Ever have a patient work your very last nerve?

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I had a patient yesterday that truly must've thought I was his audience at the comedy club. He had such a snarky sarcastic attitude, a really dumb sense of humor, and wasn't funny. He made obnoxious comments and was clearly trying to see how far he could go before he ticked me off.

When he could tell he was skating on thin ice with me, he even said "don't go into some corner and cry now, I was only joking." I told him, "you're giving yourself too much credit, my skin is a lot thicker than that."

2 hours into the shift I couldn't stand this man, and it took all my mama taught me to keep from telling him something.

I wonder about patients like the OP described. I think that the particular patient, that is how he is (sadly). He knew how to (try to) calm her down about crying in the corner so he knew what he was doing. I have an huge interest in Psych and these types make me wonder if they might have Borderline Personality Disorder or maybe Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Sure, patients can be cranky they are sick but these ones cross the line.

Just a thought. I am NOT diagnosing anyone!!!

Specializes in Emergency.

A couple of days ago I typed out a long answer to this post but deleted it because I felt it was too much info/too negative but legendarylady's post reminded me of this patient so strongly I will share just a tidbit. This patient was fully able to feed herself but insisted that a nurse had to stand at her bedside holding her pills (approximately 97 of them) a cup of juice and a cup of milk. She would only put one pill in her mouth at a time and insisted on having a sip of juice and then a sip of milk after every individual pill. If the nurse refused these shenanigans she would call her family and tell them that we were denying her her medications. Never mind that this person was in the hospital basically because her family couldn't stand her anymore, they would come in and scream at the poor soul who was saddled with mom. Oh, and we were the second floor to have her, and we received and transferred her for the express purpose "we need to give the nurses on X a break." Lol, the memory still gives me a feeling of helpless rage, and this was probably 5 years ago.

I wish I could have been a nurse back in the old days, when this type of crap wasn't tolerated. This new customer service model of health care is a load of crap if you ask me.

I had a patient the other night whose family was a nightmare. Nothing but trash. I was warned by the previous nurse that they were difficult but she really gave me the shaft by writing the patient's PRNs on the white board with a SCHEDULE of when they were "due" like they were scheduled meds and not PRNs. So, when I arrive on scene 15 minutes after the PRN was "due" the patient and the family was freaking out. I couldn't get these idiots to understand the difference between PRNs and scheduled meds. I finally just started totally ignoring the family. I wish I could have ignored the patient, frankly. She was hateful, rude, and non-compliant with all aspects of care aside from pain medication administration.

The situation was awkward since I was basically ignoring their existence but I think I did an okay job of acting like I was unruffled. By the way, the son (or whoever he was) looked just like Dog the Bounty Hunter.

What's bad is when they demand a different nurse for no reason other than because you try to ignore their obnoxiousness.

Specializes in Labor & Delivery, Med-surg.

My dad was a GP and on hearing that his patient was harassing one of the nurses he marched right down to the nursing station and discharged the guy. I find usually it's the families that take the cake though.

Specializes in Emergency.
My dad was a GP and on hearing that his patient was harassing one of the nurses he marched right down to the nursing station and discharged the guy. I find usually it's the families that take the cake though.

Your Dad sounds awesome! I had a doctor do this for my new staff orientee once and I will always admire him for it.

I had a patient whom the moment you walked into his room, he started complaining. After about 10 minutes into the shift, I wanted to shoot myself. The nurse before me warned me of this, but I didn't think he would be that bad. I was wrong. I tried to stand there and listen to him because maybe he just needed to vent and needed someone to talk to, but it didn't matter what you did - he would still complain about something, ANYTHING. He would complain about you standing there listening to him lol. It came to the point where I started walking out of the room while he was in mid-sentence because I couldn't stand to listen to his complaints anymore!!!

I was back the following night and I gave that patient to someone else, I just couldn't deal with him again. He drove me nuts. He drove that nurse crazy, too.

Don't shoot yourself.

I admit I really don't have a sense of humor so I give a blank look when something is funny to everyone else. I do laugh of course but something has to be super funny in order for me to do so.

So usually with these types of patients I give them the blank look. And when they tell me that was a joke I still give them the blank look and continue on with what I need to do. Works 100% for me. Or if they are being super obnoxious or mean I tell them I will not tolerate that behavior.

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Love your shoes....

"Well, I am glad to see you have your sense of humor back! Let's make our plan of the day to talk to your doctor about a discharge plan, shall we???"

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