Call Bell Requests

CareteamRN70 · Jan 28, 2011

I work in LTC and many of my Pts have varying degrees of dementia so my call lights run the gambit from anoying and humorous to downright cute.

1) "I didn't hit the call light!"

2) at 2AM "Is it dinner time yet?"

3) "Has my son/daughter/sig other arrived yet?" - half an hour after said family member has left.

4) "Please go down to the basement and turn the gas off" or "I'm worried I forgot to turn the gas off on the stove could you go check?"

5) "I can't breathe" with O2 sats at 98%+ and clear lung sounds and no signs of dyspnea or distress.

6) "There's someone in my room" and I don't discount these as we have wanderers whom I have found in bathrooms, closets, and just sitting at the bedside of other patients rooms.

7)"Where is my cat/dog/parrot etc?" again i don't discount these out of hand right away as I have worked in some places where some patients do keep pets.

8) "would you call me a cab I need to go home/to work now"

9) Like #3 above "has my mother/father called/visited?" from patients who's parents passed many years ago.

10) and my favorite "I just wanted to make sure you were okay" or my one patient who would hit her light then pretend she hadn't and thought me entering her room was an unexpected visit by me, and she would go on about how glad she was i decided to visit her, and she wished I had called first so she could have had lunch/dinner cooked for both of us : )

Sometimes I would try to reorient the patient as best i could, other times it was kinder to leave the room and then come back in and tell them "I turned off the gas to the stove"

belgarion · Jan 28, 2011

Most recent ridiculous request during NOC: Phonebook at 1:15am. Why? "I need to call the mayor!"
?????

I would have not only given them the phone book I would have helped the dial the number.