Dumbest thing said to family

[Nanz_B]

So, I had an admission on Tuesday. 19 year old unresponsive with a right and left craniectomy..currently on a vent..scheduled to start weaning this past Wednesday. I forget what the mom and I were talking about...mom is really fragile btw (of course!)...the event happened early November. I said something like "I thought that I read in the chart that they removed one of her lobes". After I said it the mother freaked and started saying that the doctors didn't tell her that. She was pretty hysterical and I felt like an idiot. I really did think that I read it in the chart. I told her that I would double check...because I really hope that I wasn't telling her the wrong thing. Sure enough, I found the operative report and it said that a craniectomy was performed without lobectomy. What a douche I am! I went back to the mom and profusely apologized for saying what I said...the mother practically fell down in relief. I feel really bad. I've been thinking about this patient and her family since I left work on Tuesday. I am really nervous about going into work on tomorrow. I don't know if I will have her again. Should I stop beating myself over this? I am devastated. I am a first year nurse (5 months in) and I really do want to be great. I've really learned from this...learned to read more about my patients before blurting things out...

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

One of the rudest things I've heard from staff-patient interaction was a resident speaking to me when my nephew was in the hospital. We were out of town and my sister and I decided to take him to the hospital bc his RR was very fast and shallow and he had a fever. Turned out he was having asthma exacerbation and was admitted. My sister and her husband were making a big deal and wanting to leave and take him to the hospital at home because we were supposed to go home that day. Anyways my sister left the room to get some food and this resident came in with a medical student. The student began to introduce himself to me and before I could even speak the resident said "That's not his mom." -um never claimed to be- Then I thought I would try to be reasonable and ask if they could relay their plan to the dad so he would be less anxious about how long they had to stay and the resident said these words to me "Your nephew is very sick in his lungs." Guess what lady; I'm not mentally incapable of understanding that! Whew I had to sit down and shut up because I was getting close to my boiling point!!!

Sorry kind of off topic, just a reminder of the importance of bedside manners!!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Long, long ago and far, far away, I was the charge nurse in the CCU. One busy winter weekend, one of those weekends with a heavy snowfall that had all the deskbound older men out huffing and puffing and shovelling their driveways, we were notified that the ER had two patients for us. It was a long time ago, and I don't remember the names -- not that I would post them here anyway -- so let's call them a Mr. Jackson Roberts and a Mr. Robert Jackson. (The names were very similar, but I don't remember HOW they were similar.) Accomodating these two admissions required us to transfer at least one patient out, so I was on the phone with the ER, deciding which of their two patients we would take and with the stepdown unit, trying to get them to take one of our many potential transfers.

Negotiations with stepdown took all afternoon, as I recall, and in the meantime, I was also on the phone with the ER frequently as the status of the two patients changed. Robert Jackson was actively infarcting and went to the cath lab, Jackson Roberts was having ectopy and did we know where Dr. FamousCardiologist was? (This was the time when a cell phone was the size of a briefcase and no one but the richest and most important people had them.) The ER wanted us to take the patient with the ectopy since the other was probably going to be in Cath Lab for a few hours. But about that same time, the stepdown unit caved and took a transfer, so it looked as though we were going to be taking both ER patients at about the same time.

Robert Jackson came up and we settled him into bed. I was told that his family was in the building, and would be directed to the CCU. Then we got a call that Jackson Roberts was coding in the ER. Subsequently we were informed that he had died.

Just then, about a dozen visitors flooded the unit, looking for Jackson Roberts. I hadn't been expecting HIS family, and I didn't really have the words. I stumbled a bit as I told them that his body was still in the ER, and they could visit him there. "HIS BODY?! HE DIED?" As you can imagine, they were upset and grieving and angry that "we've been shunted all over the hospital and now THIS!" At about the same time, another (smaller and quieter) family came up looking for Mr. Jackson. We directed them to his room.

It wasn't but a moment, when Mrs. Jackson came flying out of the room exclaiming "That's NOT my husband!" The noise attracted the attention of the Jackson Roberts family who were SHOCKED to look past her and see THEIR loved one, the one I'd just told them had expired in the ER.

Since then, I've been VERY careful about knowing both the first and last names of any patient before I give anyone ANY information about them. But that wouldn't have prevented the cluster-Frack that day -- the ER gave ME the wrong information. Still and all, I was the one who had to deal with both families and the aftermath of threatened lawsuits, etc. I think the worst part of it was those two wives, though. The one I told that her husband had died when he hadn't, and the one I told that her husband was doing well when he had already died.

[Retired APRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I was the patient for this one.

A few months after I finished my first three months or so of chemotherapy, there was progression and I had to go back for more. (Fun times!) I showed up at the onco day unit, pretty upset at the new stage iv diagnosis. My nurse greeted me with, "Hi, APRN! How are you? It's so nice to see you again!"

I can laugh at it now, but at the time... no!

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

One of my Nursing Home Hell residents was a rather crochety old man. We got along really well. He was admitted to the hospital, and the family decided not to hold his room. I came upon them moving his stuff out, and told his son "I hope to see him back here soon." The son looked at me and said "No offense, but I don't.

Awkward!