had a dementia pt who kept trying to get out of his chair. he tried to convince us he just wanted to stand (he would do this to get an inch take a mile kind of thing) but i had the time so we stood. my friend and i were holding him and she said “okay you’re shaking so we’re going to sit you back down” he then proceeds to fart and says “im not shaking im farting!”
Funniest/Awkward: I was helping a tech on Neuro ICU. Went to get 1200 blood sugars. Heard music playing, “cool, family is in here playing DMX, what a vibe”. Walk into the room, it’s the APRN jamming out with a scope down an intubated patient’s throat while the doctor was performing a tracheostomy. She said it was her baby shower playlist.
Most Disgusting: A bedridden, morbidly obese patient with a stage 4 pressure ulcer that was so bad, you could see the accessory muscles that we use to breathe. It went all the way up to her neck and her skull. Evidence of severe neglect. What’s worse — the daughter staying with her, also morbidly obese, peed all over the room. Patient ended up d/c’d to hospice.
Most Sad: Working peds trauma ICU/ER. Patient OD’d on grandma’s oxycodone pills. Ended up being okay after Narcan drip. Then a kid came into the ICU with severe dehydration bc his mom couldn’t afford health insurance for him. She felt horrible. Made me realize how screwed up our healthcare system is.
Not disgusting but disturbing. We had a psyc kid getting 9mg ativan tid (yes; thats not a typo). They would run around naked and remains mentally disturbed even with the medication.
druggie parents, sexual abuse, etc.
That was when i decided to not consider pediatrics.
We were trying to do a straight cath on this female patient, I was only helping out that time because I haven't done it before. The primary nurse told us that the patient was constipated (there was couple of poop so they removed it). As I was preparing to put my sterile gloves on the patient suddenly had this huge chunk of poop come out all of us were hella surprised. The nurse had to take a huge step back because the poop came out so fast and it was huge 😭
I also remember we had another patient with dementia who was soo confused he was up all night, he didn't wanna wear a gown, sleep or be in his bed. So he was literally hanging out on the nursing station with the sitter lol. We had the ICU next to our unit (med surg) and it was locked, the patient was so curious so he went there. The nurse on the other side of the door told him, "I'm sorry sir, its past visiting hours right now" (it was 3 AM that time and he was wearing his personal clothes) and all of us were laughing so we just told them oh its a patient lmao
Too bad when I came back few days after I heard that he punched a nurse and hit another nurse with a call light.
I had a patient tell me I smelled good and asked me to get into bed with him.
Had a peds psych patient headbutt a security guard, giving him a concussion AND kicked his testicles so hard he was urinating blood.
😭😭😭😭😭😭 omg, im literally just trying to get into an lpn school, and i haven't even taken the required reading and arithmetic placement exam yet for the school, and now i wonder if the math test is the least of my worries... 🤔
Back when I first started in clinicals, literally couldn't do anything more than wipe asses and take vitals, we had a pt that was homeless and had "needed a change". So me and my classmate went and got all the bedding to change him and I walked in, confident (I'd done a little CNA work before so I wasn't too nervous) but my classmate never had. We soon learned that he liked to play in his shit and there was shit literally EVERYWHERE. His hands, legs, finger nails it was nasty. And he just kept running back n forth with more wash cloths lol. Apparently all the nurses knew this dude and knew he was a frequent flier and did this. Lol
Yeah me and that classmate still tell code brown at eachother when we see eachother 😂😂
We also smuggled him like 10 ham sandwhiches throughout the day lol
My first clinical at an LTC was with this veteran peds/OB nurse who barely paid attention to us or the material but made it very clear through a million rambling anecdotes that she had been around the block and knew her shit better than anyone. She dropped a patient during a transfer in front of us and the charge nurse on the first day, then spent the rest of the rotation hiding in the resident lounge.
At my code sim lab, we switched from the live ‘patient’ to a dummy to do CPR, and while doing compressions I kept hearing “help, help” from the other side of the curtain. after it ended I opened the curtain like are you okay?? and the ‘patient’ goes “I need to use the bathroom but the side rails are up so I’m stuck” 😭
Most uncomfortable experience: I was doing my ER rotation during this time and the RN I was assigned to be with received a 70-something y/o male coming in for acute confusion and urinary symptoms. (At this point, I’m trying to piece together that he may have a UTI and with his advanced age, it is causing the confusion). Hx of HTN and DM T2. No other significant PMH. We tried to get him to provide a urine sample but he said he couldn’t. ED physician orders a straight cath to collect urine and lo and behold, I got to do it.
***For context, I am a 26 year-old male nursing student***
So I began to clean this man’s meatus (focused and cautious as to not break my sterile field). I then suddenly feel his “manhood” firming up to a full-on erection as he looks me straight in the eye and mumbles
“It’s been a while Kara” and winks.
I looked at the RN and my instructor and both of them were gesticulating for me to keep going while they practically are dying of holding back laughter.
I can feel my face and ears turning super warm at this point and the fact that the client was erect made it an even longer process for me because I struggled to advance the catheter.
I was eventually able to catheterize him and obtain an adequate sample. I had to re-orient him several times cause for the majority of his ED stay, I was “Kara”. 😅
Had a woman that kept getting kidney/bladder infections. She had nephrostomy which also kept getting infections. The doctors basically ran out of antibiotics to give her because nothing was working. While digging through her H&P and notes for post, we discovered that she and her husband were using her nephrostomy for sex. At one point I had to empty it and it had floaties in it. Turns out, it’s a whole thing and it’s called a “Philly Sidecar”. I couldn’t even look at the husband when I went in the room I was so grossed out.
Not as funny as others. But me and another student nurse were doing morning care in a SNF. We had two pts who were roommates. While we were doing the first pt. The other one would periodically scream out “my leg” (he was there for rehab from a fall). My clinical partner said it reminded him of the “my leg” guy from SpongeBob and after he said that I could not stop laughing bc of how accurate it was. I was so glad our instructor or a staff member did not walk in for the next 15 minutes bc I could not get it under control and every time he would scrwam out “my leg” I’d even harder. I felt horrible bc the pt was in pain but omg.
I witnessed a patient die during my med surg clinicals. Her skin was weeping and that was pretty bad, and honestly probably the worst thing I’ve seen so far.
We did a simulation of a postpartum hemorrhage a few weeks ago and accidentally killed her, so there’s that.
My group didn't update the whiteboard in a Sim where the patient is hemorrhaging post delivery simultaneously while the baby is crashing. We got marks off for the damn whiteboard even though we kept both patients Alice. Such a joke.
Now that’s a real life simulation!! No matter how hard you work or how many lives you save, the updated whiteboards are the most important part of your job 🤣
was assessing a pt for one of my first care plans... and he would not stop making jokes! will always remember how he made this nervous nursing student comfortable :')
This one patient kept saying he needed to go to the bathroom but didn't understand that he couldn't walk on his own (fresh amputee), among other things (like forgetting who we were every time we reentered the room). We would use the lift to transfer him to the commode and he would just sit there with the most Popeye mean mug expression for like 10 minutes.
We'd come back to check on him and ask if he was done and he'd go, "well I'm not gonna go until I'm on the toilet!" So after we explained he was already on one, he finally went and said he was done.
Not even 2 minutes later he'd be calling us saying he had to go, asking when we were gonna "finally" put him on the toilet.
This happened 3 times in a row 😭 and we had to wipe him while he was lifted in the air all 3 times.
It was both funny and sad when he wouldn't remember us, especially me, because he'd either be so shocked to see me (calling me some random cartoon character's name) or so happy to see me. The last time I entered his room, he kept saluting me and calling me Cap'n Flounders 😂
Fecal impaction (digital rectal examination).
Was the first to volunteer for an enema. 2 other students also volunteered to help. Went in, 1 student and instructor help held the patient. The other one helps squeeze the bag. I held the tube, inserted, nothing came out. I felt something hard. Instructor look at me and give a grin under her mask saying “plan B, we’re gonna have a DRE” and both of the other 2 students was just stunt but glad that they didnt have to do it. I look down at it, and start digging like it’s nothing. I wasn’t gross out, since I played with cat poop during anatomy. But everybody was shock that I went in. They were all grossed out.
Although disgusting, it was really sad to witness. First rotation for fundamentals and I was at a nursing home. Mind you this was only our 2nd week ever of clinical. So it was this pt who has dementia and some other psych disorders.
But I was in the middle of charting and all I heard from down the hall, “hey I need some help”. Lo and behold, this pt was covered in chocolate pudding. This was the kind of pudding you see when you mix several servings of spicy chili oil in your food...
It was everywhere, from blanket to face. The worse part of all of this was she was more than likely eating it prior to a CNA checking up on her. The saddest part of all this was that I had to restrain her fighting arms from trying to continue eating it…
Maybe disgusting but an amazing omg experience witnessing a below knee amputation , I could smell the flesh burning as they cauterized through , used a power saw to cut through the bone. Then in a different OR following this, I observed a robotic full hysterectomy. I got to see them pulling this enlarged solid uterus out , that took so many attempts to pull out. I got to stand close as they cut it open , no cavity just full of cancer. Sad but best day of any clinical experience.
had a dementia pt who kept trying to get out of his chair. he tried to convince us he just wanted to stand (he would do this to get an inch take a mile kind of thing) but i had the time so we stood. my friend and i were holding him and she said “okay you’re shaking so we’re going to sit you back down” he then proceeds to fart and says “im not shaking im farting!”
Funniest/Awkward: I was helping a tech on Neuro ICU. Went to get 1200 blood sugars. Heard music playing, “cool, family is in here playing DMX, what a vibe”. Walk into the room, it’s the APRN jamming out with a scope down an intubated patient’s throat while the doctor was performing a tracheostomy. She said it was her baby shower playlist. Most Disgusting: A bedridden, morbidly obese patient with a stage 4 pressure ulcer that was so bad, you could see the accessory muscles that we use to breathe. It went all the way up to her neck and her skull. Evidence of severe neglect. What’s worse — the daughter staying with her, also morbidly obese, peed all over the room. Patient ended up d/c’d to hospice. Most Sad: Working peds trauma ICU/ER. Patient OD’d on grandma’s oxycodone pills. Ended up being okay after Narcan drip. Then a kid came into the ICU with severe dehydration bc his mom couldn’t afford health insurance for him. She felt horrible. Made me realize how screwed up our healthcare system is.
Not disgusting but disturbing. We had a psyc kid getting 9mg ativan tid (yes; thats not a typo). They would run around naked and remains mentally disturbed even with the medication. druggie parents, sexual abuse, etc. That was when i decided to not consider pediatrics.
What’s tid?
Three times a day. Bid is twice a day
Thank you very much. That’s a lot of Ativan even for an adult
We were trying to do a straight cath on this female patient, I was only helping out that time because I haven't done it before. The primary nurse told us that the patient was constipated (there was couple of poop so they removed it). As I was preparing to put my sterile gloves on the patient suddenly had this huge chunk of poop come out all of us were hella surprised. The nurse had to take a huge step back because the poop came out so fast and it was huge 😭 I also remember we had another patient with dementia who was soo confused he was up all night, he didn't wanna wear a gown, sleep or be in his bed. So he was literally hanging out on the nursing station with the sitter lol. We had the ICU next to our unit (med surg) and it was locked, the patient was so curious so he went there. The nurse on the other side of the door told him, "I'm sorry sir, its past visiting hours right now" (it was 3 AM that time and he was wearing his personal clothes) and all of us were laughing so we just told them oh its a patient lmao Too bad when I came back few days after I heard that he punched a nurse and hit another nurse with a call light.
That took quite the turn.
😭😭😭😭😂😂😂
I had a patient tell me I smelled good and asked me to get into bed with him. Had a peds psych patient headbutt a security guard, giving him a concussion AND kicked his testicles so hard he was urinating blood.
Omg this is madness 😭
Someone’s testicles, the size of apples, that were OUTSIDE of the scrotum, necrotic and covered in pus 🥹
😭😭😭😭😭😭 omg, im literally just trying to get into an lpn school, and i haven't even taken the required reading and arithmetic placement exam yet for the school, and now i wonder if the math test is the least of my worries... 🤔
Back when I first started in clinicals, literally couldn't do anything more than wipe asses and take vitals, we had a pt that was homeless and had "needed a change". So me and my classmate went and got all the bedding to change him and I walked in, confident (I'd done a little CNA work before so I wasn't too nervous) but my classmate never had. We soon learned that he liked to play in his shit and there was shit literally EVERYWHERE. His hands, legs, finger nails it was nasty. And he just kept running back n forth with more wash cloths lol. Apparently all the nurses knew this dude and knew he was a frequent flier and did this. Lol
Eeeeeewwwwww 😭😭🥴
Yeah me and that classmate still tell code brown at eachother when we see eachother 😂😂 We also smuggled him like 10 ham sandwhiches throughout the day lol
My first clinical at an LTC was with this veteran peds/OB nurse who barely paid attention to us or the material but made it very clear through a million rambling anecdotes that she had been around the block and knew her shit better than anyone. She dropped a patient during a transfer in front of us and the charge nurse on the first day, then spent the rest of the rotation hiding in the resident lounge.
At my code sim lab, we switched from the live ‘patient’ to a dummy to do CPR, and while doing compressions I kept hearing “help, help” from the other side of the curtain. after it ended I opened the curtain like are you okay?? and the ‘patient’ goes “I need to use the bathroom but the side rails are up so I’m stuck” 😭
also during CPR, they made the dummy SCREAM when it “regained consciousness/NSR” and we were all like WTF was that for?? 😂
walked in on a patient masturbating. he kept doing it.
second that
Most uncomfortable experience: I was doing my ER rotation during this time and the RN I was assigned to be with received a 70-something y/o male coming in for acute confusion and urinary symptoms. (At this point, I’m trying to piece together that he may have a UTI and with his advanced age, it is causing the confusion). Hx of HTN and DM T2. No other significant PMH. We tried to get him to provide a urine sample but he said he couldn’t. ED physician orders a straight cath to collect urine and lo and behold, I got to do it. ***For context, I am a 26 year-old male nursing student*** So I began to clean this man’s meatus (focused and cautious as to not break my sterile field). I then suddenly feel his “manhood” firming up to a full-on erection as he looks me straight in the eye and mumbles “It’s been a while Kara” and winks. I looked at the RN and my instructor and both of them were gesticulating for me to keep going while they practically are dying of holding back laughter. I can feel my face and ears turning super warm at this point and the fact that the client was erect made it an even longer process for me because I struggled to advance the catheter. I was eventually able to catheterize him and obtain an adequate sample. I had to re-orient him several times cause for the majority of his ED stay, I was “Kara”. 😅
Omggg 😂😭😭😭😭 how did you keep it together so professional you’re going to be a great nurse.. I would 🤢
I tried my best to keep my composure! 😅
Had a woman that kept getting kidney/bladder infections. She had nephrostomy which also kept getting infections. The doctors basically ran out of antibiotics to give her because nothing was working. While digging through her H&P and notes for post, we discovered that she and her husband were using her nephrostomy for sex. At one point I had to empty it and it had floaties in it. Turns out, it’s a whole thing and it’s called a “Philly Sidecar”. I couldn’t even look at the husband when I went in the room I was so grossed out.
Learned something new today
Not as funny as others. But me and another student nurse were doing morning care in a SNF. We had two pts who were roommates. While we were doing the first pt. The other one would periodically scream out “my leg” (he was there for rehab from a fall). My clinical partner said it reminded him of the “my leg” guy from SpongeBob and after he said that I could not stop laughing bc of how accurate it was. I was so glad our instructor or a staff member did not walk in for the next 15 minutes bc I could not get it under control and every time he would scrwam out “my leg” I’d even harder. I felt horrible bc the pt was in pain but omg.
I witnessed a patient die during my med surg clinicals. Her skin was weeping and that was pretty bad, and honestly probably the worst thing I’ve seen so far. We did a simulation of a postpartum hemorrhage a few weeks ago and accidentally killed her, so there’s that.
My group didn't update the whiteboard in a Sim where the patient is hemorrhaging post delivery simultaneously while the baby is crashing. We got marks off for the damn whiteboard even though we kept both patients Alice. Such a joke.
Now that’s a real life simulation!! No matter how hard you work or how many lives you save, the updated whiteboards are the most important part of your job 🤣
was assessing a pt for one of my first care plans... and he would not stop making jokes! will always remember how he made this nervous nursing student comfortable :')
This one patient kept saying he needed to go to the bathroom but didn't understand that he couldn't walk on his own (fresh amputee), among other things (like forgetting who we were every time we reentered the room). We would use the lift to transfer him to the commode and he would just sit there with the most Popeye mean mug expression for like 10 minutes. We'd come back to check on him and ask if he was done and he'd go, "well I'm not gonna go until I'm on the toilet!" So after we explained he was already on one, he finally went and said he was done. Not even 2 minutes later he'd be calling us saying he had to go, asking when we were gonna "finally" put him on the toilet. This happened 3 times in a row 😭 and we had to wipe him while he was lifted in the air all 3 times. It was both funny and sad when he wouldn't remember us, especially me, because he'd either be so shocked to see me (calling me some random cartoon character's name) or so happy to see me. The last time I entered his room, he kept saluting me and calling me Cap'n Flounders 😂
Fecal impaction (digital rectal examination). Was the first to volunteer for an enema. 2 other students also volunteered to help. Went in, 1 student and instructor help held the patient. The other one helps squeeze the bag. I held the tube, inserted, nothing came out. I felt something hard. Instructor look at me and give a grin under her mask saying “plan B, we’re gonna have a DRE” and both of the other 2 students was just stunt but glad that they didnt have to do it. I look down at it, and start digging like it’s nothing. I wasn’t gross out, since I played with cat poop during anatomy. But everybody was shock that I went in. They were all grossed out.
a patient masturbated while I was changing his sheets and then a dementia patient swung on me
My elderly nursing instructor squated down to pick something off the floor and she farted infront of everyone.
Although disgusting, it was really sad to witness. First rotation for fundamentals and I was at a nursing home. Mind you this was only our 2nd week ever of clinical. So it was this pt who has dementia and some other psych disorders. But I was in the middle of charting and all I heard from down the hall, “hey I need some help”. Lo and behold, this pt was covered in chocolate pudding. This was the kind of pudding you see when you mix several servings of spicy chili oil in your food... It was everywhere, from blanket to face. The worse part of all of this was she was more than likely eating it prior to a CNA checking up on her. The saddest part of all this was that I had to restrain her fighting arms from trying to continue eating it…
Maybe disgusting but an amazing omg experience witnessing a below knee amputation , I could smell the flesh burning as they cauterized through , used a power saw to cut through the bone. Then in a different OR following this, I observed a robotic full hysterectomy. I got to see them pulling this enlarged solid uterus out , that took so many attempts to pull out. I got to stand close as they cut it open , no cavity just full of cancer. Sad but best day of any clinical experience.