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

[yazisizit]

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!

[Jessiedog, RN]

OMG - these stories are amazingly horrible.

I have been following this thread since it's inception, and I cannot stop no matter how horrifiying.

My hat's off to all you "real" nurses. I just don't think I could have done these things with these people. Y'all are just amazing and wonderful and I admire you to no end.

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

The reason 'us nurses' cope with these and all other horrible things, is that they're attached to a human being who is in need of care. Yes, they're horrible, yes they make you gag and heave (yes, even seasoned nurses!) Yes, you go home and cry often, but in the end, somebody who was suffering, uncomfortable, in pain, afraid or sick, is feeling that little bit better because you were in the world. It's amazing the things you find you can do when it matters.

Sometimes these yucky horrible things don't seem all that yucky while they're happening; you just get in and do what needs to be done, trying not to make an unwell person feel even worse because they've just vomited faecal matter all over your shoes (or worse!) It's afterwards that the true horror can set in, and then you've got a great story to tell and make your family go 'a whiter shade of pale' .

Then, of course, there's always the time that you can't help it, and have to run out of the room before you lose your lunch. But there's usually something inside you that just makes you go back and deal with it. There is, after all, a living human being who needs help.

[nursebabygirl 08]

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.

Now that's nasty!!!:barf01:

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

I was doing my clinical on a medical ward, and heard my preceptor yell for help. We had a patient in an isolation room who was very confused, suffering from gastro, and also had some antibiotic resistant bug, probably MRSA. Well, he had managed to pull out his IV, crawl over the bed rails, in the process, divesting himself of his nightgown, exited his room, and was now on his hands and knees, crawling along the hallway of the ward. To top it off, he was absolultely COVERED from stem to stern with dried poop!! My preceptor yelled at me to get a gown. I assumed she wanted me to cover the totally naked patient, as there were quite a few visitors watching what was going on. I threw the gown over him, and she yelled, "No, get one for YOURSELF, to cover your clothes!!"

We all got gowns and gloves, but by this time, we had started to cackle hysterically at what was happening. We grabbed the old gent, and hauled him to his feet, but he broke away from us, and made another dash for it. He too was giggling at this point. We finally managed to get him back into the room, and into the shower. I got the job of doing the shower, and he was NOT co-operative. I kept having to push him back into the shower, and wound up getting poop right through the gown, and onto my uniform. I had to go to Emerg and borrow a scrub dress to finish my shift. To top it off one of the visitors was so shocked at us laughing that she reported us to admin!

Reminds me of a time when I used to work on the dementia unit as an aide. I was taking care of one of my residents when all of a sudden I hear the nurse yelling for me from the other side of the unit. I see one of my residents (who primarily used a wheelchair but could walk with a walker & assistance walking along down the hallway, "******* like a pony" as the nurse put it. First I tried to figure out how the heck he got standing up by himself (he was a serious fall risk, bed all the way at the floor with extra matresses on each side, type) Absolutely covered stem to stern as well, as he had pulled off his depends and left it in the room. I obviously assess the situation, and realize that I'm going to have to put him in the shower, but he HATED the shower and there was no time to get the wheelchair, as we were closer to the shower room anyhow. So I said to him "Mr. B, I need your help! Can you push my linen cart this way for me?" So I get him to "help" me push my linen cart, right into the shower room, and right into the whirlpool bath, where I proceeded to scrub all the poo off with the help of a nurse. As a new aide, it was quite the experience. That resident passed on not too long ago (I don't work there anymore) but he was always one of my favorites.

[nursebabygirl 08]

Reminds me of a time when I used to work on the dementia unit as an aide. I was taking care of one of my residents when all of a sudden I hear the nurse yelling for me from the other side of the unit. I see one of my residents (who primarily used a wheelchair but could walk with a walker & assistance walking along down the hallway, "sh*ting like a pony" as the nurse put it. First I tried to figure out how the heck he got standing up by himself (he was a serious fall risk, bed all the way at the floor with extra matresses on each side, type) Absolutely covered stem to stern as well, as he had pulled off his depends and left it in the room. I obviously assess the situation, and realize that I'm going to have to put him in the shower, but he HATED the shower and there was no time to get the wheelchair, as we were closer to the shower room anyhow. So I said to him "Mr. B, I need your help! Can you push my linen cart this way for me?" So I get him to "help" me push my linen cart, right into the shower room, and right into the whirlpool bath, where I proceeded to scrub all the poo off with the help of a nurse. As a new aide, it was quite the experience. That resident passed on not too long ago (I don't work there anymore) but he was always one of my favorites.

That's cute.... good way to distract the pt.

[Zaladreyn]

I've read every one of these, some while eating lunch or dinner, and not a one has made me pause. I think I'm ready for school.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

The reason 'us nurses' cope with these and all other horrible things, is that they're attached to a human being who is in need of care. Yes, they're horrible, yes they make you gag and heave (yes, even seasoned nurses!) Yes, you go home and cry often, but in the end, somebody who was suffering, uncomfortable, in pain, afraid or sick, is feeling that little bit better because you were in the world. It's amazing the things you find you can do when it matters.

Sometimes these yucky horrible things don't seem all that yucky while they're happening; you just get in and do what needs to be done, trying not to make an unwell person feel even worse because they've just vomited faecal matter all over your shoes (or worse!)

Very very true.:tku:

[Jarelle]

One night I was caring for this resident who is known for his cursing and his anger. I was taking him to the bathroom, and he said that he had to have a bowel movement, so I told him to pull the cord when he was done, and I'd come back and get him back to bed.

So after about 10-15 min. he pulled the cord, I came down to his room, opened the door....and I was like...OH MY GOSH! I ran out to the nurses station and grabbed my best friend and told him to come help me with this....we ran down to his room and we opened the door, my co-worker looks in the bathroom, shuts the door, looks at his watch, and says, "dang ya know what Jarelle, I gotta go on my lunch peace out!"

Come along with me for this crazy BM journey. When I opened the door this is the scene. Diarrhea everywhere. On the floor, on the walls, on the resident, on his face, his hands, the trash can, the sink, the door, the mirror, EVERYWHERE. And smack dab in the middle is a huge, and I'm talk the size of a softball and a half, piece of poop.

The resident looks at me, smiles, stands up and says "guess you have quite a mess to clean up now don't you?" I look at him and I say "Why? why me" he looks at me and says "Comes with the trade."

*sigh* took me over 2 hours to clean up the mess and him.

[midazoalm1953]

One night I was caring for this resident who is known for his cursing and his anger. I was taking him to the bathroom, and he said that he had to have a bowel movement, so I told him to pull the cord when he was done, and I'd come back and get him back to bed.

So after about 10-15 min. he pulled the cord, I came down to his room, opened the door....and I was like...OH MY GOSH! I ran out to the nurses station and grabbed my best friend and told him to come help me with this....we ran down to his room and we opened the door, my co-worker looks in the bathroom, shuts the door, looks at his watch, and says, "dang ya know what Jarelle, I gotta go on my lunch peace out!"

Come along with me for this crazy BM journey. When I opened the door this is the scene. Diarrhea everywhere. On the floor, on the walls, on the resident, on his face, his hands, the trash can, the sink, the door, the mirror, EVERYWHERE. And smack dab in the middle is a huge, and I'm talk the size of a softball and a half, piece of poop.

The resident looks at me, smiles, stands up and says "guess you have quite a mess to clean up now don't you?" I look at him and I say "Why? why me" he looks at me and says "Comes with the trade."

*sigh* took me over 2 hours to clean up the mess and him.

disgusting...and I would have made him clean it up....total BS

[frenchfroggyAPRN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN]

Just got home from work, had a LOL 88 in the ER, placed a FC and had soymilk colored urine, she reeked of yeast, had an elevated K+ level and a white count of 30 thousand. I was soo glad when I went home tonight.

[jodibmk]

I've got a gross one. I've worked in an ER and I can handle just about any body fluid (and have) except earwax. Earwax grosses me out. Was working in an ER in Puerto Rico while in the Navy and we had homeless dependent uncle or some relation come into ER c/o trouble hearing. On exam, doc found both ears severly packed with thick, green earwax. YUMMMMEY!

Well, yours truly gets to irrigate his ears, not the thrill of my life. I irrigated so much earwax out of that man's ears, it was coming out in big, green nuggets. When I showed pt emesis basin of what I had cleaned out of his scuzzy ears, he proceeds to get a big smile on his face, picked up one of the greasy nuggets and eats it!!! YUCK! I just about pucked on myself with that one. To this day, can barely clean my own ears!

Okay that one made me feel nauseous. And I thought that I had a strong stomach!

[mangosteen]

so i meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste

you had your arms around her bodily waste? ha ha ha! this is a not-intended-pun that is too punny!!!

ha ha ha.

laughing in silent! ha ha ha. :d:d:d:d

[nitroprussideNlight]

I have two. The first one happened while I was an Aide. I had an MRDD pt with a colostomy who would consistently play with the appliance. She rung the bell and I went in the room as she removes the stoma-hesive, bag and all, and throws the bag like a gernade hitting me in the scrub top. I first stood there to process what happened and then I immediately ran out of the room, called supplies and ordered a new set of scrubs, and told my fellow aides and RN that I would be taking a 45 minute break as I needed to shower.

The other one happened the other day actually. I am in the ICU doing clinicals and my pt had expressive aphasia and I did not know she ment she "needed to spit" so I dismisssed it and told her I did not understand her but I wanted to listen to her lungs, well as I am listening she spits a pretty good sized, warm moist, sticky, dark brown, loogie right on my arm. I start gagging because I am really muco-phobic when it comes to it being in contact with me, and my instructor looks over at me pulling it off of my arm and it is very stretchy, she gagged and left the floor. lol