I was working on a labor and delivery unit in California. I was escorting a patient scheduled for induction to her room. Prior to walking to her room, she told me she had a cold. I was walking a little bit in front of her as we began heading down the hallway. I asked her some questions, but she kept saying, "What?"

I finally turned to my patient and said, "Boy, that cold must really have your ears plugged up!" to which she replied, "No, I am deaf, but I read lips." Since I had been speaking directly to her at the desk, she could read my lips — but she couldn't see me while I was in front of her in the hallway. I felt about two inches tall!

Jean Bearden, RN, BSN
Houston, TX

It was the '60s; pantyhose were new, and nurses still wore white dress uniforms. I was working on a med/surg floor, and my pantyhose kept sliding down. To save time, instead of going all the way to the nurses' lounge to pull up my very irritating, low-riding pantyhose, I ran quickly into the doctor's dictating booth to pull them up. A very surprised doctor then opened the door, planning to dictate on his patients . . . and there I was, my uniform hiked up, while I was bent over, pulling up my pantyhose!

Patricia Maya, RN, MICN
Long Beach, CA

As a young RN, I was a circulating nurse for a very arrogant and tense surgeon. Everything was moving very quickly, and I was hopping over the anesthesiologist's cord as I moved from one side of the OR to the other. For some reason, he shifted his machine outward, making the cord taut. I tripped over it, falling flat on my belly with my legs in the air. The attending and scrub nurses were bursting with laughter. The surgeon then screamed, "Let's pay attention to the IMPORTANT things going on here!" And I was forever after teased as the "surgical ballerina."

Judith G. Coover, RN, BSN
Thornton, CO

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