Working in medicine is so stressful, high-risk, and potentially traumatic that you can’t survive for long without a stellar sense of humor. When things get tough, you laugh to keep morale up. In some cases, though, the situations you encounter are so bizarre and wild that you can’t help but share them with the world.
Doctors and nurses who work in emergency rooms took to a handful of online threads where they revealed the most hilarious things that have ever happened to them. Keep scrolling for a good laugh. And don’t forget to share these with anyone you know who works in medicine. They’ll find a lot to relate to.
#1
Not ER, but once I took care of the same 2 patients for 3 days in a row, and they were separated only with a curtain. On the third day the nice old man gets distraught and goes "Nurse! Nurse! I'm so worried I haven't had a bowel movement in 3 days!!" I go "what do you mean? You just had one yesterday." And he relaxes and smiles and says "oh, I guess I forgot." From behind the curtain my other patient yells "I REMEMBER!!!" 😂.
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89points
#2
Not the nurse but the subject of the story.
I shattered my ankle and was waiting in emergency for next steps. The nurse comes in all business, tells me 'I need to take off your pants.'
My immediate response was 'shouldn't we at least have dinner first?'
She paused, turned bright red, then spun on her heel and left the room. About 30 seconds later I hear the nurse's station erupt. I do sometimes wonder if she still tells the story.
I shattered my ankle and was waiting in emergency for next steps. The nurse comes in all business, tells me 'I need to take off your pants.'
My immediate response was 'shouldn't we at least have dinner first?'
She paused, turned bright red, then spun on her heel and left the room. About 30 seconds later I hear the nurse's station erupt. I do sometimes wonder if she still tells the story.
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82points
#3
Not my story, but heard it from my cousin. She was training for her nurse diploma at the time at a local hospital. So there is this old guy (70-80) coming in the ER with a big wound on his leg and he had to go for surgery. My cousin tried to prepare him for the surgery and asked him to remove his boots and clothes, so he can change into proper clothing. The old guy started yelling and cursing because he didn’t want to get his boots off. Several doctors came by to calm him and he started to fight them too. After some time when he calmed down they injected him some anesthetic in order to remove his boots without him flipping over. It turns out he was ashamed to take them off because he had his nails painted red.
74points
Though laughter is good for your physical and mental health, the stress that doctors and nurses deal with in emergency medicine is no joking matter.
As one study points out, a whopping 7 to 10% of physicians are disabled by depression, dark thoughts, substance misuse, or unhappy marriages. Emergency medicine professionals, in particular, have a higher risk of developing substance misuse issues.
Focusing on developing a culture of resilience and proactively preventing these issues doesn’t just help the medical staff in their personal lives. It also has a positive knock-on effect on their professional lives and the care of their patients.
#4
I'm a CNA. Once I was sitting a patient (one-on-one care for really bad cases, essentially babysitting), 40-something guy with necrotic pancreatitis/alcohol withdrawal. He was completely out of it, thought he was at a construction job. Really all I did for him all night was make sure he didn't pull out his catheter/PICC line/tele monitors and/or get up and wander away. Anyway, he was super pissed at me for making him stay in bed when he thought he should be working. He thought I was his male coworker, didn't know it was three in the morning, didn't know that he was completely naked. At various points, mind you, I had to physically wrestle this 200-something pound naked guy back into bed while his lines were stretched to the breaking point, just barely still in his body. Also, he thought his bed was his truck at one point, kept trying to start his bed and drive it away. "This is the strangest construction job I've ever been on," he kept telling me. Me too, buddy.
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74points
#5
It was before I got into medical school, I was volunteering in the ER. I walked in one night, and a tech was scrubbing a guy with road rash down his arm, his body, and his leg. It looked really painful, and I asked the patient what happened.
"I was on my Harley, and I was being chased by the cops. I went around a corner, hit some gravel, and laid my bike down."
I noticed the man's wife in the corner of the room roll her eyes.
"How does that story sound?" He asked.
"Sounds great," I said. "What really happened?"
"I was on my scooter going downhill and I fell off."
"Stick with the first story.".
"I was on my Harley, and I was being chased by the cops. I went around a corner, hit some gravel, and laid my bike down."
I noticed the man's wife in the corner of the room roll her eyes.
"How does that story sound?" He asked.
"Sounds great," I said. "What really happened?"
"I was on my scooter going downhill and I fell off."
"Stick with the first story.".
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68points
#6
We had one woman come back again, and her chief complaint was constipation. Going into her chart I saw that she had been previously given some suppositories to take, and in the triage note she said her meds weren't working and she wanted some different ones.
So the doc is asking her questions, making sure nothing else is wrong, and they get to the part about the meds. She says "Well yeah, the pills I got last time were huge! I have to break them in half to swallow them!"
And then we had to explain that suppositories are not meant to be eaten, and that was why her medication was not relieving her symptoms. She thought Suppository was the name of the medication, like Tylenol is for acetaminophen.
I still cant forget the doctor explaining to her how to actually use her medication.
So the doc is asking her questions, making sure nothing else is wrong, and they get to the part about the meds. She says "Well yeah, the pills I got last time were huge! I have to break them in half to swallow them!"
And then we had to explain that suppositories are not meant to be eaten, and that was why her medication was not relieving her symptoms. She thought Suppository was the name of the medication, like Tylenol is for acetaminophen.
I still cant forget the doctor explaining to her how to actually use her medication.
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65points
“The relationship between factors such as fatigue, burnout, poor health, emotional exhaustion, lack of meaning, poor social support, and poor camaraderie with critical outcomes such as clinical performance, ability to learn, empathy for patients, and avoidance of medical errors is intuitively obvious. What we are beginning to learn now, however, is that greater attention to one's personal wellbeing may in fact be associated with better patient care.”
There’s more and more evidence to support the link between physician wellbeing and decreased medical errors, lower rates of burnout, and improved empathy.
Emergency healthcare work can be very rewarding, but it is also demanding and challenging. One major issue physicians in this field face is burnout, which then potentially leads to divorce, physical unwellness, self-harm, substance misuse, etc., Medrecruit warns. Some of the main symptoms of burnout include:
- Exhaustion
- Cynicism
- Sleeping problems
- Frustration
- Mood swings
- Feelings of isolation
- Depression
- Digestion problems
- Headaches
- Ulcers
#7
I don't work in the er but have been there many times. Once I was having chest pains and they hooked me up to a eeg/ekg? Machine. I've had this done before. The doc was teaching a younger doc where/how to apply the electrodes. When they were done the younger doc turned the machine on and i convulsed like i got a shock. The younger one shrieked and panikced. Me and the older doc laughed so much!!! Good times until i learned i have a heart murmur.
64points
#8
This homeless dude comes in after being hit by a car. His CT shows he has a pretty significant head bleed. He's already drunk so this guy's just having a great time. We get him undressed and start trying to clean up when he bursts into song "YOOU AAARE SOOO BEAUTIFUL" He keeps going on with the same song for half an hour, but it made it 10 times better when a female nurse came in to help and he immediately stops singing and goes "Hang on... I forgot the second verse" he sits for a few minutes and then goes right back at the same part he's been singing. That's probably the hardest I've tried to not laugh in my life.
58points
#9
Or that time a nice fella taking a colonoscopy prep overdid it, and got to vomiting ... just when the diarrhea kicked in. Eventually, exhausted and empty, but feeling better, he thought he'd try to get approved to go ahead with the colonoscopy instead of wasting the prep. GI said ok, if he went to the ED and got checked out for dehydration/ infection. He hopped into the shower, cleaned off in a hurry and came to see me. Having failed to notice that he used his teenaged daughters fancy silly glitter body wash. This big, macho muscular conservative looking 50 year old man, glittering like Edward from Twilight. Once he heard the workup was ok and he was clear for the scope, we all had a great laugh.
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54points
Burnout can be caused by a variety of factors, including the mortality of patients, long work hours, sleep deprivation, exposure to diseases, unpredictable workloads, high-stress environments, and the pressure to be perfect.
Other factors that negatively impact your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing include things like poor nutrition, a lack of exercise, a feeling of lacking control over your work, threats of violence in the workplace, and administrative demands.
However, you are not powerless. You can be proactive and avoid burnout or take steps to manage it once you’re in the deep end. Some of the main tools in your arsenal, as an ER physician, include mindfulness and meditation practice, regular physical activity, support from your peers, self-care (sleep, time off, accepting limits, setting boundaries, good social life, etc.), and seeking professional help.
#10
Not a nurse but an MA and I once had a patient that was a catholic priest that developed a skin rash...he was treating it with that spray Clorox cleanup solution which of course only made it worse. When asked about the rash, he said he caught it from his wife and then pleaded with us not to report him to the head guy at his church since he’s not supposed to be married. Obviously we can’t report things like that due to privacy laws. Turns out his “wife” was a lady of the night that was also one of our patients (unbeknownst to either of them). FYI/ Clorox spray, when applied liberally and directly to your genitalia WILL cause burns. What an idiot.
54points
#11
We had a dad bring his kid in, cause she had weird red areas on her belly. He screamed at us, cursed and made a BIG scene, claiming his kid would 'fade into unconciousness" and we are just watching her losing her life. Don't get me wrong, if she'd had altered mental status I'd have been concerned, but the kid was dancing around the examination room and had no signs of problems whatsoever, while we had actually sick kids waiting. Well, dad insisted to get an ultrasound for his kid with internal bleeding. When the ultrasound gel was applied, we wiped off the red colour that she probably got from a new shirt or toy or whatever...
He was embarrassed. At least.
He was embarrassed. At least.
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50points
#12
Not a doctor or nurse but a firefighter. Got a call and the guy was DOA, passed away sitting on his couch. We're all hanging around waiting for the ME to show up and one of the guys I'm working with, an old salty firefighter, gets tired of standing around so he sits down on the couch next to the body. An EMT walks in to tell us that a family member just showed up, the guy on the couch slaps the body on the shoulder and says "hey, people here to see you".
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45points
Which of these stories did you enjoy the most? Do we have any doctors or nurses here with us today? Have you ever worked in the emergency room before? What is the funniest or weirdest thing that has ever happened to you at work?
No matter your profession, how do you deal with all the stress? If you feel like sharing, drop your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
#13
Once when I was on the ward, an elderly patient surprised me by gleefully exclaiming 'beep beep!' in my ear. He was walking with a zimmer frame, so he must have spent a fair amount of time sneaking up on me (not exactly silently) and I was still none the wiser. Not exactly a WTF moment, but it made my day, especially as he looked so pleased with himself afterwards.
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45points
#14
I was in charge one day and was called to rescue my tech who had been pulled to sit with a psych pt. I go down and hes pale and shaking, and his patient is straining at his leathers and screaming.
I told the patient to calm down a sec so I can talk to my tech just to be a smarty pants and he actually did! I told my tech to chill and call me if he needs me. I then told the patient I was done talking and he could go back to making a ruckus if he wanted. The meds had kicked in though, and he just called me "fat Mary Poppins" as I left.
I told the patient to calm down a sec so I can talk to my tech just to be a smarty pants and he actually did! I told my tech to chill and call me if he needs me. I then told the patient I was done talking and he could go back to making a ruckus if he wanted. The meds had kicked in though, and he just called me "fat Mary Poppins" as I left.
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41points
#15
My sister works as a nurse in delivery ward. One couple wanted to name their kid a pretty interesting combination. The dad liked "Sirius" and the mom liked "Unique." Their last name was fairly ordinary (like Smith or something) so they basically wanted to name their kid Sirius Unique Smith.
One of the nurses advised they give the kid another, less creative middle name as an alternative they could use when they got older in case the kid didn't like those two names. So they decided to go with Lee and that was how my sister ended up helping deliver a baby named Sirius Lee Unique Smith.
One of the nurses advised they give the kid another, less creative middle name as an alternative they could use when they got older in case the kid didn't like those two names. So they decided to go with Lee and that was how my sister ended up helping deliver a baby named Sirius Lee Unique Smith.
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39points
#16
Not a medical professional in any way but my mom was a nurse. One time she had a woman come in who was complaining about “funny smells from down there”, so my mom takes her to a room to inspect and pulls out what she said was the nastiest looking tampon that she had ever seen. I’m a dude so I don’t know how long it would hypothetically take for one to go bad but my mom said it had turned green and all sorts of other colors by that point. When my mom explained to the woman what the cause of the smell was, she responded “Oh that’s so funny, the same thing happened to my mother. It must be genetic.”.
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38points
#17
My patient was sedated and screamed that "Roy Halladay is a vampire reincarnated as Duke Ellington."
I'd never had to try so hard to not laugh. I still have random bursts of hysterical laughter about it.
I'd never had to try so hard to not laugh. I still have random bursts of hysterical laughter about it.
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37points
#18
I was a volunteer transporter at this time, and I had just finished moving a patient to the CT scan room. I hear an announcement that said “Code Security, CT scan hallway.” I peak my head out the room, and flying past me is a very young teenager sprinting down the hall, flailing his arms and screeching. He gets to the end of the hallway and out of nowhere an absolutely massive security guard spears this kid with the force to take out a bear. It happened so quickly that I just started losing it laughing.
Found out later the kid was tripping and had escaped from the emergency department.
Found out later the kid was tripping and had escaped from the emergency department.
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36points
#19
Not a nurse but I bet she told everyone... because she was cracking up at my innocence.
I had the need for a poison ivy shot and my dad told me they shoot your butt. Im like 15. So nurse says “time for your shot, can you
Me: pants down; butt out
“Pull your waistband down.”
The funny part is I kicked my shoes off as well. Like I was about to get all naked and comfortable for a one second shot. We all laughed real hard at that. She had the pants down before but never the shoes kicked off.
I had the need for a poison ivy shot and my dad told me they shoot your butt. Im like 15. So nurse says “time for your shot, can you
Me: pants down; butt out
“Pull your waistband down.”
The funny part is I kicked my shoes off as well. Like I was about to get all naked and comfortable for a one second shot. We all laughed real hard at that. She had the pants down before but never the shoes kicked off.
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34points
#20
EMT-B here, the funniest thing I was involved with was when I was still in EMT school. I was doing a clinical rotation in the ER when the doctor called me over to where he and a group of nurses were congregated. He asked me "Son, what do you think this is?" as he pointed to an xray of some bodily region. As I take a closer look at this snapshot into some strangers anatomy I see an obvious large white mass and reply "Umm...is it a tumor?", he smiles and says "Nope....it's a golf ball".
The patient was a high school cheerleader who had been admitted into the ER after slipping in the bathroom and "falling" on one of her fathers golf balls after taking a shower (talk about a hell of a water hazard). One of the ER nurses told me later the nurse who had dealt with the patient advised her to "use a string next time" lol.
tl;dr While in EMT school I saw an xray of a female patient who had a golf ball up her hoo-hoo.
The patient was a high school cheerleader who had been admitted into the ER after slipping in the bathroom and "falling" on one of her fathers golf balls after taking a shower (talk about a hell of a water hazard). One of the ER nurses told me later the nurse who had dealt with the patient advised her to "use a string next time" lol.
tl;dr While in EMT school I saw an xray of a female patient who had a golf ball up her hoo-hoo.
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34points