obsessions

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Geriatrics.

Tonight I had a pt who went into the bathroom 30 times :eek: in less than 4 hours. I was so frequent that a CNA followed her and watched to see what was happening. The pt insisted she had diarrhea, but the CNA said the toilet was empty. Seems the poor thing is terrified she may get diarrhea form her meds (same meds she's been on for 5 yrs w/o problems). We can't redirect her, can't distract her. Any other obsessions your pt's have??

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Specializes in medicine and psychiatry.

Am wondering if your pt has a psychiatric diagnosis. Am not sure this behavior is an obsession. Sounds more like a fixation.

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

she has the tipical diagonosis for LTC, dementia included. It is not unusual for pt's to be bowel or bladder obsessed. I was just wondering if others found this happening.

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

Yes I have had dementia patients obsessed with the toilet.When you think about it logically ,as a child you are trained to go to the toilet and it is a great 'no no' to wet or soil yourself.Sometimes this carries into the dementia patients memories and it is very difficult to redirect.It usually stops as the dementia progresses.

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Specializes in Physical Rehabilitation, med-surg.

the good news is that YOU weren't having to take her each of those 30 times, lol! She's probably a nutjob in some respect. Be thankful she didn't have a bed alarm that you were racing after every 5 minutes.

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