"But for me, 98.4 means I have a fever...."

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Just a pet peeve....I hate when I do a set of vitals on a patient and the vitals are clinically stable but the patient insists its abnormal.

Example:

Me - Just checked the temp - reads 98.4

Patient (40 something drama queen) - "Thats high for me...I think i have a fever"

Me - "Do you know what your temp normally is?"

Patient - "My normal temp is 98.2"

Me - "Your temp is FINE...all your other vitals are FINE"

Patient - "But i really am sick if I go above 98.4.......blah, blah, blah

Just irritates me....

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Yes, it's irritating. Along with "my BP is whaaaaaat??? Oh no. That's impossible. I'll have the doctor recheck it. " And people who ceremoniously (read slooooowly) divest themselves of rings, bangles, bracelets, pendants and whatnots before getting on the scale. No, I never roll my eyes or tap my foot. But I want to.

I hate it when I ask patients( how does your blood pressure run?) Patient: normal( whatever the normal is)Me: do you happen to remember the numbers?I hate when people say the word "normal" , what is normal?

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

I'm another who tends towards the hypothermic side, courtesy of my hypothyroidism.

But then, I'm unlikely to treat a fever unless I'm *******' miserable, so I would just make a comment about it (and they can confirm my "normal low" readings with my doc's office if they want) and let it ride anyway.

I like the, "Thanks for letting me know that, we'll definitely keep an eye on this" response -- it doesn't invalidate the client's feelings, helps establish rapport, and you can toss it out the window if you really think it's irrelevant anyway!

Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
I hate it when I ask patients( how does your blood pressure run?) Patient: normal( whatever the normal is)Me: do you happen to remember the numbers?I hate when people say the word "normal" , what is normal?

Gotta love the looks I get when I get a BP of 100/80 and say, "WOW, I'm running HIGH today!" Everybody's "normal" is different! LOL

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
And, of course, there's the temp. Perfectly normal, patient states there's a fever. Well, you don't have one now...? "Oh, I took Tylenol before coming, but I definitely have a fever."

You can't fix stupid.

On the other hand, we get mad when the mom says, "oh I didn't give him anything because I wanted you to see how bad his fever is" while the kid is miserable at 103. So, I'd rather believe you found fever at home..... especially if you bother to OWN a thermometer and can give me numbers!

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
i hate it when i ask patients( how does your blood pressure run?) patient: normal( whatever the normal is)me: do you happen to remember the numbers?i hate when people say the word "normal" , what is normal?

what truly get's me is when the pt. ask what's my bp? then i tell them and they say "wow are you sure?, that's high for me" then they turn to the wife and say "honey isn't that high for me?" and the poor wife states " no that's your normal bp" :bugeyes: and to make it worse, the doctor comes in and takes it, and he gets the same results as i did, and the pt. doesn't questioned the doctor :banghead:

Specializes in MPCU.

I like to bore them to compliance. "We have found that a fever less than 38.0 is therapeutic. I would not want to interfere with the body's natural healing processes. Several studies have shown that....., but if you would like I can give an antipyretic. Do you have any preferences?"

Specializes in Pedi.
I had a mom that wanted an immediate transfer to PICU because the kids bp was slightly low while asleep. After all, the other floor had sent them to PICU the last time it was slightly low. Of course, the bp has been trending that low every night, and when the other floor sent them to PICU, the only treatment ever done for the "low" bp was a bolus, which if the patient becomes symptomatic or the bp goes lower, I can easily do without a trip to the PICU. "Well they were very concerned on the other floor when it was that low!" Well, you've constantly complained about the care you received there, and now you want me to react like they do? If I started running around your room like a crazy person will I trick you into thinking I'm incompetent enough to freak out like you are?

We also once had a mom on my floor who got mad at our lack of reaction to her child's 30 second complex partial seizures. This is neurology, we have kids go into status and respiratory arrest regularly with seizures up here. If you want a code blue every time your child has an eye twitching episode, you'll have to go to another floor.

I also love people who react to their infant's BP being 90/50 and wonder why I'm not freaking out... because, you know, that's not a normal BP for a baby.

On the other hand, we get mad when the mom says, "oh I didn't give him anything because I wanted you to see how bad his fever is" while the kid is miserable at 103. So, I'd rather believe you found fever at home..... especially if you bother to OWN a thermometer and can give me numbers!

Oh, I hear ya on that! But if it's not the miserable toddler I'm talking about, it's the frequent flyer grownup who knows that with the right set of complaints we'll have to keep her long enough for labs, tests, and probably dinner and "pain" meds :rolleyes:

Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

In my 20+ years in this wonderful career, I've never seen a doctor take a BP! I often cringe when patients say "I'm a really hard stick, the doctor will have to put in my IV",..I'm thinking yeah, I'm sure he/she hasn't done that since the beginning of med school, I do two or three an hour, but sure you ask the doctor to do it!

In my 20+ years in this wonderful career, I've never seen a doctor take a BP! I often cringe when patients say "I'm a really hard stick, the doctor will have to put in my IV",..I'm thinking yeah, I'm sure he/she hasn't done that since the beginning of med school, I do two or three an hour, but sure you ask the doctor to do it!

It's right up there with "Are you sure you're allowed to do that...isn't the doctor supposed to do it?" when talking about putting in a foley.

Umm....yeah. This is Seattle Grace and any minute now McDreamy will come in and do the honor.

I can see how it can get really annoying with people behaving this way...but I know how it feels to be on the other side of it. I was in urgent care once for what my primary care later determined was panic disorder, complaining of palpitations and feeling really dissociated. My heart rate's usually 50-60, blood pressure 90/60. Well, I showed up with a pulse of 115 and bp 150/100ish. The triage nurse sent me over to the ER because she was concerned... But after being ignored for 4 hours, the doc came in and counseled me about the importance of staying active and eating better because it looks like I have some prehypertension...he didn't even acknowledge the fact that my vitals were scary (for me) high. My discharge instructions read "come back to ER for life threatening symptoms."

All I'm saying is that the patient might have a point, and you don't necessarily need to make them feel like crap.

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