Best Hallucinations Thread

Had a patient on my unit the other day that tried to elope because she thought the nurses were plotting against her. She complained that she couldn't trust the nurse that had her that day because the nurse hadn't been taking care of her, but had been "sitting out at the desk all day making Mediaos."

One day I was floated to work on a locked unit. I was having a conversation with a patient while in the patient's room. I was sitting facing the patient & he was sitting at the edge of his bed. During the course of our communication, he told me that he constantly has the same 2 people with him - who he knows are "not really there." He is aware of his hallucination, but has learned over time that other people cannot see them.

I asked him if he could see them now as we were talking. He says, "yes of course, they are standing there right behind you," as he gestured toward the corner of the room. He then went on to describe how they were actually ghosts, and didn't really say much, just that they were always "there" watching & looking at him for as long as he could remember.

I gotta tell you a little shiver went down my back, and I really had to resist the urge to turn round and look for myself. I have to say I'm glad my shift was over soon, and I wouldn't have to spend too much more time in a room with 'ghosts!' I also have to say I felt a little freaked out!

This applies to no particular patient but an occurrence: we get OODLES of phone calls from either 1) the hospital operator or 2) what I suspect is the 911 operator after sun-downing patients have made the ever popular "Help, I'm being held hostage/against my will!!" phone calls. I suspect that this (and our quiet hours policy) are why no outgoing phone calls can by made from any inpatient rooms after 2200. Now, that doesn't keep people from calling off their cell phones but it seems to cut down on some of the calls...LOL

In response to the stories about mice...we didn't have any patients who hallucinated mice...we actually HAD an awful problem WITH mice not too long ago. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen! You'd be walking along from point A to point B and one of those brown, furry bodies would go shooting across the hall from one patient room and into an another. Oddly enough, the patients never seemed to notice the little boogers...but you could track the mouse's path depending on how loudly the nurse in question responded.

We still have traps on the floor.

We had an older lady for a patient on our floor that in report, I was told was hallucinating....was told she was seeing people outside her window at night....we are on the 6th floor....anyways, I went into room to do assessment...she seemed pretty with it...knew all the answers to my questions....she also mentioned the people outside the window to me....I assured her that we were too high up and walked over to window to show her....about that time, I looked over to the left side and you could see the nurse's station in the annex of the building...so she was seeing the nurses in there....so i asked her if this was what she had been seeing...she said yes....so turns out she wasn't crazy...

Have 2 little old ladies in rooms next to each other that often complain that they can't sleep because the little kids are playing in their room all night and making to much noise. They both have historically put their call light on asking us to make the kids be quiet. Got a new resident and she was put in a room next to the other 2....first night on the unit, puts her call light on and asks staff to make those noisy kids go to bed and keep them out of her room! Very creepy and not entirely sure this is a hallucination anymore.

LOL, I had a similar thing happen with a 93yo lady, said the massaging by the nice man in her room was well appreciated...of course she too had SCD's on

I had a patient once who had a terrible bed sore on her hip. It was open to the bone. When it began to pain, she would say that the urchins were after her again. Poor dear.

Have 2 little old ladies in rooms next to each other that often complain that they can't sleep because the little kids are playing in their room all night and making to much noise. They both have historically put their call light on asking us to make the kids be quiet. Got a new resident and she was put in a room next to the other 2....first night on the unit puts her call light on and asks staff to make those noisy kids go to bed and keep them out of her room! Very creepy and not entirely sure this is a hallucination anymore.[/quote']

One morning I looked after two elderly ladies, both with some dementia though at a point where they were mostly making sense. They were not in the same room, but that morning both of them asked me if "that poor baby found her mommy last night". Creepy, as the department this happened in used to be pediatrics.

I will say this in regard to hallucinations / delusions: If you EVER need to quiet a noisy, confused little old lady, tell her "Hush, the baby JUST went to sleep!" Works every time - no matter how 'far' a woman has gone around the bend, she still knows better than to wake up a sleeping baby! :)

Oh yeah? I had a screaming DT lady in the ICU once, god only knows what she was seeing or thinking, and after a few hours I finally thought to try that. "Barbara, hush, you'll wake the baby." She stopped instantly, looked at me thoughtfully, and said, "There's no baby here, we're in the hospital," and went back to shrieking at the top of her lungs.

Then there was the man with parkinsonian dementia who was sure his (younger) wife was having an affair with every male who came into their house, even male relatives -- we had to get him only female caregivers, schedule the electrician or the plumber when we knew he'd be asleep, etc. After he died ... turned out she'd been having an affair with the contractor working on the house, which we found out when his wife kicked him out and he moved in with her. Ya just never know.