Nurses General Nursing
Published Sep 12, 2014
duskyjewel
1,335 Posts
I saw a weird combination of objects at work last night, and it made me wonder. What are some of the oddest combinations of objects you've seen that could really only happen in a healthcare setting?
Mine was a book of Rodin sculptures propped up on a bedside commode.
middleagednurse
554 Posts
A jug of antifreeze on the dining room table in a homw where 3 children live.
liberated847
504 Posts
A toast that looked like Elvis
TheCommuter, BSN, RN
102 Articles; 27,612 Posts
Two entitled visitors were laying on an unclean hospital bed that, just a couple of hours earlier, had been the same mattress used by a patient with multiple nonhealing diabetic ulcers and fungating wounds.
The visitors had the nerve to complain that the mattress was stinking. I so very badly wanted to say, "Who asked you to lay there?"
In case you're wondering, the environmental services (a.k.a. housekeeping) staff had already gone home for the day, and these family members had basically taken a room over that did not belong to them or the patient they were visiting.
ICURN3020
392 Posts
Not really weird, more along the lines of suspicious
Lighter and metal spoon (the kind from home) in a patient's bed
Hmmmm......
CrunchRN, ADN, RN
4,533 Posts
Two entitled visitors were laying on an unclean hospital bed that, just a couple of hours earlier, had been the same mattress used by a patient with multiple nonhealing diabetic ulcers and fungating wounds.The visitors had the nerve to complain that the mattress was stinking. I so very badly wanted to say, "Who asked you to lay there?"In case you're wondering, the environmental services (a.k.a. housekeeping) staff had already gone home for the day, and these family members had basically taken a room over that did not belong to them or the patient they were visiting.
Karma. LOL!
VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN
22 Articles; 9,987 Posts
A 400+ pound woman's bottom dentures pressed into the flesh of her left buttock.
A commode bucket with an enormous BM in the shape of an exclamation point.
A plant pot with three dead toes pushed into the dirt. (They belonged to one of my assisted living residents who believed that they would fertilize the plant. I don't even want to talk about how she lost them.)
I'll be back after I've jogged my memory for more.
abbnurse
377 Posts
Great thread, duskyjewel! Mine is about a patient I cared for who always carried a baby doll in her arms. She "fed" the baby from a small bottle of Tabasco sauce. ALWAYS......Tabasco sauce. When she put the baby doll to" bed", she wrapped it and the Tabasco sauce bottle in a little purple tie-dyed blanket. Very interesting combination of items, I always thought.
(I bought a tiny baby bottle with artificial milk inside and asked her if she would prefer to use that for feedings, and she replied '"No thanks, honey".)
toomuchbaloney
12,927 Posts
Most of the very weird things I have seen were not in a health care setting but were in patient homes where health care was being delivered.
There was that guy who had all of his pets "preserved" by taxodermy after they died (that was his hobby). They were mostly small dogs with a few cats and birds thrown in the mix. It was a creepy cramped and dark little house. Smelled funny too.
ceebeejay
389 Posts
Toes in the potted plants for the win! *jaw dropped*
Yeah. She had necrotic toes that she refused to have removed, fearing that her entire foot would be amputated. We were treating them with medicated cream and a gauze pad covered with Saran Wrap. (Yep, it was a real doctor's order.) Anyway, one night she ran over her toes in her wheelchair and they just.....fell.....off. My staff was horrified, but she swore it didn't hurt.
So she had this potted ficus, and she put the toes in there to "give it some extra nutrients". Honestly, I think she did it to tease the staff, most of whom were revolted by this and refused to go in her room more often than was absolutely necessary.
motherof3sons
223 Posts
A set of upper dentures found in lady parts of little old lady with dementia....question of the day is....now what do you do the teeth???