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!)
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
Nlang1989 said:
Mine had to be my first week at the hospital. I was on tele on the night ahift and at 2am the monitor tech calls me to tell me one of my pts took off their heart monitor. I went in the room and it was a horror show. There was poop EVERYWHERE!!! It was on the toilet seat, in the shower, trailing to the bed. The pt was covered in poop and laying in his bed like nothing happened. To make matters worse he was a flaky man. His skin was so dry. It took me at least 2 hiurs to wash him and the bed. I had housekeeping clean the bathroom.
I had the same thing happen to me twice on the same shift with a resident in a nursing home. Then the following morning we all got chewed out for not caring for our residents. They were covered in poop. We later learned it was the food they ate.
My very first day on the floor as a CNA I had to go in to watch the other girls clean up a woman who had a bad case of diarrhea. As they pealed back the depend full of loose stool, she started squirting poop everywhere! All across the room! On the walls, floor, EVERYWHERE. I thought I was going to die right there and that I had chosen the wrong profession. Yet here I am, back at it in nursing school. Lol can't scare me. :)
It took four days for me to read all 2082 posts! I'm glad I know what to be on the look out for once I'm officially a nursing student!
I work for a podiatry practice so I see a great deal of icky wounds. I do just fine with blood, pus, and tissue bits...I can handle necrotic toes and exposed bone/tendons...but I absolutely cannot stand poor wound hygiene. I HATE when patients insist on removing their own bloody bandages (without gloving or washing their hands) and then proceed to touch EVERYTHING in the exam rooms. Or when people feel the need to pick at or probe their gaping wounds. My all time favorite is when I remove a bandage and they have all kinds of debris and pet hair in there. And they wonder why that infection won't clear up....
So I'm working as a tech in a hospital and we get this pt. He was in his 40's, and one of those patients who came in just... covered in dirt and old clothes and matted hair. and you can just sense something is "off" with them.
So I get report that he's bed bound and incontinent. A&Ox3, Used his call light appropriately when he needs to be cleaned up, and having diarrhea so he's going a lot. (But it's like.. diarrhea with some chunks in it, not pure liquid. )
So he hits his call light and says he had a bm, i go in to clean him up and am met with a horrific sight. He had apparently gone a while ago... and been playing it. He pulled the pad out from under him stuck his hands in it, picked up chunks and threw them across the room. Drew smiley faces on the wall in stool. Wrote "Hi! :-)" on the wall. Shoved some towels between his legs to sop up some poop then flung them in different places in the room. He had a semi-private room with no roommate so there was some room to fling poop, and boy did he fling that poop. So anyway, I suck up my "what-on-earth-face" and put on the blank professional face and clean him up first. He doesn't say a word to me the whole time. Then I quietly get some towels and bleach wipes and start tackling the room.
I'd had my back turned and was scrubbing (now partially dried) poop off the floor when I hear him mutter something, so I turn around and he's intently watching me clean up the mess he made. And masturbating. I'm trying to keep my face professional when I realize that he's mumbling "CLEAN my mess. Oh yeah."
At that point I silently bagged up the towels, left the room, closed the door, and instructed the clerk to please page housekeeping, rofl.
So I'm working as a tech in a hospital and we get this pt. He was in his 40's, and one of those patients who came in just... covered in dirt and old clothes and matted hair. and you can just sense something is "off" with them.
So I get report that he's bed bound and incontinent. A&Ox3, Used his call light appropriately when he needs to be cleaned up, and having diarrhea so he's going a lot. (But it's like.. diarrhea with some chunks in it, not pure liquid. )
So he hits his call light and says he had a bm, i go in to clean him up and am met with a horrific sight. He had apparently gone a while ago... and been playing it. He pulled the pad out from under him stuck his hands in it, picked up chunks and threw them across the room. Drew smiley faces on the wall in stool. Wrote "Hi! :-)" on the wall. Shoved some towels between his legs to sop up some poop then flung them in different places in the room. He had a semi-private room with no roommate so there was some room to fling poop, and boy did he fling that poop. So anyway, I suck up my "what-on-earth-face" and put on the blank professional face and clean him up first. He doesn't say a word to me the whole time. Then I quietly get some towels and bleach wipes and start tackling the room.
I'd had my back turned and was scrubbing (now partially dried) poop off the floor when I hear him mutter something, so I turn around and he's intently watching me clean up the mess he made. And masturbating. I'm trying to keep my face professional when I realize that he's mumbling "CLEAN my mess. Oh yeah."
At that point I silently bagged up the towels, left the room, closed the door, and instructed the clerk to please page housekeeping, rofl.
Oh dear God. Please forgive me rad10, but I'm dying from laughter reading your post! It's great you were able to keep a straight face during it, I'm not sure if I would have! Poor housekeeping, no idea what they're getting themselves into LOL.
I'm not entirely sure what my face looked like when I realized what he was saying, but I really tried!! lol. But I definitely took an extra long shower that night!
I was working med/surg and another RN had a patient from out of the country. She begged me to help her and said that if I helped her she would do my next four "poopy" diapers since I cannot stand poop. Anyway, when I went into the patient's room the patient was coughing and coughing and he actually spit something in the trashcan. The RN asked if I could see what it was and possibly put it in a specimen cup. Well, after seeing what it was I had to go get long tweezers. Imagine my surprise when I pulled an 18 inch pink wiggling worm out of the trashcan. This worm was wiggling and wiggling, trying to get away..... UGGHHHH!
It's great you were able to keep a straight face during it, I'm not sure if I would have! Poor housekeeping, no idea what they're getting themselves into LOL.
FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I
3,619 Posts
I had the same thing happen to me twice on the same shift with a resident in a nursing home. Then the following morning we all got chewed out for not caring for our residents. They were covered in poop. We later learned it was the food they ate.