My first Awful PT. any advice?

[WideEyedNS]

Last Friday, one of the PTs I dealt with was a white, 52-year-old female, who was morbidly obease and bedridden. She was admitted for pneumonia. She actually came from a nursing home! I'm struggling to emotionally process my feelings of contempt for her, so please forgive me for sounding so incompassionate.

She was prescribed (among her laundry list of other drugs) 2mg of dilaudid q 4 hours. She was suddenly complaining of intense rectal pain that she said was cased by hemmorroids. She behaved so childishly- calling out "nurse!, nurse!, oh my backside! oohhh!!" she was already on her pain meds!!! she was about 45 minutes from being able to have more pain meds, but she was yelling at me to be a decent human being and do something for her. I siad I would tell her RN, which I did, and I explained to her that we wouldn't be able to give her anything more for 45 minutes. She was pounding her fist in her hand and saying "damnit! now you go do your job!, you dont even know how I feel!".

*sigh*. the RN called the Dr. He prescribed a cream for the hemorroids and we applied it as soon as It came up from the pharmacy. SHE HAD NO HEMORROIDS!!!.

So basically, I had a drugged slug-in-the-bed of a woman, who had essentially eaten herself so fat that she couldnt , or wouldn't get out of bed.She was so big we couldnt turn her becase there was no bed left to turn her in. oh and this was the icing on the cake- She also refused to use the bedpan, preferring instead to have Bowel movements on a chuks pad. How disgusting a human being can you be? I mean, my God, What 52 year old person lives in a nursing home?

I know I sound awful, but it truly what I was thinking in my head. I guess my question is, as a nurse, do i HAVE to feel compassion for ALL of my PTs? I just couldnt muster it up for this one, and I've been unable to stop thinking about it all weekend. Thanks for any advice.

[jschut, BSN, RN]

I have a few patients that just crawl under my skin (I work in LTC), but I try to give the best care I can, and that's what you need to do too (I'm sure you did! )

Hang in there, and come here to vent whenever you need to... that's what we're here for!

[loricatus]

Kudos to you for posting your how you really felt!! Alot of people wouldn't have, there are alot of holier than thou people who don't like to admit these kinds of feeling...even though we all feel this way at times. And anybody that tells you they don't is lying!! You are only human!!

Exactly! It is what we do when we have these feelings that really matters.

[NoviceRN10]

I work as a student intern in a hospital and I can tell you that I am starting to become jaded after only a few weeks of orientation. I have heart and compassion for my patients, but some of them are out to take advantage and trick you, so no, I don't love all of my patients. Not even a small percentage of them. It's hard to keep a caring attitude when it's not appreciated. I have had mostly great patients in actual school clinicals, though. I've been lucky in that respect!