What is the silliest complaint someone has ever made aboutyou?

Fuzzy · Dec 22, 2006

My story involves an RN. Please understand that nurses have a bad reputation in vet. med. as many come off as being rude (I read alot of PIA nurse woes on the vet. med. boards eventho I had never experienced it until now). Most of our nurse clients are wonderful, caring pet owners. I go to work one morning and our new receptionist is nearly in tears. She told me that an owner had dropped her dog off for a procedure and threatened to sue the hospital if the dog died. She also demanded that she be allowed to pick her dog up ASAP because she was an RN. I told the receptionist that the RN must have been having a bad day and not to worry about it.

The dog's procedure went well, everything was fine. I called the owner at work and told her that her dog was standing and that the procedure went well. I also told her that she could pick her dog that afternoon as is our protocol. There was silence on the the line and an icy, "okay I'll be there" response.

Long story, short, she shows up at the prescribed time. This woman shoves herself up to the front of the line and demands her dog right now. She starts to berate our afternoon receptionist that, "we didn't know how to run our business, etc., etc". I was treating a patient in the back (not her dog) when I heard all this going on. When I went out to release the dog, I was very direct and quick with the discharge instructions. I did not let her get a word in edgewise. They left. The receptionist told me that she had never seen anyone be so nice in such a direct sort of way. I gave her a dirty look and gritted my teeth.

The next day, the RN called our boss and complimented both receptionists which was good. I'm not sure if she complimented my directness and personally, I don't care. The boss never did talk to me about my directness so maybe there was no complaint.

Fuzzy

ItsyBitsySpider, BSN, RN · Dec 22, 2006

In nursing school, I had an instructer pull me aside and very firmly told me that my scrub top was too tight and not to wear it again. About a week later I approached her on the unit and asked if this was better (pointing at top), at which time she said, oh much much better. I had the same top on. :lol2:

About a year ago we coded a little one, mom in room the entire time, saved her life, and literally spent an entire shift with mom and baby. It was an awesome experience. The next day we had NM from the accepting facility call to say mom was extremely upset b/c we did not weigh her. (MD used Broselow tape and mom's "definite" number.

Liddle Noodnik · Dec 22, 2006

Co-worker complained that i'm too tall (i'm 5'10") to work with. The person that made this complaint is 4'9".
Now what was i supposed to do, but her stilts or work while kneeling down? Seriously we have those platform steps for a reason
(Ironically she's never said the same about our 6'11" surgeon)

ha ha!

Well I have had the opposite complaint (I'm 4'11"), but it is legit - it's hard pulling people up in bed if there is a height discrepancy (soooo, I don't mind not helping... lol)

jadegypsy · Dec 22, 2006

One night a patient asked me to water her flowers for her. I told her I would as soon as I had time...She filed a formal complaint to administration regarding my failure to serve her promptly. I got a written reprimand in my file. Oh did I mention we were in the middle of a full code on her roommate at the time of the request. Sometimes you just gotta say what the H.... and get on with life.

BJLynn · Dec 22, 2006

Nope!! As the DON, I'd have had the nurse that chose to make such a deal out of into my office, apologizing to you! I have observed SO much of this garbage over the years - nurses trying to make themselves look better by making others look bad! It's one reason why I'm sick of the profession.
I'm sorry, I know that most don't do that, but there's one or two in every department I think, and I've been the victim of them a time or two. I've also observed them doing it to others, and have attempted to stop it. It's pure meanness as far as I'm concerned!

Well, good 'ole Karma caught up with that nurse. I knew I was right, the DON belived me. I wasn't too worried. I eventually quit that job anyway. And I am happy to say that kind of crap doesn't go on where I now work. It is super supportive group of nurses. The DON makes sure we play nice when someone's PMS flares up too. This job has renewed my faith that I made the right career choice. That last place......~shudder~.....oiy....would have quit nursing all together if I would have worked there much longer.

SillyLilly · Dec 22, 2006

I once had to tell a resident that her perfume was so strong that the other residents in the dining room were complaining. One said it was so bad that she couldn't taste her toast. Well her son writes a letter to my boss telling her i told her she "stunk so bad that her perfume was decreasing the chemical properties of the medications" on my med cart! I laughed when i read the letter. How absurd!

HA! These are hilarious stories, but this one got me to LOL :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

auntcharsattic1 · Dec 22, 2006

I worked pediatric home health and had a complaint that I refused (true) to plunge the toilet that the sibling of the child I was tending to clogged up. BTW the child I was caring for was a very active 2.5 year old with a trach, feeding tube, multiple med times and breathing tx. Where on earth was I supposed to find time to tend to plumbing and babysitting siblings???

TrudyRN · Dec 22, 2006

A male (nurse at that!) in my charge *accused* me of making advances towards him in an unprofessional direction. What I had done, actually, was tried to help him during a very uncomfortable procedure of insertion of a central line catheter by surgeon at bedside...I was attempting to hold his hand IN SUPPORT of " ' squeeze my hand if you need to...I know it's uncomfortable..." that sort of support. Well I was also trying to use therapeutic communication during the process as in " picture a lake, or a mountain scene or the beach if that's what you'd prefer, anywhere you are happy and peaceful, calm, etc...' " trying that guided imagery thingy for pain relief without analgesia....he twisted it ALL around and misquoted me saying that I'd stated, " ' You can hold my hand, I've been wanting to hold yours all along,....or something to that effect.' """ GULP! I was called in to NM's office, I mean like the very next shift I worked. Turns out, management was "fishing" evidently for anything they could in order to create that dreaded paper trail since I'd been out on mental health issue leave from work a few months prior to that....now, I was no model employee by any means. I am not perfect, I cannot possibly be Miss Nancy Nurse of the Year award winner, nor do I attempt that...it is just not me. I do, however, attempt to give safe, pt. advocacy, good nursing care to all I care for. Anyway, back to topic. Complained because I held his hand. Sorry for caring, Mister! Oh well....some people...oh, by the way, he was a "fellow nurse" who worked the psych unit at our hospital. That hurt as much as the lie he told about me and what I'd done and said...
That a "fellow nurse" at the very same facility where I worked had lied to management about me and my conversation/action with his care!
Oh well...live and learn and then do not trust anyone anymore with no witness around!

I hope your witness backed you up.

TrudyRN · Dec 22, 2006

I worked pediatric home health and had a complaint that I refused (true) to plunge the toilet that the sibling of the child I was tending to clogged up. BTW the child I was caring for was a very active 2.5 year old with a trach, feeding tube, multiple med times and breathing tx. Where on earth was I supposed to find time to tend to plumbing and babysitting siblings???

Did your boss back you up?

TrudyRN · Dec 22, 2006

an attending physician once called my nm and complained about me because i had followed the orders the resident and written and "should have known better than to do that." (well, ok, we don't usually do it that way, but his way wasn't hurting anything and i had discussed it with him and he was adamant about doing it his way. so, since it was 0300, we did it his way rather than call the attending. chain of command would have been call the fellow next, then the attending and since the fellow was in on it, too . . . )
next month, i had a patient with an dissecting aneurysm. the plan discussed on rounds was to do an echocardiogram when the attending arrived, and then make a decision as to whether to take her to surgery or not. an hour later, a resident came up and gave me a verbal order to "give 10 mg. of morphine and turn off the ventilator." whoa! i hadn't even seen the attending yet! we have a withdrawal of care protocol, and it involved a note in the chart signed by an attending, and written orders. when i pointed it out to the resident, he started yelling at me. so i talked to the charge nurse, and she paged the attending. the attending yelled at her, then yelled at me. she didn't want to be bothered with this, she'd already talked to the resident and why were we bothering her on a sunday morning?
the attending came in and talked to the family, filled out the paperwork, and we withdrew care. the next day, the chief resident came to see me. he backed me into the med room yelling at me. his opening shot was "do you think the resident is a liar?"
"huh?" i replied, oh so articulately.
"the only reason to go above the resident's head to the attending is if you think he's lying to you. did you think he's a liar?"
fortunately, my charge nurse from the day before had already discussed the situation with the nurse manager and had written it up. the nm straightened out all three individuals: the resident, the chief resident and the attending.
by the way -- both incidents involved the same attending!

no surprise there. she's nuts and she's making her spawn nuts, too. you should be commended for not yelling back, although i think you should speak up if such insanity happens again with the three stooges.

auntcharsattic1 · Dec 22, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kay1966

I worked pediatric home health and had a complaint that I refused (true) to plunge the toilet that the sibling of the child I was tending to clogged up. BTW the child I was caring for was a very active 2.5 year old with a trach, feeding tube, multiple med times and breathing tx. Where on earth was I supposed to find time to tend to plumbing and babysitting siblings???

Did your boss back you up?

Yes,thank goodness, my manager is awesome! I was almost in tears when I had to talk to her about it. Apparently, they were already running out of nurses willing to work the case for similar reasons. And, the mom was really upset when I didn't want to continue with her case and wanted the manager to let me know she wasn't mad at me... ugh!

TrudyRN · Dec 22, 2006

So why didn't you give him the water?

I wondered that, too.