Oh oh, the patient is a nurse

[Brian]

Its so hard to let go of the caretaking role, even when its the nurse thats ill. We've all had patients who are nurses and they get up and change their beds, keep their own I&Os, empty their catheters and in general also look out for their room mate. If you've been a patient, what nursing job was the hardest for you to abdicate to someone else? Or...did you?

[Muser69]

Had a knee replacement and was in excruciating pain. My nurse refused to call my doctor. I heard an intensivist I knew from my hospital paged overhead. I then called the hospital operator page him to my room phone. He came right down and increased my PCA. The nurse was p*ssed. Too bad for her.

[mdzieger]

I am a terrible patient. I don't sit still well. I had a left periacetabular osteotomy to treat hip dysphasia which left me post-op in a Boston hospital for 5 days. I had an epidural for pain for the first two days. Once I had the epidural d/c'd and started working with PT I was supposed to have an aide assist me to the bathroom. I was very bad about doing this and also had very definitive opinions about not being discharged on narcotics. My surgeon vehemently disagreed, however nicely, to my arguments. He said I would thank him a few days later. I'm not going to lie..... I was VERY thankful for that first week. But then again I also tried to use a vacuum as one crutch so I could clean. The picture of non compliant. Lol

[DaniV.]

One of my first patients after I got my license was a nurse. She hadn't told people because she figured they would stop taking care of her. She had seen me fumble through my first ever PEG administration on the other patient, and my shaking hands when it came time to change her colostomy wafer (another task that I had only done on a mannikin) and walked me through the steps.

She also told me stories about when she was a newbie, and helped give me confidence in myself.

I, however, am the type of patient that will sit on the step of the ambulance that someone else called after a motorcycle accident and do my own wound care and apologize that they wasted their time coming out....