To my future patients

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

To my future patients; if you tell me you can't even turn over in bed by yourself I will put Kleenex, urinal, 2 cups of water, and extra pillow within arms reach. When you call to pee I might be a bit miffed when you insist on standing instead of being bedbound, as you told me AND complain that I am too rough when I assist as requested. When you call for position changes 5 times in an hour, I understand, since our stretchers are uncomfortable. When you call AGAIN for water, I'll remind you of everything we set on the table 3 hours ago, but still help. When you insist on a warmed blanket in a stifling room, instead of one of the six on the bed, and five waiting in the chair (I figured you'd want extra) I will say "NO." and implode internally. But then I'll still be obsessing about saying no to you 4 days later, while you have a great story about that ***** who wouldn't even get you an extra blanket.

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Rough shift?? :)

[bill4745, RN]

Probably.

[leslie :-D]

ain't that the truth, huh?

that when pts complain about his/her 'horrible nurse', there's nothing like the 'other side'.

thanks for keeping it real, canoe.

you handled it like a pro.

leslie

[FowLaf24/7]

You forgot to say "Amen" at the end!

[iHeartNICU]

Kudos to you all who deal with this every day, I certainly couldn't keep my cool in those situations. That's one reason I work NICU :)

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Thanks guys, I don't know about handling it like a pro...I asked my charge to take the next call from this patient, and then took a few of her calls from a tough patient. Man, I guess it's one of my hot buttons when someone says they can do one thing, and then decides something else. Also at a certain point doesn't everyone start to feel like a maid, and it's hard to be caring after that. How can we let the patient know they are going too far, and yet remain open to their needs?

Thanks for all the comments, I was seriously obsessing, and just getting some feedback takes it off my OCD list. Thank you.