complaints about nursing care!?!?!

[JeN-SN]

We have all had patients who were hard to please. These are the patients that complained through out their stay, no matter what you did. It's understandable most of the time, because yes they are sick, and yes they are in pain. But I just want to know about some of the complaints that were just out right ridiculous, then on the upside I also want to know about the complaints that are actually valid.

:trout::roll:twocents:

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

I had one patient who really got under my skin two days ago. One of the CNAs came to the nursing room in my clinic and told me that a patient needed nursing counseling because she was returning in two weeks for a blood pressure check. I called the patient in, told her why she had an appointment for blood pressure check and explained to her that it was important that she take her HTN medication exactly as ordered so that we can obtain an accurate reading. I went further and told her that in this way, if the pressure remains high, we would know that it was because the dosage was too low, rather than it being because she did not take the meds as prescribed. Patient tells me that she already takes her meds everyday. I told her that is good, but she needs to understand the rationale behind taking the meds as ordered. I give her the appointment; she leaves, then, I go to lunch.

I return from lunch and this woman is waiting for me. She says "I just want you to know that I didn't need nurse counseling because I already know that I should take my medication each day...so, you can strike that off of my record". I explained to this moron that each contact made between the nurse and a patient is documented, and based on the conversation we had, I acknowledged that this woman verbalized understanding of taking meds as directed. Idiot says "Well, but, it must still be stricken from the record that I needed counseling because this indicates that I am an idiot and do not know better". I said to her "Well, how should I word it...nurse tidbits, Dear Nurse Abby or nursing chat? Because I will not change the chart on any conversation that we both agree that we had, and also, ma'am...I really don't know if you take your medication daily or not, therefore, I counseled you. Have a nice day". I walked away from that jacka$$ before she can stress my nerve one centimeter longer. Some of them ARE impossible.