ER Pranks.

[RustedFox]

One of the nighttime charge nurses taped a foley catheter to the windshield wiper of another nurse's car, leading to hilarity when the nurse got in her car at the end of a shift and turned on the wipers to clear the morning Florida dew only to see a 18 Fr. foley flopping back and forth across the windshield. I thought this was particularly hilarious. Anyone else have a good prank story?

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[USCDiver]

Once, I smeared some chocolate on a hemoccult card and left it on the desk of our most germophobic doc.

 

[deleted103644]

Once, I smeared some chocolate on a hemoccult card and left it on the desk of our most germophobic doc.

Did you then walk by while he was freaking out, taste it, and say negative?

 

[Angry Birds]

In one single provider ER I used to work at we had a rack where you would put a card up with the room number for unseen patients. The oncoming ER doctor would walk in and first thing look to see how bad it was based on the number of cards.

On my last day at that hospital, I put like twenty plus cards up just to freak out the oncoming doc, who was my buddy. I told him with a straight face that since it was my last day I stopped seeing new patients five hours before the end of my shift.

He was so nice that he didn’t even say anything back. Lol

In reality I had cleared house like a boss.

 

[It's lupus!]

In my old ED we'd fill up the new guys locker with 2x2s and 4x4s so that it spilled over when they opened it. Typically after their first week. We kinda judged what kind of team mate they were going to be based on how they reacted to that... Pretty funny and fairly harmless

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[Gastrapathy]

I helped a friend prank his wife on her last night shift of EM residency by pretending to be the transfer center with 4 incredibly complex unstable patients with incomplete and pretty much nonsensical information already en-route for ED to ED transfer without any authorization from her attending, etc. He had the attending in on it too. She recognized my voice on the second or third call. She got even when the next round of medical students showed up.

 

[deleted109597]

Lemonade, apple juice, and iced tea in order from either urinals or specimen cups. Periodically taste them.

 

[Perrin]

When I was an intern, I asked an upper level what the number was for ultrasound to check on the progress of a pt. He told me it’s ninety-nine eleven. I was quickly speaking to the 911 dispatch. I hung up and they called me back. I hadn’t realized yet that dialing 9, gets you outside the hospital.

 

[Angry Birds]

When I was an intern, I asked an upper level what the number was for ultrasound to check on the progress of a pt. He told me it’s ninety-nine eleven. I was quickly speaking to the 911 dispatch. I hung up and they called me back. I hadn’t realized yet that dialing 9, gets you outside the hospital.

That's a good one.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I wouldn't dare try any pranks in this ultra-sensitive environment. Even if the doc is okay with it, all it takes is a disgruntled nurse, tech, or phlebotomist to register a complaint.

 

[gro2001]

Our EMR allowed us to change the names of the docs on the tracking board by free-texting whatever. One of my co-residents working in another area had a nickname she did not like very much that superficially looked and sounded a little like her name. So I changed it to that on all her patients. I then called the clerk and asked to speak to the doctor for patient in bed 7. The clerk than announced, on the overhead speaker, to be heard by the whole ER "Doctor [EmbarassingNickname], please pick up line 2". The area was cracking up, my co resident was freaking out, it was hilarious.

 

[Tenk]

I wouldn't dare try any pranks in this ultra-sensitive environment. Even if the doc is okay with it, all it takes is a disgruntled nurse, tech, or phlebotomist to register a complaint.

That’s too bad. Not all hospitals are like that though. Hard to believe but it’s true. Mine sure isn’t.

 

[BAM!]

In one single provider ER I used to work at we had a rack where you would put a card up with the room number for unseen patients. The oncoming ER doctor would walk in and first thing look to see how bad it was based on the number of cards.

On my last day at that hospital, I put like twenty plus cards up just to freak out the oncoming doc, who was my buddy. I told him with a straight face that since it was my last day I stopped seeing new patients five hours before the end of my shift.

He was so nice that he didn’t even say anything back. Lol

In reality I had cleared house like a boss.

hashtag humblebrag

 

[Birdstrike]

One time a nurse in the ED I worked at brought in one of those giant saran wrap things you buy at Costco, that lasts a million years. He took it out into the parking lot and completely wrapped one of his rival murses car in plastic wrap. Literally 360 degrees all the way around the thing like it was a frickin' potato about to be sent into the microwave for nuking. Apparently it was kind of a nightmare to unwrap the thing at the end of his shift, to the extent there was talk of pressing charges at one point. Lol. But I don't thing anything ever came of it. It was kinda hilarious, though.

 

[DrDrummer]

In Epic, it's fairly easy to change the color/status of almost all the patients on the board to red or whatever the "waiting to be seen color" is if you're boarding a bunch of admitted patients. That's a great joke to welcome the incoming day team after a 3/31 night shift -- "Sorry, we tried!" 🙂