5 worse things a patient can do ...

Nurses General Nursing

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what would you say are the 5 worse things a patient can do while admitted in a hospital? 5 bad things that would make his/her stay worse than it needs to be and makes more work for the staff or makes things more difficult than they need to be?

Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

Needy patients-bring your family so I can show them where to get your pillows, blankets, towels, ice etc.

Patients with medical family members-leave them and their diagnosis home. Let our docs figure out your problems. Obviously, family dx has been incorrect or you would not be here.

Patients(GI) Leave your food at home-also leave family members who insist on eating Mc Donalds at your bedside home.

Incapacitated home care patients-leave your incompetent weirdo, lousy care giving family members home. I don't want to hear why you have holes I can stick my fist in uncared for, or why your nails are several inches long, why you are sitting in old crusty clothes, or are obviously malnourished. It's not their fault....just ask them, they'll tell you. If allowed, you will also be assessing them.

DM sufferers who have GI problems please do not tell me you will die without food if for 3 hours you haven't eaten, also don't send your family members to tell me the same thing after I've said you are fine.

If you have pain and I ask you take medication so that your pain does not increase-if I assure you that will not become addicted during your stay-don't tell me about friends and family who have become addicted after a hospital stay.

Sorry since I work in ER, the list could be endless. The most obvious listed many times. If you don't want to follow doctor's orders-go home. You must know more than medical professionals.

Maisy;)

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

1. Chest pain patients who refuse Nitro and insist on Dilaudid because they are allergic to everything else.

2. The same patient in #1 who refuses smoking cessation medication and who decides that you're taking too long with the medication to help his chest pain, so he goes downstairs to smoke.

3. The same patient who insists that the chest pain is a 10 but has time to stop and get a burger and fries from the cafeteria on his way back up from the smoke.

4. And oh yeah, the same patient states he was treated at another hospital last week for the very same thing and THEY gave him the dilauded so why won't we?

5. Same patient, an hour later, getting revenge by calling admin and pushing the call bell q3 minutes for stupid stuff and innocently claiming that he's just trying to do what we've been telling him to do - stay in bed. Then, in the course of using the urinal, his IV "accidentally" falls out.

:trout:

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

only five worst things?

1) come to the hospital for treatment, and then refuse all treatment ordered by your doctor. if you don't want us to do anything for you, stay home!

2) "pillow fluffers" are right up there. nothing pisses a nurse off faster than a perfectly capable patient riding the call light for piddly little things that they could easily take care of themselves. putting on the call light to ask me to turn on/off the light (the button right next to the call light that you just pushed), hand them a drink of water (it's right next to the crossword puzzle you've been working on all day), pull their blanket up (who does that for you at home?) or tell their roommate to change the channel on their tv really annoy the nurse who has another patient trying to die down the call or even in the next bed. had a patient yelling "help! nurse! you gotta help me!!" while we were coding the patient in the next bed. he wanted his soup warmed up!

3) lying. i really don't care if the woman 40 years younger than you is your daughter, your granddaughter, your wife or the woman you hope will become your next mistress. if you want her to visit, she can visit, and if you want her to make your health care decisions then sign the power of attorney for health care making her your poa. but if she's your girlfriend and you tell me she's your wife, i will find out about it when your daughter calls asking to speak to "dad's girlfriend" and i will be pissed. after all, i just let her sign the consent for central line placement on your behalf!

4) lying. i'm not going to judge you for drinking a case of beer a day -- ok, maybe i will, especially if it's budweiser, but i'll try really hard not to -- but don't lie to me about it. dts are a really bad thing, especially if you have seizures and die. and if you don't like the day shift nurse, i'm really sorry, but lying to me about things she did/didn't do is a poor way to make a good impression on me!

5) verbal and physical abuse. i'm not even talking about rudeness here -- the public in general is becoming more and more rude, so i'm not thinking that patients will be any less so. but the calling me names, shouting, threatening and the swinging, spitting or kicking at the nursing staff is guaranteed to put you on every nurse's least favorite patient list.

and last -- i knew i couldn't keep it to five, but i listed lying twice because it's one of my pettest pet peeves -- manipulation. i hate the feeling that someone is manipulating me! had an old man grunt and groan and squirm around in his bed. asked him what he wanted, and he grinned at me triumphantly and said "i just $hit myself. now you pretty young girls have to clean me up." ooooooooh!

"i don't have to do anything," i said. and i went and got two big, strong, male nurses. "these guys are going to clean you up, but they're busy with their own patients. they'll be back to clean you up when they have time."

it was the last time he tried that on me, but i heard he had moderate success trying it on younger and prettier nurses than me!

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

1) verbal and physical abuse. but in the ICU we soon have them restrained and medicated!!!

2) Pooping allllllll over the bed. In the ICU we soon have a rectal tube.

3) Vomitting alllllll over the bed. In the ICU we soon have an NG to suction and anti-emetics.

4) Respiratory failure. In the ICU we soon have them intubated.

5) V fib. Defib and antidysrhtymics.

I'm sorry but death isn't the worst thing in the ICU. Death is often a blessing.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

This is my number 1!

We had a CODE BLUE, all the nurses and Dr's were in the room trying to safe a young man's (35yrs old) life. The older man in the next room kept ringing his bell and demanding that "HIS NURSE" abandon the code to get him his meds as she was now 5 minutes late. I told him what was going on and that she would be there as soon as she could be. He said he didn't give a dam about the other pt get her A** in his room NOW! I then informed him that I would get his nurse, however, he must realize that were he to code She WOULD LEAVE HIS side to give meds to other pt's and if he didn't make it, oh well. I know that was probably the wrong thing to say, but, he then said that he could wait till they were done of the Code. He was very quiet the rest of the shift.

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Specializes in acute care.
My #1 this week: Dementia pts w/o any daily or prn meds for anxiety (or they don't work) & insist on calling out/shouting "nurse, nurse" and "help me, help me, would SOMEONE please help me?" (and the shift nurse & cna have been into the rm several times). This kind get's old fast & is trying on everyone in the unit, day & night.

UGH, sounds like a pt I had on my unit this past week!!! Fortunately she was transferred to rehab yesterday so we won't have to listen to her constantly yelling for help all day (when we've been in and out of the room making sure she has everything she needs and repositioning her etc.). Screaming is one thing that makes me absolutely crazy, especially when it is a dementia patient who does it constantly and isn't able to understand when you nicely explain that screaming and yelling doesn't help anything (not their fault of course, and you feel really bad for them, but still hard to take for eight hours). It was so bad that patients in neighboring rooms were complaining and had to close the door. I (of course) had her on my assignment quite a few times, too. I did get a break one day because I had had her for the whole weekend and was about to go crazy b/c of the screaming so I asked the resource nurse not to assign her to me that day because I just needed a break.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Tele, DOU.
This is my number 1!

We had a CODE BLUE, all the nurses and Dr's were in the room trying to safe a young man's (35yrs old) life. The older man in the next room kept ringing his bell and demanding that "HIS NURSE" abandon the code to get him his meds as she was now 5 minutes late. I told him what was going on and that she would be there as soon as she could be. He said he didn't give a dam about the other pt get her A** in his room NOW! I then informed him that I would get his nurse, however, he must realize that were he to code She WOULD LEAVE HIS side to give meds to other pt's and if he didn't make it, oh well. I know that was probably the wrong thing to say, but, he then said that he could wait till they were done of the Code. He was very quiet the rest of the shift.

Interesting. I had a similar situation recently. I hollered LOUDLY at my CN, that I would no longer be caring for this patient. Yeah, I had the same ending too. Some of these patients are hurting; however, when given a more accurate perspective of what is happening, the understanding clicks.

But for the ones who don't get it . . . :trout: and then I find :deadhorse. To heck with it.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care, ICU.

I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when family members start talking about some story they saw on 20/20, etc. about poor medical care and imply that they think you or your institution are like that story. I've had this happen more than once (and no I was not giving poor care, :uhoh3: in one case I had just walked in the room at the beginning of the shift). Do they think we will give them five-star hotel service b/c they say they "would sue" if something like that happened to their family member.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Here are mine:

1. The pt that thinks they are the only patient you have, and you are there to cater to their every need, gets mad whan you are not there immediately because your other patient is coding (not kidding, it happened to me).

2. The pt who is confused and pulls out lines, foleys etc., but the MD wont order restraints, and the CLIN II wont' get a sitter for.

3. The pt who has a family that is so demanding that you want to run screaming from the building ("My mother's sheets are wrinkled, they need to be straightened").

4. The pt who constantly wants pain meds ( I really do try not to think "drug seeker" but sometimes you wonder).

5. As a female, the male pt who is flirting and being WAY innapropriate in his comments (this is not a bad Media movie with nurses in 5 inch heels and fishnets!).

But yes, in agreement with previous replies, the pt who dies is by far the worst (especially if it is unexpected).

Amy

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Specializes in Pediatrics, PICU, CM, DM.
I will go in reverse order like the top ten list

#5 Flinging Feces

#4 Turning Blue

#3 Code Black (charcoal induced vomitting and feces)

#2 Code Blue

and the #1 thing I hate for my patients to do

Press Charges

Ditto. I thought #5 was strictly a pediatric thing (along with the fingerpainting part,) even ickier to hear that adults are doing this, too. #1 is even worse when he/she was the one who decked you before getting slapped in restraints...

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Specializes in Gerontology.

My top 5

Pts who refuse meds/treatments/tests etc, then complain because they are not getting better. This is my number one beef! If you aren't going to make an effort to work with us - GO HOME!

Pts who call their families at home and say "the nurses are ignoring me" because they had to wait 5 minutes for that jug of fresh water.

Pts who want me to tell them whats wrong with their roommate, the person who just walked past them in the hall, and so forth.

Families who want to speak to the doctor RIGHT NOW - even though its the weekend and their doctor isn't on call.

People who tell me that "I saw someone on TV with this exact problem and they got better much quicker - or the doctor cured them right away". Guess what? This ain't TV!

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blindly trust that staff and doctors are doing everything correctly

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