Every Mom, Dad, Sis, Uncle Believes They Know Better Than The Nurse...

Nurses Humor Toon

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Every now and then we get someone who thinks they know better than NURSES. They read it on the Internet so they know what is best. They seen it on TV so they know what is best. Does this drive you crazy? How do you handle it? Please share your stories.

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CapeCodMermaid said:

We hardly ever say anything to the nursing staff unless they are about to do something really wrong....like give HCTZ to someone whose blood pressure is 80/40 or give a Percocet to someone with an allergy to acetaminophen.

My dad was in a prestigious teaching hospital for a pain mgmt workup and got squirrelly at night. So they gave him haloperidol (Haldol). And I said, "I'm not god's gift to neurology nursing, and this is a neurology floor, right? So did anybody think to notice that he has Parkinson's?" I was ripped.

(for those who don't know, haloperidol has extrapyramidal side effects and is contraindicated in people with parkinsonism or Parkinson's)

2 Votes

My wife had surgery a week and a half ago and the med-surg nurses and CNAs LOVED me. I took care of the simple stuff (toileting, washing up, changing clothes, etc) and just let them take of the rest of it (IVs, vitals, changing dressings, etc).

3 Votes
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

How true.

1 Votes
Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I'll just leave this lab slip with you, give you this antibiotic to hang, and give you the resident's pager number. Crash cart's down the hall. I'll be in the cafeteria if you need me. :)

1 Votes

An event in which landed my father in the hospital actually encouraged me to go back to nursing school...

My dad had been having some spells where his blood pressure would shoot up then bottom out, he would almost lose consciousness, sometimes lost control of his bowels and a few other things... (He was finally diagnosed with POTS after 20 years of having these spells!) After he was admitted to the hospital the doctors and nurses were concerned that his lactic acid levels were elevated and would not consider discharging until they dropped. The nurse and doctor never gave us an explanation as to why those levels were increased (aside from the medication, maybe from his being hypoxic for a short period of time?) So I did some digging and found that metformin can cause the lactic acid levels to be elevated. So I mentioned this to the nurse in which she replies, he is not on metformin........ When he was actually on actoplus MET. Anyway, after I finally got the nurse to look again they discontinued the actoplus met and taadaaa! Lactic acid levels returned to normal!

(I'm just a new little nursing student so if anything is misspelled or is not "medically" correct I apologize. Lol)

3 Votes

I understand what you're saying, but sometimes families DO know better than the nurse. As a nurse, I have learned a lot from a few families over the years, especially when dealing with someone who has one of the less common maladies. I don't have the time or energy to keep up with every advance in medicine, but some family members have researched their loved one's condition impeccably. They also know what has worked and what has not worked in the past. Of course they're not usually professional researchers and of course their suggestions need to be run past the medical team first. But don't count them out--you might learn something.

3 Votes
maxthecat said:
I understand what you're saying, but sometimes families DO know better than the nurse. As a nurse, I have learned a lot from a few families over the years, especially when dealing with someone who has one of the less common maladies. I don't have the time or energy to keep up with every advance in medicine, but some family members have researched their loved one's condition impeccably. They also know what has worked and what has not worked in the past. Of course they're not usually professional researchers and of course their suggestions need to be run past the medical team first. But don't count them out--you might learn something.

That is not the scenario laid out in the cartoon. You're describing a family member who is intimately involved in the patient's care and knowledgeable from what is often years of caregiving. Not someone who just googled a bunch of symptoms and slapped on a diagnosis based on what the all-knowing Google spit out.

1 Votes

My mil is like this and you can't argue with her either, she knows it all. She's told me that her grandkids are allergic to Benadryl because it makes them sleepy, Motrin because it makes them hyper and a lot of other things. She's always telling me stories of something my husband was allergic to as a child or some disease he had. She "diagnoses" everyone and then tries to get me to agree with her, if I ever disagree I'm wrong because that's not what the Dr told her. She diagnosed herself with colon cancer one time because, her poop was shaped "weird" btw. I feel for the nurse that ever has to take care of our family members, lol.

3 Votes
Specializes in Women's Services.

As an L&D RN I get this a lot! My favorite things people say always start with "well when I had my baby..." Which was 25 yrs ago. Or "I read on the Internet that she will get potassium to induce her labor"...oh lord it's gonna be a long night. When family members try to start telling me how to do my job I normally just start busting out the pathophysiology of fetal oxygenation, or utero/placental blood flow and it shuts them up. I am thankful to those high risk pts whose SO know a lot about their medical condition and are able to help out with their care...we would prefer not to deal with their trachs :)

1 Votes
Specializes in Urology, ENT.
DeLanaHarvickWannabe said:
Background: the patient is on dialysis after years of diabetes. Picture at least ten family members at bedside.

One family member (who knows the relation...sister, maybe? aunt?) says: "Well, I have the 'betes, too! But I don't need that dialysis because I keep glazed donuts in the ice box & I don't have sex."

Well then. Now we know the secret.

I think I just died laughing.

2 Votes
DeLanaHarvickWannabe said:
....." But I don't need that dialysis because I keep glazed donuts in the ice box & I don't have sex."

Well then. Now we know the secret.

Hmmm, perhaps enough quantity of the former will naturally take care of the latter?

1 Votes

I refer to these people as "Web MDs". Google-educated, top of their internet class.

Someone's comment on a kid's bp reminded me of one of my own: patient after endoscopy has bp of 116/64. Patient's wife at bedside informs me that he's "ALWAYS 120/70". Not "normally", not "usually". ALWAYS. I inform her that not only is no human on earth ALWAYS the exact same bp every minute of every day in every circumstance, but for statistical purposes, the numbers he's at now is virtually the same anyway. Absolutely not, says Wifey. Better get the anesthesiologist to "examine" him. Ummm....no. Hubby is talking, alert, munching his snacks and feels quite wonderful, thank you.

Back to your cage, woman....

2 Votes
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