Hostile Family Members!

tatgirl · Jan 18, 2008

I am in the midst of dealing with a hostile family member myself. I have a pt who has a trach. Now mind you I work in ltc, so i also have 23 other residents I am responsible for. this particular pt gets most of my attention and time. The daughter comes in at all hours of the night and day. The only nurse she verbally abuses is me. She also says horrible things about me to my staff. My d.o.n is aware of this and told me the other day "{be nice to her and be her friend". I will not. I dont care about her, my priority is with her mother. I politely told the husband of the pt, that his wife is not my only pt, and that she gets alot of my time and attention. He has no problem with my nursing care, in fact he is pleased with my skills. The daughter is another story. She will come on the floor, and hunt me down, and procede to berate me and scream at me in front of other residents, visitors, and my staff. Suposedly the co I work for, has a harrassment free policy for the employees, but they are not holding up to it. There is a family meeting today so that should be interesting..... The daughter accuses me of not doing her mom'[s trach care, even though I have witnesses (my cna's) that go in the room with me to be a witness. In a 8 hour shift, I am in that womans room at least 10 times. My other residents only see me once or twice a shift.... I am so stressed out because of this.

Wendy

LPN

ohlpn · Jan 18, 2008

When I was a CNA in LTC 20 years ago, a female resident died. The nurse called the son but learned he was on a cruise. The 17 year old grandson answered the phone & a loud party was heard in the background. The grandson wouldn't tell the nurse how to contact his dad & he rushed over to the nursing home with a drunk friend. They were observed rummaging through grandma's jewelry in her room & were asked to leave. They left & showed up a few minutes later with handguns....fortunately, our nurse had the forsight to call the police who greeted these little thugs at the front door.

Our facility filed weapons charges & theft against the kids & I was delivered a subpoena to testify. When the subpoena was withdrawn, I later learned the charges were dropped because "daddy" was good friends with our Representative in the US Senate. Just your typical story of the rich kid getting away with bad behavior.

NrsheartTS · Jan 18, 2008

I am in the midst of dealing with a hostile family member myself. I have a pt who has a trach. Now mind you I work in ltc, so i also have 23 other residents I am responsible for. this particular pt gets most of my attention and time. The daughter comes in at all hours of the night and day. The only nurse she verbally abuses is me. She also says horrible things about me to my staff. My d.o.n is aware of this and told me the other day "{be nice to her and be her friend". I will not. I dont care about her, my priority is with her mother. I politely told the husband of the pt, that his wife is not my only pt, and that she gets alot of my time and attention. He has no problem with my nursing care, in fact he is pleased with my skills. The daughter is another story. She will come on the floor, and hunt me down, and procede to berate me and scream at me in front of other residents, visitors, and my staff. Suposedly the co I work for, has a harrassment free policy for the employees, but they are not holding up to it. There is a family meeting today so that should be interesting..... The daughter accuses me of not doing her mom'[s trach care, even though I have witnesses (my cna's) that go in the room with me to be a witness. In a 8 hour shift, I am in that womans room at least 10 times. My other residents only see me once or twice a shift.... I am so stressed out because of this.
Wendy
LPN

I ALSO WORK IN LONG TERM CARE AND CAN SOMETIMES HAVE UP TO 30 PATIENTS ON DAY SHIFT, I HAVE COME ACROSS FAMILY MEMBERS AND RESIDENTS THAT ARE VERY VERBALLY ABUSIVE TOWARDS THE NURSING STAFF AND IT IS VERY FRUSTRATING AT TIMES SO I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE COMING FROM

caliotter3 · Jan 18, 2008

I called the cops on a woman who was threatening me and had two huge dogs with her. I was going from my car to the front door of my home health client at night and she started to verbally abuse me. I told her I was on my way to work and if she did not get allow me to get to the door of the house I was approaching, I would call the police. She kept on, and I called the police on my cell phone. By the time they arrived, she had been told off by the man of the house of my client. She was their neighbor. When the police left, they told me that she was a little off and would be leaving soon for good.

When I worked in LTC a man whose mom had just passed on threatened to come back with a shotgun. He was told by the DON that he was no longer welcome on the premises and that all nurses would be warned to call the police should he return. Luckily, he didn't return. We kept a lookout all night long for him.