me to try the hand she'd been keeping warm under the blanket. That was pretty embarrassing. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.

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I was doing my first glucose stick by myself and I don't know why I was so nervous over something so minor, but I tried to draw blood from a patients finger with the cap still on and I stood there like an idiot wondering why the needle wouldn't pop through for a dreadfully long 5 minutes .

Truly one of the most embarrassing things I've experienced. Luckily the patient had a good sense of humor.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

Med/surg two clinical. We get slightly more acute patients then we did last semester. I was on a neuro tele floor with a tp who was incontinent. They don't use briefs on this unit. Just double chucks because the patients go so frequently. Well, PT had diarrhea and it got all over his bed. He was a total care quad so I had to move multiple times to get him cleaned up and bed changed. I forgot to pull the linen cart out and was just throwing the dirty linens on a towel on the floor to pick up later. I clean up when I'm done and leave the room. A few hours later another student asks me what's up my shoe. I look down and of course find a large poo smear on my shoe from when I moved the poopy sheets with my foot. Walked around with poo shoe for hours. Yuck.

In med/surg one I was giving my first IM injection. I get to the pt, alcohol swab their arm, place the needle next to the arm and get ready to stick. I say "one" and the pt kind of giggles. I count "two". PT still giggling. I say "stick" and go to stick only to poke the pt with a lidded needle because I didn't even remove the lid before pulling the skin taught. Lol.

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ICU clinical, I was in the room while a Fellow was inserting a pulmonary artery catheter. He had started the process, had on sterile gloves with his sterile field, and he asked me to get him a saline flush.....

I grabbed one, and promptly shoved it at him still in the packaging.... He looked and me like I was nuts... I still didn't take the hint, and after a few more awkward seconds he said "I can't touch that, this is sterile, can you peel the packaging off for me?"

I wanted to sink into the floor and die.

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Specializes in Critical care.
I was doing my first glucose stick by myself and I don't know why I was so nervous over something so minor, but I tried to draw blood from a patients finger with the cap still on and I stood there like an idiot wondering why the needle wouldn't pop through for a dreadfully long 5 minutes .

Truly one of the most embarrassing things I've experienced. Luckily the patient had a good sense of humor.

Now that you mention it, I did something like this too. It was my first time ever doing it and I didn't know the needle caps twisted off! HA!

I also flubbed my first time attempting to put on ted hose... I mean, they're TED HOSE. But I had no idea how to put them on, we'd never done it in lab! Luckily the patient was a) former healthcare and B) a saint and incredibly patient. She actually taught me how to put them on and then swore herself to secrecy over my embarrassment at not knowing how to do it. LOL

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I just kind of looked at the patient, they looked at me silently and then they said "Perhaps you should take the cap off dear." And then they started laughing.

I will never forget that clinical experience lmao.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

So apparently I forgot my brain today in clinical. I was doing my assessment on my patient. There were some abnormals, did my teaching about IS since she had crackles, explained why she couldnt have more water (was on fluid restriction for a multitude of issues surrounding hemodilution), and so on. Before I leave, she adds that she has had a headache for a couple hours and its getting worse. She gets Tramadol PRN for it. I go out to review my assessment with my precepting nurse. I go through everything abnormal and what I advised the patient. I forget to mention the HA. We go about our bussiness for about an hour and then go see that patient again. Pt brings up the HA and I felt so bad and admitted I had forgotted to tell the nurse. It was med time for the PT so we go to the med room. I pull all her meds and we leave to go check and prepare her IV meds and her subQ heparin. As we are going through the meds I have a complete brain fart. PT needs 2mg of med. Med comes 1mg/4mL. I say we need 8mL. Then I see the bottle has only 4mL so I start to question my math to the nurse. I verified with her 3 times that Pt needed 8mL as she stares at me blankly. THen she responds, " so we need two vials then right" lol. Such basic math and I felt like an idiot that of course my math was right and just because the vial doesnt have all the med I need, doesnt mean I was wrong. Then after all that. I forgot the dang Tramadol. Ugh. My day was much better after that, but seriously, such dumb things to mess up today.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Tele.

I got to the chart to look up my pt's allergies, and they had many, many drug allergies. My brain wasn't fully "on" yet, and when I got to one allergy listed at the end, written in all caps, I asked out loud what the acronym stood for... "DOG"?? And immediately hung my head in shame. ;-)

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Specializes in Critical care.
So apparently I forgot my brain today in clinical. I was doing my assessment on my patient. There were some abnormals, did my teaching about IS since she had crackles, explained why she couldnt have more water (was on fluid restriction for a multitude of issues surrounding hemodilution), and so on. Before I leave, she adds that she has had a headache for a couple hours and its getting worse. She gets Tramadol PRN for it. I go out to review my assessment with my precepting nurse. I go through everything abnormal and what I advised the patient. I forget to mention the HA. We go about our bussiness for about an hour and then go see that patient again. Pt brings up the HA and I felt so bad and admitted I had forgotted to tell the nurse. It was med time for the PT so we go to the med room. I pull all her meds and we leave to go check and prepare her IV meds and her subQ heparin. As we are going through the meds I have a complete brain fart. PT needs 2mg of med. Med comes 1mg/4mL. I say we need 8mL. Then I see the bottle has only 4mL so I start to question my math to the nurse. I verified with her 3 times that Pt needed 8mL as she stares at me blankly. THen she responds, " so we need two vials then right" lol. Such basic math and I felt like an idiot that of course my math was right and just because the vial doesnt have all the med I need, doesnt mean I was wrong. Then after all that. I forgot the dang Tramadol. Ugh. My day was much better after that, but seriously, such dumb things to mess up today.

I actually think it's a good thing that you're questioning so much. There's not a lot of meds I have run into that are 8mLs, and just going along with it without stopping to double check as you did could lead to a medication error later down the line if you someday DO calculate wrong.

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Specializes in ED, Medicine, Case Management.
Now that you mention it, I did something like this too. It was my first time ever doing it and I didn't know the needle caps twisted off! HA!

I also flubbed my first time attempting to put on ted hose... I mean, they're TED HOSE. But I had no idea how to put them on, we'd never done it in lab! Luckily the patient was a) former healthcare and B) a saint and incredibly patient. She actually taught me how to put them on and then swore herself to secrecy over my embarrassment at not knowing how to do it. LOL

I have had this experience as well! My very first clinical rotation I worked with a 76 year old patient who was not only a former nurse, but a graduate of my school of nursing! She was extremely excited to have a nursing student from her alma mater, but did tell me that if I put her hose on wrong she would scream. She did not scream, but I did see her biting her lip....Don't feel bad. They are not easy to put on, especially with delicate skin.

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One before nursing school, but it counts. :)

I went to the designated uniform store as my acceptance letter told me to do to pick up my uniforms, including a cap. I had worked in hospitals a a nurse's aide (this was waaaay before the "C" ever entered into it) but had never seen a cap from my target university, at last as far as I knew. When I got my package home, my cap was unassembled and packed flat in the cellophane. It had a little patch on one wing with the university crest on it...but unbeknownst to me it had been sewn on UPSIDE DOWN. I had the devil's own time trying to figure out how to fold and assemble the damn thing to make the crest right side up. In the end I just said the hell with it, and assembled it with the crest upside down, because at least then it looked like a cap and I could figure out how to put it on my head. Then when I went in for my first clinical, that's when I discovered that the error was not really mine. :facepalm:

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