Had a family member come out and talk to me about pt's being in a semiprivate. blah blah blah, generic complaints. roomate is too noisy, too many visitors, talks too loud "maybe they can't hear and have to yell", too many phone calls, blah blah. she actually said to me that last night she snuck and unplugged the roomate's phone so people would stop calling!
i had to refrain from saying what i really thought.....
i said that is absolutely inappropriate, do not mess with her phone.
she says i had to do something, she's too noisy, blah blah.
i said if you have a problem, come to us. it is inappropriate of you to do that, that is not your right.
she didnt even act the least bit remorseful or shamed, or embarrassed. almost like she really did have the right to do that.
Try this one! Had a family very eager to see their father/ husband after surgery. The hospital was extremely busy with few beds anywhere. Well we had a bed for him but in the processed of being cleaned since another pt had just dc'd. The family not only kept harrassing the cleaning staff, after I had sent them to pacu to visit the man. Once the room was clean the daughter came to the desk said she had called pacu and pt was at the bottom of the transport list to get to the room. We have transporters that deliver pts everywhere. Asked me " can you go down and get my father so we can see him?" I said "no mame, I can't leave my pts and nursing staff to do that" then she asks "well can I go get him?" DUH!!!! her father had radical neck disection, sure you can transport him oxygen, iv, and hope you know what to do if he codes!!!!! I kept my cool since I was charge with pts and said "no, mame". Needless, to say once he hit the floor they stayed 15 min. and then left. All that just so she could go home. I hate most family members!!!!
How about the people who drive around blasting their "music", which contains so much profanity and hate language? That should absolutely be against the law.
This topic certainly is a big one. I guess I had no idea so many nurses had to deal with all of this. Maybe it was better in the days before all of this visiting was allowed. Although I don't like to recall certain things - like the kids in ER who needed suturing and whose parents were ordered to the waiting room while we sewed them up. Stuff like that was really awful, very heartwrenching. I guess there just is no easy fix for stuff like this.
The Rehab wing of my LTC facility is short-term, but occasionally along with the physical rehab patients we get a hospice. We had one recently (Patient X) who was actively dying, in a shared room with Patient Y, recovering from a TKA. Well, we usually try to put hospice patients in a private room, which is what we were going to do with X as soon as a room was open. Well, Y's family complained bitterly about having to share a room with X, stating "she looks like she has AIDs, does she? I don't want mama to get AIDs!" (keep in mind that the divider is a cloth curtain and X could hear this). Well, we moved X to a private room ASAP, and Y's family hit the roof! Even when it was explained the hospice situation... they threatened to go move X out and their mama in themselves! Once we got them calmed down, they got all riled up because diabetic snacks were being passed out and noone offered THEM cookies and juice! Again explanations, to no avail, we finally gave them some snacks (they didn't want them for their mama, they wanted them for themselves.) Then, since it was Mother's day, the employees had brought in a potluck supper for themselves... this horrid family wanted to know where THEIRS was. We explained it to them that the employees were having a mother's day dinner and that they had brought in the food for themselves. This family had the NERVE to wait until the employees had set the food up in our break room and gone to the kitchen to get plates and spoons, came back to find the family digging in WITH THEIR FINGERS, shoveling food from the employees dishes, etc into the tray cover from their mother's tray. I mean, chicken, green beans, etc WITH THEIR FINGERS.
Needless to say, they were not allowed to stay the night like they wanted to. I swear, I don't know how some people can stand being so rude.
One more situation... like I said, the dividers in our shared rooms are cloth curtains. They hang in the center of the room dividing the room into two equal halves, about 15 feet of space each. On one side was a sweet lol who had no visitors. On the other was a rude, loud group of 6 or 7 visitors with the other patient. I walked in, and the second patient's family had not only taken all the first patient's chairs onto their side, but they had used the chairs to push the curtain all the way back to the first patient's bed, giving them 7 feet of her space- it looked like half a tent, the curtain was stretched at such an angle! When I told them that was unacceptable, they complained about me.
We've also literally caught family members stealing clothes from the roommate's closet. When caught, she said "Oh, I thought BOTH closets were my mother's!" Yeah, sure you did.
This happened several years ago while I was working medical ICU.
The shift going off told us to keep a close eye on the family of a pt that had, earlier that evening, had a temporary pacer put in.
We always put the pacer box taped on an IV pole at the top of the bed, with the protective cover on, but accessable, just in case.
The family, thinking, Aunt Fannie looked so good with a heart rate of 60 and volts of 5, how much better she would feel with 10 volts and a rat of 75 !!!!
You guessed it, they opened the cover, and CHANGED THE PACER SETTINGS !!!!!:smackingf
I don't know what they did to the family, or actually what happened to the pt, but I would have tied them up with 2 inch surgical tape, and threw them out into traffic !!!!! Mike
The Rehab wing of my LTC facility is short-term, but occasionally along with the physical rehab patients we get a hospice. We had one recently (Patient X) who was actively dying, in a shared room with Patient Y, recovering from a TKA. Well, we usually try to put hospice patients in a private room, which is what we were going to do with X as soon as a room was open. Well, Y's family complained bitterly about having to share a room with X, stating "she looks like she has AIDs, does she? I don't want mama to get AIDs!" (keep in mind that the divider is a cloth curtain and X could hear this). Well, we moved X to a private room ASAP, and Y's family hit the roof! Even when it was explained the hospice situation... they threatened to go move X out and their mama in themselves! Once we got them calmed down, they got all riled up because diabetic snacks were being passed out and noone offered THEM cookies and juice! Again explanations, to no avail, we finally gave them some snacks (they didn't want them for their mama, they wanted them for themselves.) Then, since it was Mother's day, the employees had brought in a potluck supper for themselves... this horrid family wanted to know where THEIRS was. We explained it to them that the employees were having a mother's day dinner and that they had brought in the food for themselves. This family had the NERVE to wait until the employees had set the food up in our break room and gone to the kitchen to get plates and spoons, came back to find the family digging in WITH THEIR FINGERS, shoveling food from the employees dishes, etc into the tray cover from their mother's tray. I mean, chicken, green beans, etc WITH THEIR FINGERS.
Needless to say, they were not allowed to stay the night like they wanted to. I swear, I don't know how some people can stand being so rude.
I would have called security/police. There is no excuse for their behavior.
I would have loved to call the police, but I'd have lost my job. Customer satisfaction blah blah blah. But you should have seen them... it was enough to make a saint swear.
Before I became a nurse in the MICU, I worked there as a secretary. This guys calls in (locked unit) and asks to visit Mr. X in room XXXX. No visitor warning on this guy, so the nurse says ok and he comes in, hangs out for a few hours, watches TV, everything's fine, and leaves after a bit. (Keep in mind, pt is sedated/tubed.) He struck me as a little quirky, but whatever.
Later on the pt wife comes to visit. She's talking to the nurse and me. The nurse asked who the previous visitor was. She seems confused and so we describe him, and tell how he knew the pt's name and room #. Recognition crosses her face, and she tells us that he is some guy she met in the waiting room and she was talking about her husband's condition. (Many visitors in the ICU waiting rooms look to each other for support.)
After looking into it, we find out that the gentleman was actually a homeless man who was trying to live in our waiting room. Hospital police were catching on, so he would talk up these wives and find different pts in the different ICUs (all shared a waiting room) and get the name and room # of a pt and then visit for many hours to avoid security, and then get a visitor's pass so he could sleep in the waiting room.
Go figure. Anyway, we had hospital police waiting for him the next day, and I believe he was escorted to a nearby shelter.
How about "OMG I can't believe you did that! police custody story?
I worked in a busy ICU where one of our patients was in police custody, being guarded by 2 policemen. This pt. was intubated and sedated. One of the officers was on break. We noticed the curtains were closed. We went in to check the pt. & viola! There was the 2nd officer having a bowel movement on the pt.'s pull-out comode!
how about "omg i can't believe you did that! police custody story?
i worked in a busy icu where one of our patients was in police custody, being guarded by 2 policemen. this pt. was intubated and sedated. one of the officers was on break. we noticed the curtains were closed. we went in to check the pt. & viola! there was the 2nd officer having a bowel movement on the pt.'s pull-out comode!
ok, that's just really gross. i could never have to go so bad i'd be willing to stick my a$$ on one of those toilets! i mean, please!
How about "OMG I can't believe you did that! police custody story?
I worked in a busy ICU where one of our patients was in police custody, being guarded by 2 policemen. This pt. was intubated and sedated. One of the officers was on break. We noticed the curtains were closed. We went in to check the pt. & viola! There was the 2nd officer having a bowel movement on the pt.'s pull-out comode!
:madface: 
ok, that's just really gross. i could never have to go so bad i'd be willing to stick my a$$ on one of those toilets! i mean, please! 
traumamomtx
57 Posts
Try this one! Had a family very eager to see their father/ husband after surgery. The hospital was extremely busy with few beds anywhere. Well we had a bed for him but in the processed of being cleaned since another pt had just dc'd. The family not only kept harrassing the cleaning staff, after I had sent them to pacu to visit the man. Once the room was clean the daughter came to the desk said she had called pacu and pt was at the bottom of the transport list to get to the room. We have transporters that deliver pts everywhere. Asked me " can you go down and get my father so we can see him?" I said "no mame, I can't leave my pts and nursing staff to do that" then she asks "well can I go get him?"
DUH!!!! her father had radical neck disection, sure you can transport him oxygen, iv, and hope you know what to do if he codes!!!!! I kept my cool since I was charge with pts and said "no, mame". Needless, to say once he hit the floor they stayed 15 min. and then left. All that just so she could go home. I hate most family members!!!!