I have found myself so exhausted at times after a long stretch of 12 hr shifts or a particularly rough shift. A few funnies from my half-conscious, overworked, desperately need a break mind:
I've been known to tell my kids "shhh, you're in a hospital"....while I'm conked out on the couch and they play on the living room floor.
In response to my child asking me one morning at home to make them breakfast: "I'll have the secretary order you some".
Realizing half way to work that, no, I am not wearing my Danskos, I am wearing my SLIPPERS!!!
Twice (yes, twice) forgetting to turn my car ignition all the way to the "off" position and subsequently having to call a (very patient) family member in the early morning hours for a jump.
I threw a load of wash in, went to bed, and when I started folding it that night was thinking that my whites looked pretty dingy and oh my, I need to buy some new socks because they looked really dirty. A quick sniff and it was apparent that I washed, dried, and folded half a load without putting any detergent in! Fail!
This isn't funny, but one morning in April I was driving home in a snowstorm and traffic, and it took 1.5 hours. (It takes 20 minutes if I can drive the speed limit.) Towards the end of my ride, I saw a cyclist, swerved to avoid him, and wondered "What the heck is someone doing on his bike in this weather??"
There was no cyclist. I was hallucinating.
In hindsight I probably should have made a Starbucks stop on my way home.
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
-Poured a glass of ice water on my lap when I forgot I was holding it while trying to look at my watch
-Worn slippers to work, pants on backwards, totally mismatched clothing (it is called 0 dark 30 for a reason)
-Clean underwear fell out of my pants leg while walking through the building (hurrying through the load I HAD to do the night before so I would have something clean the next day)
Answered the phone at work with "can I hold you?"..
-Picked up the handset to the call bell system when the unit phone is ringing or try to make a call with the handset for the call bell system.
-Called a physician "Mr" repeatedly
-Accidently dialed the physician's cell right after speaking with him , thinking I had called home and my husband had answered.
-I watched a guy today hustling through the parking lot to get in on time proceed to hustle back to his car because he could not swipe into the building. He approached his car from the passenger side and was tearing things apart looking for his lanyard. As I backed out I saw it-hanging from his car door lock.
Specializes in Pediatrics, Ambulatory Care, Military.
Once ended a phone call with a doc by saying what hubby and I say to each other at the end of our calls: "I love you, bye!":wideyed:
I must have a similar voice as the wife of one of the docs I used to work with, because he did this to me during night shift more than once. A few times I was so tired/confused I naturally answered, "love you too." We probably had some rumors about us going around...
I threw a load of wash in, went to bed, and when I started folding it that night was thinking that my whites looked pretty dingy and oh my, I need to buy some new socks because they looked really dirty. A quick sniff and it was apparent that I washed, dried, and folded half a load without putting any detergent in! Fail!
Been there,done that, ASN, RN
7,241 Posts
LMAO! was one white and one black? Been there , done that. Even the chaplain was cracking up.