What a story!

Courtney Lemanski, BSN, RN · Mar 22, 2014

My story is called "Naked Man Running"... because that is literally what had happened. It was not quite time for my shift to start, I was sipping my coffee and casually heard a bed alarm go off. I didn't see anyone from the night shift running as if we had a particularly feisty patient over night... but I walked towards the alarm just to make sure since I didn't see anyone around. As I turned to the patient room... a tall elderly man was running at me out the door... IV still attached to his arm as the tape was clinging to his skin for dear life. Clearly he had been confused and stripped himself before this endeavor. He began to slip but I caught him as a near miss... saved the IV....but I will always remember this day. Needless to say, I was so jolted after catching him... I didn't need the coffee that morning.

NurseDirtyBird · Mar 22, 2014

I worked in a dementia care unit for a while. I had a group of moderately functional residents who were convinced they were on vacation and asked to be shown their "hotel rooms" before they went sight seeing. I walked around the unit with them and pointed out their rooms to them. Two ladies asked to be roomed together and I had to explain that because they hadn't requested to room together when they made their reservations, we were unable to accommodate their request. They understood. We ended up going around the unit seven or eight times because they'd already forgotten what was going on by the end of their "tour." Finally one asked for her bill, and after explaining that her family had paid the bill already about 10 times, I finally just wrote up a "receipt" on a sheet of paper and gave it to her. She still asked for the bill several more times, but I was able to remind her I'd given it to her and she was holding it in her hand. This is one of my fondest memories of working there.

feelix, RN · Mar 23, 2014

Brain injury patient would come out of his room every 5 PM and ask the nurse at the nurses station: "Yes, I would like to have a burger and some fries." Would make my day every day.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I was working nights. My patient was an elderly lady who wanted to go home, right now, and it was about 1am. I tried reasoning with her, but that didn't really work. She called 911 and reported that a crazy woman was holding her hostage. I found this out when the police department traced the call, called the nurses station, and told me what was up.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I was working corrections, in the infirmary. We had locked isolation rooms. One day I entered one of the rooms, and left my key in the door. I couldn't get out. Being a prison, there was no phone in the room, and we weren't allowed to carry cell phones. I was in a panic because I have claustrophobia. I pounded on the door, but no one heard me. Eventually an inmate patient was walking down the hall and saw my terrified face plastered against the window. He went and got help, thank goodness.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I was working nights in a hospital. We heard a noise that sounded like someone might have fallen out of bed, so several nurses ran to investigate. One of the nurses pushed the door open hard. The patient was lying on the floor, and the door hit the mans head so hard it caused his head to bleed.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I was working nights in a hospital. We started to hear loud, but muffled screaming. We looked in all the rooms but couldn't figure out where the screaming was coming from, so we called security and reported that the screaming might be coming from outside. They couldn't find anything. Turns out there was a patient downstairs from us who was screaming so loud that his voice carried up the heating ducts.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I hate to admit this but I was doing private duty one night for a confused patient. He was sleeping so soundly. Unfortuneantly I fell asleep. When I woke up the man was gone. I was in a panic. I ran out to the hallway and there he was, walking naked down the hallway dripping poop on the carpet. I felt awful! Yes I know I shouldn't have fallen asleep.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

One night we nurses were lunching in the report room. An intern came in and was asking for something. He had a heavy accent and I really couldn't understand what he was saying. I thought he said something about "scraps" so I thought he might be hungry and I offered him a banana. He was actually asking where he could find some clean scrubs.

middleagednurse · Mar 23, 2014

I was working staff relief, and I went to a new hospital. I had received report, and was rounding, meeting my patients. I walked into an elderly man's room, who was a recent admission, and introduced myself, and he didn't respond. I stared at him and thought, "I don't think he's breathing". He had 2 visitors sitting at the bedside who had not even noticed. He was in full arrest. I was able to call a code and initiate CPR. Turns out he was on nitrates and had taken a couple of Viagra a few hours previously. Guess it took a while to catch up with him.

ReadyToListen, CNA, EMT-B · Oct 20, 2015

Well in school today we discussed the very popular subject of pee and poo and nurses :) That reminded me of a very hilarious story from the ICU. A large-sized post op man was fussing about feeling gassy and constipated. His nurse was trying to convince him that he should at least walk around his room a few steps but he didn't really want to move. Finally the nurse decided to let PT fight it out with him and went off to chart. She sat down outside his room at the nurse's station and a few seconds later she heard "Oh &^*$^, #^()#*, I think I farted!!" She pulled back his curtain and he was stand by his bed and he had definitely farted and then some! It looked like a pressure hose of feces had shot from his butt all the way to the door!! The housekeeper was at the very end of her shift. Or not.