"Stupid Nurse Tricks"

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Recipient, :chair: You, :angryfire Instructor. Did I get it right?

Me:rotfl:

[RNIAM, BSN, RN]

Ruby Vee

lol, sorry but just mental picture is enough to make me spit out my coffee.

I just had a recent duh moment! My patient was finished getting washed up and I handed him his tooth brush and tooth paste. He preceeded to brush his teeth. When I took the emesis basin away the tooth paste was floating in the basin. It looked a little globby and greasy. I rinsed the basin out and went over to him, he had a funny look on his face and then he found another tube on his table. He had brushed his teeth with skin protectant lotion....ewww! Thank Goodness it was non-toxic but man oh man, how nasty. I asked him if he would like to re-brush. I told my clinical instructor. She did everything in her power not to laugh at me. The patient I am happy to report has the smoothest, cleanest teeth in town! Lesson learned never place two identical looking tubes in front of someone who isn't wearing their glasses.:imbar

[CarolinaGrl]

It is nice to read that I am not the only one making stupid mistakes. I know I have made my share of them.

But by far the funniest thing that I know of happened to a girl in my class. A female patient complained that she was smelling "down there". The student asked the nurse what she should do. The nurse handed her a small spray bottle with a blue liquid in it. After helping the patient bathe, she proceeded to spray a liberal amount "down there". As you are probably guessing at this point - it was really room deodorizer. Just one of those lessons I guess!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Originally posted by Frances LeMay

Recipient, :chair: You, :angryfire Instructor. Did I get it right?

Me:rotfl:

That would be dead on accurate!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Knocked over a full urinal in the middle of the night. Then, while I was cleaning up the mess, my butt brushed up against a huge vase full of flowers and sent THAT crashing to the floor!! The noise woke up not only the patient, but the two doctors who were sleeping in the on-call room next door.......neither of whom was happy about having their sleep interrupted. The worst part was when I got the giggles.........I have this tendency to see the absurd in every embarrassing situation, and when those rotten giggles get hold of me I just have to let them out or I'll burst! There I was, laughing until the tears were squirting out of my eyes and I couldn't breathe, with several patients awake and 2 docs pissed at me. At three o'clock in the morning. Usually *nothing* is funny at that hour of the day, but I couldn't help it....I laughed until my stomach and my face ached. And these docs were just standing there, glaring at me and thinking I'd lost my marbles.

[Liddle Noodnik]

Originally posted by mjlrn97

And these docs were just standing there, glaring at me and thinking I'd lost my marbles.

You had. Doesn't it feel marvelous? hee hee!

I have had moments of inappropriate laughter, once, my little bro and I (I was 13) started giggling at the dining room table as mom and dad were announcing their divorce! Well, what was the alternative?

Another time I was at a best friend's funeral. 9th grade, yes, probably around -- 13. Hmmm...

Anyway, again, in your situation. What was the alternative? I'm glad you chose to laugh!

[LydiaGreen]

One of my classmates was so nervous giving her first IM injection (vit B) that as she wound up for the jab she closed her eyes! The instructor was assisting the student with her placement. The needle ended up in the instructor's hand! Ouch!

[perkines212]

Originally posted by caprice1

It was my first job as an R.N. at a LTC facility as a charge nurse on the night shift......I was walking out of a resident's room, and a C.N.A. was waiting for me. He was standing there with an adult brief, and in it was this massive amount of light brown gelatinous...what I thought was abnormal b.m.. I thought, Oh my God!...and the next thing I see is my C.N.A taking a big lick of this Glob and I about died! It was chocolate pudding!

That is so gross...yet so funny.

I am so tempted to pull this little trick on some of our new hires.

[nowplayingEDRN]

Drinking apple juice out of the urinal is also another classic.......hehehehehehehe........I found that the perfect alarm clock for a very sleepy CNA was a big 60cc syringe full of ICE WATER appropriately aimed and released at the precice moment that the light streams across the unsuspecting soul's arse......HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!! But the one that took the cake and still is a source of laughter....

I worked with a male CNA of the Jewish faith, but he was not a practicing Jew, and we were caring for this poor confused little old Jewish/Polish lady who started screaming for the "POLICIO" at the top of her lungs and trying to get away from us. Well, Howard (that was the CNAs name) was getting frustrated at struggling with her, trying to get the clean attends on the lady and told her in Yiddish "S*** on you!" Well, I said, "Howie, that's not nice, you shouldn't say that!" And he was insistant that the crazy old lady didn't know what he was saying......untill she sat straight up in the bed, looked at him and with out batting an eye, said in PERFECT english "S*** on you too!" Well, Howie's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out and I never laughed so hard in all my life...........I couldn't write him up. He got his just desserts from the woman, who after he left the bed side, quit yelling for the police and allowed me to finish changing her.

[nowplayingEDRN]

I love that choco pudding incident though......that is the grossest and funniest thing!!!!!

[mother/babyRN, RN]

Well, as a student in the OR part of my clinical....We were all warned to stay away from the swinging doors while awaiting a case to start...There is a good reason for that...If one, as I did, stands too close, when they open the door to bring the patient in, one gets thrown into the sterile set up and they get really upset...Same day ( really), another case....I am supposed to be observing and it is pretty interesting, so I am not at all prepared when the doc next to me asks me to "Pinch my nose"...I figure I didn't really hear that but the next time the request is much more insistant and brusque.. I look around...No one is acting any different and he is getting annoyed...With my record for the day already messed up, I figure, why the heck not..I squeeze his nose and he yelps..Everyone laughs...Later the circulating nurse informs me that when that request is made, they merely mean tighten the seal on the mask......

When I was a nurses assistant an orderly and I were to take a body to the morgue, which of course was located in the basement of the hospital...It was kinda creepy for a 17 year old like myself...But, I went with him to the basement and as we are almost there, on the top of a slope going down in the hallway, he tells me to wait with the body for a minute while he goes around the corner to unlock the door to the morgue...Dummy me, althoug curious as to why we all can't go together, figures why not...What can happen. Next thing I know a fully sheeted figure comes around the corner yelling BOO! I was so shocked I let go of the stretcher and it and the body rolled down that hill into the orderly trying to scare the daylights out of me...I made HIM pick up the poor person and put him back on the stretcher..

As a nurse in a large hospital another nurse and I took a body to the morgue on the night shift but we didn't actually know where it was...( the morgue) We knew the general vicinity and left the body by the stairway when we went up and down the hall (large Boston hospital) to check....Found it, came back and discovered the body was gone.....10 minutes and much panic later, a respiratory therapist joker came upon me in hysterics , felt badly and confessed that they had played a joke on me...

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

1. I have learned how to get an old Jewish/Polish lady to say, S--t.

2. I have learned how to get a surgeon annoyed when he asks me to pinch his nose. (Actually pinching his nose instead of pinching the nose attachment on his facemask)

VERY GOOD LESSONS INDEED. That's why I'm always eager to face a new day; to learn new and exciting things.