What was most embarrassing moment as a nurse?

ktwlpn, LPN · Apr 22, 2002

A l-o-n-g time ago I walked into a patient's room to find the ortho surgeon at the foot of the bed holding giant pliers-I saw a saw and bits of the cast on the floor-sweat was pouring from his brow.He had made a cut down the front of the leg cast and was attempting to pry it apart-he said-"Get that penny from the bedside table over there and drop it down in here" So-I did-literally....I dropped the penny down into the cast...I thought he would faint! I will never forget how stupid I felt when I realized what he really had wanted me to do....

moonrose2u · Apr 22, 2002

arriving a few minutes late for work.

rushing into report room, where report has been held for me while i hung up my coat.

crossing the room quickly..

and breaking wind..

loudly...very loudly...

well, you did say most embarrassing moment...

:imbar

P_RN, ADN, RN · Apr 22, 2002

One of our frequent repeaters came to the floor escorted by the admissions clerk and family members. Since I had just admitted and discharged him less than a week before I proceeded to just converse with him and fill in the form from memory. Then I stepped over to get vital signs and he said......

"Uhhhh *I*m not the one being admitted....it's my brother over there....."

I could have fallen through the floor!

night owl · Apr 22, 2002

It certainly was moonrose2u! Whenever someone does that, I always try to make them feel not so embarrassed by saying, "Just like being home!" With my son and my husband, sometimes you think they were having a contest! So I'm pretty used to all of those funky sounds and smells. :)

hapeewendy · Apr 22, 2002

this thread was created for me!!

yay!

wow kinda pathetic that I have so many embarassing nursing moments in my relatively short nursing career, then again a few of em came while I was a student

I like to say that different aspects of my life, and sometimes my work is like and I quote "a bad episode of seinfeld" you know, full of humour except for the person involved, quirky n clumsy etc.....well here goes

as a second year nursing student doing a med surg rotation, we had a patient who had MD , we got him up in the hoyer, feeling really good about it, chit chatting away, great patient,(thank goodness for that later!) he is hovering mid air as my friend and fellow nursing student is trying to organize his wheelchair, okay all ready, we lower him down and start to unhook the hoyer lift and whammo, his catheter bag exploded, yes exploded, in our eagerness to show our skills with the hoyer we forgot to empty his foley and it got poked with something and exploded, all over pt, all over floor all over poor little hapeewendy.....

situation wasnt so bad, i mean urine is a pure substance and whatnot right? so we rush rush rush to get papertowels ,blue pads to clean this mess up and then we hear it..... *click click click*

and the bellowing from behind the curtain "and what do you two think youre doing?" it was skeletor! Our clinical teacher........she kept rushing us to clean it up clean the patient up and then later said to me "I hope you understand the importance of emptying and montitoring a foley after your golden shower"

then as a pregrad student, had a really nice young patient that had a hysterectomy, i was in her room and she dropped her make up bag, I bent over to pick it up , and she was talking to me about something and i didnt hear her, I went to get up and *SMACK* hit my head dead center on the little swinging TV in the room....that hurt like a son of a gun, I pretended to be okay , but my tears gave it away, turns out the patient was trying to tell me to watch out and not hit the TV (thank you for that valuable advice!)

during my first ever code as an rn, I went to grab the board from the wall (we had a huge board on the wall because our little board from the crash cart was being repaired at the time) so I grab this huge board, adrenaline pumping, gonna be super heroic nurse here and because the board is about ummmmmmm 6 feet in length and I'm about 5'3 in shoes standing uphill on my tippy toes

I fell over the damn thing....luckily only one person I work with saw me...managed not to laugh her a$$ off at me til after the code...

pt made it so it was a happy ending

but once again I felt like I had all the agility of a pro wrassler

theres more, I'm sure , but I think I have humiliated myself enough for one night

or at least a few hours

cheers

night owl · Apr 22, 2002

Those dang tv's! Always wacking my head. I think that's part reason why I'm mindless today!

ma kettle · Apr 23, 2002

As a new nurse fresh out of school. I was in a hurry to get my shift wrapped up. I had a male patient that was an CVA from while back. He was completely aphasic, or sp they claimed. We I trying to hurry, and I tripped over his foley cather, well for some one who was completely aphasic, he sure did yell " OUCH you Hurt my c.ck" . I was embarrased . Little TURP anyone.

Sandy

TracyB,RN, RN · Apr 23, 2002

It would have to be the time in LPN clinical, was all contorted trying to get a Foley in a HORRIBLY contracted female:(

anyway, bent over & my pants split, all the way from back to front. Thank GOD, we had long smocks & were just about done for the day.:imbar

NurseDennie, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2002

Oh my. Those would all be embarassing. But mine was just drop through the floor BAD!!!

I was still on orientation, I was admitting a new person, I don't even remember her dx - she was A&Ox3 (which is pretty unusual) but she was diabetic and had bx amputations up and down!

There are questions on the admission form about ETOH use, and she bought some with her disability check every month. The next question was "How long have you used alcohol?" and I was very nervous, my mouth was dry and my lips stuck together and I asked how long she'd "buh-buh-bused" alcohol, and it sounded like I was asking her how long she'd ABUSED alcohol.

I was mortified. I RUSHED to say I meant USED, but the damage was done. I'll never forget the look on the face of my preceptor, who had been sitting on the windowsill, watching me admit this woman.

Lord, please don't EVER let me do anything that stupid again, ever, please. Amen

Love

Dennie

misti_z · Apr 23, 2002

This is really embarrassing.......and stupid :)

Happened right out of nursing school one of the first times I inserted a foley. I was in a really big hurry, grapped the foley out of the supply pyxis and hurried to the room. Got the foley in, no problem...then it hit me. I had put in a straight cath.....crap......well needless to say I had to pull it back out and get the correct one.

babynurselsa, RN · Apr 23, 2002

I am right there with ya wendy. Grace was definitly not a virtue that the good Lord gifted me with.......

Something that I usually wait to share with new employer until after I have started working is that sometimes I fall.

There seem to be prerequisites to this

a) It must be an emergent situation.

b)there must be no less that a dozen people around to see.

We got code pinked to a delivery. As we ran out the door of the NICU there was a large crowd of people standing directly in frony of it. My RT and Doc that were with me were big guys and everyone parted for them. I guess they couldn't see little ole me cause the next thing I know I am sliding down the hall on my knees, my delivery box sliding along beside me, long and loud stream of explicitives streaming from my mouth. My doc was running in the middle trying to pull me up and grab my box. Heads were popping out of the L&D nurses station and all of the rooms down the hall. I did manage to regain my footing after about a 15 ft slide and make it to the delivery.

After the delivery when it was determined I was relatively ok (Idid manage to blow out my knee) all of my dear friends in L&D went checking with families to see if perchance anyone happened to have their camcorder going at the time. Thank God no one did and that none of them thought to call Security as there was a camera in the hall.:imbar