Anyone sick of the "Drama Queen" patient?

itsme · Nov 10, 2003

I know how you feel!! Only I get them from the oposite age spectrum- the elderly! I work in LTC and we have a lady who is a sweet lady, independant in ADL's, and rarely complains, but holy balls, when her family come, she turns in to an invalid, can even feed herself, and is in terrible pain. Then of course the family (nervous daughter, and better than anyone alive grandaughter) come literally screaming to us that we had better take better care of Ma or they will sue us for everything we have! We always head them right for the admin and social worker!! Personally I think it is the family members who need the psyche consult!! Maybe if they would visit more than once a year it would help too! Afterall, they only live 20 minutes away.....

KaroSnowQueen, RN · Nov 10, 2003

I work in med surg and had a patient on the floor for THREE freakin' weeks!!! First it was abdominal pain. Then it was losing control of her muscles in her legs. Swore she couldn't walk. Except once in a while we would peek in her door and see her up in the room just fine. When anyone was watching she had this hugely exaggerated gait, would be found in the floor altho she was right next to the desk and nobody heard her fall, etc. She went so far as to allow a muscle biopsy to be done. Finally discharged home with no real diagnosis, but seemingly better. Sheesh. And wanting her pain meds. Every three hours. Or else.

Tink RN · Nov 10, 2003

I can relate. I had a female patient yesterday that had been in the ER all night ... every test known was done, but no etiology found for her complaints. VS were normal and all labs WNL. Another nurse had unhooked her IV so she could walk to the bathroom ... minutes later her mother came running to me stating, "She needs her medicine! It is not going and she is starting to hurt again!" I checked her chart to confirm the IV med/rate and restarted her fluids for her. She said, "Oh ... I feel better now. As long as my medicine is going, the pain goes away."

What was this miracle pain controlling IV drip? NS@KVO. Geez ...

:rolleyes:

SmilingBluEyes · Nov 10, 2003

ROFLMAO...

they are my bread and butter in OB......

SO MANY (not all), are DRAMA queens........so I have to get into the act and be a good supporting character.....

that's life.

hogan4736, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2003

seems to me the most dramatic queens (or kings) have little sense of how they might be perceived, or how they actually come off in any given social situation...

You know, they are loud on their cell phones in public, frequently talk extra loud in certain situations, basically just SEEM to want everyone within earshot to know they're alive...

sorry, I just think it's a lack of social discretion...I mean, if your leg got chopped off in an MVA, then yell ALL night, but we all know the type of patient to which she is referring...

sean

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Nov 10, 2003

Oh, man, don't we ALL know this type of patient.......My hospital has its share of frequent flyers in their 20s and 30s, and a couple in their 40s, who have been worked up for every disease known to humankind and STILL come in every few weeks to be pampered and petted because "nobody understands my pain". I too went to the school of nursing that taught "pain is whatever the pt. says it is, whenever s/he says it is occurring".....but I think this is the modern version of what my Nana used to call the vapors!

I swear, I am probably one of the most sympathetic people on earth when it comes to pain, as I've suffered my share of it over the years and know what it's like when some medical expert says "You're too young to have such-and-such" (in my case, back pain since I was 14). But these drama queens strain my patience to its limits..........and there are times when they've had their Valium and their Oxycontin and their PRN Vicodin and their PCA morphine is maxed out, and I just flat-out tell them NO, I'm NOT going to call the doctor at one in the morning for more pain meds. I'll give them everything that's ordered, and I'll even give foot massages or back rubs if I have time; but damned if I'll be responsible for pushing someone over the edge when their respirations are already somewhere between 9 and none, even when they're wide awake and demanding more drugs. I'm sorry they hurt, and if I could take their pain away I would.........but there is no drug on earth powerful enough to take away the kind of pain some of these women suffer from.

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Nov 10, 2003

Y'know, I have ZERO patience/tolerance for such.

Yes, I can be kind, courteous,"professional" in their care, but I swear it still shows in my eyes. You can read ANYTHING about how I feel in my eyes, and there's just no hiding it. I'm esPECIALLY good at the "snotty eyes" look... HAAAAARRR !!! ... so while my mouth is smiling, I just hope these "woe is me" ppl don't look any higher than my mouth. :rotfl:

Don't have any of these kind in Dialysis.... those folks in the hospital need a visit to my clinic to see what OTHER ppl have to live with...

ceecel.dee, MSN, RN · Nov 10, 2003

The only thing worse is the drama queen on staff assigned to that patient!

gwenith, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2003

This is where we should have some in house camera's to catch this little lot out. Sorry - but it is about time and more than time that we had some valid solid way of dealing with this sort of fakery as they are a costly patient. For every patient that is a Drama Queen/attention seeker there is another huge chunk of health care resources being gobbled up. I m not talking here just about a free hospital system but even in a private system these people absorb money in the form of hospital stays tests, consults and that all impacts down the line to the poor schmuck who suddenly has his benefits reduced or his premiums increased.

Attention seekers are drawn to a hospital system BECAUSE it feeds their need. Unfortunately in feeding that need we can and do see an escalation in behaviour. We recently had one lass who had a colostomy and a totally open abdo wound because she kept picking at the wound to the point where she had damaged her own bowel - hence the colostomy. During an emergency involving another patient this idiot (sorry no other word) decided to cause a scene and ended up putting her head through the wall. Even then it took some persuading but we finally DID get her to a psych facility.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Nov 11, 2003

I love the role of the drama family though. Fifteen people squeeze into a room, and WONDER why Mom is so anxious as they bicker back and forth across her bed.

Hell, that'd make me anxious too, if my family were like that.

nursepenny · Nov 11, 2003

Hi all,

Did you all work with me last night???

I had a 34 y/o in for "bladder sling" x 2 weeks ago and will not go home. I normally work ICU, but had to work Med/Surg last PM. Any way @ 8 PM went to do my assessment and the patient was not in her room. Finally @ 9:10 she comes back to her room and I took her PM meds to her. She looked in the cup and said " I need my Xanax, and I want the pain medicine I get in my vein. Oh, by the way my IV hurt where it is. It hurts to move my hand."

Now mind you, I have no problem giving pain meds or Xanax, but this lady got 2mg Xanax TID PRN, and Stadol 1 mg IV q 2-3 hours. I told her that was a lot of medication and she said that is what I always get. I told her I would give it to her, but she had better not get OOB without calling for assist. I told her if she fell in the floor, it would be my butt in a crack and I was not gonna let that happen. By the way, the IV site had a good blood return and no s/s infiltration. If she didn't mind being stuck again. why should I mind sticking her.....LMAO.

Then at 3:00 this morning she called and said she needed "her shot". I took the med to the room and she was sound asleep. I mean "sawing logs" asleep. I woke her up and asked her if she needed something for pain and she said "yeah" and was asleep again before I was through pushing the Stadol.

Oh yes, I forgot to say, she had told me earlier if I heard her calling out in the middle of the night, her pain level would be 12 (scale 0-10).

What I can not figure out is if she was in so much pain @ 8:00pm, what was she doing downstairs, smoking???

:confused:

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count the apples in a seed. Anon.