Nurse Humour

Nurse humour can be likened to perhaps gallows humour, as it often takes a side swipe at all those taboo subjects....such as death, dying, colostomy bags,incontinence and the whole plethora of bodily fluids and toilet parts we see,prod and hold each day of our working lives.
I remember my mother, on one of her many admissions to hospital, describing a "middle of the night" conversation she over heard between a harassed support worker and two over worked staff nurses....
It was four thirty in the morning and the former hissed loudly to the latter
"I can't believe it! ....." she gasped " I've just found another one dead!!!!"
There was a muffled gasp then all three collapsed into weary giggles!
Thus is the hysterical humour of nurses.

Intubation of a patient for ventilation with an endotracheal tube

It has been that sort of day shift today. 13 hours of admissions, seriously ill patients and no staff.
We were all dropping just a little, when the A&E staff ( ER staff to you Americans) brought another critically ill patient up to us.
As the slightly self important A&E staff nurse gave his hurried handover to my colleagues , he made a point of saying that the doctors very nearly intubated the patient in resus....but he actually said that the patient has nearly been incubated in resus....a simple mistake......and not a particularly funny comment
But to us,six nurses on duty...it was the best joke we has all heard since Noah did the "wide mouth frog joke"....we were laughing our heads off at it for an hour....
You have to be a nurse to truly appreciate the titters
Off to bed another 13 hour shift tomorrow night
x