What do patients say that irks you?

Dear, you need not feel embarrassed, the question is a valid one from a layperson no matter what the circumstance. Questions like this "come with the territory". It is true that once in a while we medical professionals "slip up" and prescribe something that may not be in both patient's best interest.

Remember, this is a place for us to vent because we don't want to come back with a sharp (read, "That was a stupid question.") retort when we are tired or have heard the question so many times (Are they gonna havta take the baby? for instance).

Hope all is going well with your pregnancy and that you find a name other than Oranjello, Lemonjello, or Female for your little one.

I have a friend (who is not a nurse) who was exposed to meningococcal meningitis during her late second trimester of pregnancy. She was recommended to go to the Urgent Care Center immediately to get the vaccine. She went to the Urgent Care Center and was given a shot. She waited a few minutes and started having contractions and feeling ill. Turns out they had given her what we think was a migraine medication for the patient in the next room (still not sure) and it was causing uterine contractions. A trip to Labor and Delivery, overnight stay, monitoring, and meds later she and baby were fine. But if she had said "Is this going to hurt the baby?" it might have saved her that trouble.

I realize this was the military health system (yikes!) and not L & D but mistakes happen and I would rather have a nurse who has to run and post about me on allnurses.com than complications...

We're goning to have somebody give an inservice to the ER staff (nurses and docs) about what's ok for pregnant patients and priority care. In our ER they wouldn't have time to ask if this will hurt the baby because if they tell the ER they got pregnant yesterday they send them to us no matter the complaint...I had a call for a bed on Wed because the patient was "short of breath" and first they said 14 weeks then it turned out 35 weeks but make sure she's stable first before she come to us...turns out she'd seen her family practice and told them she was SOB and they didn't look any further....give her a couple of weeks when that baby drops and she'll breath better (plus being 260 lbs and 5'2) lungs clear sats 98 things that make you shake your head.

I have to say I had a really sharp nurse who checked the meds I was taking before she gave me another med the MD ordered. She told me that she was waiting for another order because what was ordered was contraindicated with what I was already taking. It would not have been life-threatening, but it would have been a bad situation if she had not checked what I was on before giving me the new med. I was so grateful.

I do know that this is a "vent" thread. When this thread was new, one of the laments was when a patient asked, "Is this going to hurt the baby?" Somehow the first thing I thought of was this thread and I thought it was sort of funny that my mind came here when my DH said that.

I assure all that we have a "normal" name picked out. Although my husband wouldn't let me name our little girl after airplane airframes, very effectively eliminating my favorite name, Piper, and Katana, we have settled on a first and two middle names.

Some people don't understand why I have this and think I'm serious when I say that I'm going to name her after Jell-O or gender. It came from another thread here, something like "Wackiest Baby Names." After seeing the Jell-O twins along with Female mentioned many, many, many times happening to a friend of a friend or an OB resident told someone she knew this happened to, I got to the point where I said something like, "If I see Oranjello, Lemonjello, or Female, I'm gonna tear my hair out." So, I thought it'd be a little bit of a joke to those reading this forum if I put that in my profile. I believe every OB floor has heard of these Urban Legends and somehow I thought that I could take suggestions on potential baby names.

Some people have included other names that I should consider (as a joke), and some have mailed me essentially saying that I've gone off the deep end. Which may be the case, but we won't discuss that.

When the baby does come, I'll put the name in my sig. Things are going better, and we should have a baby in a few weeks.

Well said!

Remember whatever you name your child, you are likely to hear yourself say the name over 100 times a day (sometimes in a "very loud voice").

Another urban legend in Kentucky is the Appalachian hills woman who named her twin daughters Siphylis and Gonora (syphilis and gonorrhea) because she thought the names were so pretty.

I feel as though I am a 3rd shift lifer!

As I push a screaming baby into a room, ask the mom "would you like me to turn the light on?" Looking at her husband who is snoring in the corner "No, shhhh-I dont want to wake him." That is when I want to say...well then he should go home!
(then the kicker-as she pages me back to the room after refusing help with breastfeeding-"He's not hungry" and sends him back to the nursery-screaming the same way he came into the room!)

And it was said numerous times but...It must be nice to have a job where all you do at night is rock babies..

And, my all time favorite-From the mouth of a nurse anesthetist "OB nurses are not real nurses anyway" (almost needing a restraining order!

YES!! I hate when (especially in LTC where they know us and are emotionally attached) residents ring their call lights, and casually ask as we're helping them, "Did I wake you up?"

Many CNAs from AM and PM shift both like to say things about night shift CNAs being lazy, or claim that "they all sleep at night, so there's nothing to do". We've been battling the administrator, needing at least one more CNA (we often take care of 30 or more LTC patients, and only 5 in the entire facility are independent or minimal assist- it's hard work!). So it really, really irks me when they ask this.

No, they don't know any better. And no, I don't say half of what I'm thinking. Normally I just respond with "Nope, I do my best to stay awake while I'm here at work, just in case you need me!" Often this kind of response helps with the confused or disoriented patients who think they're at home or in a hotel or something, but there are many a&o patients who still ask, night after night.