Great ED Diversions

[docB]

---

Members don't see this ad.

On the rare occasions when it is slow I'd say ED people are second only to firefighters in terms of coming up with weird and interesting ways to entertain themselves. During residency we played hallway baseball, encased a med student in a body cast and made a catapault out of IV poles and tourniquets. The coolest idea goes to Charge Nurse Ted at UCD who asked and answered the age old question, "How much fluid can a 1 L IV bag really hold?" Throughout the night everyone added syringe full after syringe full until it exploded on a paramedic student. Answer: about 5250 cc. It was so cool.

 

[Docgeorge]

OMG, Ted was really cool. They had some really cool nurses at UCD. I miss that place.

 

[roja]

hmm. new and interesting ways to pass the time.

 

[edinOH]

A few weeks ago when I was on medicine call we went on diversion for a couple of nights.

Now that was a great ED diversion. Never knew the call room bed was so comfortable. 😀

 

[beanbean]

True story; When I was working as a clinical engineer at a hospital we had a patient who somehow ended up with a foley balloon that ruptured inside him while it was being inflated. The powers that be feared they had a lot of defective Foleys so they decided that clinical engineering need to perform a few tests. I was the lucky one who got it inflate Foley balloon with water using a syringe to see how much they could hold until they burst. I don't remember the number of cc's, but lets just say you would have other issues if someone ever tried to inflate one of those balloons that much - it was the size of a large cantalope.

 

[Jeff698]

Be warned, while making a baseball out of cloth tape may seem like a great idea at first, try to avoid catching a tapeball 'fast' ball. Man, those things are damn dense.

Ouch.

Of course, making tapeballs is a great way to pass the time. It almost makes medicine rounds bearable.

No, wait. Nothing makes medicine rounds bearable. Sorry.

Take care,
Jeff

 

[DrQuinn]

We get a LOT of student nurses and student paramedics in our ED. They're almost there 24/7, which is great cause it helps out our nurses... but I like to play tricks on them. I'll get that little plastic container of apple juice with the perforatable aluminum foil top (you know what i'm talking about), put it in a urine specimen container, then have a nurse hand it to me, (in front of said students), and say:

"Dr. Quinn, this woman has GOT to have a urinary tract infection, I mean, smell this urine!"

at which point I'll take a whiff, and say "by Sessamoid almighty, yer right Nurse Betty!" I'll then proceed to take a swig, swish it around my mouth, make a disgusted look on my face, and say "tastes like s. saprophyticus, that dirty *****."

I have almost had two syncopal episodes from that. My own little Fear Factor.

Q, DO

 

[docB]

No, wait. Nothing makes medicine rounds bearable. Sorry.

We had this really old cardiologist who was more bored than we were on rounds so he was trying to get one of the interns to teach him Spanish. We'd walk into the room of any pt with a Spanish surname and he'd say to the intern, "Ask her if she had nausea with her chest pain." The pt who had probably never been any closer to Mexico than Bakersfield would then interject in perfect English, "No, I didn't." At this point the attending would then ask the intern again, "Well then ask her if the pain radiated at all." and the pt would again answer. This went on and on to the point that it was very weird, somewhat hilarious and even a bit offensive. It was definitely that intern's least favorite rotation.

 

[roja]

We get a LOT of student nurses and student paramedics in our ED. They're almost there 24/7, which is great cause it helps out our nurses... but I like to play tricks on them. I'll get that little plastic container of apple juice with the perforatable aluminum foil top (you know what i'm talking about), put it in a urine specimen container, then have a nurse hand it to me, (in front of said students), and say:

"Dr. Quinn, this woman has GOT to have a urinary tract infection, I mean, smell this urine!"

at which point I'll take a whiff, and say "by Sessamoid almighty, yer right Nurse Betty!" I'll then proceed to take a swig, swish it around my mouth, make a disgusted look on my face, and say "tastes like s. saprophyticus, that dirty *****."

I have almost had two syncopal episodes from that. My own little Fear Factor.

Q, DO

Oh. my. god.


You have to come and do your elective here. absolutely.

We'll feed you and get you drunk too.

 

[flighterdoc]

We get a LOT of student nurses and student paramedics in our ED. They're almost there 24/7, which is great cause it helps out our nurses... but I like to play tricks on them. I'll get that little plastic container of apple juice with the perforatable aluminum foil top (you know what i'm talking about), put it in a urine specimen container, then have a nurse hand it to me, (in front of said students), and say:

"Dr. Quinn, this woman has GOT to have a urinary tract infection, I mean, smell this urine!"

at which point I'll take a whiff, and say "by Sessamoid almighty, yer right Nurse Betty!" I'll then proceed to take a swig, swish it around my mouth, make a disgusted look on my face, and say "tastes like s. saprophyticus, that dirty *****."

I have almost had two syncopal episodes from that. My own little Fear Factor.

Q, DO

Ah, it's great to hear that the old pranks are new again!

How about filling a gallon coleman jug with warm water and adding a little betadine, (for color) and telling the newbie (nurse, intern, whatever) it's a urine sample?

 

[ArcherM2]

Last year, on my second day in the ED as a charting scribe, an attending sat down next to me with hands covered in what I thought was feces. He proceeded to lick his fingers and say "Damn, that was one good rectal". I almost tossed cookies. It turned out to be a chocolate bar that he was eating a few minutes earlier. Very funny, definiteley made me realize that the ED is unique.

 

[DrQuinn]

Oh. my. god.


You have to come and do your elective here. absolutely.

We'll feed you and get you drunk too.

food + alcohol = lowered inhibitions = roja + quinnNSU = in 26 years a superb EM intern who can do DO manipulation but can do ultrasounds in their sleep.

Q, DO