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 who is fully ambulatory and able to reposition themselves who becomes dead weight, insisting on being boosted in bed, repositioned and makes you help them lean forward so you can listen to their lungs. They also try to crawl up your body when you are getting them out of bed. The water glass will be an inch away from their fingers and they want you to hand it to them.
QUOTE=Pangea Reunited;8603485]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.
I remember responding to a call light.. "I dropped my chapstick on the floor." Apparently, she needed a stat chapstick application. I think MANY patients view us as mother figures, that nurses are there to soothe the fervered brow. Sadly , Press- Ganey feels the same way.
I hate when they have no idea what medications they take at home. Another thing is when I ask, "Why do you take Coumadin?" and they reply "It's a blood thinner."
I'm a procedural nurse and the patient's been ready in pre-op for an hour. I come to get them for their procedure, take them into the room, hook them up to the monitor and oxygen, and then they have to use the bathroom. Most of the time I love my patients probably because I don't have them for 12 hours!
Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Geri-psych.
The ones that sit at my cart every day with a new self-diagnosis/symptom that most definitely requires some sort of new narcotic, usually stronger than the 3-4 they already have prn.
I work home health, and we rotate who gets the after hours phone...the ones I hate are the person who calls in the middle of the night because they want to ask the nurse if they should go to the hospital because something is bothering them. I always tell them that I am not a nurse (yet) but if they're concerned enough to call in the middle of the night, then my suggestion would be to go to the ER.... or, there is this conversation that happened one Saturday around 6pm: (patients wife) "could you have the nurse call me, I have some concerns about my husband, we haven't been able to wake him since we put him in his recliner this morning and I wonder if something is wrong with him, he hasn't eaten all day and he is diabetic" (me) "have you taken his blood sugar?" (Wife) "not since I gave him his insulin this morning" (me) "well, I will have the nurse call you, you might want to take his blood sugar in the meantime and if it's too high or too low, you might want to be prepared to call the paramedics" ....
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?!
Ugh all the dang time. I hate that the patient wants to talk to you statement also.
Using the call light like a room service bell. We have pagers that let us know when a patient has hit their call light. I had a patient who would hit the call light almost every 30 minutes for one particular snack, this patient literally used up our inventory of said item almost everyday. The abuse of the call light led to other patient's pages getting buried in the pager since I can only view the most recent page unless I delete it. Very frustrating and dangerous for other patients. I finally had a talk with the patient and set some ground rules.
I love working psych (ages 6-19 residential, my caseload is 93) but I tell you... 12-17 year old girls... I have had so many actively psychotic patients sitting in my office with me, all shoes and socks off with perfectly symmetrical limbs, no odd assessment findings, INSISTING their left ankle is bruised and swollen and needing to see me daily for a week. My boys, no problems. They wait until something is necrotic or gangrenous to mention it (if they're not using their casts from self harm to beat on psych techs). The girls just don't let up. I have a lump on my toe, my wrist has hurt for 2 years and I've just never mentioned it. Anything they can say to get me to send them off campus so they can try to run. I take it in stride and love the work. But I tell ya, seeing the same kiddo daily for weeks for a problem that doesn't exist (my favorite was the virgin insisting she was pregnant despite abdomial xrays and multiple HcGs coming negative) teaches you to laugh so you don't cry!!!
Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Geri-psych.
Patients trying to keep me in their room forever moving things, fluffing pillows, adjusting curtains.....then they put their call light on right after I leave saying they need a pain pill. Seriously???? I just asked if you needed anything else and you said no. Grrrr
Oh, boy-YES! Or send a CNA to me because they want a pain pill, and then when I get in there, want their prn zofran, a prn breathing treatment, oh, and can I bring them a can of two cal? Hahahahaha....This is another grating little instance-not that I mind it, but why not ask for all so I can bring it all in at once so you won't have to wait on me to go get the other stuff?
I remember responding to a call light.. "I dropped my chapstick on the floor." Apparently, she needed a stat chapstick application. I think MANY patients view us as mother figures, that nurses are there to soothe the fervered brow. Sadly , Press- Ganey feels the same way.
GypsyRose444
7 Posts
The patient who is fully ambulatory and able to reposition themselves who becomes dead weight, insisting on being boosted in bed, repositioned and makes you help them lean forward so you can listen to their lungs. They also try to crawl up your body when you are getting them out of bed. The water glass will be an inch away from their fingers and they want you to hand it to them.