Your most embarrassing experience with a patient

[FranEMTnurse]

I had a teenage male patient when I was in nursing school who I gave a specimen bottle to and asked him to give me a urine specimen. He urinated in the bottle while standing in front of me. I didn't expect his reaction, and I'm sure I had a red face when I left with his urine specimen in hand.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

GrnTea said:

I had a patient who got one of those and got a bad infection and never went home from the hospital, died in the ICU about 3 months postop. The saddest part was that his wife told us she told him he didn't have to do it for her, but he insisted. Never got to use it once.

We could start a thread about what men and women do to themselves, with misguided ideas about what the other one wants.

Sorry to hijack. But that is really sad.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Years and years ago, I worked for a state hospital that was doing one of the original studies on penile implants. In order to get on the list to get an implant, you first had to prove that you were impotent. The "proof" involved a hospital stay with a "monitor" (a paper band) on the member. If you got an nocturnal erection, you weren't really considered impotent, and wouldn't get the implant. I was a brand new nurse when I got my first "study" patient. If the patient had an erection, we were supposed to wake them up and show it to them.

So here I am, straight off the farm and brand new at nursing, hoping against hope that my patient didn't have an erection. Sure enough, he did. So I dutifully went into his room to wake him up and show it to him . . . whereupon he whipped aside the covers and said something like "So hop in here, Honey and we'll put it to use." EWWWWWWW!

[Emergent, RN]

Ruby Vee said:

Years and years ago, I worked for a state hospital that was doing one of the original studies on penile implants. In order to get on the list to get an implant, you first had to prove that you were impotent. The "proof" involved a hospital stay with a "monitor" (a paper band) on the member. If you got an nocturnal erection, you weren't really considered impotent, and wouldn't get the implant. I was a brand new nurse when I got my first "study" patient. If the patient had an erection, we were supposed to wake them up and show it to them.

So here I am, straight off the farm and brand new at nursing, hoping against hope that my patient didn't have an erection. Sure enough, he did. So I dutifully went into his room to wake him up and show it to him . . . whereupon he whipped aside the covers and said something like "So hop in here, Honey and we'll put it to use." EWWWWWWW!

Wow, this takes the cake. It sounds like the whole thing was set up by a deviant doctor under the guise of science. OMG!

[Enlightenedx]

dirtyhippiegirl said:

Literally best.post.ever. that I've read in my four-some-odd years here. I can't stop laughing.

I was at the bus and i was rethinking about this post and started to laugh by my own and everyone was watching me ''what is she laughing at''

LOL

[MECO28, BSN, RN]

Ruby Vee said:

Years and years ago, I worked for a state hospital that was doing one of the original studies on penile implants. In order to get on the list to get an implant, you first had to prove that you were impotent. The "proof" involved a hospital stay with a "monitor" (a paper band) on the member. If you got an nocturnal erection, you weren't really considered impotent, and wouldn't get the implant. I was a brand new nurse when I got my first "study" patient. If the patient had an erection, we were supposed to wake them up and show it to them.

So here I am, straight off the farm and brand new at nursing, hoping against hope that my patient didn't have an erection. Sure enough, he did. So I dutifully went into his room to wake him up and show it to him . . . whereupon he whipped aside the covers and said something like "So hop in here, Honey and we'll put it to use." EWWWWWWW!

"Good morning, sir. It is my duty to inform you that your soldier appears to be standing at attention."

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

Ok, seriously, how many of these most embarrassing stories involve patient genitals lol?!

My most embarrassing I described in another thread recently (gel disinfectant, in my eye, first day of my first nursing job).

To follow with others and their genital stories, and describe my most RECENT embarrassing story, I recently was doing a skin check on a new patient. Pt was a young male. You guessed it, under his underwear, clear as day, you could make out his very obvious erection. He just has this look on his face that begged not to pull away his underwear. Normally I couldn't care less about that kind of thing, but his embarrassment made me embarrassed. I checked everything except what was under his underwear, asked if his skin was intact there too, and walked out. I don't know who was more relieved not to continue that awkward encounter.

ETA. To clarify, I don't care about pts having weird physical um, reactions. Doesn't phase me. I do care about patients feeling bad or embarrassed about something.

[drv8928, CNA, EMT-B]

A patient was complaining of restless leg syndrome and asked if I could massage is calves bc they hurt. I'm in nursing school doing clinicals so I don't think anything of it. So I see his legs are really dry and I decided I should put lotion on him. I get the lotion and begin massaging his calves. A minute later he was like excuse me miss, I think it's better if we stop. You're beautiful and I'm a little to excited now if you know what I mean. I apologized and felt so awkward. But I didn't want to make him feel bad.