Mr. One More Thing........LMAO

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I had a patient last night that we affectionately named "Mr. One More Thing." No matter what you did with him, his last words were always, "One more thing."

Mr. One more thing called me into his room for what felt like the thousandth time and asked me for Tylenol. I inquired about his pain and he told me he needed the tylenol for the PAIN IN HIS NECK......

I quietly chuckled, got him his tylenol and told him to let me know if his pain in the neck didn't get better....

It was definetly a funny moment - especially at 2am......

Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.

on my old unit, we used to call these folks "columbo's"..:banghead:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

In the clinic, this is known as the Doorknob Phenomeon. You've finished with the patient, you think, and put your hand on the doorknob, to walk out of the room.

Then:

"Oh, one more thing..."

"Oh, by the way..."

"I forgot to ask you..."

"Can I ask you something..."

Generally, that's a signal that you might as well pull up a chair, you're going to be a while. It's entirely possible that you're about to hear the real reason the patient is in the clinic to start with. Everything else was window dressing, just to give the patient time to work up his or her nerve to get down to the real issue.

The complexity of the issue is usually inversely proportional to the amount of time you have to deal with it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Mr "no I don't need anything, I just need to talk to my nurse"

I enter the room, "can you get me something to drink"?

ROFL....Did I have this guy last night?? Hits the call bell, aide at the desk asks through the intercom "what can I do for you?". Answer: "I need my nurse". Aide: "Is there anything I can do for you?" Answer: "No, I just want to see my nurse". Nurse RNsRWe walks into the room (after being summoned from the medroom); patient says "Could you get me some fresh ice water?"

AARRRRGHHH!!!!

Had to clue the bugger in about how aides are completely competent in Ice Fetching Basics. Yeesh.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I should also include in these ButWait Family scenarios, the one in which you've stripped off your isolation gown, gloves, and mask, finished handwashing at the sink one step from the hallway, only to have Mr. 'Can You Give Me My Whatever Out of My Nightstand Drawer' decide to speak.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

It has been a while, but lets not forget Mr. Click-Click. He is not verbal enough to call you, but he can make these clicking or other sounds to summon you, kind of how you might call your dog or horse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Day program consultant DD/MR.

The "I don't want to bother you but"...... followed my 5-6 demands.Including changing the TV channel.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in neuro, ICU/CCU, tropical medicine.
It has been a while, but lets not forget Mr. Click-Click. He is not verbal enough to call you, but he can make these clicking or other sounds to summon you, kind of how you might call your dog or horse.

That's universal with high-level C-spine injuries, but what are you going to do? They can't even scratch their noses.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Or, the family member that follows you everywhere you go, even into the other patient's room and says " My mother needs a private room so people won't intrude on her". I mean, well, you just intruded on this poor person's space, didn't you??

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Generally, that's a signal that you might as well pull up a chair, you're going to be a while.

Nothing creates more slack in my schedule than pulling up a chair with my pts as early as possible in the shift. OTOH, if things are so bad I can't, the negative slack skyrockets.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in neuro, ICU/CCU, tropical medicine.
Nothing creates more slack in my schedule than pulling up a chair with my pts as early as possible in the shift. OTOH, if things are so bad I can't, the negative slack skyrockets.

True. We had this woman on our unit once who was considered a PITA by most of the staff. Another nurse and I found out that if we just spent a couple of minutes at the beginning of the shift talking to her she was a peach for the rest of the shift.

A couple of nurses complained that I had 'spoiled' her, but don't you know she called back after she had been discharged to let us know how she was doing and to thank us.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I just had one of those "One more thing" patient this week. And he was 23 - "Can you throw away my pizza box?"

Ummmm, no - This is the 18th request...... AND you walked down to get something from the vending machine before.

GRRRRR!!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment