Antagonizing dementia patients

[RNstudent13renee]

So tonight at work one as an aide at a hospital, we had a patient with dementia who was obviously confused and was the type to not realize it and get very angry and was paranoid about everything. Well, the nurse on duty was trying to give her night meds and the patient of course was not having that but the nurse wouldn't give up and just kept on and on, asking questions and giving reasoning, and to the point the patient was yelling at her and the nurse kept going. It was not like she was trying to just explain, she was actually being antagonizing. She had a reason for everything and would not just try to calm her down or simply leave the situation but was very antagonizing, would laugh at the patient and it was just ridiculous. I finally stepped in and the patient calmed down, bu to me this was extremely unprofessional. It happened with another of our patients tonight as well, and I feel like that nurse should be reprimanded. I don't know if this normal or what you are supposed to do in those types of situations but for me I usually step out and let them calm down before I take it any further. I don't think that you are able to reason with dementia patients in that state, and to continue to argue with them seems almost like taking advantage of their problem because its fun for you. Anyone experienced anything like this??

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

A patient should never be humiliated or antagonized, if I was in your shoes I would report the behavior as soon as possible.

If a patient appears confused and misdirected. It is the responsibility of the staff/RN to reorient the patient to the best of their abilities to the current situation and redirect the patient to something less stressful/anxiety provoking. Instead of trying to force feed the meds and antagonizing the patient she/he could have tried to calm the patient and return with the meds in about 30-60 minutes.

[wonderchic24]

I agree with happyloser and report it. You need to know what your employer's process is for complaints. At my employer, you can report it to their boss, you can report it to HR, you can report it to the compliance department or the integrity hotline. This staff member is obviously incompetent at their job so you need to report them. Most companies have an anonymous option for staff that fear retribution.

Good luck!

Brook

[kenya1005]

In those situations validation therapy works best. You aren't going to bring them to reality, just agree with them and go along with it. I see this all the time unfortunately.