this may come across as mindless venting but it really isnt......
I work on a med surg unit that of course gets many patients of the non med surg variety, I have come to accept this but right now myself and my fellow nurses are dealing with something impossible.
patient has a major psych history , on a combination of all kinds of antipsychotics etc nothing working , he is also a COPD'er , which is why he was first admitted to our floor,okay I understand that but now the psych thing is the more pressing of the two issues. Honestly medically we are doing NOTHING for this patient,he refuses all treatments and meds and even vital sign assessments, MD covering him medically has seemingly given up after taking social works advice and discharging him home months ago only for him to have beat the heck out of his wife and return the next day to us......
I have had this patient for months now, social work says they are trying to place him and all of that but why do the poor nurses have to suffer with this? I usually am assigned to this patient because people are delusional enough to think I can handle him for some reason...thats fine but last night he wasnt even my patient and he was following me around and he threw hot soup at his sitter and a full pitcher of water at me.... which of course it soaked me thru and thru, this patients decline has been so obvious to everyone in the allied health that I cannot figure why psych wont take him. They claim its because he is MRSA positive but they have private rooms and have taken isolation psych patients from mental institutions before.....I brought up my concerns (I'll admit that I am now afraid of this patient) to the incharge RN who apparently relayed it to our new U/A .....nothing was dealt with and I'm annoyed because they have me taking care of him all next week. I have tried to explain that I feel he is focused on me and that his violent outbursts have become worse- uncontrollable even - and none of our other medically sick patients are getting any rest at nights because of this one person.
I feel like everyone is waiting for this guy to hurt someone and knowing my luck since I seem to have him as my patient all the time, it will probably be me........
I dont know what to do, I completely dont want to go to work - and that bothers me cuz I usually dont feel this way....
