Inappropriate Demands

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

the thread about strange patient requests is about seven years old now, so let's start a new one. what is the most inappropriate request a patient has ever made of you?

a patient once asked me to tell his girlfriend that he never wanted to see her again.

"let me get this straight," i said. "you want me to break up with your girlfriend for you?"

"yeah, that's it. i've been getting tired of the (bad word that means female dog) anyway."

and then there was the patient who asked me to toilet his mother, who was visiting. she was in her 80s and the patient was concerned because his wife, who had brought the mother in to visit, "doesn't like to help her out with that." guess what. neither do i, and it's not as if i could leave the icu to go out to the visitor's bathroom and toilet his mother anyway. even had i wanted to.

and then there was the woman who wanted me to babysit her children in the icu room because "granny always watches my kids when i go out to party. i'll just leave them here with her, and you can help her watch 'em."

what are yours?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

and then there was the woman who wanted me to babysit her children in the icu room because "granny always watches my kids when i go out to party. i'll just leave them here with her, and you can help her watch 'em."

my reply: "well here, if you're leaving let me give you the number to social services. i want you to know where to call when you want to pick up your children."

i had an upset mother that brought her daughters bed linen to the er. she wanted us to test it to see if she had been having sex. "your emergency is what exactly???"

um, we're not a lab and this isn't csi.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

When I was working in a multi-specialty clinic, a man came in to see his cardiologist. He brought his very confused, very combative, very incontinent wife and wanted me to take her into the bathroom and get her changed and give her a quick sponge bath. My manager told me I had to take her to the bathroom, but nothing else...and then she called social services.

I once had a patient's family ask me to put mom's coat in the dryer for a while so it would be warm when she put it on when she left the ER...we sent our laundry out, so no deal. (I wouldn't have done it either way). The family also asked the rescue service to move their ambulance so they could pull their car into the ambulance bay so mom didn't have to go out in the cold.

I've had more than one patient ask me to ask the doctor to write the prescription in their spouse's name since the spouse qualified for Medicare and they didn't.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Legal, Ortho, Rehab.

I've had a patient tell me he wanted "white, American nurses only" to care for him. Yeah, buddy good luck with that in Miami... :D

Up Vote Up Vote ×
My reply: "Well here, if you're leaving let me give you the number to social services. I want you to know where to call when you want to pick up your children."

I had an upset mother that brought her daughters bed linen to the ER. She wanted us to test it to see if she had been having sex. "Your emergency is what exactly???"

Um, we're not a lab and this isn't CSI.

Wowza.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

hmmm...not sure how to say this.

as an inpatient hospice nurse, i've had some very explicitly sexual deathbed wishes/demands.

believe me when i tell you there are many who still see us as a 'naughty nurse'.

certainly not the bittersweet, heart-wrenching image of a dying pt, is it?

folks that live as pigs, die as pigs- i know that now.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
hmmm...not sure how to say this.

as an inpatient hospice nurse, i've had some very explicitly sexual deathbed wishes/demands.

believe me when i tell you there are many who still see us as a 'naughty nurse'.

certainly not the bittersweet, heart-wrenching image of a dying pt, is it?

folks that live as pigs, die as pigs- i know that now.

leslie

Whoa. You learn something new every day. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but...

Oh the humanity!

:eek:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

I had a patient (male who came in with malignant hypertension) ask me to create a visiting schedule for his wife. I asked, "What do you mean?" He said, "If she has a specific time she can come, then my girlfriend can come visit me when my wife isn't here."

Pig.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I had a patient ask me to log into his bank account and transfer $1,005.00 from his savings account to his checking account. (Not sure why the extra $5, but that is beside the point.) I told him I would not sign into his bank account, but I could get him a laptop from guest services and/or find the bank's phone number for him. It turned out that he couldn't remember which bank he used anyway.

Last week had a patient's relative ask me to check his blood sugar because he didn't feel good/had blurry vision and thought his "sugar wasn't right". I couldn't do it because our machines require us to scan a pt ID band to check blood sugar, so I sent him to the ER. He came back up a few hours later and told me his blood sugar had been high because he had been eating at the hospital cafeteria all day and didn't have his insulin with him. Then he asked me for a sprite and "some of those little lorna doone cookies".......um, no.

I have had a handful of patients ask me if their relative could "plug in" to our oxygen in the room because their portable tanks were almost empty.

Had a patient ask if I could make sure her family member (who was sleeping in the family waiting room) got up in time for work in the morning.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.
hmmm...not sure how to say this.

as an inpatient hospice nurse, i've had some very explicitly sexual deathbed wishes/demands.

believe me when i tell you there are many who still see us as a 'naughty nurse'.

certainly not the bittersweet, heart-wrenching image of a dying pt, is it?

folks that live as pigs, die as pigs- i know that now.

leslie

:barf01:And this is exactly why I don't take care of men...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Home care clients who request that you engage in fraud by altering your time sheet to reflect days and/or times that you were not in the home or were there for different times than stated. Clients who "encourage" their nurses to leave early or arrive late and still show the full time on their documentation. Happens often enough to make one wonder how much fraud is really occurring in home health when it comes to time sheets.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I had a patient (male who came in with malignant hypertension) ask me to create a visiting schedule for his wife. I asked, "What do you mean?" He said, "If she has a specific time she can come, then my girlfriend can come visit me when my wife isn't here."

Pig.

hoo boy, i would be so tempted to schedule the wife when i knew the gf would be coming.

what an idiot.

leslie

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment