April Fools’ Day strikes the hospital—stories from the trenches

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April Fools’—it’s the day we all love to hate. And if you happen to have the (mis)fortune of being on duty at the hospital for it, then things certainly can get interesting.

Not to mention a little bit terrifying, since your #1 fear on any given day is that the unexpected will strike.

Now, seeing as nurses are known for their ingenuity and resourcefulness, we were confident that you would have some clever pranks to share on our Funny Nurses Facebook page. And we were right!

Check out some of the best nurse-engineered pranks that we spotted:

1. “Warmed up salty apple juice in a specimen cup in the med cart. Then I drank it.” —Kelly B.

2. “The unit managers had wireless keyboards, so I switched the two keyboards. They couldn’t figure it out all day.” —Amanda M.

3. “One of our cardiologists called the unit while disguising his voice. Was screaming about how the patient we had just transferred out to another hospital had arrived with a terrible case of bedbugs. Needless to say, the nurse’s skin was crawling, imagining having acquired bugs from the patient and panicking about missing something like that. LOL! —Sarah C.

4. “I said someone was on the phone for the manager. Passed the phone over to her—there was nobody there, but KY Jelly on the ear and mouthpiece.” —Leah R.

5. “Goldfish in the Foley bag!” —Dena K.

6. “I prepared the chart for one of our patients and the chief complaint was “attacked by a nest of roly-polys and now c/o rash on buttocks and thighs.” The provider nearly died of quiet laughter trying to not offend the fake patient outside of the door. He took several minutes to calm down [before] I finally told him, ‘April Fools’.'” —Ryan G.

7. “Filling out a patient assignment sheet with 14 patients (nine of which were fake) and telling the oncoming nurse that they were all hers because there was no one to come in and help. Then we felt terrible when she cried.” —Dani B. 

8. “I called a fellow nursing student at 12:15 on April Fools’ morning and frantically asked if [she] got question #17 on the review for the test the next day. There was no review or test to prepare for and she freaked out. It was the best.” —Brittney S.

9. “Applied copious amounts of green and yellow lotion to the palms of my hands, fake sneezed into my hands and then acted like ‘Ewwww—I must be really sick.’ Then I wiped the lotion on arms! Priceless!” —Ellen S.

10. “How about the sponge cake I brought in…really was made from two large car-washing sponges decorated with frosting and sprinkles! One nurse told me [she] didn’t have the heart to tell me I was a really bad cook, LOL! But there was a real cake in the fridge for after.” —Jean P.

Have a prank of your own you just have to share? Tell us about it in the comments section below!