Most ridiculous things you have heard?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

what are some of the most ridiculous things that patients or family members or even coworkers have said to you? we had one patient complain because i bent their straw down too far. same patient also complained because we let them fall asleep and they had a "nightmare"[color=#333233] :uhoh3:

and this is more of a annoyance, but i had a patient with a bp that was going down the toilet but surprisingly this patient was still conscious and talking to me - said they felt fine! :eek: i was busy talking to the doc and getting orders and taking care of this situation when a family member of a patient i discharged earlier that night calls me at 0300 asking me, "my mom feels nauseous, is it okay if i give her her nausea medicine?" :banghead:

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

The one with a list of 50 medications that they are allergic to. Literally.

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Specializes in Emergency; med-surg; mat-child.

Literally allergic or literally 50?

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Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.

i don't know how that got in there!!! :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Geriatrics, Wound Care.
i don't know how that got in there!!! :uhoh3:

but, why would you even ask if it is so obvious?

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
But, why would you even ask if it is so obvious?

Because it's so interesting to hear the different stories that come out when you ask them!:lol2:

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Specializes in ER.

Lady with a resp rate of 2 being resuscitated, and her partner wanted to know if we could give the sleeping pill now. She just knew it would be hard to sleep in the hospital. We agreed to wait til later.

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Specializes in Emergency; med-surg; mat-child.

Isn't it always "I slipped in the shower," or "I was up on a ladder . . ."?

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Specializes in Cardiac, PCU, Surg/Onc, LTC, Peds.

A patient circling the drain, in respiratory distress with sustained HR in the 150's needing NT suctioning s/p esophagectomy... Dear wifey complains " but he hasn't slept for 2 nights, he has to get some sleep!""Ma'am in all due respect I'm worried about his breathing, sleep is a little low on my list of priorities-and judging by the looks of him now (@2200) he won't be sleeping tonight either" (unsaid: may be lucky for pt to make it through the night).Wifey puts her bipap on, turns over and goes to sleep.When said pt transfers to the unit I wake up wifey AFTER he's transferred.

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Specializes in Cardiac, PCU, Surg/Onc, LTC, Peds.
Isn't it always "I slipped in the shower," or "I was up on a ladder . . ."?
Also:I slipped down the stairs and landed on said object.
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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

"i was gardening in the nude and somehow i slipped and fell right on that cucumber . . . " funny -- that one had no tan.

i was a fairly new grad and working night shift -- i had 15 patients and the other nurse had the same. one of my patients had five or six "close family members" spending the night with him, and the call light was constantly going off with various family members requesting drinks, pillows, blankets and thermostat adjustments. of my other 14 patients, three were on reverse isolation following bone marrow transplants and they all had tpn, multiple antibiotics and at least one transfusion overnight -- and sometimes the transfusions were wbcs or incompatible blood. besides the gown, shoe covers, hair covers and mask, you had to wash your hands for 30 seconds with the reverse isolation patients -- everyone else just the 30 seconds of hand washing. and these family members were on the light literally every two or three minutes with some new request.

one of my reverse isolation patients was going down the tubes and needed to be transferred to the icu -- not that there was a bed -- and as i'm standing at the nurse's station talking to the doctor on the phone to get orders, three family members show up in front of the nurse's station to throw a fit about how they didn't like the channels available on the tv, and my attitude sucked about providing them "service."

i told them there would be no more "service" tonight, and that perhaps the hilton would be more to their liking. the next day, my manager told me that perhaps icu would be a better fit for me. it was.

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Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

Not something that I heard, but I had a good-natured confused patient complain that our TV remotes don't work very well. He was trying to change the channel with his tele box.

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