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?

I'm a CNA and just started a new job at a nursing home.The other aides have worned me that the residents know I'm new and will do everything to get me to cater to them and tell me how to do my work, oh they usually do it this way... lots of pillow fluffing, snack runs, and tonight when we were still doing care a woman wanted a knife to cut the skin off her apple, omg like that's a life or death need! The kitchen was closed and I wasn't searching the unit for a knife to cut her stupid apple. And others want all their things put in a special spot just perfect. And there's only me and two try to bug me at the same time. I just had to tell one woman to wait til I was done cause I couldn't do them both at the same time. Last week it took me an hour to get someone showered cause she's one of those prissy types that wants things done a certain way and tends to become conveniently helpless. So I feel your pain. Oh yeah, last night someone needed to go potty and needed 2 assist and the two aides that could have helped me were eating while the rest of us were working. We wait til after dinner is done before any of us go to lunch. How annoying.

Someone who has been self-reliant all her life and is now dependent should be understood to be mourning her losses, not called prissy, IMHO. Try to understand that your residents have nearly all lost their spouses, their homes, their independence, their dignity, their privacy, their health, their savings, their careers, not to mention their time and the money to freely meet with family and friends and they are just a tad bit depressed about these huge, huge, huge losses. Try putting yourself in their place before you decide they are unreasonable or prissy for wanting some tiny bit of control over their really horrible situations.

I know you are busy but how long should the woman wanting a knife have to wait? What's an appropriate time frame in your view?

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How about a patient who is perfectly capable of moving themself deciding to just lay there dead weight while we strain our backs to move them from a stretcher to the bed? Or to try to do anything to them?

I've had some who've been gotten up for the first few times depend on us to hold them up while they ambulate to the bathroom, to a chair, down the hall, etc. when all they had done was something like shoulder surgery. No clue what happened to their legs during that surgery, LOL.:rotfl:

I don't know if you've ever had surgery but, even if it's not been done under general anesthesia, one usually feels weak and woozy post-op. Also, fear plays a big part in the life of a post-op patient. And don't forget pain.

I'm kind of stunned by the lack of compassion and understanding of human nature and of the hospitalized patient's experience I'm reading in so many of these posts. I think we need to try to put ourselves in the patient's place so we understand how hard it is being a patient. Yes, some people are totally gross or rude or stupid. But many are also just scared and uninformed. We are there to take care of them and teach them, not get angry at their ignorance or crudity. Yes, I'm human and do sometimes feel annoyed or disgusted by some of the things I hear or see at work but I also try to remember that I am the nurse, they are the patients, I'm there for them, not vice versa. WWJD?

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Specializes in Medical.
5-Steal your roomates NG tube in order to give yourself an enema. Yes, i really had this happen. I couldn't even speak I was soooo shocked. I don't know how she thought she was gonna accomplish that. And what was she gonna do with it when she gave up? Give it back? NASTY NASTY NASTY people.

Oh good god - no other words. I have no other words.

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Specializes in Utilization Management.
You just described the day-to-day behaviors of one of our Residents. (I work LTC.) The woman is NOT demented. She is a little hard of hearing, but that's it. She will hit the call light say she needs a nurse NOW, and when I get there she wants her slippers or she wants her blinds closed. One time she called the midnight shift saying she needed to get to the bathroom. When the CNA got there, she asked the young woman what time it was. When told it was just barely midnight she told the CNA (and I am not kidding) "Go away, I don't need you." When she's out in the common areas, she will just yell "nurse, nurse" whenever she wants something, and if you try to find out what might be up with her, she loses all patience with you and tells you to go away. One time she knocked a PRN med that she requested out of the hands of one of the staff because she decided after she asked for it that she didn't want it. I tell you, my days would be much more relaxed if I didn't have that woman as a daily thorn in the collective sides of all the staff. :angryfire She really drives me crazy. Each day I go in telling myself today will be different, and inevitably, no matter how calm I keep myself, at some point that woman has me needing to go outside and get some air before I yell or cry. She rode me so bad one day, even the CNAs felt sorry for me. I was so close to tears, she even noticed and let up on me, and actually asked me why I was so upset. I finally got to tell her that I just get incredibly frustrated because she will complain about not feeling well and not let me do anything to help her, but get more and more unpleasant because she isn't feeling well. Oh well...

Early stages of dementia or depression is my guess. How about a neuro check? Failing that, a psych eval.

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1) Insist that I stop what I am doing to help you find your crack stash.

2) Sign out AMA and fall on that badly fractured arm and come back again. CIWA and crack pipe all over again.

3) At shift change whine that you haven't had a cigarette all day and it isn't fair. You won't let me start that IV until you've had your cigarette.

4) Whine. Do. Not. Whine. I believe that you hurt. I can take one look at your {insert whatever here} and know that you hurt. But you flunked the drug screen, told me you "forgot" about the cocaine you used last week, and are now whining. I will give you every PRN med I have on hand. I don't CARE that you get high and I BELIEVE that you have a wicked high tolerance. But do. not. whine.

5) I don't know if you mother had "that pill she takes in the morning."

6) Your mother had a heart attack. Would you and the ganseh mishpocech get out of the room and let her sleep?

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

1. Decompensating CHF'ers and/or COPDers.

2. Patients who insist that they're going to vomit and then refuse to be NPO. After medication, they're found with a helpful visitor at their bedside, noshing on Burger King.

3. Patients who refuse a Nicoderm patch, tell me they're having bookoo pain, get bookoo meds, then get up and walk downstairs to smoke. No hobbling, no grimacing, just a little drunken sway in the gait.

4. Pillow fluffers. They drive me nuts too.

5. Rude patients and/or relatives who threaten to sue the facility over such "harms" as not getting coffee with their dinner. I'm not fond of the new "treat the customer, not the patient" policy of hospitals nowadays, but it did give me a feeling that there is justice in the world when the CEO and the Head of Nursing were called in the middle of the night and had to come in to see this nutball, every time he called them. (What did you think would happen when you gave out your home phone number? duh!)

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One of the few times I totally lost my cool...

An alert/oriented, 30-something young man... I answered his call light to hear him scream out "MY BED IS ON FIRE!!!"

Everyone within earshot ran to the room. I was first to the room, burst in and found him sitting up in bed surrounded by friends. He was laughing hysterically, and said "See, I told you they'd come fast for that!"

I immediately stormed out, slamming the door as hard as I could but not before I heard one of his friends say "uh oh, you shouldn't have done that..."

Called the supervisor up to speak to him, because I truly didn't think I could do so and keep my job.

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Specializes in Gerontology.
One of the few times I totally lost my cool...

An alert/oriented, 30-something young man... I answered his call light to hear him scream out "MY BED IS ON FIRE!!!"

Everyone within earshot ran to the room. I was first to the room, burst in and found him sitting up in bed surrounded by friends. He was laughing hysterically, and said "See, I told you they'd come fast for that!"

I immediately stormed out, slamming the door as hard as I could but not before I heard one of his friends say "uh oh, you shouldn't have done that..."

Called the supervisor up to speak to him, because I truly didn't think I could do so and keep my job.

Oh man - wouldn't you just have loved to be able to walk back in with an extinguisher and covered him and his"flaming" bed with foam!!

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Oh man - wouldn't you just have loved to be able to walk back in with an extinguisher and covered him and his"flaming" bed with foam!!

Trust me, I was tempted.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, ER.

1. Bring your baby in to the ER for a "fever" of 99.0 ("no, I didn't take his temperature but he felt hot") and forget to bring diapers, formula and other supplies for the baby, AND for the toddler who keeps running the halls.

2. Leave your sick 1 year old lying on the stretcher with the SIDE RAILS DOWN while you sit in a chair yakking on the phone.

3. Come in to the ER with a c/o vag bleeding but don't bring any pads (and it turns out to be your period a day late).

4. ETOH of 246 and you get out of the stretcher and pee in the hallway - here come the restraints, sweetie.

5. Call out NURSE!!! every single time anyone walks past your room, even though your nurse has been in there every 5 minutes and we all know it. Yep, we'll walk all the way around the floor to avoid passing your room.

6. (What do you mean, only FIVE??) Family members who stand at the doorway or curtain and stop everyone who walks by to ask for something, or how long will it be, etc, ad nauseum...

7. The parents in #1 who go into full-fledged hysterics when it turns out the baby needs an IV and blood work and blame US because we have to stick the poor thing. ARGH.

Ok Enough.

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Specializes in heme/onc (adult), NICU.

[ Yes, I'm human and do sometimes feel annoyed or disgusted by some of the things I hear or see at work but I also try to remember that I am the nurse, they are the patients, I'm there for them, not vice versa. WWJD?

I have a feeling that Jesus WOULD NOT BE JUDGING US for venting to each in a supportive setting other RATHER THAN ACTING ON OUR FRUSTRATIONS TO OUR PATIENTS! - Vent thread=venting not jugding.

Ok with that said...back to the original topic

1. Family memebers calling to ask "How's my daughter/son"? (or back in my adult days "How's mother/father/ doing?" Please give your loved one's name because I am taking care of a few "daughter/son"s or mother/father's today and I want to give you information on the right one. Also, when you call...please have questions in mind you would like to ask rather than just silence in the background while I try to drag information out of you.

2. On that same token - please designate one family member to call and ask for updates. Also, please understand I cannot give out information about your neighbor/friend/cousin twice removed ect because of HIPPA. Either call the family or call the person directly....you may not want to "bother them" but I can't help you!

3. Please don't pee or poop in anything other than a bedside commode, bedpan, urinal, toilet or brief/diaper. Trashcans, drinking cups, the floor, the bed or the flowerpot are not acceptable alternatives.

4. Please don't do drugs during your pregnancy and then ask why your infant is in the NICU either because he/she is early and sick or withdrawing and screaming. You know the answer as well as I do.

5. Please don't expect the hospital to furnish you with all the infant essentials to take you through the first two years of your baby's life. We can get you in touch with the proper people who can but we can't send you home with cases of diapers, formula, blankets, ect. At some point you need to recognize that this is you child and adjust accordingly.

Thanks for the great topic

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1. Family memebers calling to ask "How's my daughter/son"? (or back in my adult days "How's mother/father/ doing?" Please give your loved one's name because I am taking care of a few "daughter/son"s or mother/father's today and I want to give you information on the right one.

Pet peeve of mine, too.

I was sitting engrossed in a chart late one night when this woman came up behind me and screamed, "WHERE'S MY MOTHER?!?"

Scared the crap outta me and my immediate thought was that a patient had wandered off. Turns out that this person was the daughter of a visitor--- who wasn't even a family member of the patient.

I hate people.

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