Share your "problem patient" stories!

"The confused patient" is what gets me. I can't stand working with the confused little old lady or man that can't remember anything, except that they have this call button. Or the ones who just yell "Help! Help!" all night long. I had one little lady who would say, "Don't hit me," whenever I'd go in her room.
I can't hardly take 12 hours with these people. And if I should have one on a Saturday night, and know they aren't going to be gone by Sunday night...it's almost more than I can take.

Does this mean I don't care? No. I care, my granddad was one of these people.

Is it their fault? No, I know it isn't. people keep telling me that *I'll* be that confused little man one day.

Does this make me a bad nurse? I don't think so. Just that geriatric/nursing home nursing is NOT for me. I'm an ED nurse, trained in the field as an EMT and on the floor as a Tech. I'm all about doing what I can for this person right now, and get them to someone who can take better care of them long term.

How about the patients who are "nurses" (whether they really are or not), who are constantly writing down everything you do, complaining to all of management about the horrible care she is getting, and on the call light every 5 minutes to do something she could do herself? AND, management chews you out for the horrible nurse you are, and insists everyone bends over backwards for her??!!

Oh my gosh this week has been the cream of the crop for our floor lol! I'm in med-surg and we get tons of hips and knees...let me tell you about one that almost made me want to slit my wrists. I knew her and I were going to hit it off when first thing in the morning she calls and when I go in she has totally messed up her bed...liquid green goo filled the pad and she's like"I had an accident and you need to clean me". I'm looking at her thinking, your 52 and had a partial knee replacement...Tues, it's Fri and you can't have the decency to call for assistance or a bed pan? So I clean her up and I'm fuming, in comes phys. therapy and she is screaming that she cant get up, it hurts, it's too hard, blah blah blah. Of course she refused to cooperate so phys therapy left and an 2 hours later here we go again, **** everywhere...did I mention she has snuff cans and spit cups everywhere? I walk in and clean her up and in comes phys therapy and she starts the routine again. I couldn't take it and said, "you know what, if you don't want to walk anymore and you want to lay in bed the rest of your life that's fine, however, I'm going to get a depends and I'll let your doctor know you need references of nursing homes in our area!" haha. She just looked at me and I left her and the therapist. Needless to say she walked and called for help to use the bathroom after and was very pleasant after lol !