Patients Making Up Lies

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Telemetry, Neuro, Renal, Ortho.

Ok. I was wondering if anyone has had a patient make up a lie about them and then you got called into the office about it.

I had a patient, (I don't remember if they were confused or not) write to my manager and say that she used to be a nurse and when I hung her IV fluids that I didn't prime the tubing. Then she says when she asked me if that was ok to inject all that air I said, "ya, it's totally safe. I saw it done on youtube and the patient was fine". I was stunned. I don't understand why people want to sabotage their nurse. I am never mean or rude to my patients. Please tell me this doesn't just happen to me. :sniff:

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Well, yes, it happens. The hard part to take though is that the employer takes their side in the matter and refuses to believe in the integrity of the employee.

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That sounds absurd and hopefully your manager saw it as such.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

Wow....I'm surprised that your manager wasted her time asking you about that. I don't like to call my patients liars, but I will say that many of them get "confused".

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

I had a pt. wife accuse me of grabbing her arm aggressively. Thank goodness I had a witness who saw the exact opposite happen as the wife angerly grabbed me. I still had to meet with the manager and explain. No witness, I would have been fired. Very scary

Those nut jobs are out there everywhere:uhoh3:

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

defend yourself with logic and the truth. do your pumps report "air in the line" and won't work if it is not primed?? to answer your question, i had one patient lie about me to a charge nurse but i did not get written up.

the lie he told was that his ng tube had "fallen out" at the end of my night shift and that he told me about it, but i told him he was wrong (i retested for placement three different ways prior to reassuring him that it was in place). that same night i had gotten report on the same patient (i was working med surg at the time). keep in mind the patient's ng tube was never changed during the day shift, the day shift nurse reported that the ng tube worked perfectly during her shift and provided evidence of stomach content. so i was surprised that as i was getting report, a charge nurse (his friend) came out of the room to tell me that the ng tube was out and that the patient told me so prior to my leaving shift that morning and that it was my fault!!! :mad:

anyway, i wrote down my side of the story to include the day shift nurse's report of it working perfectly fine on her shift, provided evidence of output during report, and that the patient never complained to her about his ng tube not working properly during the entire 12 hour day shift!!! rather he waited to tell his friend when she visited him during change of shift! plus, i noted that the charge nurse who took the side of the patient had reported pulling the ng tube out of the patient's nose (in her defense, which is still my defense, she reported that the tube "was just hanging there"... really?? it was not hanging there when i left work... maybe it fell out when i was at home asleep???)....

however, to show good customer service, i appologised for any misunderstanding and also accepted his request for another nurse!!! :yeah: in fact, though i was initially angry at the incident (being accused of something that was not true and having to defend myself against a story that on it face sounds so silly)... i was happy to be rid of him!!! he was a pain in the rear-end to put it mildly!!! his personality was so bad his roommate (another of my patients) was moved out of the room because the two of them did not get along. they fought all day and all night!

so long story short, if the story is bogus, that is your defense!!! also, do not let this get you down. evil, mean, and confused liars are patients too. most patients are not nice and respectful like they are on tv!:twocents:

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

It happens from time to time and there is nothing you can do about it but make sure you document what you do and what you tell a patient in the chart. People also have their own perceptions and often no matter how much you explain things, they hear what they want to hear.

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Specializes in critical care, PACU.

well thats a crappy lie. everyone knows that those hypersensitive pumps that go off and make your life miserable with the tiniest bubble, would never let you do that.

if your manager believed her, she is due for some time at the bedside this decade.

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Specializes in Trauma acute surgery, surgical ICU, PACU.

Oh yes. It was years ago, and it actually still haunts me, so I feel your pain.

The family hovered over me all night. for three weekend nights in a row. They snapped and snarled at me when I asked the pt basic assessment questions. ("Are you having any pain?" - "SHE HASN"T HAD THE SURGERY YET followed by a glare"). Yeah, some people have pain even before they get thier tumor removed, sue me for asking. They made unreasonable demands. I basically got zero breaks for 3 nights in a row because they were so demanding, and I could not get adequate time to work with my other pts. It was awful.

Then they went to my manager on monday and said that I had ignored their mother's pain, that there had been no nurse in the room for hours at a time and that they were given no information.

I was lucky. My manager was a good one, and I had good documentation. This pt had an epidural, so I had been documenting my frequent assessments, plus comments on the vital signs records about all the care assessments and interventions, explanations, etc. Complete with times to the minute, showing how often I was in that room and all that I did for her.

My manager showed this to the family and asked them if they were saying that all this was a lie - and they had no response.

My boss actually phoned me at home to talk about this and ask where all their anger was coming from.

Probably poor coping and needing to lash out, we figured. The pt had symptoms for months and had been sent away by numerous doctors before actually getting some tests done and finding out she had stomach ca.

After that she was moved to a different ward and I hard the family were terrorizing staff there too.

But to me this is no excuse. We are not figurative punching bags for people to manipulate or take things out on.

If I get a sense that a pt or family are getting "angry" in their coping, I do some CYA charting and make sure my general documentation is detailed and specific.

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I agree with you, pebbles, that there is absolutely no excuse for this behavior, and also find myself doing CYA charting when my radar senses negativity from family members.

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It happened with one of my residents today (night), she fell, pulled the call light. She was picked up and the protocol was performed. When the M.D. Was notified, she ordered, CBC, UA, EKG, and finger stick. The resident told the the phlebotomist and EKG personnel that she had been on the floor for 3 hours and that no one would help her. In fact, the CNA had picked up her dinner plate 15 minutes prior to her pulling the call light. She was in bed.

Makes you wonder why someone would want to hurt those that help them. Oh well, that is part of nursing and part of why proper documentation is important, which in itself takes away from patient care. Makes you a busy body. No, you are not the only one. Hang in there and good luck.

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

What I don't get is...why do these people do this? I don't know how the thought even crosses patients' minds. Do they think they'll get their stays for free? Or, like, vouchers for free Dilaudid?

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