Patient Entitlement

[Joe V]

We've all seen them......the people who think they should always come first, no matter the circumstances. In the healthcare environment, we cannot always address the needs of patients in the order of occurrence. Contrary to popular belief, the squeaky wheel cannot always get fixed first. Share your stories about patients and their sense of entitlement.

[Tenebrae, BSN, RN]

annaotis said:

I used to do outpatient chemo. There was myself and one other nurse for the entire Cancer Center. We had a very sweet woman who was to start chemo. She was elderly, dehydrated, diabetic, anorexic- which as you all know makes for a great IV start, right? She was not the difficult one, but her husband. Now I know her loved her very much and he obviously felt out of control not being able to help her, I could see that. But he was horrible to me and my coworker. If you did not get his wife in one stick , he would start screaming, kicking chairs. This went on every other week

One of the things I love about our hospitals. Crap like this simply would not be tolerated. It's not to say that cancer treatment is not stressful however nurses are not paid to be punching bags (either physical or literal)

Quote

I would get ice pick headaches on the mornings they were due to come in. They wouldn't even consider having a port placed. He was a retired oral surgeon at the hospital I worked for. He must have went and made some noise because it got to the point where the Vice President of the hospital came to our clinic on the mornings they came, and he would " sit in" on her treatments! He would be sitting there for the IV starts and the entire chemo infusion! He was a very nice man, and he knew we did good work. So he was there to appease the patient's husband. Talk about pressure! Still have no idea who this man was that he could get such a response from the hospital by throwing tantrum.

Our system is far from perfect. We have a fairly robust complaints system in place and there is the health and disability comission which is an external organization which does investigate if complaints are made.

[PoledanceNurse]

One of my favourites was when a little old lady who had been confused most of the afternoon was found unresponsive in her cubicle. After found she started vomiting blood. Crash trolley and team got, space made in resus. Stabilised the lady rushed her out off the floor and into resus past a minuture waiting room (all this in full sight of everyone.) Five mins after lady moved to resus a lady from said minuture waiting room grabbed me and asked would the doctors be much longer as they had waited 3 hours to be seen... Emergency nursing has really shone a light on the nasty side of the public to me.

[ReOxyS]

One night a code was running, complete with the soul-shattering alarm that can be heard all down the hallways. One chap hollered at me as I was passing and complained about the pain from his foley and demanded that I take it out. He wasn't my patient, I wasn't familiar with his situation, so I told him in no uncertain terms that he would have to wait for his nurse to come back to evaluate him. I told him she would get to him when she could, as she was the one doing compressions down the hall. As I was walking out he hollered at me "SO YOU'RE GOING TO LEAVE ME LAYING HERE IN PAIN???" I reiterated that his nurse would come see him when she has finished trying to resuscitate the woman down the hall WHO WAS TRYING TO DIE. I told him that the frightful alarm that was going off meant that someone is DYING. He very sarcastically replied "Well I'm so SORRY to hear that." (He wasn't sorry to hear that).

[familychick, BSN]

Patient/family member Entitlement is the A#1 reason why I left bedside nursing, and why I'm seriously considering leaving healthcare altogether.

[VAC RN25]

It's all about reimbursement based on satisfaction scores. $$$

This has helped create a self centered, demanding and entitled population that does not respect any boundaries!