We are all supposed to love our jobs and most of us do! But we are all supposed to over look just danged annoying behaviors.
My pet peeve, I do not care for drama patients. You walk out in the hall and they are laughing and having fun with a visitor, they take one look at YOU looking at them and they are hanging on to the walls to help them walk and moaning in pain. I sometimes think my mere presence causes them harm... ;o)
Me: "Great! Your temp is normal!" Patient: "Oh, if it is normal I am SICK! My usual is 72(F).
Me: "Great! Your b/p is 120/70!" Patient: "Oh, if it is normal I am SICK! My usual is 50/10."
A physician recently informed me that PRN means "patient receives none". This while he was transitioning a very disruptive, argumentative, hateful LOM to PO dilaudid to wean him down for a UTI. WHO GIVES IVP DILAUDID FOR A UTI?!
Pt behavior from today - "if I can't have the pain meds I want at discharge, the way I want them, I'll leave AMA and jeopardize the placement you have worked so hard to arrange at the Rehab that's nearly impossible to get beds at." Dilaudid is seriously a gift from a cunning evil spirt.
"This food sucks. The chicken's dry, the gravy lumpy, the banana overripe and pumpkin pie tastes artificial." Well I'll be sure to notified Chef Ramsey. Meanwhile, what exactly do you eat at home that your A1c is 12.7 and your sugars sit in the 250s?
Anyone that hits their call light q30 to use the bathroom.
Anyone who his their call light and when asked says "Did I turn it on? I didn't mean to. But since you're here. .." I keep hearing Steve Urkel saying "Did I do that?"
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
Oh I thought of another one!
I'll be pulling meds or doing some other nurse task. A CNA will walk up to me and say, "Patient X needs to talk to you." (I despite that statement, but that's for another thread.)
I walk into patient's room and they ask for the remote, or for fan to be turned on/off... Um... Do they not realize that the staff member who *just* walked out of their room could have done this?!
Another member already posted that they make a point of finding out "why" first. Good for them.
This is more about the person who just left the room than the patient. It's too easy to just say "Ok, I'll get the nurse" and jet out of the room for them to be bothered.
Add the fact that these patients are the same ones who use pillow fluffing to trap you in the room and what you get is: The person who just left the room saw an easy out and took it.
These patients also frequently refuse to admit what they need you for. Probably on some level they know they won't get to see the nurse. When I was an aid, if the patient wouldn't say what they needed, I'd just be honest with them. "Your nurse has a lot to take care of, without knowing why you need her I don't know when they'll be available. Can I get you something in the meantime?". They hate that. Hidden in there is the truly implied message: You're playing games, we're busy, let us know if something that requires a nurse comes up."
I was an aid in nursing school at the time though. I wasn't looking to take the easy road all the time. Lots of people are happy to just be done with it though and just bolt upon hearing "I want the nurse."
We do have one lady that plays the "I need my nurse card" to the point of reading your name tag and if it doesn't say RN she wants nothing to do with you. It would be funny if it wasn't so exasperating! I have only once, on a very busy shift actually told her I am your nurse, not your waitress!
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
We do have one lady that plays the "I need my nurse card" to the point of reading your name tag and if it doesn't say RN she wants nothing to do with you. It would be funny if it wasn't so exasperating! I have only once, on a very busy shift actually told her I am your nurse, not your waitress!
We have a resident whose son is a physician in a local hospital.She always wants a nurse and if she does not get what she wants she lays on the floor.....Nicely arranged ,but claims she fell.He won't take calls from her while he is at work and has deferred acute care assessment because of the spectacle she makes over there...Cray cray....
We have a resident whose son is a physician in a local hospital.She always wants a nurse and if she does not get what she wants she lays on the floor.....Nicely arranged ,but claims she fell.He won't take calls from her while he is at work and has deferred acute care assessment because of the spectacle she makes over there...Cray cray....
Gosh yes, gotta love the ones that fake a fall! We've had only a few of those and that was a few too many!
The number one thing that gets me are patients who REFUSE to care about themselves and follow medical advice. Example: had a patient come
Into the ED who eventually got admitted to our floor with a PE. Word eventually comes out that her and her husband are homeless and staying basically anywhere that they can. So we are all working extra hard with social services to get the patient hooked up with medical assistance and other things to help them. The WHOLE time they are in the hospital, patient is refusing blood thinners, refusing telemetry because "it's annoying." Slammed the door in the nurses face when we go around to do vitals, and then stalk me on the floor to get an order for Ativan after we discussed that it was being weened down to 0.5 mg PO vs IVP. After enough conferences with the physician in charge, it was decided that it was best to just discharge her because she was taking advantage of us and was obviously not going to comply. We still set her up with enough medication to get her through until MA could kick in. I mean we sent her home with a ton of medication. A week later, where is she? Right back with us for the SAME thing. Did she take her medication? Absolutely not because "it's expensive." Like why should I care about your health if you obviously don't give a rats behind about it yourself?!
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
We do have one lady that plays the "I need my nurse card" to the point of reading your name tag and if it doesn't say RN she wants nothing to do with you. It would be funny if it wasn't so exasperating! I have only once, on a very busy shift actually told her I am your nurse, not your waitress!
Be mindful that I'm not advocating this, please.
Bad day, one patient sent to the ICU with detox symptoms, another patient came to me on the unit complaining of chest pain that started on their way up from the ER.
So what does my "I need the nurse" patient decide to do? She see's all the commotion in the hallway, develops a good case of envy and starts hitting the Campbell and hollering "Nurse nurse nurse" over and over.
I poked my head in at one point, she had a long list of requests including: pull the blinds, get me a ginger ale, fix my TV volume and give me a blanket that's been warmed in the microwave.
Of course I just said "Sure" and moved onto higher priority things, then told the aid when I ran into them. Of course, this wasn't good enough for the patient.
She reemed the aid. Told her "get lost" and said something about only true professionals, the best, waited on her.
I was furious. Didn't get any of the things she requested. I just poked my head in the door a second time and told her: "I'll get the things you requested just as soon as I'm do e reviewing your chart."
Patient: "What are you looking for in my chart?"
Me: "You seem to be under the impression that you paid for 1:1 nursing, I need to verify that."
Not a word for the rest of my shift from that room. Her roommate was laughing and laughing.
A patient on my last job was a very malicious and rude person. They would cuss you out if you even so much brushed their bed without telling them you were doing it. I was giving them medications, I explained very clearly that I was giving them a lovenox injection. I stuck them and instantly: "WHAT THE F**K IS THAT??"
I explained again and they kept asking the same question. All this time the significant other is in the room just staring at me, a new grad nurse on a med surg unit desperate for help. The patient ends up punching me twice and their needle falls from my hand into the bed.
I attempt to recover the needle to prevent them from sticking themselves. I end up getting stuck badly. I exit the room after telling them I would have to leave for a while to get blood tested. Turns out they were positive for hep C and I have to get labs drawn from my previous facility now for the next 6 months. Everythings okay so far but man...
A patient on my last job was a very malicious and rude person. They would cuss you out if you even so much brushed their bed without telling them you were doing it. I was giving them medications, I explained very clearly that I was giving them a lovenox injection. I stuck them and instantly: "WHAT THE F**K IS THAT??"
I explained again and they kept asking the same question. All this time the significant other is in the room just staring at me, a new grad nurse on a med surg unit desperate for help. The patient ends up punching me twice and their needle falls from my hand into the bed.
I attempt to recover the needle to prevent them from sticking themselves. I end up getting stuck badly. I exit the room after telling them I would have to leave for a while to get blood tested. Turns out they were positive for hep C and I have to get labs drawn from my previous facility now for the next 6 months. Everythings okay so far but man...
I hope you called security on this guy! Did you press charges? That's unreal. In the future I hope you don't reach for a needle when a patient is violent back away and out of the room as fast as you can and call for help ASAP! To heck of he sticks himself.
I hope you called security on this guy! Did you press charges? That's unreal. In the future I hope you don't reach for a needle when a patient is violent back away and out of the room as fast as you can and call for help ASAP! To heck of he sticks himself.
No and I explained to the DON twice what occurred and she was under the impression that I was the one in the wrong here because the significant other made some untrue and rude comments about my care regarding that patient. I've left that job for that reason plus a not so supportive team...and a few other hundred reasons. I'm in LTC/rehab care now and it seems to be a lot less violent at the facility I work in. But now I know what do to in that kind of situation!
back away and out of the room as fast as you can and call for help ASAP! To heck of he sticks himself.
CountryMomma, ASN, RN
589 Posts
A physician recently informed me that PRN means "patient receives none". This while he was transitioning a very disruptive, argumentative, hateful LOM to PO dilaudid to wean him down for a UTI. WHO GIVES IVP DILAUDID FOR A UTI?!
Pt behavior from today - "if I can't have the pain meds I want at discharge, the way I want them, I'll leave AMA and jeopardize the placement you have worked so hard to arrange at the Rehab that's nearly impossible to get beds at." Dilaudid is seriously a gift from a cunning evil spirt.
"This food sucks. The chicken's dry, the gravy lumpy, the banana overripe and pumpkin pie tastes artificial." Well I'll be sure to notified Chef Ramsey. Meanwhile, what exactly do you eat at home that your A1c is 12.7 and your sugars sit in the 250s?
Anyone that hits their call light q30 to use the bathroom.
Anyone who his their call light and when asked says "Did I turn it on? I didn't mean to. But since you're here. .." I keep hearing Steve Urkel saying "Did I do that?"