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."
The patient walks into the ER and up to triage with a GULP cup in one hand and something to eat out of the vending machine in the other.
Me: "What brought you in to the ER today?"
Pt.: "My stomachs all messed up. I've been throwing up and just can't hold anything down. It's been that way for like a week."
Me: (in my head) I haven't seen Cheetos or Mountain Dew all over the floor of the lobby yet and you've been munching on that since you walked in. You're cured. Bahaha
OR!!!!! Also a favorite!
Patient: "My tooth is killing me. It's been hurting me and swelling up for the past 3 weeks."
Me: "Have you seen a dentist?"
Patient: "Nah. Every dentist in town has been booked up and couldn't see me."
I call a dentist the next day to have a routine cleaning and establish care. What do you know!?!?!? I found one who could take a patient. lol It's a miracle people!
I dislike calls and complaints about "normal" or chronic things.
Patient: I had a bad dream.
Me: OK, what do you do at home when you have a bad dream?
Patient: I just go back to sleep.
Me: OK, so go back to sleep. Goodnight.
Patient: I can't feel my toes.
Me: Is this something new for you, or has it happened before?
Patient: It happens all the time. I've had that neuropathy thing for 12 years.
Me: Oh, OK. I'll see you later. Goodnight.
Patient: I woke up and I was hot.
Me: OK, lets take some of these blankets off.
Patient: I just feel really hot.
Me: You'll cool down after we remove these six blankets.
Patient: Why am I so hot?
Patient: I'm having trouble seeing out of my left eye.
Me: Is this something new for you or has it happened before?
Patient: It's been like that since I was a little girl.
Me: Alright...goodnight.
Patient: I dropped my phone.
Me: OK, so pick it up. What do you do when you drop your phone at home?
Patient: OK.
Me: Goodnight.
These aren't just conversations. People hit the call light for this stuff. It drives me a little crazy, sometimes.
And then there's the other half of the patients that you're asking to please not try and fix their own IV pump when it's beeping, or ignore their IV when it's painful, or to please report that new onset chest pain and dizziness, and yes, it's okay to use your call light when you've fallen and you can't get up. You don't need to wait for someone to just happen upon you.
Wow, all of the above mentioned plus a few more off the top of my head:
You make final rounds at 0630 and ask all of your patients if they need pain medication b/c your shift is ending and you don't want them to get stuck at change of shift in pain and having to wait for meds. They all say no. During bedside report they ALL suddenly need their pain medication right now. Day shift thinks you're a slacker.
You are in the room to round on the patient and they ask you to please tell the CNA that they need XYZ. (Once a pt. asked me to send in the CNA to help her w/ another blanket and the blanket was sitting on a chair next to the bed) Um, I'm not going to leave the room, find the CNA and then send them back to your room to help you when I am already here. I'll be glad to assist. The CNAs aren't my personal slaves. Or yours.
When the pt. won't let you take their temp. b/c they had a sip if water 10 mins. before. Just let me take your darn temp. I don't have time to come back in ten minutes. If you are borderline febrile I can but if you're 97.2 the water you drank 10 mins. ago is not going to be the difference between normal and a temp.
Along those lines...just b/c you feel hot doesn't mean you have a fever.
Old ladies that have issues with a guy toileting them or cleaning them up. Its really frustrating. *** am I supposed to do, let them lay in their own $#!% until the RN is done doing RN things? Sometimes I can trade tasks with female PCA, but that trade has got to get old for them, since its not usually a fair trade.
Specializes in M/S, Pulmonary, Travel, Homecare, Psych..
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."
Why do people complain about having great vitals?
We're all supposed to love our jobs? Who told you that?
I imagine you lead with that because you were concerned about being judged for asking "What patient behaviors annoy you?". And you were right to suspect you might be. There are a great many nurses out there who despise everything they do and they end up overcompensating for it. They act as if, you need a personal stamp of approval from "the almighty" to have been accepted into the nursing ranks. Everyone and anyone who doesn't submit to their altruistic ideals and higher moral codes is "here for the wrong reason" and "not a real nurse".
The thing to remember about all of that is, as I said, it's merely overcompensation. They're trying to mask their misery and loathing of their job with self righteousness. Basically, they're trying to convince themselves, not you. So don't waste your breath apologizing for or excusing the fact that you find certain patient behaviors annoying. It's perfectly normal. And yes, even the "higher calling" types feel that way, just don't expect them to be transparent about it like you are. They are the ones who should be apologizing to you.
As far as the question goes, that's simple: The patients who have the all too common "Can't have it any way but their way, and when their way doesn't work, it's everyone else's fault" attitude.
I'm sure you've met a few. They are the ones who take patient autonomy to a level where, you need to relabel it with something like "doing it myself" or "doing the same things I've always been doing but while under care."
They don't like their diet, so it gets changed and changed again until basically, all the therapeutic value of the original diet order is lost. BUT.......it's everyone else's fault their discharge is delayed due to blood sugar results being too high.
They don't like going to PT, they never had to before and they were fine: "I'm 70 years old, I've been walking since........". BUT.......when their family says they have to go to a LTC facility instead of coming home with them because they require too much assistance.........it's because we didn't push them or "make them stronger."
They don't like their medications. This of course never comes up during discharge or any doctor's appointments. They simply adjust everything themselves at home. Take this med every other day instead of daily, this one only at night instead of twice a day, crush the synthroid (that's a real example) and add 1/2 of it to the fiber drink cause they look the same. Unfortunately, they never finish the fiber drink, in fact, they only take a few sips. But.......when they end up back in the hospital a week later, it's because the doctor ordered the wrong medication or the nurses didn't explain it right.
Can't have it any way but their way, but it's your fault their way didn't work. Fact is, these patients usually are the ones who are professional patients. This personality type rarely holds hands with recovery/wellness. But telling them they need to change their approach to their health gets you nowhere so, unfortunately, most of the time the best you can do is educate with what little they will hear and help them manage as best you can.
Patients that are completely A&O, perfectly competent, in no distress, that allow family to answer everything for them in triage. I understand some things like medications, but pain levels? Self harm assessments? Where THEIR PAIN IS? QUALITY OF PAIN? These are not questions anyone but the patient needs to be answering. It also really grinds my gears when a patient gets an IM pain shot and five minutes later is blowing up the call light because "my pain isn't any better". After I explained it would take 30-60 minutes to really kick in. And they are a frequent flier.
Specializes in Adult and Pediatric Vascular Access, Paramedic.
Patient's who are needy drive me nuts! Whether it is emotional of physical I cannot stand it. I know patients are sick and not feeling well, but I cannot stand when they won't do anything for themselves and are constantly crying "poor me"...
I am not talking about terminally ill patients or those with serious conditions, more the professional patients that are in for more minor stuff!
Oh, and patients who sign out of the hospital AMA, then get home and realize it was a mistake, then they call 911 and we arrive and they tell us that the hospital discharged them too soon, with no mention of the fact they left AMA.
Old ladies that have issues with a guy toileting them or cleaning them up. Its really frustrating. *** am I supposed to do, let them lay in their own $#!% until the RN is done doing RN things? Sometimes I can trade tasks with female PCA, but that trade has got to get old for them, since its not usually a fair trade.
OMG I think I love you! Would you come and work with us, please??????????????????
BecomingNursey
334 Posts
The patient walks into the ER and up to triage with a GULP cup in one hand and something to eat out of the vending machine in the other.
Me: "What brought you in to the ER today?"
Pt.: "My stomachs all messed up. I've been throwing up and just can't hold anything down. It's been that way for like a week."
Me: (in my head) I haven't seen Cheetos or Mountain Dew all over the floor of the lobby yet and you've been munching on that since you walked in. You're cured. Bahaha
OR!!!!! Also a favorite!
Patient: "My tooth is killing me. It's been hurting me and swelling up for the past 3 weeks."
Me: "Have you seen a dentist?"
Patient: "Nah. Every dentist in town has been booked up and couldn't see me."
I call a dentist the next day to have a routine cleaning and establish care. What do you know!?!?!? I found one who could take a patient. lol It's a miracle people!