Just want to see if anyone has felt as dumb as I have with some of the gaffes you may have made

I once had a challenging patient, she was a doozer. I came to the nurses station and vented. My charge nurse said "that's my sister" Big OOPS!  I haven't gotten over it, this happened in 1982 and I still cringe today when I think about it. I try to monitor what comes out of my mouth. My charge just laughed and agreed that she was difficult, still didn't make it better.

My favorite - I asked a 95 year old woman to "give me a finger" for a blood glucose check...

Guess what she did?  Neither one of us could stop laughing.  I still use this incident to break the ice with patients & families.

Sometimes we forget Rule #6:

Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: "Peter," he says, "kindly remember Rule Number 6," whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their conversation, only to be interupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: "Marie, please remember Rule Number 6." Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for a third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: "My dear friend, I've seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?" "Very simple," replies the resident prime minister. "Rule Number 6 is 'Don't take yourself so damn seriously.'" "Ah," says his visitor, "that is a fine rule." After a moment of pondering, he inquires, "And what, may I ask, are the other rules?"  "There aren't any."  quoted from "The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life" by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander, in the book "The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way" by Dr. Wayne Dyer

My most recent one was not work related, but I still ate my foot all the way to the knee! My son's girlfriend's mom has recently had a run in with the law for drug use. For the record I am currently trying to stop this relationship, but anyway, back to the point.....My son being picked up by his girlfriend's dad to go to her house, just as he was leaving, he yells to me "bye" (I was not in the room). I yelled back " I am going to pick you up at 9 PM" he yelled back "Dannie's mom is going to bring me home". I then in turn yelled "I hope she's not all doped up driving you home". Unfortunately, I did not realize that my son's girlfriend was standing beside him during the whole conversation! I peeked my head around the corner of the kitchen wall and told her "Well, sorry you heard that, but I really have no way of explaining myself out of this. It was rude, but I have a big concern about it and I should have said it another way." Whatever, this relationship is on it's last leg (I hope!)

I have learned that when I get up in the morning, if I just go ahead and put my foot in my mouth, I save a lot of time during the day.

I'm still reminded of this blunder via emails and phone calls and it happened more than 28 years ago.  I was new in the OR, meaning I hadn't been there more than a year and a half.  I was scrubbed, doing a hand case with one of the residents, who by the way is one of them who reminds me of this on a regular basis.  I was cutting suture and not once but twice I cut the knots off.  The attending came in and he heard Ray say...........dammit shortcake,  you did it again!  Dr K asked what the problem was and I said, " Ray's just mad, because I keep cutting his nuts off"  I was so very embarassed, but then everyone started to laugh and then I said, " I'm so sorry Ray, I keep cutting your nuts, I mean nuts, I mean knots off"  Of course this made it even worse.  Dr K was laughing so hard he was snorting, which made us all laugh even harder.  28 years later, Ray still calls and says, remember when you kept cutting off my nuts?

There are still days, I open my mouth only to put both feet in.

A tech that I worked with had not been taught anything about documenting. He had no idea who read patient charts. He wrote in one chart (and it was true) "patient continues to be a pain in the ass"