Most Irritating Pt Award

[Pepper The Cat]

We currently have a pt on our unit that is going to win the Most Irritating Pt Award of the Year.

I thought I'd see if anyone else out there had a contender or too- plus, I really need to vent!

we've had this pt for nearly 3 months now. Things have gotten so bad that we've decided that you will have him for 2 shifts max (ie Monday, Tuesday), then someone else will take over. The last time I had him, I swore that one of us was not going to make it out alive if the shift was even 10 minutes longer!

What he does:

He always wants to be where he isn't. If he's in the w/c, he wants to be in bed. If he's in bed, he wants up. If he's in the lounge, he wants to be in the room and so forth.

You can put him to bed, 15 minutes later, he'll ring to get up.

When he rings, he wants you there right away - if you are not there in 1 minute after he rings, he rings again - and again - and again - until you get there. Sometimes, he'll call his wife at home and complain, so then she calls the nsg station and complain. One night he rang for some Tylenol. His nurse was pouring it when another pt got out of bed and fell. We went to take care of that - took about 10 minutes to pick up that pt etc. If the meantime, Problem Pt calls his wife and says "they won't give me my tylenol" so wife calls nsg station.

He is non-compliant. He now has a stage 4 ulcer on his heel because he pulls himself about in the w/c using the heel - we told him to stop when a blister developed, but he ignored us. Now has a stage 4 - and he's diabetic!

If he's up in the w/c and wants something, he'll follow his nurse around until she gives him what he wants - he won't wait even 5 minutes.

At night - if his bell isn't answered in about 1 minute he'll start yelling - because he knows that in order to let the other 30 odd pts on the unit rest, we don't want him screaming.

He swears at us and treats us like crap. I swear my BP rises a good 20 points just by being in the same room with him!

So - as far as we are concerned, he is winning the Most Irritating Pt of the Year award.

Any competition out there??

[Jean1313]

LOL! Love the curry suggestion!

I wish that I had some words of wisdom. Just sending a wish for a better day tmw. On the brightside, at least your coworkers recognize that they can't pin him to the same nurse every day!

I can't compete with that pt, but do have a frustrating pt story. When I worked in Psych, we had a guy that came in almost once a month. We were still paper charting, and he was a depressed pt in renal failure. Every time he came in, we have to handwrite his 5 page list of meds. The residents in the ER would always mess some of them up, so the admitting nurse would spend an hour or so getting it cleared up. Well, the last time he came in, he walked up the hill to the ER smoking an illegal substance (pt report)! This is a pt that is Always on O2 when in the hospital! Uncontrolled diabetes, the whole bit!

And of course, the nurse that discharges him has to gather all his scripts for DC...

~:-/

[Scrubby]

I'm glad I work in the OR

My nomination goes to the long term resident at the nursing home I worked at when I was a PCA. This lady had MS and while I felt sorry for her having to rely on others to care for her, she was the most irritating, nasty piece of work I've ever had the pleasure of nursing. Not only was she bigoted and racist but she would just yell her head off if she didn't get her own way. It would take you about 2 hours just to shower her because it had to be done HER way. Every little thing you can think of, wash more behind my right ear, move my underwear a little to the left, my right ankle needs to be put in this particular position when I'm in the w/c, my sheets aren't right, I want my hair brushed this side, wash my eyelid this way blah blah blah.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Nice to know that we are not the only ones tempted to apply "pillow therapy"

[FLmomof5]

(tongue in cheek here....)

Hmmm, OP, I see you live in Canada. When he decides to yell, take him outside and let him know that he can return when he stops! :devil:

[oldladyRN]

Well...I would have already slithered my fat a$$ in there while he was asleep and disconnected the call light...but that's just me.

But seriously, boundaries need to be set and enforced (key word "enforced"). I work in psych and it's just as applicable to where you work. Let him know that you will check on him hourly. Remind him of this whenever it's a non-urgent issue (and not his hourly light-pushing time) and he's on the call light again. Document, document, document.

Sadly, his horrible behavior is being reinforced and enabled by the wife. She's probably having the best break of her married life right now.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

It just got worse. Now he has a VAC drsg on his heel. Woe is me.

His nurse told me it took 45 minutes to change today, and he complained and cursed and yelled the whole time.

But seriously, boundaries need to be set and enforced (key word "enforced"). I work in psych and it's just as applicable to where you work. Let him know that you will check on him hourly. Remind him of this whenever it's a non-urgent issue (and not his hourly light-pushing time) and he's on the call light again. Document, document, document.

Doing that big time! He's just so used to getting his way that he doesn't know how to wait, take his turn and show consideration for others.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

I vote for pushing his wheelchair out in a snowbank and bringing him back in when he shuts up.

[loricatus]

It just got worse. Now he has a VAC drsg on his heel. Woe is me.

His nurse told me it took 45 minutes to change today, and he complained and cursed and yelled the whole time.

Doing that big time! He's just so used to getting his way that he doesn't know how to wait, take his turn and show consideration for others.

His bad behavior is also being reinforced by the nurses. No one has to take being yelled and cursed at because that is accepting abuse.

When I get a patient that yells and/or curses, I immediatly yell back that I will not be talked to in that manner and will be leaving until the patient can grow up and/or clean up their mouth.

With this guy, I would tell him that I take his yelling, complaining, etc as his right to refuse treatment, document it as such and call security if he continues yelling or disturbing others. Additionally, I would be calling his wife before he has a chance to and advise her of his behavior and what is being done-adding, how abusive he is and a referral to a battered woman's shelter that I am sure she will need if he ever gets sent home.

You really have got to write incident report after incident report on this guy. He does not belong in your facility with such unstable behavior patterns that seek to compromise the care/safety/wellbeing of the other patients- risk management should get wind of him.

Now, for fun, you can always laugh at him when he has one of his tyrades and tell him that he is comical in how much of a baby he is acting like----that should get him to spontaneously combust :angryfire