[lettie]

Hehehe, I have a teeny tiny work-related confession. In 1990 I was working as a staff nurse on nights at the Infirmary. I used to work on a surgical ward which was very busy with planned and emergency operations. One particular night I was on duty with a 2nd year student who was a bit of a pain (thought she knew it all) We had to go round all of the people for planned bowel surgery the following day and give them their bowel prep. There were 3 ways of doing this (depending on the severity of the op) The majority of our patients were having minor ops so we used to give them glycerin suppositories. The student had managed to get through her 1st year of training without ever giving a suppository, so with the help of a very kind male patient I arranged for her to give his suppositories...... She came with me to a patient to observe how suppositories were given then declared herself ready to carry out the task. She went to my 'prepped' patient and he obligingly rolled over and let her get on with it under my supervision. Several minutes later some of our patients were clearly having excellent results from the glycerin and the student was helping them to the toilets. I gave my 'prepped' patient a swab with 2 melted glycerin suppositories in the middle of it (I'd been preparing them on the hot radiator in the sluice for an hour) Suddenly my partner in crime started to cough uncontrollably, he pressed his call bell for assistance. The student went running to his bedside to help him. When I got to the bedside, he was recovered and she was mortified. She handed me the swab with the 2 melted glycerins on it, and told me that this man had coughed them up!!!!!!!
I could barely keep a straight face when I told her that she must have pushed them up too far I did come clean later that night and suggested that if she had paid more attention when studying anatomy, she would have known that it is not physically possible to cough up the suppositories.. The good news was that she was a little less gung-ho after this lesson and has turned out to be an excellent nurse...

I think that I need to be forgiven for this one, as a good result was achieved in the end. I would also like to thank my partner in crime, who I cannot name for confidentiality reasons, but he reckoned he had the best stay in hospital ever!!!