Teamwork is a must in healthcare. There’s no “i” in team… but there sure is an “m” and an “e”. 

Life is like a box a box of chocolates… sure… we all know that from Forrest Gump. But, now, Dr. Gump weighs in on what shift work is like.

Check out the “From the Call Bell” magnet at the GiggleMed medical humor gift store. 

Personally, I don’t have the guts to try this… But could you imagine the look on the Joint Commissioner’s face if they walked into the break room and saw this lunch cooler from ThinkGeek on the table?

…Priceless, me thinks.

This would make an awesome gift for Doctor’s Day, Nurse’s Week, or graduation from medical school, nursing school, or EMT training.

By the way, this is an affiliate link… meaning… we could earn a small commission if you click through our link to purchase this item. If you do not want this to happen, but you still want the lunch cooler, just go to ThinkGeek.com directly

Funny and embarrassing stories abound in the healthcare professions. Although most happen to us when we are interns or nursing students or new to a particular location, they can happen at any time… and always when you least expect them.

Anyway, here’s a recent submission. This one comes from “MM”, a med-surg nurse… I call it “Sage Advice to the Legless”:

When I was in nursing school another nursing student and I were giving our first bedbath to a patient that was a bilateral AKA.When we had finished his bath we pulled his sheet up and asked if he’d like his blanket as well. The patient said he didn’t care if we pulled the blanket up or not. My classmate covered him with the blanket saying if you don’t want it you can kick it off.

Got a funny story of your own? Get a free gift…

Next week is National Nurses Week.  Now I hope you’re prepared… Many of you will see some horrendous  “gifts” given by hospitals to the nursing staff.  To preempt these Nurses Week gift atrocities, here is a list of gifts you really should never give to a nurse on Nurses Week… actually, ever:

1 – An engraved bed pan

2 – Breath mints packaged in cute little specimen cups

3 – An ink stamper that reads: “Verbal order. Repeated and read back.”

4 – A coffee mug for the nurse’s station that reads: “JCAHO Schmayko”

5 – A coupon for free biohazzard tattoos

6 – The unveiling of yet another form for nurses to fill out “to make things easier”

7 – Buttons that read: “Doctor’s Little Helper”

Post some real-life ridiculous gifts you’ve seen in the comments below.

Watch for awesome freebies coming on Monday, May 4th for you to give away to your nursing friends and colleagues… just to say thanks during Nurses Week.

It’s time for a mid-month dose of hospital chart bloopers… Here’s another set of funny medical malapropisms for you. Can you control your urine? Chart Farts® (: real stuff. real charts :)

• Psychiatric Admission Diagnosis: Screamer
• He demonstrated a 9 kilogram weight loss with corresponding diuresis
• Patient sees his urologist for prosthetic enlargement
• a trail of morphine
• Admission Diagnosis: Diagnosis needed
• LE tenderness was solicitable by palpation
• Hx of lung fibroids
• Pain under left breath
• Estimated RV pressure 335mmHg
• Angina with prior myocardial infarction s/p myocardial infarction
• Medicine consult: I will be happy to follow the patient with you on my service.
• Nutrition note: Pt eating 0-100% of renal diet.
• intermittent heart beat
• History of high cholesterol 6 months for which he takes once a day cholesterol.
• He is followed by a GERD doctor.
• This is a 54 YO white African American
• Nephrology recommended dietary restriction of urine protein and creatinine. 

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Get medical humor, nursing jokes, funny doctor stories, and health care bloopers by following @GiggleMed on Twitter. You can "follow" these funny micro-blog posts whenever and how ever you want. Here are some sample posts:

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The call bell rings and it takes forever for the nurse to get there. But don’t blame the nurse, blame the overseers. They’re concerned with documentation, not patient care. You don’t need to actually do any nursing with diligence and care… You just have to rush through it and then spend hours documenting that you did it. There’s no time for call bells… that is, until some disconnected committee declares that call bell to room entry times need documentation too. And that, of course, will have a form, too.

Got an idea for a caption to go beneath this image of a call bell? Let us know. If we use your nursing comic caption, we’ll send you a funny “From the Call Bell” magnet (from the GiggleMed medical humor gift store).

We've all heard of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  But what about all of those people that we work with in health care?... you know... those people that are nowhere to be found in Mr. Covey's book.  Just to make sure we're all talking about the same people, here are the 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Nurses:

• Just calling "to let you know".
• Writing "Doctor aware".
• Saying, "It's not my patient".
• Referring to patients by their room numbers and not knowing their names.
• Smoke breaks.
• Waiting until the end of their shift to start their charting.
• Writing that they "read back" an order, when they did no such thing.

Feel free to add others for consideration.  Send us an email or just post a comment below.  For those annoying nurses that took offense to this post... two things: (1) If you do three or more of the above, you have no one to blame but yourself, and (2) the next post is one that you'll love - The 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Doctors.  :0)