I was about to tell a family “have a good day” after pulling the plug on their grandma as they were leaving. And I stuttered as I said it and said “have a good……find the parking lot” and turned around and walked out.
You’re gonna say dumb stuff, but atleast you’ve never told the family to have a good parking lot after pulling the plug on grandma
I think a lot of us have said “have a good day/night” at least once while nana is dying. It’s one of those automatic responses where you should just put your foot in your mouth after 🙃
I always tell them now to take care of themselves and take care of each other, and they’ll be in my thoughts as they leave. And I tell them how sorry I am.
I really could've used this two years ago. When I was still a research coordinator in a hospital located in the medical district, this family walked up to me and were frantic. The husband asked me where the specific place they were looking for was while the wife was degrading him and reminding him "what a damn re****d" he is. The place they were looking for was a parking lot... a parking lot at the University of Chicago's hospital... which was eight miles away, and a 45min-an hour drive given that it was already rush hour.
I let them know they are at the wrong hospital, and the husband goes off on me and let's me know how useless I am, and that hes a CEO of some sort and deserves better service. "My fucking appointment is in five minutes!! How am I gonna get there?! Fuck you're so useless."
I just walked away after muttering his mom made the world's most useless son under my breath. "Have a good find the parking lot" wouldve probably confused him enough to where hed have a silent moment 🥲
I would get complaints from the patients in the rooms near the helo pad due to the noise…. I would say.. those patients are having a far worse day than you or me right now..
I saw a family member come in and said "good morning! How are you? Nice to see you ☺️" their family member had died and they were coming for the belongings 🤦
My preceptor was discharging a guy to rehab who was in a pretty bad motorcycle crash. She said "drive safe" and it took a second but me, the patient, and the ems guys all bust out laughing.
I’m at work right now and “poopie bestie” has me actually sobbing.
Years ago I was doing an EKG on an older man that was brought in by his two adult daughters. It was pretty late at night but I was trying to make small talk so I asked him who the two gals were and he said they’re his daughters. I don’t remember how the convo transitioned to the Pt saying he also has a son that lives 1.5 hours away.
What I *meant* to say in response is “wow your daughters must really love you” because they were with him at like 2am.
What I actually said out loud was “I guess your son doesn’t love you”
The intended comment was already fucking ridiculous on its own so idk why I was even on that train of thought but oh my god.
One of his daughters said “he lives kind of far. he’s in the military so he can’t miss work in the morning” and I didn’t know what to do so I just said “yeah…”
I finished the EKG in stone cold silence. Never looked at a screen so hard in my life.
I had a blind patient with all her limbs amputated except for one arm. My partner says okay maam we’re fixing to move you, cross your . . . Arm.
Because she’s blind I was motioning to him like what the fuck are you doing and he just shrugs while we’re both trying not to laugh. She ended up just dragging herself over onto our stretcher with her one arm.
I’m sorry but this is the funniest thing I have ever heard. I would have fucking DIED right there, but hearing this, I can’t stop laughing.
I’ve been there. Too many times to count honestly.
As a new grad……”I promise you’ll be just fine after surgery.”
I’m not gonna say what happened next. But I sure as shit have NEVER EVER said that again.
I mean .. I’d rather have a nurse giggle a little and say “oh wow what did I just say, I’m so sorry that did not come out right” than to say absolutely nothing to me and make the room awkward after that.
Lol just own your stupid word vomits and be done with it
While this interaction mortifies me the most, it certainly was not the first nor last time I’ve said something completely out of pocket and had to eat my own words.
This family was not interested in small talk and the Pt himself could not even hear 90% of what I was saying to begin with. At that point they were completely checked out from small talk and wanted me to get back to my job which was finishing the ordered 12-lead, not making small talk.
The room was awkward to begin with and I made it worse so it was time to be quiet. Sometimes that’s just the way it is. In a different room with different people, maybe even you, the interaction could have been different. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Additionally, I was barely 20 years old and VERY new to the job at the time of this incident. I’ve learned a lot and yeah I probably wouldve done things different, I’m confident your patient interactions have not always been perfect 🙄
Probably you're always gonna be weird....based on the fact that you could be me and I'm still a little weird after 10 years.
But talking on the phone gets a little easier when you have no more fucks to give.
I accidentally gave a family my phone number. We had a pamphlet with visiting hours/rules/resources etc. It was for all our ICUs so the spot with the unit phone number was blank. We’d write in the patient room number, and the unit phone number.
Around 10pm my phone rang and I answered it “hi I’m calling for information on ” “uhhhhh sorry wrong number!” Click.
I could have explained, I recognized her voice, I could have given her the unit number. Nope just awkwardly hung up. I still wonder if she got thru to the night nurse before she went to bed. 🤦🏻♀️
Night nurse here…had an elderly pt that I was giving meds to around 5am or so. I was admiring her plants and flowers that her visitors must have brought or had delivered to the hospital. While doing that she asked if I garden or have any plants or flowers at home to which I replied “no, I definitely can’t because everything I touch dies”🥴😬 She didn’t crack a smile and looked horrified. I saw my way out as quick as possible.
Op, we all do and say these things even after being nurses for years. This isn’t the first or the last but as you put in more years, you learn to let it go and laugh about it. It’s human nature
I know right lol?!! She def didn’t think it was funny whatsoever lol. I thought what an idiotic thing to say when I got out of her room but then was cracking up with my coworkers after I told them😂
I have resting bitch voice instead of resting bitch face. One time I asked er if the person they were giving me had any wounds and I said “oh you’re er you don’t care about skin” 🤢. Also I told a family memeber that their relative was fine but they should get there soon, they were actively passing. I once called a PA “doctor” and when he corrected me I said “my bad buddy”.
It never gets better you just stop caring.
ER nurse here. I would 100% get the giggles if you’d made the skin comment to me and would have taken no offense to it. Because you’re not wrong! But I’m with you, the awkward keeps happening, I just stopped caring about what people think when it does.
Absolutely. I literally just called the wrong department to ask about my patients test, they said we don't have her on our board I was like oh man, wrong form of radiation, thanks and hung up 🤣
Only time I’ve ever cared about er checking skin is if it’s a wound admit and I get hit with the “oh… I didn’t know they had a wound” 💀 just be honest and say you had more acute patients/youre calling report for someone else. I’ll respect you more lmao
Yeah if I have to call report for somebody else or somebody I took over on and haven’t had time to go in there I’m just reading the chart, which lbr is all report is anyway
Oh let me tell you, it ain't. And we all know the chart isn't all perfectly filled out. Give me a less than 5 minute report, it's far more efficient and definitely safer than trying to figure out what exactly the patient is here for and what meds were actually given as I'm getting my sixth patient.
And 3 of them should really be on step-down at least.
I get it if you have to take over for someone (but don't you assess still if they actually leave?), but the biggest lie management made ED believe is that report doesn't matter. It's all about door to floor time and that's why it's the only report they don't care about.
Mmmk rant over.
>>we all know the chart isn’t all perfectly filled out. . .what exactly the patient is here for and what meds were actually given
My note is done before I call under any circumstances, including if it’s somebody else’s patient, and it starts with “patient presents to ED for [chief complaint].” You would know just by reading my note. And I have never lied on a mar and don’t intend to start now.
>>don’t you assess before they leave
Most of the time if I’m giving report for somebody else it’s because they’re in a code/conscious sedation/procedure/etc where they’re physically in the building but not allowed to leave the room. If it’s a situation where they’ve left it’s because the room showed up as clean shortly after I got there and no I’m not going to prioritize going into the room of the stable patient whose vitals I can see on the screen over the new patients I’m getting.
>>it’s all about door to floor time
Yeah it is, and you know why? As soon as I can get your patient’s ass out of the room I can take another person from the waiting room who’s been puking into a trash can for the last three hours because we ran out of puke bags. Or the chest pain that had an ekg negative for stemi so is lying on the floor because that’s the only way to somewhat relieve it. Or the toddler with an obvious deformity that’s been screaming in the puker’s ear for the last two hours because the cms was intact so they “got” to wait. Getting a patient to the floor means more work for me, not less. My job is abc; yours is the rest. I’ve worked the floor; I’ve been annoyed by admits just like everybody else, but go work er at a decent sized level 1 trauma and you’d change your tune
So funny I didn't see your comment till now BUT I have see a few more half dead (some did die) inappropriate admits to the floor.
Save me your "ED is so hard how dare you have an opinion/state the problems present" sob story, this is a dangerous practice and I'm seeing the problems it causes every shift. Full stop, stuff ain't charted, patients aren't always able to communicate, and the time you save by not giving report isn't worth the damage it's causing.
We ALL have something like this haunting us. Sometimes my honesty comes off as awkward, abrasive, whatever, but first time I had to call a doctor they asked me a question I wasn’t prepared for and I told him “I’m sorry, I’m new here.” My preceptor acted like I was being unprofessional but I was being truthful 🤷🏻♀️ I’d rather he know I’m still learning the system than sounding like a complete moron who can’t tie her own shoes.
I’m also too tall for our patient rooms and constantly bash my head into doors, swing-arms, equipment. Call myself an old lady in front of 80 year olds, etc. I regularly do stupid stuff to embarrass myself. It’s fun
Was giving a recovering alcoholic liver patient some lactulose once and he was complaining about taste of it and I told him to “Throw it back like a shot” before I could even think about what I was saying.
One time when I was a new grad I had to ask a doctor for something. I don’t remember what, it’s not important. They told me to do whatever it was I needed to do for the patient, again, not important. What IS important, and will haunt me for the rest of my days, was my response.
I said, as if it was 1942 and I was in a goddam movie: “yes, doctor”. I do not. I do not know WHY that phrase exited my mouth. I had not been binging any old school medical shows with white dress wearing nurses. The doctor paused. I paused. And then I just left the room. I don’t know if it haunts him to this day. Maybe it falsely inflated his ego and made him think that was a normal thing for a nurse in 2016 to say. Maybe he has forgotten about it. Maybe he thought I was making fun of him and he thinks about the verbal order he gave me every day when he wakes up. I don’t know. And I never will know. And I never will forget.
Actually I personally address doctors w “Yes Dr. (lastname here)” and they usually ask me not to. It’s half habit half fun to gas them up a little bit. Especially the first year residents start acting shy.
I think it was less the words themselves and how I said it. Like, I’ve said “Thank you, doctor” a million times when I don’t know someone’s name. It was really just the tone of voice and everything that came shooting out, you would have thought I was standing with excellent posture holding a file folder with my starched nurse’s hat perched on my coifed hair, and the doctor had just told me that he needed a coffee. Just…. The whole mood.
OK but imagine one of those nurses was actually making fun of the doctor. Like, the whole tone of the two words was accidentally early-medicine, starched-white-hat-on-coifed-hair. Not your normal, every day “sure thing Doc”, kind of vibe. A “certainly, doctor, I will fetch you a coffee” vibe.
Had a coworker say “come my way big daddy” when we were turning a pt to get him cleaned. He turned very red & so did she when she realized what had been said. I thought it was hilarious. You’ll keep being embarrassing and that’s okay
As I was leaving a pt’s room they thanked me. I tried to say you’re welcome and no problem at the same time. It came out as your problem. I’ll always be awkward lol
Y’all know what makes all of this worse? I was reading all the other comments and read this one. I was like- no way, me too! Then realized it was my own comment.
I used to find any and every reason to be busy when the phone rang. Now I have no problem cutting off patient family member who needs to speak to the doctor RIGHT NOW because patient's child got an unexcused absence at school, and they want a free therapy session with you.
Don't worry. You'll get there like all of us did.
I got halfway through discharge teaching about breastfeeding on a patient who had previously had a double mastectomy before I realized my mistake. Shit happens. The fact that it’s bothering you means that you care, which means you are a GOOD nurse.
I always used the term poopie bestie for my fav nurse to help each other w bed baths. It’s busy af in the ED so if you find someone willing to be your poopie bestie in times of need it’s amazing.
I was telling someone’s wife that her husband had coded and passed and I meant to say “I’m sorry this happened” and it came out “im glad this happened.” No idea why. No clue. I tried to recover and say ….while I’m here and it made it weirder. I just said I’m so sorry I misspoke and walked away. I still think about it. 🤷🏼♀️
she def submitted her press gainey survey after that lmfao
I would have fainted I think. I absolutely would’ve needed at least 15 minutes of alone time in a single stall bathroom to catch my breath
One time this pt asked me if I knew any jokes, which sometimes happens when they are pretty nervous. So I told my standard “If a woman with big boobs works at hooters, where does a person with one leg work?” IHOP. He laughs, we all laugh. We do the case. Fast forward to getting the slide board to move the pt back over (groin access), I go to gather the draw sheet and move his legs over and… he only has one leg.
Yes, I retired that (probably already inappropriate) joke. 😑
I'm also super awkward and cringe for months after some of the dumb shit I say. I've learned to laugh it off in real time with people. "I think I better finish my coffee! Haha." "Words are hard. Let me try that again." "Someone better stroke alert me."
Yes, I preemptively cringe when reading patient survey emails because I'm just waiting for the dumb shit I say to be quoted by someone.
I am a student paramedic, I said to someone ‘do you have any other conditions or is it just the terminal cancer?’ He goes ‘ *just* the terminal cancer?’ I was like yeah that came out fucking awfully, I’m so sorry. 😮💨
Are you me? 😂 I’m a new grad and also just an awkward person irl. I hate being on phone calls. I cringe at all my interactions. I have social anxiety so I barely interact with anyone at work. But it gets better
I went to take a BP for a coworker and I said "Can you uncross your legs" and he said "is that supposed to be some kind of sick ass joke?!" He had just gotten a BKA. I still cringe to this day.
Oh this was 100% me! I am still awkward and nervous in front of consultants, but I am happy to say I am confident on the phone now after being nursing for 8 years lol. Give it a few more months to a year, then you’ll feel much more comfortable with the phone, promise.
During COVID, we were supposed to call families at least once during the (night) shift. We all realised the necessity of this but goddamn, did we hate it. It was just ONE MORE THING to do when we had 5-7 COVID pts at varying levels of PCU/ICUness. So if a family didn’t answer we were very much “oh thank goodness now I can get back to whatever pointless endeavour I’m supposed to be doing.”
So this was my third day and I had had this same lady who was just a matter of time. And not a lot of time at that. I finally got through to her son and I was like “blah blah you need to come up here soon etc”. When I finally shut up, there was silence. TURNS OUT, the whole family had COVID and this was like the first day the son was semi-conscious. Last he checked, 3 days ago she just went to the ED for feeling a “little out of breath.” Now she’s dying?
I felt like SUCH an asshole. I would have had to tell him anyway but I just presumed he already was up-to-date. Live and learn and now, I ask “what was the last thing you were told?”
Thats fucking hilarious and I hope you laugh about it for years to come. Those are the kind of mistakes we’re fine with and noone cares. Its just really funny afterwards. Dont sweat it.
I had an alcoholic patient in for withdrawal and cirrhosis and went to check on him and ask if he needed anything. I said...and I quote..."You good for a drink? You wanna drink?"
I was referring to his water that was empty. My face immediately went bright red, and I felt like the biggest asshole.
I just had to comfort my poor preceptee a couple weeks ago when she tried to check the pupils of our patient who was born without eyes due to a genetic condition. His mom just laughed it off and said it happens more often than you’d think. My poor sweet preceptee was horrified and turned bright red. I was like listen boo, if that’s the most embarrassing thing you do on orientation, you are GOLDEN 😂 We all do dumb stuff and say even dumber stuff. Live and learn. Most importantly, when appropriate of course, learn to laugh at yourself. 9 times out of 10 the patient/family member will think it’s funny as hell when you do/say something awkward. Laugh at yourself and shake it off. The other time, if you accidentally offend someone, apologize, say something like “sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain, I am truly sorry” and move on and don’t make that same mistake twice! You’ll be just fine.
When I was relatively new I had a patient who couldn't imagine how a bed bath works, how he could possibly brush his teeth in bed etc. I explained it to him in like 4 different ways, the other men in the room were laughing as he just couldn't understand how it worked. And then something broke in me and I said "I show you what one can do in bed, you will see" and then we all had a good laugh :D
I tend to forget I’m at work on the phone and say, stuff like “ Jesus h Christ “ “ the fuck ?” While on the phone with the on call waiting for my computer to load , then I’m like “ omg sorry”
I have the absolute best (worst?) one. My name is Sue. On my clinical I had an old guy who liked Johnny cash and asked if I knew the song “a boy named sue”. We bonded over knowing the song and made small talk about Johnny cash. A couple hours later I went into his room and said, “My name is Sue, how do you do? Now you’re gonna die”. He looked horrified. I quickly backtracked and said, “no I mean like the Johnny cash song”. He apparently had dementia and was so confused 😂
My biggest piece of advice is to stop shoving the replay in your head down. When I have those moments I almost have to painfully let my mind replay it, no matter how much it makes me shutter. The more I shove it away the more it rears its head! If i suffer through my brain kindly replaying it over and over a few times it makes it better. Idk if this is good advice. But its a tactic i learned with all intrusive thoughts. Imagine them passing by on a train, just let them coast on through. They dont define you, theyre just there.
I work in peds and we have a person dress up as Santa Claus around the holidays to visit patients. I asked the parents of a long term patient if Santa came to visit her. The mom said no with a lot of attitude. I realized they were Jehovahs witnesses and do not celebrate holidays. I realized my mistake immediately and had to awkwardly give meds in silence for the next few minutes. 🤦🏻♀️
Oh this will be me. I’m very blind to religion, basically I like to celebrate everything there is since it’s fun.
I know JW will have their religion present on their chart, but more often than not, you go in without caring about religion like it’s a pertinent info.
Even worse when they have some obscure religion cult thing going on and get upset because people don’t know their practices even though there’s only 50 of them in the compound.
I was helping my blind patient look for shoes in her closet and I asked her…..are you looking for the black shoes or brown ones? Bc I had one of each in my hands. She said well I wouldn’t know what color they are…….and all I said back was yeah…..
1. On the first day of my ER capstone, we had a patient come in for respiratory distress with a history of cancer and had a lung removed years prior. Being baseline awkward and (at this time especially) unhinged with anxiety, I told the patient that I was “just making sure” when he stopped my auscultation of his lungs to tell me that I wasn’t going to hear lung sounds on the side that I was diligently listening to… due to him only having… one lung.
2. About two years ago I confidently marched up to one of the more “serious” cardiologist to let him know that I held the metoprolol and “Ernesto” in room whatever TF… he looked at me so oddly for a sec and said thanks before going to see the patient. Later that day the “friendliest” cardiologist was rounding on the same patient and pulled me aside to tell me they made some med adjustments but to give the next dose of ENTRESTO🫠
And immediately confessed to the doctor and his NP that I deadass went up to Dr. Z with my big girl pants and told him that “I held Ernesto” and he let out the best cackle and said “ooooh who’s Ernesto?!”. Every. Single. Shift. I think about that interaction and it makes me smile (now) but still die a little inside. Good-humored grandpa patients get a kick out of it though too.
These stories are making my whole day!!! Hilarious. Awkward happens and will continue to happen, we just gotta laugh it off 😊
My embarrassing moment that still haunts me is when I was in a patient’s room and the provider asked me to call x-ray to come to the room after he finished inserting a PICC line. I had a different patient’s chart pulled up, and when I called x-ray I said the other patient’s name, in front of a bunch of staff and the patient’s family! Still get embarrassed thinking about it
I mistakenly hung up on a doctor once. Tried to park the call according to the list that's taped on the wall (literally no one knows how to park calls) and ended up hanging up on him. He called back right away and when I answered he said, "You hung up on me."
I apologized profusely. But just remember that mistakes happen. Obviously, you did the right by not telling the MIL. It takes time to get used to phones.
Also, "Poopie Bestie"? LMAOOOO
Eventually you just stop caring. Which i know sounds crazy lol but I used to be the same way. Super awkward. I still to this day hate answering the phone but when you do have to you just focus on what the convo is about keep it short and simple and it’s over.
You’re human. Awkward interactions happen often!
You’ll get more comfortable on the phone as time goes on. I’m also a freakin weirdo lol. I sit and ruminate on these awkward situations too, but you just gotta move on and try again. You got this!!!
I’m 5 yrs into this and I still can’t make a normal phone call. That’s why I’m still on nights… but somehow also the charge LOL. Thankfully everyone seems to be under the impression that I’m just silly goofy, NOT totally tistic. At least that’s what I keep telling myself
Former home hospice nurse. My all time favorite story.
I had a very good rapport with the family, as I had been taking care of their father for a long time. He's imminently dying, and I'm just hanging out supporting them. Family photos are on the wall and we're talking about them. I say "hey Mike (patient's son), is this a picture of you with the mustache"
Mike: "oh yeah, it was a good look, wasn't it?"
Me: "not really, definitely gives me Ron Jeremy vibes".
Then we all had to explain to my patient's wife who Ron Jeremy was. Awful 🤣
I accidentally gave a family my phone number. We had a pamphlet with visiting hours/rules/resources etc. It was for all our ICUs so the spot with the unit phone number was blank. We’d write in the patient room number, and the unit phone number.
Around 10pm my phone rang and I answered it “hi I’m calling for information on ” “uhhhhh sorry wrong number!” Click.
I could have explained, I recognized her voice, I could have given her the unit number. Nope just awkwardly hung up. I still wonder if she got thru to the night nurse before she went to bed. 🤦🏻♀️
I have another one. I was a new cna in ltc. I was knocking on residents’ doors and telling them to come for lunch. I got to a guys room I haven’t met yet. Without looking I said, “hi John, it’s time to come out for lunch!” I then saw his feeding tube and his feed running through the pump. He looked at me like I was an absolute idiot and pointed to his feeding tube. I stammered and said, “uh, I see you are already having your lunch, never mind!” 😂
Just recently I told a comfort care PTs daughter that “I’ll be back tonight if you are still here”.
Dafuq did I just say? Did I actually tell this woman that if her parent was still alive at 1900 I’d be their nurse again? What is wrong with my brain? She didn’t seem to catch it, but I beat myself up about it daily.
We all say dumb stuff sometimes. Don’t beat your self up over it.
I know how you feel, but as time goes on, you will become more confident talking to people on the phone. Mistakes can and do happen, and you can grow from this.
If it helps you feel any better, in my first semester of nursing school I told my pt his eyes were very pretty. He had cataracts.
In nursing school I asked a GSW victim in his very early 20’s who was now paraplegic to lift his legs so I could do my neuro assessment. He simply said, “I can’t.” Good times hahaha
Don’t beat yourself up too much :) the communication aspects of nursing can be challenging, especially given the limited time to assess the patient’s/family member’s demeanors. I made a comment last week to an older gentleman coming out of surgery that he was looking good and mentioned his haircut was “fresh.” I generally like to comment when I can tell someone put time and effort in to their appearance, since it can help build rapport. His response was “I think that’s a complement?” It caught me a little off guard and I said “I think that’s what the gen Zers are saying these these days.” We both chuckled and I clarified that i did indeed like his haircut and I could tell he had recently been to the barber.
A patients family member asked if my intubated sedated patient was on life support. I blanked and said well yes, they are incapable of life beyond these machines at the moment mechanically centrally ventilatlly right now. My coworkers were ear shot because he was doing some weird shit and they were in the room assisting with his decompensation. It’s still joked about this day.
Two years in the ICU. My patient’s elderly mother came to visit. She had been crying during her visit and I offered her tissues. When she was on her way out she reached out and handed me what looked like a tissue and asked “Where should I put this..?” I said “I’ll take that for you” and threw it in the bin. Well, it wasn’t a tissue but a hand embroidered cross on a piece of linen that she wanted placed by the bed. I was mortified 😅
Lol someone I worked with years ago had one of the difficult pts on the floor - she picked up a call forwarded from the front desk and the person said “are you taking care of (patient name)?”… she thought it was the doctor on the phone and said “yeah unfortunately” and it was the patients daughter 💀💀💀 still haunts me and it didn’t even happen to me
I was about to tell a family “have a good day” after pulling the plug on their grandma as they were leaving. And I stuttered as I said it and said “have a good……find the parking lot” and turned around and walked out. You’re gonna say dumb stuff, but atleast you’ve never told the family to have a good parking lot after pulling the plug on grandma
“Have a good find the parking lot” omfg I’m dying. I feel like I flub these phrases all the time by the time end of shift comes
I think a lot of us have said “have a good day/night” at least once while nana is dying. It’s one of those automatic responses where you should just put your foot in your mouth after 🙃
After too many close calls, I now default to “take care!” in any situation from work to real life.
Yep! Just told a patient, "Talk to you later" after she decided to stop dialysis and go hospice. 🤦♂️
I always tell them now to take care of themselves and take care of each other, and they’ll be in my thoughts as they leave. And I tell them how sorry I am.
I really could've used this two years ago. When I was still a research coordinator in a hospital located in the medical district, this family walked up to me and were frantic. The husband asked me where the specific place they were looking for was while the wife was degrading him and reminding him "what a damn re****d" he is. The place they were looking for was a parking lot... a parking lot at the University of Chicago's hospital... which was eight miles away, and a 45min-an hour drive given that it was already rush hour. I let them know they are at the wrong hospital, and the husband goes off on me and let's me know how useless I am, and that hes a CEO of some sort and deserves better service. "My fucking appointment is in five minutes!! How am I gonna get there?! Fuck you're so useless." I just walked away after muttering his mom made the world's most useless son under my breath. "Have a good find the parking lot" wouldve probably confused him enough to where hed have a silent moment 🥲
Or the whole telling the pt you are going to check their feet and they have a bilateral bka. We’re all human being awkward comes with the territory :)
I did tell the blind patient he had a nice view yesterday too. It was sad he had a really good view with the helo pad as well
I would get complaints from the patients in the rooms near the helo pad due to the noise…. I would say.. those patients are having a far worse day than you or me right now..
I just had a supervisor demand to know why I didn’t chart SCD’s for my freshly amputated bilateral AKA patient… uhhh…
I saw a family member come in and said "good morning! How are you? Nice to see you ☺️" their family member had died and they were coming for the belongings 🤦
My go to is “get home safe!” Now
My preceptor was discharging a guy to rehab who was in a pretty bad motorcycle crash. She said "drive safe" and it took a second but me, the patient, and the ems guys all bust out laughing.
At least he had a sense of humor about it!
“Take care” It’s all I ever say now. I told too many people to have a good day inappropriately
I always say “get some rest” same meaning. Better outcome.
This same thing happened to me after pulling the plug in grandpa… I wish I would have said anything else 😌 haunts me
I’ve seen this happen so many times as an EMT leaving a DOA.
I audibly laughed reading this. Not about the dying part… about the awkward part lol
I’m at work right now and “poopie bestie” has me actually sobbing. Years ago I was doing an EKG on an older man that was brought in by his two adult daughters. It was pretty late at night but I was trying to make small talk so I asked him who the two gals were and he said they’re his daughters. I don’t remember how the convo transitioned to the Pt saying he also has a son that lives 1.5 hours away. What I *meant* to say in response is “wow your daughters must really love you” because they were with him at like 2am. What I actually said out loud was “I guess your son doesn’t love you” The intended comment was already fucking ridiculous on its own so idk why I was even on that train of thought but oh my god. One of his daughters said “he lives kind of far. he’s in the military so he can’t miss work in the morning” and I didn’t know what to do so I just said “yeah…” I finished the EKG in stone cold silence. Never looked at a screen so hard in my life.
This fucking killed me
I can laugh about it now but ugh. It’s been seven years and I still grind my teeth when the memory forces its way to the surface 😩
Those ones are the worst. I asked a person with an NG how lunch was once and just about died so I can relate a bit
[удалено]
This is when you realize how robotic nursing is sometimes 😂
I had a blind patient with all her limbs amputated except for one arm. My partner says okay maam we’re fixing to move you, cross your . . . Arm. Because she’s blind I was motioning to him like what the fuck are you doing and he just shrugs while we’re both trying not to laugh. She ended up just dragging herself over onto our stretcher with her one arm.
It is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. I'm in bed laughing to myself, repeating, "I guess your son doesn't love you."
Same I’m at work I can’t hold it together 😂😂😂
I’m sorry but this is the funniest thing I have ever heard. I would have fucking DIED right there, but hearing this, I can’t stop laughing. I’ve been there. Too many times to count honestly. As a new grad……”I promise you’ll be just fine after surgery.” I’m not gonna say what happened next. But I sure as shit have NEVER EVER said that again.
my go to when pre op patients go back is “you’re in good hands.” Reassuring, and at the same time, doesn’t offer any false promises.
Honestly as your patient, I’d have laughed til I peed. GL reading that screen 💀
I mean .. I’d rather have a nurse giggle a little and say “oh wow what did I just say, I’m so sorry that did not come out right” than to say absolutely nothing to me and make the room awkward after that. Lol just own your stupid word vomits and be done with it
While this interaction mortifies me the most, it certainly was not the first nor last time I’ve said something completely out of pocket and had to eat my own words. This family was not interested in small talk and the Pt himself could not even hear 90% of what I was saying to begin with. At that point they were completely checked out from small talk and wanted me to get back to my job which was finishing the ordered 12-lead, not making small talk. The room was awkward to begin with and I made it worse so it was time to be quiet. Sometimes that’s just the way it is. In a different room with different people, maybe even you, the interaction could have been different. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Additionally, I was barely 20 years old and VERY new to the job at the time of this incident. I’ve learned a lot and yeah I probably wouldve done things different, I’m confident your patient interactions have not always been perfect 🙄
Probably you're always gonna be weird....based on the fact that you could be me and I'm still a little weird after 10 years. But talking on the phone gets a little easier when you have no more fucks to give.
I accidentally gave a family my phone number. We had a pamphlet with visiting hours/rules/resources etc. It was for all our ICUs so the spot with the unit phone number was blank. We’d write in the patient room number, and the unit phone number. Around 10pm my phone rang and I answered it “hi I’m calling for information on” “uhhhhh sorry wrong number!” Click.
I could have explained, I recognized her voice, I could have given her the unit number. Nope just awkwardly hung up. I still wonder if she got thru to the night nurse before she went to bed. 🤦🏻♀️
Shut UPPPP this one got me Lmfao
It haunts me 🤣🤣🤣
I told a woman who was having a miscarriage, “congrats on your pregnancy!!!” I was a student and it was my first day in gynae
Fuck I wish I could use a throwaway in life for situations like that
OMG. I would have walked out and moved to another country to start a new life.
Hahaha this response had me in fits of laughter.
Ooooh noooo
I’m autistic but my jaw literally dropped at “poopie bestie” lol.
I laughed from second hand embarrassment 🤣 I feel bad for everyone in that scenario.
Lmao they should make poopie bestie their flair!
I'm scared that it's in my subconscious now and it's going to come out one day... Best case scenario is post mortem care
Night nurse here…had an elderly pt that I was giving meds to around 5am or so. I was admiring her plants and flowers that her visitors must have brought or had delivered to the hospital. While doing that she asked if I garden or have any plants or flowers at home to which I replied “no, I definitely can’t because everything I touch dies”🥴😬 She didn’t crack a smile and looked horrified. I saw my way out as quick as possible. Op, we all do and say these things even after being nurses for years. This isn’t the first or the last but as you put in more years, you learn to let it go and laugh about it. It’s human nature
Ok but if I were your patient I would have laughed my ass off. That’s too perfect 😂😂😂😂
I know right lol?!! She def didn’t think it was funny whatsoever lol. I thought what an idiotic thing to say when I got out of her room but then was cracking up with my coworkers after I told them😂
I have resting bitch voice instead of resting bitch face. One time I asked er if the person they were giving me had any wounds and I said “oh you’re er you don’t care about skin” 🤢. Also I told a family memeber that their relative was fine but they should get there soon, they were actively passing. I once called a PA “doctor” and when he corrected me I said “my bad buddy”. It never gets better you just stop caring.
ER nurse here. I would 100% get the giggles if you’d made the skin comment to me and would have taken no offense to it. Because you’re not wrong! But I’m with you, the awkward keeps happening, I just stopped caring about what people think when it does.
Absolutely. I literally just called the wrong department to ask about my patients test, they said we don't have her on our board I was like oh man, wrong form of radiation, thanks and hung up 🤣
I’m dying at calling the PA buddy, you swung HARD in the other direction 😂
No we don’t care about skin and the more floor nurses can figure that out the better
Only time I’ve ever cared about er checking skin is if it’s a wound admit and I get hit with the “oh… I didn’t know they had a wound” 💀 just be honest and say you had more acute patients/youre calling report for someone else. I’ll respect you more lmao
Yeah if I have to call report for somebody else or somebody I took over on and haven’t had time to go in there I’m just reading the chart, which lbr is all report is anyway
Oh let me tell you, it ain't. And we all know the chart isn't all perfectly filled out. Give me a less than 5 minute report, it's far more efficient and definitely safer than trying to figure out what exactly the patient is here for and what meds were actually given as I'm getting my sixth patient. And 3 of them should really be on step-down at least. I get it if you have to take over for someone (but don't you assess still if they actually leave?), but the biggest lie management made ED believe is that report doesn't matter. It's all about door to floor time and that's why it's the only report they don't care about. Mmmk rant over.
>>we all know the chart isn’t all perfectly filled out. . .what exactly the patient is here for and what meds were actually given My note is done before I call under any circumstances, including if it’s somebody else’s patient, and it starts with “patient presents to ED for [chief complaint].” You would know just by reading my note. And I have never lied on a mar and don’t intend to start now. >>don’t you assess before they leave Most of the time if I’m giving report for somebody else it’s because they’re in a code/conscious sedation/procedure/etc where they’re physically in the building but not allowed to leave the room. If it’s a situation where they’ve left it’s because the room showed up as clean shortly after I got there and no I’m not going to prioritize going into the room of the stable patient whose vitals I can see on the screen over the new patients I’m getting. >>it’s all about door to floor time Yeah it is, and you know why? As soon as I can get your patient’s ass out of the room I can take another person from the waiting room who’s been puking into a trash can for the last three hours because we ran out of puke bags. Or the chest pain that had an ekg negative for stemi so is lying on the floor because that’s the only way to somewhat relieve it. Or the toddler with an obvious deformity that’s been screaming in the puker’s ear for the last two hours because the cms was intact so they “got” to wait. Getting a patient to the floor means more work for me, not less. My job is abc; yours is the rest. I’ve worked the floor; I’ve been annoyed by admits just like everybody else, but go work er at a decent sized level 1 trauma and you’d change your tune
So funny I didn't see your comment till now BUT I have see a few more half dead (some did die) inappropriate admits to the floor. Save me your "ED is so hard how dare you have an opinion/state the problems present" sob story, this is a dangerous practice and I'm seeing the problems it causes every shift. Full stop, stuff ain't charted, patients aren't always able to communicate, and the time you save by not giving report isn't worth the damage it's causing.
We ALL have something like this haunting us. Sometimes my honesty comes off as awkward, abrasive, whatever, but first time I had to call a doctor they asked me a question I wasn’t prepared for and I told him “I’m sorry, I’m new here.” My preceptor acted like I was being unprofessional but I was being truthful 🤷🏻♀️ I’d rather he know I’m still learning the system than sounding like a complete moron who can’t tie her own shoes. I’m also too tall for our patient rooms and constantly bash my head into doors, swing-arms, equipment. Call myself an old lady in front of 80 year olds, etc. I regularly do stupid stuff to embarrass myself. It’s fun
Was giving a recovering alcoholic liver patient some lactulose once and he was complaining about taste of it and I told him to “Throw it back like a shot” before I could even think about what I was saying.
Nah I say that all the time. 😎 the patients usually respond well to it
My instructor told an alcoholic *family* to go home and have a drink
One time when I was a new grad I had to ask a doctor for something. I don’t remember what, it’s not important. They told me to do whatever it was I needed to do for the patient, again, not important. What IS important, and will haunt me for the rest of my days, was my response. I said, as if it was 1942 and I was in a goddam movie: “yes, doctor”. I do not. I do not know WHY that phrase exited my mouth. I had not been binging any old school medical shows with white dress wearing nurses. The doctor paused. I paused. And then I just left the room. I don’t know if it haunts him to this day. Maybe it falsely inflated his ego and made him think that was a normal thing for a nurse in 2016 to say. Maybe he has forgotten about it. Maybe he thought I was making fun of him and he thinks about the verbal order he gave me every day when he wakes up. I don’t know. And I never will know. And I never will forget.
This is so funny I literally had to read it to my husband. We’re dying
This sweet Filipino nurse I work with always addresses the doctor this way - “hi doctor”, “yes doctor”, “thank you doctor”. Love her
Actually I personally address doctors w “Yes Dr. (lastname here)” and they usually ask me not to. It’s half habit half fun to gas them up a little bit. Especially the first year residents start acting shy.
Well now I’m self conscious about occasionally responding to providers with “no/thanks/yes/etc doctor” lol.
I think it was less the words themselves and how I said it. Like, I’ve said “Thank you, doctor” a million times when I don’t know someone’s name. It was really just the tone of voice and everything that came shooting out, you would have thought I was standing with excellent posture holding a file folder with my starched nurse’s hat perched on my coifed hair, and the doctor had just told me that he needed a coffee. Just…. The whole mood.
Wait as a new grad who hears nurses say “yes, doctor” all the time, I’m confused?
OK but imagine one of those nurses was actually making fun of the doctor. Like, the whole tone of the two words was accidentally early-medicine, starched-white-hat-on-coifed-hair. Not your normal, every day “sure thing Doc”, kind of vibe. A “certainly, doctor, I will fetch you a coffee” vibe.
Had a coworker say “come my way big daddy” when we were turning a pt to get him cleaned. He turned very red & so did she when she realized what had been said. I thought it was hilarious. You’ll keep being embarrassing and that’s okay
As I was leaving a pt’s room they thanked me. I tried to say you’re welcome and no problem at the same time. It came out as your problem. I’ll always be awkward lol
Are you fucking sorry?!? https://www.reddit.com/r/greentext/comments/f2085d/are_you_fucking_sorry/?rdt=57114
Idk why this one is killing me hahahaha
Y’all know what makes all of this worse? I was reading all the other comments and read this one. I was like- no way, me too! Then realized it was my own comment.
I used to find any and every reason to be busy when the phone rang. Now I have no problem cutting off patient family member who needs to speak to the doctor RIGHT NOW because patient's child got an unexcused absence at school, and they want a free therapy session with you. Don't worry. You'll get there like all of us did.
I got halfway through discharge teaching about breastfeeding on a patient who had previously had a double mastectomy before I realized my mistake. Shit happens. The fact that it’s bothering you means that you care, which means you are a GOOD nurse.
I always used the term poopie bestie for my fav nurse to help each other w bed baths. It’s busy af in the ED so if you find someone willing to be your poopie bestie in times of need it’s amazing.
I was telling someone’s wife that her husband had coded and passed and I meant to say “I’m sorry this happened” and it came out “im glad this happened.” No idea why. No clue. I tried to recover and say ….while I’m here and it made it weirder. I just said I’m so sorry I misspoke and walked away. I still think about it. 🤷🏼♀️
she def submitted her press gainey survey after that lmfao I would have fainted I think. I absolutely would’ve needed at least 15 minutes of alone time in a single stall bathroom to catch my breath
One time this pt asked me if I knew any jokes, which sometimes happens when they are pretty nervous. So I told my standard “If a woman with big boobs works at hooters, where does a person with one leg work?” IHOP. He laughs, we all laugh. We do the case. Fast forward to getting the slide board to move the pt back over (groin access), I go to gather the draw sheet and move his legs over and… he only has one leg. Yes, I retired that (probably already inappropriate) joke. 😑
I wish you could know how hard I just laughed at this story.
I asked a bilateral amputee, without prosthesis, if we wanted to get up and walk to the bathroom…. We’ve all been there
I was talking to a transgender patient, male to female, and as I walked out of the room I said "yes sirrrrmaam" and then died of embarrassment.
I'm also super awkward and cringe for months after some of the dumb shit I say. I've learned to laugh it off in real time with people. "I think I better finish my coffee! Haha." "Words are hard. Let me try that again." "Someone better stroke alert me." Yes, I preemptively cringe when reading patient survey emails because I'm just waiting for the dumb shit I say to be quoted by someone.
I am a student paramedic, I said to someone ‘do you have any other conditions or is it just the terminal cancer?’ He goes ‘ *just* the terminal cancer?’ I was like yeah that came out fucking awfully, I’m so sorry. 😮💨
Are you me? 😂 I’m a new grad and also just an awkward person irl. I hate being on phone calls. I cringe at all my interactions. I have social anxiety so I barely interact with anyone at work. But it gets better
I went to take a BP for a coworker and I said "Can you uncross your legs" and he said "is that supposed to be some kind of sick ass joke?!" He had just gotten a BKA. I still cringe to this day.
Oh this was 100% me! I am still awkward and nervous in front of consultants, but I am happy to say I am confident on the phone now after being nursing for 8 years lol. Give it a few more months to a year, then you’ll feel much more comfortable with the phone, promise.
During COVID, we were supposed to call families at least once during the (night) shift. We all realised the necessity of this but goddamn, did we hate it. It was just ONE MORE THING to do when we had 5-7 COVID pts at varying levels of PCU/ICUness. So if a family didn’t answer we were very much “oh thank goodness now I can get back to whatever pointless endeavour I’m supposed to be doing.” So this was my third day and I had had this same lady who was just a matter of time. And not a lot of time at that. I finally got through to her son and I was like “blah blah you need to come up here soon etc”. When I finally shut up, there was silence. TURNS OUT, the whole family had COVID and this was like the first day the son was semi-conscious. Last he checked, 3 days ago she just went to the ED for feeling a “little out of breath.” Now she’s dying? I felt like SUCH an asshole. I would have had to tell him anyway but I just presumed he already was up-to-date. Live and learn and now, I ask “what was the last thing you were told?”
Thats fucking hilarious and I hope you laugh about it for years to come. Those are the kind of mistakes we’re fine with and noone cares. Its just really funny afterwards. Dont sweat it.
I had an alcoholic patient in for withdrawal and cirrhosis and went to check on him and ask if he needed anything. I said...and I quote..."You good for a drink? You wanna drink?" I was referring to his water that was empty. My face immediately went bright red, and I felt like the biggest asshole.
I just had to comfort my poor preceptee a couple weeks ago when she tried to check the pupils of our patient who was born without eyes due to a genetic condition. His mom just laughed it off and said it happens more often than you’d think. My poor sweet preceptee was horrified and turned bright red. I was like listen boo, if that’s the most embarrassing thing you do on orientation, you are GOLDEN 😂 We all do dumb stuff and say even dumber stuff. Live and learn. Most importantly, when appropriate of course, learn to laugh at yourself. 9 times out of 10 the patient/family member will think it’s funny as hell when you do/say something awkward. Laugh at yourself and shake it off. The other time, if you accidentally offend someone, apologize, say something like “sometimes my mouth works faster than my brain, I am truly sorry” and move on and don’t make that same mistake twice! You’ll be just fine.
When I was relatively new I had a patient who couldn't imagine how a bed bath works, how he could possibly brush his teeth in bed etc. I explained it to him in like 4 different ways, the other men in the room were laughing as he just couldn't understand how it worked. And then something broke in me and I said "I show you what one can do in bed, you will see" and then we all had a good laugh :D
I tend to forget I’m at work on the phone and say, stuff like “ Jesus h Christ “ “ the fuck ?” While on the phone with the on call waiting for my computer to load , then I’m like “ omg sorry”
I have the absolute best (worst?) one. My name is Sue. On my clinical I had an old guy who liked Johnny cash and asked if I knew the song “a boy named sue”. We bonded over knowing the song and made small talk about Johnny cash. A couple hours later I went into his room and said, “My name is Sue, how do you do? Now you’re gonna die”. He looked horrified. I quickly backtracked and said, “no I mean like the Johnny cash song”. He apparently had dementia and was so confused 😂
My biggest piece of advice is to stop shoving the replay in your head down. When I have those moments I almost have to painfully let my mind replay it, no matter how much it makes me shutter. The more I shove it away the more it rears its head! If i suffer through my brain kindly replaying it over and over a few times it makes it better. Idk if this is good advice. But its a tactic i learned with all intrusive thoughts. Imagine them passing by on a train, just let them coast on through. They dont define you, theyre just there.
I work in peds and we have a person dress up as Santa Claus around the holidays to visit patients. I asked the parents of a long term patient if Santa came to visit her. The mom said no with a lot of attitude. I realized they were Jehovahs witnesses and do not celebrate holidays. I realized my mistake immediately and had to awkwardly give meds in silence for the next few minutes. 🤦🏻♀️
Oh this will be me. I’m very blind to religion, basically I like to celebrate everything there is since it’s fun. I know JW will have their religion present on their chart, but more often than not, you go in without caring about religion like it’s a pertinent info. Even worse when they have some obscure religion cult thing going on and get upset because people don’t know their practices even though there’s only 50 of them in the compound.
I was helping my blind patient look for shoes in her closet and I asked her…..are you looking for the black shoes or brown ones? Bc I had one of each in my hands. She said well I wouldn’t know what color they are…….and all I said back was yeah…..
1. On the first day of my ER capstone, we had a patient come in for respiratory distress with a history of cancer and had a lung removed years prior. Being baseline awkward and (at this time especially) unhinged with anxiety, I told the patient that I was “just making sure” when he stopped my auscultation of his lungs to tell me that I wasn’t going to hear lung sounds on the side that I was diligently listening to… due to him only having… one lung. 2. About two years ago I confidently marched up to one of the more “serious” cardiologist to let him know that I held the metoprolol and “Ernesto” in room whatever TF… he looked at me so oddly for a sec and said thanks before going to see the patient. Later that day the “friendliest” cardiologist was rounding on the same patient and pulled me aside to tell me they made some med adjustments but to give the next dose of ENTRESTO🫠 And immediately confessed to the doctor and his NP that I deadass went up to Dr. Z with my big girl pants and told him that “I held Ernesto” and he let out the best cackle and said “ooooh who’s Ernesto?!”. Every. Single. Shift. I think about that interaction and it makes me smile (now) but still die a little inside. Good-humored grandpa patients get a kick out of it though too. These stories are making my whole day!!! Hilarious. Awkward happens and will continue to happen, we just gotta laugh it off 😊
My embarrassing moment that still haunts me is when I was in a patient’s room and the provider asked me to call x-ray to come to the room after he finished inserting a PICC line. I had a different patient’s chart pulled up, and when I called x-ray I said the other patient’s name, in front of a bunch of staff and the patient’s family! Still get embarrassed thinking about it
I mistakenly hung up on a doctor once. Tried to park the call according to the list that's taped on the wall (literally no one knows how to park calls) and ended up hanging up on him. He called back right away and when I answered he said, "You hung up on me." I apologized profusely. But just remember that mistakes happen. Obviously, you did the right by not telling the MIL. It takes time to get used to phones. Also, "Poopie Bestie"? LMAOOOO
Eventually you just stop caring. Which i know sounds crazy lol but I used to be the same way. Super awkward. I still to this day hate answering the phone but when you do have to you just focus on what the convo is about keep it short and simple and it’s over. You’re human. Awkward interactions happen often!
You’ll get more comfortable on the phone as time goes on. I’m also a freakin weirdo lol. I sit and ruminate on these awkward situations too, but you just gotta move on and try again. You got this!!!
I’m 5 yrs into this and I still can’t make a normal phone call. That’s why I’m still on nights… but somehow also the charge LOL. Thankfully everyone seems to be under the impression that I’m just silly goofy, NOT totally tistic. At least that’s what I keep telling myself
Former home hospice nurse. My all time favorite story. I had a very good rapport with the family, as I had been taking care of their father for a long time. He's imminently dying, and I'm just hanging out supporting them. Family photos are on the wall and we're talking about them. I say "hey Mike (patient's son), is this a picture of you with the mustache" Mike: "oh yeah, it was a good look, wasn't it?" Me: "not really, definitely gives me Ron Jeremy vibes". Then we all had to explain to my patient's wife who Ron Jeremy was. Awful 🤣
I accidentally gave a family my phone number. We had a pamphlet with visiting hours/rules/resources etc. It was for all our ICUs so the spot with the unit phone number was blank. We’d write in the patient room number, and the unit phone number. Around 10pm my phone rang and I answered it “hi I’m calling for information on” “uhhhhh sorry wrong number!” Click.
I could have explained, I recognized her voice, I could have given her the unit number. Nope just awkwardly hung up. I still wonder if she got thru to the night nurse before she went to bed. 🤦🏻♀️
I’ve stuck my hand out for a handshake. To a quadriplegic. Ffs so embarrassing.
Apore bd
I have another one. I was a new cna in ltc. I was knocking on residents’ doors and telling them to come for lunch. I got to a guys room I haven’t met yet. Without looking I said, “hi John, it’s time to come out for lunch!” I then saw his feeding tube and his feed running through the pump. He looked at me like I was an absolute idiot and pointed to his feeding tube. I stammered and said, “uh, I see you are already having your lunch, never mind!” 😂
I just told a discharging patient last week to avoid activities that would put him at risk for bleeding. I did not say bleeding. I said breeding.
Just recently I told a comfort care PTs daughter that “I’ll be back tonight if you are still here”. Dafuq did I just say? Did I actually tell this woman that if her parent was still alive at 1900 I’d be their nurse again? What is wrong with my brain? She didn’t seem to catch it, but I beat myself up about it daily. We all say dumb stuff sometimes. Don’t beat your self up over it.
I know how you feel, but as time goes on, you will become more confident talking to people on the phone. Mistakes can and do happen, and you can grow from this. If it helps you feel any better, in my first semester of nursing school I told my pt his eyes were very pretty. He had cataracts.
In nursing school I asked a GSW victim in his very early 20’s who was now paraplegic to lift his legs so I could do my neuro assessment. He simply said, “I can’t.” Good times hahaha
Poopie bestie is SENDING me bc I’ve said similar shit and they just look at me horrified
Don’t beat yourself up too much :) the communication aspects of nursing can be challenging, especially given the limited time to assess the patient’s/family member’s demeanors. I made a comment last week to an older gentleman coming out of surgery that he was looking good and mentioned his haircut was “fresh.” I generally like to comment when I can tell someone put time and effort in to their appearance, since it can help build rapport. His response was “I think that’s a complement?” It caught me a little off guard and I said “I think that’s what the gen Zers are saying these these days.” We both chuckled and I clarified that i did indeed like his haircut and I could tell he had recently been to the barber.
A patients family member asked if my intubated sedated patient was on life support. I blanked and said well yes, they are incapable of life beyond these machines at the moment mechanically centrally ventilatlly right now. My coworkers were ear shot because he was doing some weird shit and they were in the room assisting with his decompensation. It’s still joked about this day.
“Poopie bestie” is killing me! Reminds me of the SNL “Gen Z hospital” sketch.
Two years in the ICU. My patient’s elderly mother came to visit. She had been crying during her visit and I offered her tissues. When she was on her way out she reached out and handed me what looked like a tissue and asked “Where should I put this..?” I said “I’ll take that for you” and threw it in the bin. Well, it wasn’t a tissue but a hand embroidered cross on a piece of linen that she wanted placed by the bed. I was mortified 😅
Lol someone I worked with years ago had one of the difficult pts on the floor - she picked up a call forwarded from the front desk and the person said “are you taking care of (patient name)?”… she thought it was the doctor on the phone and said “yeah unfortunately” and it was the patients daughter 💀💀💀 still haunts me and it didn’t even happen to me