Before you make fun of a patient, make sure they can't see you.

[Jo Dirt]

Well, my mother is in the hospital on med. surg.. I know she suffers from hypochondriasis and is driving everyone batty with all the dramatics and whining and carrying on she is doing (frankly, I'm glad I don't have to be there to hear it right now) but the night she came in she said she had a seizure (I know her potassium was very low but I don't know if it was a seizure as much as a result of the panic and anxiety). Anyway, her arm flopped over her head and her neck bent to one side and she was jerking around.

When it was time for shift change both the nurses were in the room and when they stepped outside she heard laughing and through the crack in the door she saw the offgoing nurse with her arm over her head and her neck bent and flopping around like my mother had done.

Uh oh...

When the other nurse stepped back in the room my mother told her you can tell that other nurse I saw what she was doing, she may as well have stayed in here and done it.

It's nothing to write the hospital administrator over, but I'm sure it made for an embarrassing moment for all involved.

[Jo Dirt]

Sorry for the two reply's, I just read the second page of responses. I agree that it is silly to discuss lawsuits and newspapers regarding this situation. Our society is "sue happy" and as most of us know, this has hurt the mdical profession (and made many of our jobs harder with useless paperwork that takes us away from the bedside). That being said, it is still not acceptable to act this way in front of a patient, family etc. Of course we have all vented, our jobs are difficult (physically and emotionally). I have had many "venting" sessions with fellow staff, however there is a time and a place for venting. Also, making fun of a patient in front of their room is not really venting, it is selfish and hurtful (which is obvious considering this entire forum). No matter how bad our shift is, we get to leave the hospital (even if it is only for 12hrs!). Too many of us forget that.

Oh heck, I know that. I'd be lying if I sad I hadn't let out my frustrations about a pain in the neck patient. I'm just not the type to use mimickry to do it.

When my sister told me about the deal with my mom and what she told the nurse (we were both half laughing about it, BTW, we know she was hysterical) for some reason my mind went back immediately to the third grade when we had a student teacher with CP and I saw two girls following her down the hall mocking the way she walked..well, I felt that same kind of disgusted feeling. Yes, the attention-seeking behavior and woe is me I'm dying gets on your nerves and I do have sympathy for the nurses who deal with it (but think of the family--24/7) but after all, that's my mammy...

But again, I don't see any need to get up in arms about it. Just thought it might serve as a reminder: never assume the patient will be too out of it or unobservant to notice what's going on.