What Is Your Most Gross, Yucky, Disgusting Nursing Horror Story?

Here is my most gross, yucky, disgusting nursing story! Nurses Humor Article

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I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.

We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.

So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!

I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.

As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...

My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.

Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.

As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)

And of course, now so did I! :D

Specializes in onc, M/S, hospice, nursing informatics.
I think I've posted this one before, but here goes! I was a fairly new nurse in a nursing home & we had a bedridden patient with an enormous abcess on his back...it actually looked like an infected zit.

All shifts were dressing & cleansing this wound, he was on ATB's as well. I had to change the dressing & cleanse it one day & the (male) aide I had asked to assist me in holding this fellow on his side told me "I can take care of this problem, RIGHT NOW!!!"

Ronnie proceded to apply pressure around the abcess & popped that sucker right open! It shot across the bed & landed on the wall behind me....it looked like someone had thrown a raw egg against the wall! I was horrified!

It took a couple days to quit draining & heal up, but it did in less than a week. After many weeks of "treating" this nasty thing, an aide (& not a really good one for that matter) remedied the problem in a day!

I love stories like this... wish I could have been the one doing the popping. I don't get near enough of that in my job.

In fact, we have a lady now who had a huge blackhead in her groin which I had my eye on the other night. I didn't pop it because I didn't want her to bleed all over or have a huge hole in her groin (plus she wasn't even my patient). Well, last night another nurse (in whom I confided my love of popping such things) told me, "I just got this humungous blackhead out of this lady's groin!"

I was mad at her all night for stealing my fun! :chuckle

Specializes in PEDS-HEM/ONC.

I didn't know you could get blackheads down there!! :eek:

You can get blackheads just about anywhere....trust me.:grn:

:eek: My first few months in a burn center we had a twenty something man admitted with TENS (nasty condition where the epidermis sloughs off and the mucous membranes, including the mouth, inner eye lids,and lungs slough off, and bleed and bleed and bleed) who had a history of IVDA, HIV, hepatitis, syphillis and herpes, not to mention a real joyful personality(one the rare times a patient on our floor was not intubated). Pts with TENS with ocular involvement often need to have their eyes "swept" with cotton swabs as often as hourly to perserve their sight: not exactly a comfortable sensation. Anyway, this gentlemen was so enthusiastic about his care regimen that he would spit blood AT you: purposely trying to hit you. Luckily he didn't succeed at hitting me, but a few of the staff did get "up close and personal" with his blood and body fluids (even with a full gown, mask, hat gettup, it still is gross to be spit at, especially blood). Yikes. Then there was the time that a 60% burn victim who hadn't pooped in days had a code brown blow out that literally was dripping off of the bed and puddling on the floor almost immediately after his two hour bath and dressing change. Never mind the insanity, that unit was a blast to work on excellent people made it tolerable, and every shift was "a party in blue pajamas"!

Hats off to those of you who work in the burn units....that must truly be a living hell for anyone with any sense of compassion....I applaud you all.....

Specializes in PICU, CCU, Psych.

When I worked as a pharmacy tech at Walgreen's, and old woman called and asked to speak to the pharmacist one day. I could tell by his reactions that this was a very interesting phone call. This is the story he told after the call ended.

Old Lady (OL): My pills aren't working. I keep passing them in the toilet.

Pharmacist (Ph): Those are extended release tablets. The medication is released from tiny holes in the pill casing. Sometimes the casings don't fully dissolve, so it's normal to pass them in your bowel movement.

OL: Oh. So I shouldn't wash them off and take them again?

Ph: (Gagging) No, no! Don't do that! You might want to go to the emergency room!

I love stories like this... wish I could have been the one doing the popping. I don't get near enough of that in my job.

In fact, we have a lady now who had a huge blackhead in her groin which I had my eye on the other night. I didn't pop it because I didn't want her to bleed all over or have a huge hole in her groin (plus she wasn't even my patient). Well, last night another nurse (in whom I confided my love of popping such things) told me, "I just got this humungous blackhead out of this lady's groin!"

I was mad at her all night for stealing my fun! :chuckle

And i thought that i was the only one who liked popping blackheads!!!

Specializes in med/surg, day surgery, psych as a CNA.

When I was working med/surg I had a coworker who had a patient with an NG tube. The cannister got full and she went to change it. If you don't push down and secure the top, it can be loose. Um, anyway, as she was carrying it down the hall to dispose of it, the lid came off and the ummm, contents, splashed up and into her face and a big plop fell on her shoes. Needless to say, she went home ill.

When I worked in a psych unit we had a pt who was mentally retarded who had a pica infliction (eating non-food objects). It was my turn to shower him and as he was in the shower, I noticed him chewing something. I asked him to spit it out.. umm, out came a very large turd. He spit it out just so, and it landed on the wall of the shower and slowly came down, resting on the drain. His teeth were brown. This I noticed because he had a large smile going on. Now I feel sick. Off to another thread....:eek:

When I was working med/surg I had a coworker who had a patient with an NG tube. The cannister got full and she went to change it. If you don't push down and secure the top, it can be loose. Um, anyway, as she was carrying it down the hall to dispose of it, the lid came off and the ummm, contents, splashed up and into her face and a big plop fell on her shoes. Needless to say, she went home ill.

When I worked in a psych unit we had a pt who was mentally retarded who had a pica infliction (eating non-food objects). It was my turn to shower him and as he was in the shower, I noticed him chewing something. I asked him to spit it out.. umm, out came a very large turd. He spit it out just so, and it landed on the wall of the shower and slowly came down, resting on the drain. His teeth were brown. This I noticed because he had a large smile going on. Now I feel sick. Off to another thread....:eek:

Now that's rank!!!:imbar

Oh gawd....that reminds me of when I used to work with disabled adults. Many of them had pica. One lady at a garbage bag. Another had a taste for used cigarette butts.

We had one resident who had prader willi syndrome. He would stop at nothing to get food, even tho the cabinets and the fridge were locked. He had 24 hour care. He would wait until someone "new" looked after him and make his move. He didnt have to wait long one time....a staff memeber left a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter out. Five minutes later, the bread bag is empty and the peanut butter jar is too. We KNEW that the resident had eaten it, but couldnt figure out how he managed to do it so fast! Turns out he smeared the peanut butter all over his belly, stuck the bread to the peanut butter, pulled his shirt over it, and snuck back out of the kitchen. We were impressed. This same resident scarfed down a loaf of bread one time, choked, and ended up intubated for 24 hours.....ate 2 pounds of sunflower seeds WITH THE SHELLS.....ate 4 pounds of cheese......I could go on!

Specializes in med/surg, day surgery, psych as a CNA.

Sounds like we worked at a similar place. Another fond memory is seeing two young female pica residents "sharing" their "kotex" pads. By sharing I mean eating. Then there is the guy with a colostomy who when he got mad at someone, would rip his colostomy bag off and shower the entire room with the contents. Then there's the client who I was feeding (I was a CNA during these fun times) and he was sleepy and I tried to rouse him to eat. He fell asleep with his mouth open. I kept hearing buzz buzz buzz sound. I keep prodding him when suddenly about 4 horse flies came flying lazily out of his mouth.

I am so thankful I work in day surgery now. I've seen enough of this kind of stuff. I have said before that if I wrote a book about what I've seen working in psych, no one would believe me except nurses and those who work in psych.

Specializes in orthopaedics.

years ago this guy i dated worked in an mrdd facility. there was a young girl that liked to hide a lot. one day during med pass they couldn't find her. looking for about twenty minutes they found her in the closet with the nail clippers. she had clipped her front teeth with the clippers. still to this day i can barely thinkof it.:grn:

years ago this guy i dated worked in an mrdd facility. there was a young girl that liked to hide a lot. one day during med pass they couldn't find her. looking for about twenty minutes they found her in the closet with the nail clippers. she had clipped her front teeth with the clippers. still to this day i can barely thinkof it.:grn:

owwww!!!!! my teeth hurt just reading that! :eek:

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