Hospital Humor

Gotta love it when your patients flick you off! And there I was thinking he was a super sweet old guy. Haha. I had to take his blood sugar by pricking his finger, so I asked which one he wanted me to use... he stuck up his middle finger with a mischievous smile. What a goofball. : )

Later, he was walking down the hall with the Physical Therapist... until his had a bowel movement... dripping down his leg and gown, and splattered on the PT's shoe. Geesh. I helped clean it up and off him. I teased him that he was just trying to get out of PT. He laughed and came up with some smart aleck answer I can't recall. But despite the mess, patients who have a good sense of humor always make problems like this not quite as difficult.

I always get the bad luck of the draw when it comes to answering other nurses' call lights. (Either I'll end up with helping a patient up to the commode, off the commode, wiping up poop, pee, or vomit, spending an extra 15 minutes chasing around their nurse for pain meds, etc... I'll answer a call light that is guaranteed to put me behind regardless.) Anyway, a patient's call light will be pushed and generally either a Patient Care Provider (PCP) or their RN will answer it... unless you're not busy and can help out. So today, having two patients, I was going to say good-bye each one. I'd already reported off to the evening nurse at least a half hour earlier (technically placing them out of my care). As I turned left down the hall I saw one of my "past" patient's call light on. I had baaadd feelings about this one. So I promptly turned to the right and said goodbye to the fun old guy first. Heading back up the hallway to the other room I knocked and found that patient on the bedside commode. I apologized for interrupting, but wanted to say goodbye, yada yada yada. He chuckled and said that I'd just missed out on the excitement. I asked what he was talking about. He pointed to the floor... the small piles of loose stool on the floor. Apparently, he didn't make it up to the commode in time. At that point the PCP was walking back in with towels. I said goodbye to the patient again and promptly left with a smile on my face. (It's an unspoken rule that whoever answers that call light is responsible for messes such as these.) In a different case I would have helped her out, but I was over an hour late leaving at that point and I hadn't eaten in over nine hours (minus a granola bar). So for once, my intuition served me right! Chalk up one small victory for this student nurse please!