As I've posted on these boards previously, I am a recent grad working nights in emergency at a hospital in the Detroit suburbs. I was recommended to the position by one of my old clinical instructors, who works as a night-shift case manager in this department when she isn't teaching. We had had a very good working relationship in clinical, and still do as colleagues in the EC.
There's just one slight problem. I'm a very calm, collected and generally squared-away individual. Instructor was a stand-up comedian in college. A few other nurses got in on the gag, and thus began the Great EC Prank War; or, Why Working With People You Know Can Backfire...
* Finding rubber vermin on one's charting computer. Always a classic.
* Explaining to patients that it's perfectly normal for their nurse to get prank calls from EC Care Management on the SpectraLink. "I'm reviewing a case you worked on... do you happen to know why exactly the MD ordered a Foley for this patient Mr. P. Freely?"
* Getting one's shirt-tail yanked out while working with hall patients. The nurse who did it ran down the hall yelling "Dweeb!", while the patient (a little old lady with abdominal pain) cracked up laughing.
* Invited to the Care Management office to "hang out with your old school peeps." Instructor had brought in a box of Peeps candies.
* Hiding a stuffed monkey in a fake tree outside the charge nurse office. Charge nurse looked through the window, saw the monkey and cracked up.
* Finding a "Go Buckeyes" sticker on my U of M Alumni coffee mug. Got the perp back by hiding a musical button programmed with "The Victors" under one of his patient charts.
Surely mine isn't the only unit with this kind of tradition. Go ahead and write 'em in!
I love seeing and hearing about practical jokes :) Not so keen on being the one doing them though as I keep second guessing myself and that makes it not so fun, but still love to hear them
FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I
3,619 Posts
I love your last sentence. It says everything.