The most embarrasing thing you've done at work!

rubytuesday · Sep 16, 2005

My entire career has been spotted with most embarrassing things that I have done at work. One that comes to mind is the time I was sitting in the office when a psychiatric client came in to speak to me because she was feeling very depressed. I spoke with her and gave her my total attention. I reached into my pocket book as she spoke and grabbed my chapstick as my lips were burning from the cold weather. I applied it to my lips and the area around my mouth and put it back in my purse. Her mood lifted and she was smiling and in a very good mood when she left the office. I got up to use the bathroom, feeling quite confident and smug about what a wonderful psychiatric nurse I was. I looked into the mirror to see I had red lipstick all over my lips and all around them. It would not even wash off. A pink stain remained like a scarlet letter to haunt me for the rest of the evening. ahhhhhh :clown:

Nascar nurse, ASN, RN · Sep 16, 2005

I had been a LTC nurse only a year or two. Was sitting at the desk, when an elderly man walked by grasping onto the desk countertop to steady himself after lunch. Noticed his hands and around his mouth was a horribly cyanotic/dusky color - I mean like death!. Jumped up and grabbed a w/c, helped him to bed, took vitals(all ok), lung assessment (sounds fine), normal LOC, etc. He kept denying he was SOB - but still so dang blue, thought sure he would die within an hour. His Dr. was one of those who could be a jerk, but always seemed to like and trust me. Called Dr - explained my assessment. Dr. keeps saying "He LOOKS sick, but you can't find anything else wrong". Assured him that was best I could figure. Dr. orders labs for next am and keep watching - call back ASAP if he gets worse. Kept checking for several hours - even his legs were that nastry death color. At shift change, I'm reporting this at bedside with oncoming nurse. She is also appalled as to how close to death he looks despite good vitals, air exchange, etc. Was showing other nurse his legs and demonstrating pedal pulse so strong could even feel it thru his socks. She decides to take his socks off and low an behold his feet are a nice pretty pink color - even tho upper legs are blue. After the two of us debate awhile what could be up with this, patient finally pipes up and says "do you reckon I could be blue because of these new blue jeans I've got on today". (Fabric had rubbed off to his hands and he spread that all around his mouth at lunck I'm sure). Sure enough when we got him back out of bed, even the sheets were dusky blue/gray color. Called Dr. back to cancel labs and got laughed at - thank god he was in a good mood.

carol y · Sep 16, 2005

Ok, here's my story.
A couple of months ago, we changed from zip uniforms to poppers. So, last night I was with an intubated patient in CT and walked around the table, catching my uniform and giving everyone in the room a nice view of my bra :roll I'm still blushing thinking about it!
So what's the most embarrasing thing you've done?

I WAS A STUDENT WORKING IN OB, AND WENT TO ANNOUNCE TO THE FAMILY ABOUT THE NEWBORN. I TOLD THE ODER GENTLEMAN-- YOU HAVE A GRANDSON-- HE INFORMED ME HE WAS THE DADDY. OUCH!!

dkaykaymom · Sep 18, 2005

During the Stone Age, while I was going to school, I was also a nurses aide. In them days there was no such thing as certification and an aide did pretty much what their nurse told them to do.

One day my nurse determined that one of her male patients needed catheterization and, knowing I was in school, and believing that students needed all the extra help they could get, she asked me to cath him. I had never done it before, so she made me talk through the whole procedure to ensure that I theoretically knew what I was doing. And I was determined that this old, hard-of-hearing man would NEVER know that this was my first time. I was going to be professional, calm, business-like, etc. While I'm getting all set up, I'm explaining to him what I'm going to do and why (and patting myself mentally on the back that my teaching is simple, clear, and he denied any questions about the procedure.) As my nurse is standing directly behind me and watching the procedure, I grab the catheter in one hand, his member in the other and state, "You're going to feel a PRICK now." My nurse wet her pants laughing so hard and trying to get out the door. And, of course, I PRAYED that God would open up the earth and swallow me whole! The rest of the shift, everytime my nurse saw me, she burst out laughing!

And probably the second most embarrassing thing I've done. I worked on a post-op surgical floor. I had received report from the day nurse that a middle-aged male had just been returned to the floor from recovery after receiving a circumcision. He had had increased bleeding during and after surgery, but the dressings had been changed by the Dr. just prior to the patient's arrival to the floor. Orders were to monitor dressing and call Dr. if bleeding continues. So I do my rounds, introduce myself to the patient, and ask permission to see his dressing. He had a huge bulky dressing, and after a thorough inspection, I saw no drainage. I said to myself, "There's nothing here." Unfortunately the patient overheard me and started screaming for his Dr. We ended up having to give him something to sedate him in order to explain that the surgery was a success, and what he heard me say was regarding the drainage on his dressing, nothing else!

ClaireMacl · Sep 20, 2005

dkaykaymom, i giggled sooo much, sorry you ended up so humilliated Ain't nursing fun, eh!

lady_jezebel · Sep 20, 2005

Called the ICU docs in a total panic b/c I thought the pt's eyeball was herniating. I paged them several times & demanded that the resident assess the pt. I said that it was "going to blow" at any moment! It was popping out of the skull slightly, and very dilated & fixed, whereas 30 minutes prior it had been under the lid & slightly askew (what I thought was the pt's baseline). The resident rushed up with another doc, and quickly solved the problem.

Turns out it was a fake eyeball! The nurses had been charting "fixed and dilated" for days, but b/c she was blind, we had no idea that they weren't real. I felt so embarassed for all of us...

Mimi_C, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

My most embarassing moment Happened in nursing school... LOL I will never forget my first day of clinicals. I was terrified and I felt like I had no clue what I was doing. Well I got "lucky" and there weren't enough patients to go around so I got sent to endoscopy to observe procedures. Man!!! How about I ended up fainting after watching all the bile swimming around in the containers and on the TV screen. :chuckle Talk about being embarassed!

HONEYBEAR · Sep 21, 2005

my entire career has been spotted with most embarrassing things that i have done at work. one that comes to mind is the time i was sitting in the office when a psychiatric client came in to speak to me because she was feeling very depressed. i spoke with her and gave her my total attention. i reached into my pocket book as she spoke and grabbed my chapstick as my lips were burning from the cold weather. i applied it to my lips and the area around my mouth and put it back in my purse. her mood lifted and she was smiling and in a very good mood when she left the office. i got up to use the bathroom, feeling quite confident and smug about what a wonderful psychiatric nurse i was. i looked into the mirror to see i had red lipstick all over my lips and all around them. it would not even wash off. a pink stain remained like a scarlet letter to haunt me for the rest of the evening. ahhhhhh

thank you for the chuckle.......:roll :roll :roll :roll :roll

TrickieTam · Sep 26, 2005

This happened in my first semester of NS.....

At lunch time I had burritos for lunch at a local mexican resturant across the street from the hospital. Unfortunately I forgot how badly I get gas eating burritos. Anyways, after lunch I was quickly rushed back to the floor by my instructor because my patient's doctor was in and I needed to go on rounds with him. Everything went fine and the doctor was very impressed with me in terms of care of my patients, until we got to the last room. My elderly patient who was hard of hearing was sitting in her chair eating and suddenly dropped her spoon she was eating with. I bent over to pick up the spoon and while bending, I did one of the loudest farts known to mankind :eek: . So loud my patient heard it and she didn't have in her hearing aid. Man I wanted to hide under a chair :chair: I was so embarrassed. Before I could say anything, my patient says "I heard that and I know I didn't do it". Whew, I was so glad when that doctor left.

LoriAlabamaRN · Dec 7, 2005

I have a really bad back, and I have a TENs unit that helps some when the sciatica is unbearable. It has wires attached to electrodes that you stick where the pain is shooting, and the electricity can be turned up quite strong. 10 is the max, and that's what it took one night when I was working as a CNA (before graduation with my RN). That night, we had a new admission and his family was in the room. My TENs box was stuck in the back pocket of my scrubs and the electrodes were attached to my right lower back. When I took the patients temperature and went to shoot the probe cover into the trash, it bounced off the rim. I bent down to pick it up, and when I did one of the wires pulled out of an electrode. SHOCK!SHOCK!SHOCK! I was dancing around frantically grabbing at my lower back trying to get the bare wire off of me while the family of this man and the patient himself sort of quietly watched me as I danced around and finally through the door into the hall. SOOO embarrasing! I ended up with about a quarter-sized burn, and a very red face!

Another time, I was half-asleep at work and had to bring a record to the OR (something I did every day multiple times.) To get into the OR hall, you had to punch in a four-number code and push through the door. Again, I did this all the time so it was second nature to me. That night, I must have hit a wrong number or something because the door stayed firmly shut- as I walked face-first smack into it and fell on my butt. As if that isn't humiliating enough, there were about 5 family members walking down the hall at the time who witnessed the whole thing! I punched those numbers in and got into that hall so fast after that! Of course, the security camera had captured the entire thing and when I got to the OR desk they were still just laughing hysterically. I never lived that one down.

grace90, LPN, LVN · Dec 7, 2005

Nightshift,picu
Vented Infant,mom Asleep
I Have Gas,oops, Mom Wakes Up And Sniffs
I Say That Baby Is Letting Stinkers, Phew!!!!!!
Glad It Was Dark In Room

Did that once when I worked in LTC as CNA- leaned forward to give patient spoonful of food and ripped loud toot, another CNA is sitting nearby and hears, I look at patient and smile, she looks at patient and grimaces "Uh-Oh", to this day she is none the wiser

not at work but along same topic- was at friend's house once after eating bean burritos, she kept smelling her 1 and 3 year olds to see who was stinky, I was trying to keep a straight face while I silently stunk up her couch cushion

MamaTheNurse, BSN, RN · Dec 7, 2005

I was in ER as a nursing student and had to insert a foley in an elderly gentleman who was uncircumsized - I had him in my left hand and the catheter in my right (sterile) hand when I realized that I forgot to retract the foreskin :eek: - I had to use a - how shall I say this - jerking motion with my left hand to retract the skin so I could insert the catheter (I didn't want to have to start all over)................

the patient just stared up at the ceiling and the nurse I was working with turned to face the wall - I couldn't hear him laugh but I could see his shoulders shaking from laughter - he bought me lunch that day - said I "made his day".................

:roll :specs: