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

[RNrhythm, BSN, RN]

As a new grad, during my very first code ever, doing compressions on a human for the first time, some sort of implanted port in the upper chest (Portacath, I assume) ruptured and I was drenched in blood from the elbows down. In my haste, I was not wearing a mask. Apparently I got really pale.

Another time, I had a patient sneeze and suddenly projectile vomit right onto my chest, right at shift change so there were twice as many staff around. I then slipped in the vomit, fell, and my glasses slid under the bed (found later). I called for help and no one came. I staggered into the hall and shouted, "What the f***? Stop what you are doing and help me." One registry CNA ran over and helped. We still joke about it.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

RNrhythm said:

As a new grad, during my very first code ever, doing compressions on a human for the first time, some sort of implanted port in the upper chest (Portacath, I assume) ruptured and I was drenched in blood from the elbows down. In my haste, I was not wearing a mask. Apparently I got really pale.

Another time, I had a patient sneeze and suddenly projectile vomit right onto my chest, right at shift change so there were twice as many staff around. I then slipped in the vomit, fell, and my glasses slid under the bed (found later). I called for help and no one came. I staggered into the hall and shouted, "What the f***? Stop what you are doing and help me." One registry CNA ran over and helped. We still joke about it.

So would I.That story was like a slapstick one. ?

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

BettyGirard said:

I guess mine sounds tame compared to most. I've got a hold of a student's penis and about to insert a foley with my other hand when he decides at that point to urinate. Hit me straight in the face. I should have just squeezed the flow off I guess but I wasn't thinking and just redirected it spraying urine all over the room.

I'm confused... were you all practicing catheter insertions on fellow students? lol There would've been no way they would've talked me into that one!

[BettyGirard, BSN]

Christy1019 said:

I'm confused... were you all practicing catheter insertions on fellow students? lol There would've been no way they would've talked me into that one!

Oh, no, not a fellow student. Never did that (I did let a fellow student do a blood draw on me once as she had never had a chance to do so yet). It was a student attending the high school I work at.

[Lorri Cook, ADN, RN]

In nursing school, I stayed late to help a med-surg nurse with a cirrhosis patient that was hyperkalemic. She had previously given this guy some kayexelate, gotten him to the bathroom, where he did not have a BM. Since he was in a wheelchair, I helped her get him into bed, and he laid on his right side, with his back to me, and his gown has fallen open in the back. I walked a few steps away from the bed and crouched down to find my keys in my backpack, and I heard a loud burp of flatulence, and got splattered on the back by something warm and heavy. You guessed it. This guy was so mortified and apologetic, and the nurse helped me get cleaned up and sent me home with a clean scrub top. Welcome to nursing!

[GaleSRN51]

It was my first day of orientation in the ER. A woman was brought in for overdose. We had a doctor on duty who always wore freshly ironed scrubs. His hair was perfect, and he was a real jerk. Never wanted to get his hands dirty. Anyway, OD lady comes in so we start shoving a large tube down her throat to get the drugs out of her system. I shove this huge tube down, not really realizing that it would cause major peristaltic action. The tube hit her stomach and this fountain of Pineapple ad Ham pizza came spewing out. It shot up in the air and fell directly on the pristine ER doctor. He was covered with this lady’s second hand pizza and drugs.

My preceptor leaned over as I was standing there in shock, and said..”Could not have happened to a better guy”.

To this day I cannot stand pineapple and ham pizza.

[guest1135272]

pushing a stretcher, not knowing until someone told me i was dripping poop down the hallway all the way from the er to 6th floor

[LPN Retired, LPN]

My initiation into the nursing field came as I first started as a nurse's aide. They had me accompanying other aides for my training to learn what I had to do. One little lady who was admitted from home, came in with huge decubitus all over her buttocks. The odor was the most horrible I had ever smelled. (Remember I was totally new to this world.) The aide I was with gowned herself all up, and she took a towel and wrapped it around her head like i do now after I wash my hair. Then she took another towel and wrapped it around her nose and mouth and tucked it in the back. she fashioned her own face mask. Back in that day, supplies were not readily available like today. We had to make do. And of course, me being the trainee, I followed her example. But with all that wrapping it did not hide the odor. I vaguely remember the treatment we had to do was to flush out the decubitus with some kind of solution. The wounds were so bad, the solution poured into one would drain out of another. I still to this day have not seen anything close to that severity. I'm sure the little lady passed soon after. That's been over 4o years ago.

[LPN Retired, LPN]

My initiation into the nursing field came as I first started as a nurse's aide. They had me accompanying other aides for my training to learn what I had to do. One little lady who was admitted from home, came in with huge decubitus all over her buttocks. The odor was the most horrible I had ever smelled. (Remember I was totally new to this world.) The aide I was with gowned herself all up, and she took a towel and wrapped it around her head like i do now after I wash my hair. Then she took another towel and wrapped it around her nose and mouth and tucked it in the back. she fashioned her own face mask. Back in that day, supplies were not readily available like today. We had to make do. And of course, me being the trainee, I followed her example. But with all that wrapping it did not hide the odor. I vaguely remember the treatment we had to do was to flush out the decubitus with some kind of solution. The wounds were so bad, the solution poured into one would drain out of another. I still to this day have not seen anything close to that severity. I'm sure the little lady passed soon after. That's been over 40 years ago.

Another that comes to my mind, I was moonlighting at the nursing home, and a little man was admitted who had TB that went untreated for years. It ate a hole from,his left lung clear to the outside. The only thing I can say to explain the odor, is that it smelled like 3 or 4 day old roadkill, in the hot summer sun. They placed him,in a room right next to the entry/exit door, the little shorthall right next to the med room . I worked on TBE med cart, and another nurse was responsible for the treatments, so I,did not have to do the treatment on him . But the odor was so bad it just permeated the hallway there by the med room. I lived in fear that one day I would be told I had to do the treatment, but it never happened.

Those the worse 2 yuckies of my career. I'm retired now.