Your Ideal Patient

Nurses General Nursing

Published

If you could tell your patients anything, what would you tell them that would help them be your ideal Patient?

For instance: I would ask my Patient to bring extra blankets and pillows for themselves and any family member staying with them. This would help my Patient to be more of an ideal patient for me, because we usually only have enough bedding for each patient to have 1-2 pillows and 1 blanket. But yet many of them always want more than this and also want us to provide their family members with pillows and blankets too.

Thank-you! :)

Angie' O Plasty-

Is that supposed to be a joke? About your ideal patient? I don't find that very kind or funny. Obviously you do not like your job or like helping patients. I have had a lot of experience as a patient in the hospital cause of heart surgery, pnemonia and blood clots, if I had a nurse like you who thought of their patients like that I would be appauled!

Just sounds horrible. Curleysue

Specializes in Utilization Management.
Angie' O Plasty-

Is that supposed to be a joke? About your ideal patient? I don't find that very kind or funny. Obviously you do not like your job or like helping patients. I have had a lot of experience as a patient in the hospital cause of heart surgery, pnemonia and blood clots, if I had a nurse like you who thought of their patients like that I would be appauled!

Just sounds horrible. Curleysue

Oh, no need for you to be appalled, Sue. I take very good care of my patients, especially the ones who can't speak for themselves.

Sorry you took it the wrong way, but the fact remains: I find those patients easier to take care of than some of the other patients.

The perfect patient for me is unconscious and has a PICC line, a DNR, and no family.

:eek:

just saw your new post....edit eek.

Angie O'Plasty-

You know, maybe it was just me that thought that was a very disturbing post you had. I don't know. Its just like saying, God I am really sick of this patient can't i just give her 2 mg of Ativan so I can have a peaceful easy night. That just doesn't sound right. Would if you were the patient and during the nurses change of shift report which sometimes they do right outside the door of the patients room and you could hear the nurse say, I just want to give her some drugs to get her out of my hair.

Well, maybe I am taking it too far but it just rubbed me the wrong way. I understand what you are meaning to say: PICC line so you don't have to worry about IV access failing plus the added benefit of drawing blood out of it, DNR so you don't have to work on a patient who's family wants to keep alive no matter what, and no family so you don't have to deal with them. I know how hard it can get with family members watching your every move and breathing down your back.

Oh well, I will drop the subject. I have just had so many experiences as a patient in the hospital that having experiences with bad nurses who really don't want to be there and take it out on me, or me having to wait as long as I can bear to ask for pain meds for the reason that I don't want to bother the nurse for the fear she might be mean to me.

I have had cases where the nurses changing shift gave report right outside my door. They thought I wouldn't hear them, but boy I heard everything. Its not that I am a bad patient, but I do have problems with pain management, anxiety and am usually very sick requiring a lot of care. Thats when I am on the floor and the nurses complain that really I should be in ICU because of the amount of care needed. Plus the fact that I have to hear the nurse say, "but I have 6 other patients calling me all at once and I don't have time for a really sick patient". Then when they are in my room giving me pain meds or replacing the PCA pump all I get is a pissed off nurse who snaps at you. I know not every nurse is like this but I am almost guarenteed one whenever I am hospitalized.

Sorry, Angie I didn't mean to go off about it but that is why I was appauled by your post. Oh well, I am probably the only one who thinks that way. I will shut up now. Curleysue :stone

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
If you could tell your patients anything, what would you tell them that would help them be your ideal Patient?

For instance: I would ask my Patient to bring extra blankets and pillows for themselves and any family member staying with them. This would help my Patient to be more of an ideal patient for me, because we usually only have enough bedding for each patient to have 1-2 pillows and 1 blanket. But yet many of them always want more than this and also want us to provide their family members with pillows and blankets too.

Thank-you! :)

I can't believe your employer is so short on pillows and blankets! Anyway, my ideal patient would be the one who has helpful, quiet, and pleasant family members.

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
one that understands that he/she isn't my only pt. and i can't always appear in 2 seconds when they ring for something. sometimes i have to prioritize! also what deb and renerian said.

ditto big time!!! :) if the patient is in pain, coding, or has fallen and can't get up, they will be more of a priority over the patient who wets themself, didn't get two packs of sugar with their mealtray, or can't find the remote so they can watch their favorite soap or sports. :rolleyes:

The perfect patient for me is unconscious and has a PICC line, a DNR, and no family.

:sofahider (laughing behind the sofa - shhhhh!)

steph :)

Specializes in Community Health Nurse.
the perfect patient for me is unconscious and has a picc line, a dnr, and no family.

:rotfl: i' m sorry, but when i read what you wrote, it cracked me up...almost into tears............and.........i know you really don't mean it, but it's nice to know we as nurses can joke about "the ideal patient" to have to let off some steam...not always be on the serious side....let our hair down sometimes. :rotfl:

Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
it's nice to know we as nurses can joke about "the ideal patient" to have to let off some steam...not always be on the serious side....let our hair down sometimes.

ditto ! i also took it as letting off some steam. i can see how a patient might see it differently but then again this is allnurses.com not allpatients.com

Specializes in Utilization Management.
You know, maybe it was just me that thought that was a very disturbing post you had. I don't know. Its just like saying, God I am really sick of this patient can't i just give her 2 mg of Ativan so I can have a peaceful easy night.

OK, Sue. Just for you, just this once, I will explain. (Although Renee is totally correct--I WAS blowing off steam.)

I had just come off a shift in which I had a couple of patients in my group who were real psych cases. I suck at psych, which is why I'm not a psych nurse. Their behaviors are simply too unpredictable and inappropriate for my taste. I never know if I should nod and smile and go along with them or get firm and set boundaries and stuff.

In another room, I had a LOL who was immobile from a CVA, didn't talk, was a DNR, was third-spacing, and had a couple of decubs. About all she had done so far this admit was to blink her eyes and look around, impossible to tell if she was "in there." I had to give her meds all shift on a very tight schedule because she was septic. Triple-lumen PICC with IVFs. Hung a 2-hour antibiotic, 1-hour albumin, another 1-hour antibiotic, blood draw, another antibiotic.... and each time I went in there, I'd change her position and take vitals because my tech was so busy.

I was pretty proud of the way she looked, too. She was properly positioned, oral care given, clean, dressings dry, clean, intact. Heel booties were on. Not a wrinkle in the sheet. Hair was brushed too. I just kept going in there and adding a little patient care each time I had to hang something or whatever.

Sue, your impression was that this is the kind of patient who can be medicated and ignored. Actually the opposite is true. This is a very time-consuming patient, and some people would say, for what? since she's a DNR.

But since you're a student, as I see from your profile, I'll tell you what for.

At the end of my shift, as I was taking her BP one last time, our eyes met.

And she smiled.

Now do you get it?

:sofahider (laughing behind the sofa - shhhhh!)

steph :)

move over. :chuckle

angie- experienced nurses certainly appreciated your post.

i wouldn't expect sn's to understand through no fault of their own.

great post.

leslie

Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
OK, Sue. Just for you, just this once, I will explain. (Although Renee is totally correct--I WAS blowing off steam.)

I had just come off a shift in which I had a couple of patients in my group who were real psych cases. I suck at psych, which is why I'm not a psych nurse. Their behaviors are simply too unpredictable and inappropriate for my taste. I never know if I should nod and smile and go along with them or get firm and set boundaries and stuff.

In another room, I had a LOL who was immobile from a CVA, didn't talk, was a DNR, was third-spacing, and had a couple of decubs. About all she had done so far this admit was to blink her eyes and look around, impossible to tell if she was "in there." I had to give her meds all shift on a very tight schedule because she was septic. Triple-lumen PICC with IVFs. Hung a 2-hour antibiotic, 1-hour albumin, another 1-hour antibiotic, blood draw, another antibiotic.... and each time I went in there, I'd change her position and take vitals because my tech was so busy.

I was pretty proud of the way she looked, too. She was properly positioned, oral care given, clean, dressings dry, clean, intact. Heel booties were on. Not a wrinkle in the sheet. Hair was brushed too. I just kept going in there and adding a little patient care each time I had to hang something or whatever.

Sue, your impression was that this is the kind of patient who can be medicated and ignored. Actually the opposite is true. This is a very time-consuming patient, and some people would say, for what? since she's a DNR.

But since you're a student, as I see from your profile, I'll tell you what for.

At the end of my shift, as I was taking her BP one last time, our eyes met.

And she smiled.

Now do you get it?

Whoa... I just got goosebumps.. literally ALL over.

What a profound post.

Thank you for this.

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