Ever had a nurse or doc as a patient?

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

I had an experience like Sharon with an older retired RN who started out very cranky but truly was scared to death of her dx of colon ca. She stayed with us a long time and then went home to die. I rarely go to pts funeral either but I went to her's.
The one thing I've noticed as a patient and an RN is that nurses and docs tend to think you don't need any pt teaching since you are a nurse. I had an emergency cesarean with my last child and was surprised at the assumption that I knew what was going to happen and how to care for myself after. I finally said "forget I'm a nurse and just treat me like all the other patients".
I'm not a terrible patient because I know how hard it is to be a nurse and I'd never burden a nurse with a bratty attitude. I did as one other poster did though - I changed my linen and emptied my hat in the bathroom.
I hate to ask people for favors.
steph

That is exactly why I don't tell the staff I am an RN when myself or a loved one is hospitalized. They tend to assume I know more than I do. I want to hear everything you tell your other pts, b/c there are a LOT of things I DON'T KNOW! Also, I thinks it makes the staff unduly nervous when they know a family member is a healthcare professional.

bmoore1973 · Nov 29, 2005

i had a retired md once with demtia, you had to call him by dr not mr or his first name. several times in the night i caught him in other patients rooms trying to "check on them" it was the craziest night. he was so quick as far as leaving his room, i took a quick break and another nurse was supposed to check on him while i was off the floor and when i came back it took me 15 minutes to find him, he was in a patients room talking to them about their problems. it was very comical!

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

Have had several nurses as patients before on the PP unit...usually no big deal but one who worked at my same hospital tried to convince me to leave her meds at the bedside and when i wouldnt she started questioning me..."how long have you been a nurse? well, after 10 years you'll start leaving them...you wait and see..."
I guess NCLEX stress, licensing fees, not seeing my family for 5 years, getting up for clinicals at 4:00am etc etc etc wasnt worth keeping that RN license to her...but it is to me!

What? What? What? I smell a fish here. I wonder what your nurse/pt. was up to. She knows better. :uhoh3:

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

Had a pediatrician once who had senile dementia. Got irritable sometimes if the staff couldn't understand what he was trying to tell us. I finally started bringing him "Doctor's Orders" sheets and he'd write the orders for what he wanted. He was really a hoot. Then a retired nurse went into the room across from him and they fought for awhile, then really bonded. In fact, they "bonded" do well that the doc's wife divorced him!!:imbar
Also, have any of you ever had to take care of a Dr's MOTHER? WHAT A NIGHTMARE!! The primary would order something, and this doc would come in to see her and end up writing his own orders that were exactly opposite! The other nurses decided it should be ME that had a talk with this guy! It actually went suprisingly well......
Oh! And there was also the quadraplegic nurse who retired from being a state surveyor...but you can imagine how that went... :rolleyes:

Delightful anecdotes. Please write again soon.:rotfl:

Still Riding · Nov 29, 2005

Some of my classmates were on the neuro floor. So when I fell off a horse and got myself admitted with a head injury I ended up on the floor that my fellow students were on. I rember nothing of the first day and a half, and appearantly I wasn't acting very friendly. I told everyone were I thought they should go. The instructor that was on the floor with the students was my lab instructor. Appearnaly she came in to see how I was and I told her where she could go.

When I becam eorienget to the world around me and started rembering my social skills I was a model Pt. I said sorry to all those that I swore at.

It was akward being on the floor with my classmates and prof, but it ended up being interesting because I had lots of visits throughout the day from classmates and my prof. and friends when everyones classes were over. This was good since I don't live in the same province as my family, and felt kinda lonly.

we can all laugh about it now.

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

Wrote laxative protocal he thought he required, along with what he thought the other patients should have. Wrote himself an ativan order when he was feeling "edgy" or irritable. Wrote orders for PSYCH EVALS on the patients he couldn't get along with. His daily ambulation turned into doing "rounds" on the other patients, who all thought he was crazy. Hey..at least he got the exercise! He really was a cutie:p

:chuckle Bless his heart!:chuckle

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

I've noticed that too. The worst family members I have dealt with were nurses. I never really understood that either. You would think they would be more understanding but they just seem to expect more of us.

Speaking from personal experience, when it is your family member who is in a life or death situation, you just can't be detached and objective. And if you are in the healthcare field, you know just enough to ask b*ttloads of annoying questions and question everything that is being done. We've seen what can happen to people in the hospital and it is frightening! Sorry:imbar

kadokin, ASN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

When I worked in Assisted Living there was a physician who was there due to an inoperable (spelling?) brain tumor. He was really past our limits of care, but the family brought in hospice to take care of him. He was a wonderful man and I still think of him with much admiration for what he went through.
I took care of one of the VP of Nursing at our hospital and everyone was like "Wash your hands, she's so and so...It's like, "Don't you always wash your hands and take standard precautions?" Apparently not if they need to remind people to do so! It is always frusturating when people are always like "She's so and so... a VIP", I am sorry, but I treat all my patients like VIP's not just the ones who work at the hospital or who are Dr. ________'s mom. C'mon people! Treat everyone like a VIP!

Right On, Sabrina's Mommy!

P_RN, ADN, RN · Nov 29, 2005

Usually I asked to be in a different hospital than the one I worked at. I can honestly say now I don't work, but even when I did, I never said I was a Nurse.....if they pressed the issue I'd say "yes I work at xxx hospital-I clean up there." (It's the truth-no?) Darned health insurance was self-funded before Blue Cross.

I'm a difficult patient I think. Leave me alone. Give me my meds. I don't like visitors so if you work with me don't visit. Put the sheets on the foot of the bed and I'll make it when I feel like it. If I want pain med, please bring it.

I have had doctors, an attorney-general, a US Senator, a championship Boxer, a mayor, lots of nurses, and a few society matrons. Some of the nicest were "VIPs" and some of the nastiest were too. Mostly they are just frightened people and they deserve the very best we can give.

RoxanRN · Nov 29, 2005

I took care of one of the VP of Nursing at our hospital and everyone was like "Wash your hands she's so and so...It's like, "Don't you always wash your hands and take standard precautions?" Apparently not if they need to remind people to do so! It is always frusturating when people are always like "She's so and so... a VIP", I am sorry, but I treat all my patients like VIP's not just the ones who work at the hospital or who are Dr. ________'s mom. C'mon people! Treat everyone like a VIP![/quote']
Definitely one of my biggest pet peeves is when a hospital big-wig or MD get preferencial treatment. Would I as a regular staff nurse get the same kind of treatment?? I think not.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Dec 1, 2005

i had a retired md once with demtia, you had to call him by dr not mr or his first name. several times in the night i caught him in other patients rooms trying to "check on them" it was the craziest night. he was so quick as far as leaving his room, i took a quick break and another nurse was supposed to check on him while i was off the floor and when i came back it took me 15 minutes to find him, he was in a patients room talking to them about their problems. it was very comical!

:rotfl: Right now I have 2 nurses that run the 3-11 Shift in my LTC. Once a nurse..always a nurse. Follows me around during med pass, love to review new orders with me and will occasionally do a bed check. :rotfl:

MamaTheNurse, BSN, RN · Dec 1, 2005

I've had docs as labour patients - let me tell you, having a baby levels the playing field - these ladies couldn't have pulled attitude if they wanted to......

both of these docs also had physician husbands - one of them (husband) fell asleep during his wife's labour and when she realized that, she yelled, very loudly, "Get your dumb a** up and do something useful for me!" and then he just sat at the bedside, staring at her, waiting for her to tell him what to do!!! :chuckle :chuckle

I've also taken care of multiple nurses and I was a patient myself for 2 vag deliveries - I behaved byself in spite of the fact that 12 hours of one of my labours was back labour! I also had a vag hyster and a posterior repair (thanks to my boys who inherited their father's pumpkin head!) and the only special treatment I asked for was to have one of my friends circulate during the case and since I'm Chatty Cathy on Versed, I requested to be put out immediately, before I revealed some of the secrets that I know about various staff members and the physician who was to operate on me! My surgeon had a med school student with him who was totally shocked when they went to prep me and saw the sign I had taped above the surgical site-to-be saying "Men at Work"! :coollook: :rolleyes: