I have had a lot of experiences similar to what many posters on this thread have had. Such as: a pt calling to show off the size of his BM, and pt calling to "see how long it takes you to get here." I told him it will be different every time, depending on what's going on. I have even had a pt ask me if they were dead yet. Jeez- Have I worked with all of you?
I've even had the pt that screams "nurse, nurse!" At the TOP of her lungs, all night for the rest of her life. She was deaf, blind and demented.
She would shout "turn out the light" for the first few hrs of the shift.We would try to tell her the light was already out, but it was no use. We've all had those pts who are sooo deaf that you have to bend over, put your mouth right next to their ear and scream til your veins pop out of your neck.
Every evening after it got dark, she would switch to screaming "nurse" all night long. Towards the end of her life, she became even more confused- she started yelling "turn out the nurse" all night long. No kidding.
When pts are actively dying in hospice w/ their families sitting at there beside for hours w/ nothing to do, the family members often start obssessing over nothing.
For instance, many times I've had family members of a non-responsive pt ring the call light and say things like "her little finger just twitched. What does that mean?!"
Another time, a family member rang the light and wanted me to make arrangments to have someone go over to her house and clean up the dog poop in her yard. She said "well, Ive been here every evening after work. My yard is getting full of poop. What am I supposed to do?"
True story!