Ever stuck your foot in your mouth in front of a patient/visitor?

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

Oh yeah. We had a very hard to get along with patient on our floor. Old, decrepit. Worst part was her crazy daughter. I forgot what I said, but the daughter walked down the hall the second I said it.

Tait, MSN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

I had a patient/spouse interaction once that was a bit of foot-in-mouth on my part, and a bit of "oh come on" from me to the family member.

I had a guy who was s/p a pretty severe MI, but doing well and fairly young. His wife was concerned he needed more fluids and was dehydrated. I told her he needed to drink his water then. She said "how come he isn't on IVF anymore" and I said "because they are expensive?". She just looked at me, dumbfounded and said "well if this is about money I will pay whatever he needs to get his fluids".

I just sat there, realizing this was more than a little convo about water, and carefully explained to her that all he needed to do was drink more water if he felt he was dry.

She later came out and did the classic "I know a powerful cardiologist" blah blah speech, to which I turned on my most empathetic self and explained that I understood how scary it was to go through his MI, but that he would be ok. (He was going home the next day). She informed me that her father had died less than three weeks before this, and it made more sense why she wouldn't have a sense of humor at this time.

It all worked out in the end, but yeah, been there, done that!

Tait

FlyingScot, RN · Aug 5, 2009

Just wondering if any of you had been talking to a co-worker about a patient/family member/visitor and said something accidentally within earshot of them?

Only once!

ohmeowzer RN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

yes i have.. we had a huge obese patient ..ugh.. she had very bad peri area odor you could smell it when you walked in the room, she said she couldn't reach to clean... i walked in the room and thought to myself but it came out as a sentence under my breath and she heard me, " smells like a dirty crotch in here "... she yelled " excuse me you try weighing 600lbs and try to wipe your crotch" her face was red and she was waving her fist at me... she yelled " get out of my room and go get the charge nurse" ..... ooh... i was the charge nurse.... oh i had to explain that to her....... oh it was a painful day .. i apologized of course and as the day wore on she and i got along.....they say a slip of the lip sinks ships .. well this was the titanic......

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

Ummm, no never!

philanurse74 · Aug 5, 2009

I once told a patient i would be right back, with whatever it was he needed, and not to run away. oooooppps...Bilateral AKA........

KY RN · Aug 5, 2009

I once told a patient that I couldn't understand why he only had one sock of each kind in his dresser the first time I went into his room. He told me his family used the mate to the sock for his other brother. I said, "That's odd. why would you each have one of a pair of socks. " This is before I examined him and found out he only had one leg.(His brother was in the same nursing home and was missing a leg also. Too bad they both were missing the same leg, they could have shared a pair of shoes too.! :lol2: )

LesMonsterRN, ADN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

philanurse, that reminds me of a resident I used to take care of and how he would "train" new CNAs. He was, as your patient was, a bil AKA, and had been at the facility for years. One day he had a CNA doing various small things for him. After accomplishing a few tasks he sent her off to the closet to find him a pair of socks. I don't know who laughed more, the resident or the CNA.

PAERRN20 · Aug 5, 2009

I've asked how many weeks pregnant a non-pregnant woman was. Oops. Only did it once.

miss81, BSN, RN · Aug 5, 2009

We had a patient go to the OR for EUA for her eye, she ended up returning post op with an Enucleation. She had not signed the consent for the eye removal, just the EUA and the family had not been consulted before the eye was removed. Even better, the surgeon did not feel it necessary to tell the poor lady OR her family and just left the hospital. We thought they knew about the eye removal. Well, you can only imagine the craziness that ensued after they found out. Took about an hour to calm them down. 3-4 were angry and yelling and 3-4 were crying. After it was all over, the poor family decided to go home let the pt get some sleep. They came to the nsg station and said to my colleague that they were not comfortable leaving here by herself. The smiling nurses proceeded to say, "Oh, don't worry, we'll keep an EYE ON HER!" I almost bust trying to hold my laughter in. I know, not a funny situation and needless to say the family did not find it funny either. They gave her and look and said, "Are you trying to be funny..." She wasn't, she felt so bad! Every time it was quiet that night one of us would burst into laughter... God nurses can be so insensitive.

flightnurse2b, LPN · Aug 5, 2009

i had a patient who was young, in his 40's, who had a frequent visitor that looked like she was in her 70's or 80's. she would bring him all kinds of food and sit with him and help him with his ADL's.

well one day, my stupid self assumed that this was his mom, i said something about how wonderful it was that his mom and him were so close and that she took such good care of him.

it was his wife.

whoops.