I could not believe it! Kinda long but bear with me.....
My Mom had a stroke on May 1. She is currently on the rehab floor. If
any of you have rehab experience I could sure use your insight - the
thread is in the Rehab Nursing section of the site.
Anyway - there are four girls in my family - one EMT, an LPN, me the RN,
and the oldest - has a coshy job with the government - who is the
smartest of us all! We try to be GOOD family members. We totally
appreciate the staff and let them know it - because we "get it."
So me and my LPN sis are hanging out with Mom at PT today. Pretty
slow day being that it's Sunday before the holiday. An aide comes
running in and says "There's a crazy lady at the nurse's
station - she's screaming at the nurse and she's throwing things!"
PT hesitates while me and sis instantly go into "nurse" mode. No one
messes with nurses! We tell PT to stay with Mom and tell the aide
to call security.
We get out to the station and this lady was crazy!!! Yelling,
throwing anything within reach. Nurses ducking behind the counter
in bunker mode. One nurse trying to defuse her. Still no security.
My sis is a toughie who wades right in. She had grabbed a patient
belonging bag from somewhere and made a BIG production of picking
up things that went sailing, plants, charts, pens, etc. Tsk, tsking
loudly the whole time saying "Oh, gosh - someone could trip on this,
etc." Now crazy lady is confused. Should she listen to this lady who
is picking up her mess or keep yelling at the nurse? Meanwhile I am
standing ready to grab her if she suddenly decides to launch herself
over the counter. Still no security. Crazy lady loses some steam but
at least she is only yelling - not lobbing objects. Floor Supervisor
shows up. Does the whole yada yada thing - you know how it goes.
"Let me know what those nurses did to make you angry crap." Takes
her to an empty room to talk. Still no Security!!!!!
Come to find out - she was upset because Dad was not up and
showered by 8:00 am. It was today - Sunday. She was also upset
because her Dad could not get a good night's sleep because of the
other patients on the floor and that "that nurse" kept waking him
up ALL NIGHT!! Hey lady - it's a hospital - your Dad is ill - DEAL!
What makes me the most angry is that after the ordeal sis and I
asked why security didn't show up. Nurses said that they were
told that they always had to call the floor super before bringing in
security. That's CRAP! Now we have crazy lady roaming the floor
that Mom is on. And the staff has to continue to deal with her as
well. IMHO she should have been banned from the floor. Too bad
if she gave them an "F" on their survey.
BTW - Mom was mad that she missed all of the "action." That tells
us that her cognition is fine. Bless her!
Scooby
