ETOH/heroin/cocaine=GOOD times!! :)

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Aug 15, 2009

Are you a Nurse? This posting is awful

I hope I wasn't ugly in my posting earlier about my co worker nurse. If I was, I apologize. That wasn't my intent.

Anne

geekgolightly, BSN, RN · Aug 15, 2009

Working with the addicted is tough, but I find it to be rewarding. I prefer patient populations that are often treated with ill-will by most of the world. The homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill are all patient populations that I enjoy. I think if I leave critical care, I will seek a position where I can work with these populations on a daily basis.

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Aug 15, 2009

I work with a lot of drug addicts. While I do keep in mind that it is considered an illness and most of them are quite sick in general their level of entitlement is infuriating. Give me a civil but non-compliant diabetic any day!

My thought exactly, jules! The hospital where I took care of the patient I was describing was one where they had just closed the CDU, and their nurses were dispersed among the others, and if we needed to, we could kind of swap out especially if it were a patient that was very taxing on certain staff members. A lot of the time, I'd rather have one that was sneaking "forbidden foods", or the like over some of the addict populations we got.

Anne, RNC

prmenrs, RN · Aug 15, 2009

I once had a kidney transplant pt who got busted by the entire surgical team when they came off the elevator and found her paying the pizza delivery guy. They confiscated the pizza, thanked the pt for "buying us dinner!"

It is hard to deal w/these kinds of behaviors, and almost all pt populations have them. It's better if you know it's your pet peeve, and try to be as neutral as possible when dealing w/them.

Good Luck!

coffee4metech · Aug 15, 2009

originally posted by hotshot12345

"

mizzlizz

, with the way you talk and view your patient, it doesn't surprise me he did what he did."

a little unprofressional on the slang remark you called your patient" druggie" i do believe correct me if i am wrong that word does not exist in the english dictionary . so why would a professional like yourself be using unprofessional slang !?!?

my brother is a drug abuser and he has a disease which is abusing drugs he is not a "druggie " , and is recovering so enlighten yourself and use socially correct language.

thank you,

chula

flightnurse2b, LPN · Aug 15, 2009

i am a nurse and a recovered drug addict.

it is rather infuriating to me the way some of these patients behave, and i remember that once upon a time, i probably behaved that way and treated my nurses that way at one point in my recovery. and no, they weren't nice to me. whatever i dished out, i got back, and i deserved it. tough love, to me, is one of the best ways to help an addict recover.

rule #1 of dealing with addicts: you cannot fix someone who wants to stay broken. period. it comes from within them. you can educate them until you are blue in the face, and yes it will make you mad, because the sense of entitlement and the feeling that it's going in one ear and out the other is probably correct.... until they come to that point where their inner core says "i can't do this anymore"...

i work on a tele unit where we are seeing more and more addicted patients now, especially since the economy has been so poor, because of lost jobs/depression, and younger and younger patients with strokes and new onset afib. it's very sad. some of them do make the turning point in their life, some don't.

our area has a huge problem with crack. i can't even tell you how many crack pipes i've taken away and how many crack rocks i've found in and on patients. these patients will spit on you and curse you to hell and most of the time return to the streets to the same horrible cycle, many infected with HIV/AIDs because they do what they have to do for drug money. it's heartbreaking to watch them deteriorate over and over, and it's even harder to take the abusive treatment from them sometimes.

we had one little lady who was a known prostitute with AIDS, who was a heavy crack abuser. so much so that she was in end stage renal disease and heart failure and was in and out of the hospital weekly. once, she left for the whole day, with her monitor on and IV in, she just disappeared. we had the police looking out for her and everything. she came back high on crack at around 11am the next day, screaming for rambo to get in the bushes, walked into her room, to tell the patient now in her bed to "get out". she came in with scabies once and chased staff around when she knew she was supposed to be isolated. she would hide honey buns in her tissue boxes and when she was NPO she knew that was the perfect time to break them out. she even had a friend bring in a cup of dirt with some watermelon seeds on top, saying it was her watermelon plant, only to find crack rocks underneath. sometimes though, she would cry.... when she thought no one was looking... and one of us would find her there, and she would be angry that we did, but she always did something in her own backwards way to let us know that she did appreciate it. she died one morning in her dialysis chair.... and instead of us being relieved that her battle was over, we were all very solemn that day. was she difficult to deal with? hell yes.. she was downright frustrating. did she want to get better? no. the hospital was a safe place for her, filled with loving and nuturing people who fed her, cared for her and made sure she was bathed and tucked in at night. we were her family, and as difficult as she was.... i think in her own way, she loved us all.

petunia2016 · Aug 15, 2009

so besides the fact that most are absolutely charming... drug addicts annoy me to no end. when you're just minding your business, trying to enjoy your day, a druggie will always find a way to add a negative note. despite ativan and clonidine sometimes methodone and morphine and orange juice and hot breakfast and a warm bed and a friendly hello and a whole staff of people (almost) genuinely concerned for their well-being, some are dead set on being negative rude and hostile. here's an example from the other day.
druggie: "how do you sleep at night inflicting so much pain on people every day (heparin shot)
nurse: "oh i sleep quite well, actually"
druggie: "yeah i know you secretly like to cause pain... you crazy, you just mean!"
nurse: "aren't we all a little crazy, mr. dupayash- not to get too philosophical, with it being 7:30 am and all."
druggie: "well i don't need that **** anyway"
nurse: "why cause you're going to leave ama?"
druggie: "yes"
nurse: "okay i'll get your paper- and give me my **** heart monitor back, you won't be able to sell that on the street"
druggie: you aint nothin but a nurse. get my doctor in here, i need to talk to him.
as the druggie coughs and spits sputum into his basin and throws his heart monitor on top, i am wondering (as i'm disinfecting the contaminated monitor) what the hell i am doing with this creep. oh later the druggie came back, accused me of stealing his money, and got so out of control we had to call security. so what is your craziest/most annoying drug addict?

the tone of this whole post bothered me. i can understand that you're frustrated dealing with drug addicts on a regular basis, but when you say that "when you're just minding your business, trying to enjoy your day, a druggie will always find a way to add a negative note", that's pushing it too far. going a little further down your post, i seriously hope that you replaced the patient's real name with a fake one. and a little further, do you really think it was necessary to swear at the man and talk down to him like that? i mean, what was the point of that? to make yourself feel better? because i don't think it benefited the patient in any way. i hope you don't treat all the patients you dislike in this manner.

kcochrane · Aug 15, 2009

I work with a lot of drug addicts. While I do keep in mind that it is considered an illness and most of them are quite sick in general their level of entitlement is infuriating. Give me a civil but non-compliant diabetic any day!

Funny but I find that level of entitlement pretty much to exist in most populations of health care. I think it is the entitlement in any situation that is the hardest to deal with. Or the "I didn't follow my doctors advice, now I'm sick, why can't you fix it" type attitude - that is what drives me nuts.

But to the op...as I have found with my RN rotation, you either love mental health nursing or you hate it. I found I loved it and hope to get into someday. Although in LTC you do get your mix - somedays I call my unit the R wing. I guess sometimes we just need to remember what is driving the comments from the patients/residents. And some days that is easier than others.

waterpaint · Aug 15, 2009

It's nice to share experiences...but the way you talked to that patient was unacceptable...however awful he/she may have been. Didn't they teach you therapeutic communication in Nursing School?? I'm sorry that seems so harsh, but again, that behavior is unacceptable!

I have had to deal with a great number of patients who either had a bad reaction to their anesthesia, or indeed had a psych issue. You can't take it personally...whatever they may say. That patient will continue to be a drug addict, esp without your help as a nurse! This post was definitely disturbing, and I'm sorry to say but I hope I don't have someone like you as a nurse. I'd rather have a more concerned nurse with more patience.

PhoenixTech, LPN · Aug 15, 2009

i am a nurse and a recovered drug addict.
it is rather infuriating to me the way some of these patients behave, and i remember that once upon a time, i probably behaved that way and treated my nurses that way at one point in my recovery. and no, they weren't nice to me. whatever i dished out, i got back, and i deserved it. tough love, to me, is one of the best ways to help an addict recover.
rule #1 of dealing with addicts: you cannot fix someone who wants to stay broken. period. it comes from within them. you can educate them until you are blue in the face, and yes it will make you mad, because the sense of entitlement and the feeling that it's going in one ear and out the other is probably correct.... until they come to that point where their inner core says "i can't do this anymore"...
i work on a tele unit where we are seeing more and more addicted patients now, especially since the economy has been so poor, because of lost jobs/depression, and younger and younger patients with strokes and new onset afib. it's very sad. some of them do make the turning point in their life, some don't.
our area has a huge problem with crack. i can't even tell you how many crack pipes i've taken away and how many crack rocks i've found in and on patients. these patients will spit on you and curse you to hell and most of the time return to the streets to the same horrible cycle, many infected with hiv/aids because they do what they have to do for drug money. it's heartbreaking to watch them deteriorate over and over, and it's even harder to take the abusive treatment from them sometimes.
we had one little lady who was a known prostitute with aids, who was a heavy crack abuser. so much so that she was in end stage renal disease and heart failure and was in and out of the hospital weekly. once, she left for the whole day, with her monitor on and iv in, she just disappeared. we had the police looking out for her and everything. she came back high on crack at around 11am the next day, screaming for rambo to get in the bushes, walked into her room, to tell the patient now in her bed to "get out". she came in with scabies once and chased staff around when she knew she was supposed to be isolated. she would hide honey buns in her tissue boxes and when she was npo she knew that was the perfect time to break them out. she even had a friend bring in a cup of dirt with some watermelon seeds on top, saying it was her watermelon plant, only to find crack rocks underneath. sometimes though, she would cry.... when she thought no one was looking... and one of us would find her there, and she would be angry that we did, but she always did something in her own backwards way to let us know that she did appreciate it. she died one morning in her dialysis chair.... and instead of us being relieved that her battle was over, we were all very solemn that day. was she difficult to deal with? hell yes.. she was downright frustrating. did she want to get better? no. the hospital was a safe place for her, filled with loving and nuturing people who fed her, cared for her and made sure she was bathed and tucked in at night. we were her family, and as difficult as she was.... i think in her own way, she loved us all.

:scrying: wow! thank you so much. i too can remember the many times that i 'revolved doored' my way through detoxs and rehabs and the way that i acted towards the staff, but not so much out of a sense of entitlement as a deep feeling of hopelessness and fear. it wasn't fun for me to be so utterly handicapped by the disease of addiction but regardless of how much i desired recovery, i didn't know how to 'live' without my crutch.

i suspect that this is the case for many addicts. not that we don't want to get better but that the business of living isn't something that we succeed at consistantly. maslow's heirarchy of needs comes to mind in regards to this topic for me.

i'm so grateful that i have gotten to the other side of active addiction but for some of us the suffering continues. and who can call women (and men) selling their bodies for the menial drugs they'll receive anything but suffering?

thanks again flightnurse2b for taking me down memory lane and reminding me of how fortunate i am by god's grace and mercy....and for the sincere way you told the story of 'one little lady'.

CrystalClear75, BSN, RN · Aug 16, 2009

I don't like the tone of the OP either...calling someone who has a disease a "druggie" and a "creep" is very disrespectful and unprofessional. I know they can be difficult to deal with,my father was a heroin addict and died as a result, but please as a nurse be a little(need I say alot?) more respectful towards those who are truly ill because addicts really are. Perhaps you should consider another profession.

heron, ASN, RN · Aug 16, 2009

Life is tough when you're perfect.

That the OP vented a normal human reaction to being treated badly does not mean that this is the way she talks to her patients.

I'm glad there are so many experienced mental health nurses here who are so seasoned that they no longer have anything but "therapeutic" emotions.

Although I'm at a loss as to what kind of mental health technique is being employed when an honest expression of feeling is met with invalidation and contempt.

As for sharing information or techniques to deflect or channel negative reactions ... heaven forbid!

Feh! Talk about "eating" one's colleagues!