welcome to the hilton...please dont forget to tip your waitress

micro, RN · Mar 28, 2002

and I revisit this thread......

sorta like the Hotel California.......for those of us working there.....

like critically ill patients, much involved in patient care.........

and family very upset that they didn't get their cup of coffee in their idea of time.........(their cup of coffee-----not the patient's)

send in the clowns.........maybe they're here......

sandstormsdust · Jun 12, 2002

I have to ask you nurses... how do u know if someone is making there pain up or not??????? I know when I finely get to the ER/ED.... I have to be half dead with pain... barely able to speak, with tears poring down my face.... So how would you know a pt is pulling one on u or are totally serious... and in pain...

RNforLongTime · Jun 12, 2002

You don't know. We are supposed to take the pt's report of pain at face value. Unless of course, this pt is well known to the ED.

Family members can be such pains in the a$$! I have had to tell people before that while I would love to tell them whatever they want to know, I have 7 other pt's to take care of and I really do not have the time. Please call the doctor's office in the am.

Or how about,"what do you mean you can't tell me how Mrs. Smith is doing? I sit next to her at church every Sunday! She won't care if I know what's wrong, come on now, I can keep a secret." Well, unless you are her POA, I cannot tell you anything. There are confidentiality issues. Then they get rude and hang up the phone on me, I LOVE that!!!

jurbyjunk · Jun 12, 2002

What I loved was the patient who came in for a booked surgery and "was hungry", so stopped at Kentrucky Fried Chicken on the way to hospital. Didn't bother to tell the day care surgery staff, and when got to OR and "confessed", cried when told op was cancelled and said "wasn't fair to have to starve just to have surgery".

Or one evening when I was pulled from my area to cover for someone's coffee break (she was the ONLY nurse on shift, with a ward clerk) on a day care surgical unit. While the RN was gone, a 17 yr old male who'd had urology surgery earlier in the day couldn't pee. And was he ever in agony. So, I phone the urologist to advise and get a catherization order.

While on the phone, this "gentleman" comes to the desk. His wife is "ready to go home" and "I'm not interested in paying more parking fees". Said (and I was polite) " 'scuse me, I'm on the phone with a surgeon at the moment. The other nurse is on her break at the moment, and I am the only nurse here".

This man leans over the desk top and says "listen *****. get off the phone and get your fat ass over here and discharge my wife". I don't think that he quite believed that the sign in the entrance doors "Abuse in any form against staff will not be tolerated" meant what it said. I phoned security, who arrived with an RCMP officer to explain to this man just what it legally meant.

dianthe1013 · Jun 12, 2002

I haven't started my clinicals yet, but... A few months ago, my father went in the hospital for exploratory surgery. He'd been diagnosed with Stage III, nonsmall cell lung cancer, and the surgeon was going to take a look, possibly resect while he was in there.

Well, this hospital is the type with a volunteer stationed in the same-day surgery waiting room, to handle all the waiting family CRAP so no one else has to. I have no idea how they expect someone who isn't being PAID to react to these impossible demands, but at least the volunteers don't have any patients...

Anyway, we were pretty much there for a good portion of the day, and the room was quite crowded. At one point, a man with a braaaaaatty little kid was in the room. The kid ran around and around, and the guy made NO attempt whatsoever to get the little bugger to calm down. People were worried and on edge already, and this wee monster didn't help. So, the volunteer (a sweeeeet little old lady) goes to lunch at around noon, and the kid proceeds to tear around her desk like it's his and he's in charge of demolishing it.

Five minutes later, the kid trips over a telephone cord, falls on his face, and starts screaming. The man picks up the phone receiver, listens, then BANGS it against the desk. Then he stepped into the hall, pulled a passing RN off the floor, and said, "This courtesy phone isn't working, and I need to make a call. Fix it."

The nurse, of course, just STARED at him for a moment...you know, to let him know how rude and insane he was. While she was staring, I walked over, plugged the phone back in, and said, "There you go. Your kid unplugged it while you weren't watching him."

Another lady in the waiting room bought me and my mom lunch that day, and the RN and her coworkers sent my dad flowers once he was out of surgery. :) I just told her I was glad to have the chance to do that, because once I get out of school, I'll be stuck staring at the a$$holes in complete shock and (mostly) unable to tell them off...

Donna :)

skwirm · Jun 12, 2002

I had a patient who was a young man (ealry twenties) who had been in a knife fight which resulted in surgery and several nicely stapled lacerations on various parts of his upper body. This guy was very high maintenance from the start and he complained way too much. Trying to be the nice nurse that we all strive to be, I put up with his whining and complaining for several days. This young man also had several "interesting" friends visit him on a regular basis. Well it came time to remove his staples and after giving him some pain meds (to of course alleviate some discomfort of having staples removed ) I let him have a little time to himself before initaiting the removal process. About 20 minutes later I couldn't find this kid anywhere. He finally shows up and, low and behold, he just popped out to smoke some marijuana and get very high with one of his friends. He figured that the pot would ease his pain. Of course I told him it didn't necessarily work that way (after also explaining to him that we weren't fond of people smoking marijuana on hospital property) and proceeded to remove his staples. 132 staples later and this young man cried through the whole process. Although I felt slightly sorry for him :rolleyes: his totally behaviour changed and he was a model patient until his discharge. Sometimes the stupidity of people can work in your favour

Brownms46 · Jun 12, 2002

Posted by wolfox

"When I'm queen of the hospital-only FOBs who have completed an infant care course and signed an agreement, or who have just had an 8 pound infant come out of their own tales and plan to breastfeed will be allowed to sleep overnight."

:rotfl: :rotfl:

allnurses Guide · Jun 12, 2002

We had a patient with a hip fracture that needed to be transferred to us for ortho surgery, but we literally had no inpatient beds, already holding 3 in the ER. His hospital was told we could take him the next day, surgeon said he would accept the pt the next day, etc. So, naturally he shows up at the back door at 2330 on a carpet in his son's pickup truck! We put him in a hallway bed, as ALL of the ER rooms were also full.........later that night he got put on a hospital bed (instead of an ER guerney) in one of the bays. Towards morning he was furious, too noisy! (well, yes, ERs do tend to be noisy), and that "cop radio" shouldn't even be in a hospital! Excuse me, this is an ER and we DO need the radio for the ambulances, "well it shouldn't be inside a hospital, it should be out in an annex somewhere." I told him this IS the annex to the hospital! He replied "I came down here to get a bed to sleep in" so I reminded him that he had been told there were no beds available. :eek:

Brownms46 · Jun 12, 2002

Originally posted by thisnurse
NOTHING pisses me off more than FLUFF MY PILLOW
or even worse....FIX MY BED.

ever have the patients that ask you to wipe them?
lmao
we get them from time to time. i tell them no...wipe yourself

I once walked by a room...where this diabetic (very rich man)....who was in for hyperbarbic tx for foot ulcer. No other problems...just the foot ulcer! He had a BM and transport was waiting with a w/c to take him for his tx. I looked in the room...and he was bending over the bed and telling her to wipe HIS BUTT . I entered the room...handed him the tissue...wet some towels for him to wash and dry his hands...while she sat down and waited for him!! I couldn't believe he had the nerve to try that...but it takes all kinds!

santhony44, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 12, 2002

Back in the early 80's when I was an LPN student, I had a patient assigned to me who was quite well-off and whose husband was a judge or some such. She had numerous doctors visit her daily and fawn over her. Well, I took care of her for a couple of days and worked my rear off catering to her, helping her with her makeup, doing foley care, etc. She was always pretty nice to me so I didn't mind it that much. Her doc finally decided to take her foley out after it had been left in far longer than needed so she would not have to be inconvenienced by going to the bathroom! Well, of course her bladder had no tone left and she couldn't pee at all. So, I came in to her room to tell her that her foley would need to be reinserted and that one of "us" (the LPN students) would probably reinsert it, since we were always on the lookout for procedures to do. She looked at me and said, "Oh, no, honey, I want a *real* nurse to do that!" I think I just stared at her for a moment. I wanted to ask, "And am I your personal maid??" I know that I went straight out and found my instructor and told her what was said. Well, my instructor said that was fine, she just would not assign any more students to the patient, period! I'm not sure how Mrs. Lah-de-dah did for the rest of her hospitalization, because I *know* the floor nurses and aides did not have the time to pamper her the way I had!

In another instance, a few years later, I had finished my ADN and was working float in a large hospital. I was on a surgical floor and happened to be covering another nurse's patients while she was on her supper break. I was sitting at the desk charting when a young man came out of his dad's room, up to the desk, and stated that he needed a "bedpan specialist." (I said later that he must have seen BSN somewhere and thought it meant bedpan specialist nurse!). Anyway, his dad had just come to the floor that day from ICU, post-op, and was on bed rest for whatever reason. The man's wife had been staying with him and assisting as she could, but she and a couple of female members of the family had just gone down to the cafeteria (the man and his wife were very nice." I followed the son into the room- there were at least *three* strapping big sons standing around in there! And I was very pregnant at the time. I went to the bathroom and got the bedpan, came out and all the sons were standing there just watching me! I said (probably more like snarled, I was furious!) "Either help me or get out!" They got. Dad was obviously embarrassed, and really needed only minimal assistance.

I don't miss hospital nursing one little bit! Susan\

mattsmom81 · Jun 12, 2002

I have no problem assisting buttwipers who CAN'T. It's the buttwipers who CAN but just want to get out of it that piss me off.

I cannot tolerate family and visitors who want us to cater to THEM when it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain we are shortstaffed and extremely busy.

The requests for coffee bug the hell out of me. I direct them to the waiting room. They ask us to store food for family in our fridge. They ask us to store BREAST MILK for them in our fridge. Now....we aren't even allowed a fridge for US to store our lunches...so where do these people get off?????

And what are women with infants doing hanging around our MRSA infested floor? Then they have the gaul to expect us to store their breast milk (and provide a private place for them to pump) and we have to fetch it for them on request too......GRRRR.

I know, I'm old and burnt out....but people just have no manners today in the hospital, I swear....I NEVER encountered such 'entitled' patients, families, and visitors as I do these past 5 years or so.

Gotta blame the media and the hospitals for portraying nurses as service workers.....

Peeps Mcarthur · Jun 12, 2002

LMAO!!!!:roll

I'm coming back here tomorrow and read every last one!!!

This has taken the whole day and I have no more tears or snot left to secrete!

I wish we could all see these on video..............LMAO!

Thanks to everyone that took the time to post and to those that are undoubtedly going to post later.

Really picked up my day, thanks.