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."
"Okay, I have your evening meds here. You're getting Pepcid, acyclovir, ur.."
"I know what I'm taking."
"Well I should tell you what you're getting because sometimes they change your prescriptions in the hospital."
"I don't care. Just put them all there and I'll take them."
Okay then. Next morning: "What do you mean I was started on an antidepressant?!?! No one told me that! What do you want people to think, that I'm crazy?"
"Well, I tried to tell you, and actually, we put you on that to stimulate your appetite."
Me: the doctor said you can eat now...can i get you a sandwich?
Patient's daughter: starts talking abt the food in the cafeteria
Me: do you want anything to drink?
Patient: ill take some ice water
15 minutes later..daughter comes out into hall
Patients daughter: any word on the order?
Me: oh you mean from the cafeteria? Oh we dont order food for patients from the cafeteria, but you are more than welcome to bring something down for her.
I've had three patients so far who've done this, but: repetitive yelling. For example: a patient rang his call bell this am for his early breakfast tray. We told him it would be up shortly. From that moment until the 15 minutes it came up, he screamed the word "breakfast" repeatedly until it came up. I was so annoyed!!!!
Pretty sure my blood pressure went up just reading this post!!!
I hate the fake suicide patients. Got one the other day because the ER tried to give him a bus pass, but he'd been kicked out of his group home, so he immediately said he was going to kill himself right there by bashing his head in with the IV pole so he could get admitted. Ended up coming to me "starving," but then said he was burned out on graham crackers and peanut butter when I tried to bring him some. Oh yeah, that really sounds like you are starved to death, buddy. So hungry that you're refusing free food.
Or the ones trying their best to fall.
"I can get up! I want to get up!"
"You can't get up, you just had a stroke - your right side is still paralyzed."
"I can get up! I'll show you! Just let me show you! UNTIE ME!!!"
"No, you keep trying to get up!"
"I CAN GET UP! I WANT TO GET UP!"
"Okay, if you can hold your leg in the air for five seconds, I'll let you get up."
*I hold foot up, I let foot go, foot immediately drops*
"See, you can't even hold your foot up. How do you think you can stand?"
"I can stand up! I wasn't trying to stand right then! I'll be okay when I put some weight on it! I FEEL LIKE I AM IN PRISON - UNTIE ME! I WANT TO GET UP!"
"I can't untie you - you've tried to get up unassisted several times."
"I WANT TO GET UP!"
"We just let you stand to use the urinal - it took three of us to hold you up! You can't stand up by yourself!"
Even as 'justavolunteer', I can figure out pretty quickly about pts. who are hitting their call button constantly for every little thing. Those are the people who will have someone in there 'eventually', whether it's me or a staff member. I do sometimes try to be the 'eventual' one, just to give their RN or CNA a break.
1. After cleaning up a pt's diarrhea several times/day, q2h pain meds, long list of tasks, and there was no tech that day, the pt asked me after I finished giving shift report "Before you go home, can you water my flowers and go get me ice and a sprite?".
2. "I just paged the doctor about your concerns. Is there anything else you need?"
-"When will the doctor call you back?"
-"You have to ask the doctor that question. I don't know the answer."
-"Does the doctor want to see my vomiting? do I need to save the vomit bag for him?"
"Please ask the doctor this question when he rounds on you. "
*I don't know why this patient kept asking me the same type of question "where is the doctor? what does the doctor think?when does the doctor do this or that? what is the doctor doing right now" over and over. It became ridiculous after the 7th times.
3.Pt got angry because he lost his wallet and requested the RN to go find it. I called admitting, ICU, recovery room, and went around to look for it with no hope. I came to apologize to the patient. The patient "Oh I found it. I gave it to my wife the other day."
I stepped on Legos of all sorts barefooted about a gazillion of times, it is not THAT bad.
The standard description of 10/10, according to pain management textbooks, is either labor "as the Lord made it to be" or amputation of a limb without anything. Nowadays, not so many folks experienced either, but broken bones and burns II degree come pretty close to it.
When rating my pain I usually tell them it is worse than my natural child birth ( gall bladder, id rate childbirth a 5 maybe 6, gall bladder was a 7 with times of 9)
people who are IN PAIN... yet can sleep though the night.
people who were spoiled as children... no patience. "sorry sir, i cannot leave my other sick patients to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the hospital to get you a recliner. i already put in a request for you."
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Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN
893 Posts
Lol that's really funny! At least they aren't playing Christmas music yet! :)