It's been awhile since we had a stupid nurse tricks thread, so here goes: How to look Incredibly Stupid Without Really Trying:
Call in to work because it's snowed and it's "not worth your life to drive to work on those roads." Be in a bar down the street from the hospital when your best friend at work uses the "Find My Friends" app on her iPhone to check on when her replacement will get there in to relieve her. (Will you lose your job?)
You've got horrible abdominal pain, but you suck it up and come to work anyway. Yay, you! You collapse in your patient's room and are whisked off to the ER by your manager and an RT. You insist that you're infertile and couldn't possibly be pregnant as you're delivered of a full term baby girl. (OK, this one was a CNS and nursing student.)
Call in sick to work because you want to go to your manager's wedding and you didn't win the "get the weekend off" lottery. Catch the bouquet. (And lose your job.)
You're having palpitations, and you're a little lightheaded and slightly diaphoretic. Strangers at the mall are concerned and offer to call an ambulance. You decline, telling them you're fine. Then you think that you probably should go to the ER, but since you know from AN that you won't get a sandwich to eat, you sit down at Bertucci's and order a plate of ravioli. Then you drive yourself to the ER, park at the bottom of a hill and walk uphill to the entrance. You're surprised when the triage nurse takes you straight back. (Yes, that was me. I was fine.)
Tell everyone at work that you're young, you want to have fun, and you're going to a friend's Halloween party after work. Go to the party dressed as a sexy nurse, and be in lots of pictures. Post those pictures on Facebook. Now call in sick to work the next day at 06:50 for your 07:00 shift. You've friended everyone you work with on FaceBook. (And NOT lose your job. What are the odds?)
Steal money from your colleagues' bags in the breakroom. Get caught by a colleague with a black belt in tae kwon do. Be photographed with a 5 foot tall girl flipping you and then sitting on you until Security arrives. (Have your manliness questioned by everyone who sees the pictures.)
Had a student call in sick for 2 clinical days, only to find out she went skiing in Colorado. Student broke her leg on the slopes. Had to be removed from nursing program for dishonesty. Student had the audacity to appeal to the readmission committee, saying her dismissal was unfair because she had a doctor's excuse!
A doctor's excuse to call in sick and go skiing?
Oh, you're talking about a doctor"s excuse for the broken leg that she received while calling in sick to go skiing!
What's the matter with her? Didn't she understand the part about honesty? Sounds like me like she was quite a character.
While in a mock code, bragging you're the only one with current ACLS( big mouth), run to get the code cart only to find your hospital has replaced the defibrillators with new fancier ones...Spend 10 minutes searching for the on button frantically...
Hey At least I knew what to do next, if only I could turn the d**n machine on.
Did I mention this was in front of an orientation auditorium....lol
A 135lb nurse drawing a Urine specimen off a foley of a confused 500lb pt with a over head trapeze. Confused 500lb patient swings from the trapeze like Tarzan pinning the nurse to the wall...LOL
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
First time I saw an electric bed (and I know this dates me) I was having so much fun making it go up and down that I took out the fluorescent lights in the ceiling. My clinical instructor was not impressed!
I did something like that with a bed that had the IV pole attached to the gurney. The pole impaled the lights over the gurney.
I also took out one of those exit signs that hang from the ceiling with an IV pole.
Oh, you're talking about a doctor"s excuse for the broken leg that she received while calling in sick to go skiing!
What's the matter with her? Didn't she understand the part about honesty? Sounds like me like she was quite a character.
Students can apply for a "special circumstances" readmission if there are extenuating circumstances, such as a parent's death, a medical issue, etc. She felt she should be granted that, but failed to understand that her medical issue was due to lying about being ill and going skiing instead of going to clinical. Oh, and I failed to mention that she had a bad sunburn from the glare off of the slopes, too, when she'd been "home, sick in bed" during a time when the skies here were gray and cloudy!
Go into a pts room to give zofran. It's 3 am, dim lights, scan the pt and med then go to draw it up with a blunt tip 18g and somehow manage to stab myself in the abdomen. I looked at the pt and asked her if she knew how that happened cause I certainly didn't!!! Ended up with a massive bruise for weeks and the butt of many jokes for months! Only time I've been thankful for my extra padding on my tummy!!
While in a mock code, bragging you're the only one with current ACLS( big mouth), run to get the code cart only to find your hospital has replaced the defibrillators with new fancier ones...Spend 10 minutes searching for the on button frantically...
Hey At least I knew what to do next, if only I could turn the d**n machine on.
Did I mention this was in front of an orientation auditorium....lol
I had my pants fall down during a real code. It forever changed the scrubs I buy now....
Thought that I, at 95 pounds, could let the 400 pound patient (that had crawled out of bed over the rails and was about to fall) slide slowly down my leg and gently to the floor just like I had been taught in school. Wrong. Fortunately her loud, demented, maniacal laughter got the attention of some of the staff who came into the room and saw my feet sticking out from under her. I nearly suffocated!!!
diamond_girl, BSN, RN
95 Posts
Nurse: Go ahead and hang this new IV bag. Just hang the new bag on the pole. Then just take that spike out of the old bag and put it into the new one.
Me: (removes spike while bag is still hanging and gets a nice bath of NS)
:embarrassing: