[jlsRN]

Good grief, some patients want to revert back to being 9 month old infants!!! They also like to ask requests one at a time. Then, after you wait on them hand and foot all shift with the patience of a saint, they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

[squeakykitty]

Originally Posted by jlsRN

Good grief, some patients want to revert back to being 9 month old infants!!! They also like to ask requests one at a time. Then, after you wait on them hand and foot all shift with the patience of a saint, they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

Some people can be so unbelievably self-centered. These people need to be educated about the nurses role, that there are others that are sicker, and have limits set. Catering to them only makes it worse.

[BrokenRNheart]

Originally Posted by jlsRN

Good grief, some patients want to revert back to being 9 month old infants!!! They also like to ask requests one at a time. Then, after you wait on them hand and foot all shift with the patience of a saint, they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

Wow what a post! People will never realize what we actually deal with. I have heard some crazy cop stories - they are the only other people that I can think of that can relate to what we go through.

[southernbelle319]

Originally Posted by jlsRN

Good grief, some patients want to revert back to being 9 month old infants!!! They also like to ask requests one at a time. Then, after you wait on them hand and foot all shift with the patience of a saint, they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

Oh dear. I know those kinds of patients. "Can you tare open this?" "Can you scratch that?" on and on and on. I have the same feelings about a select few of my patients that you have as well. I often wonder "what the heck do they do at home?!" Some other ones that get me are the patients who get me to do things like that (especially when they're perfectly capable) when the FAMILY is sitting right there! What's wrong with mom/dad/sister/brother, etc giving you a hand? I know it's my job to assist and help the pt, but come on!
I feel ya hon!

[aeauooo]

Haven't you ever heard of SAS?

Short arm syndrome.

"Oh nurse, could you hand me that, I can't reach it."

[mystic_fish0526]

Originally Posted by southernbelle319

Oh dear. I know those kinds of patients. "Can you tare open this?" "Can you scratch that?" on and on and on. I have the same feelings about a select few of my patients that you have as well. I often wonder "what the heck do they do at home?!" Some other ones that get me are the patients who get me to do things like that (especially when they're perfectly capable) when the FAMILY is sitting right there! What's wrong with mom/dad/sister/brother, etc giving you a hand? I know it's my job to assist and help the pt, but come on!
I feel ya hon!

Management backing them up, as this is a customer service that is expected of nurses nowadays. Limit setting is something from the past and should be taken out of the nursing textbooks, as limit setting nurse will be counseled by management as being rude, uncaring and disrespectful to out guests...sorry, our customers...sorry, our patients.
I remember one LOL thinking I was her personal maid or something like that. She put off her call light, and when I ran into her room, leaving unattended my five other patients, incontinent, climbing out of beds, waiting to go to surgery, irritated by long wait for doctors to round, she said that she finished her breakfast and now I can take her dirty tray away. Thank you, ma'am. I'm happy to serve you. Anything else I can do for you? I have all the time in the world.

[aeauooo]

Originally Posted by jlsRN

...they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

HA! I got one for ya:

I had two patients in the ICU, one alert & oriented, relatively stable. The other was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head who had blown out one of his eyes. I had to put lacri-lube on it then cover it up with half a styrofoam cup every couple of hours.

While setting up to put lacri-lube on the guy's eye I heard my A&O patient in the next room say, "I want a drink of water." Then I heard one of the visitors come out of the room saying, "Where's that nurse? Where's that nurse?"

I removed the styrofoam cup from the guy's eye and stood aside so that the guy's blown out eye could be seen from the door.

I heard, "Where's that nur..."

I didn't hear another word about a cup of water after that.

[Lu13]

Sometimes I wonder if people realize that we DO have to go to school to become nurses and that we DO have to be licensed to call ourselves RNs. I think a big part of the problem is that while we see ourselves as professionals, our patients/customers/guests see us as just another part of the service industry.

[JessieRN]

How about the patients that can manage to work the call light to call us in there to let the head of their bed up/down? If they can push the call button, can they not push the button RIGHT BESIDE IT?

[aeauooo]

Originally Posted by Lu13

I think a big part of the problem is that while we see ourselves as professionals, our patients/customers/guests see us as just another part of the service industry.

I've had docs complain that I wasn't doing my job because I didn't make coffee or load paper into a printer.

"Sorry, I wasn't taught how to do that in nursing school."