Getting fired by a patient/ family member

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Why were you fired? And what is your average? If you are fired often does that make you a bad nurse? Has a nurse NEVER been fired before? Is it harder for the replacement nurse? Are the expectation heightened? Have you ever hinted that a patient can have another nurse?

(I'm including CNA with nurses)

2 hours ago, DesiDani said:

Is that a SCD machine?

"A continuous passive motion (CPM) machine is a motorized device that passively moves a joint through a pre-set range of motion."

Our ortho doctors ordered them after knee replacement surgeries. It's sort of like riding a bicycle in bed.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

I hated the CPM machines! Had to wake the pt up like 4:30am to pee and rec pain med. Then position the pt's leg in the machine for the next 2 hours - making sure I'll be able to remove it by 7am when I go off shift.  And those machines, while NOT esp heavy, ARE cumbersome & awkward.

Pts would then be able to hurry up and do am care, eat breakfast and then whisk off to Therapy. Surprisingly, once I did my 'routine', the pts often could fall right back to sleep & tolerate tx well.

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.

I've only been "fired" once so far.  It was when I was a brand new nurse, and a patient of mine decided they wanted another nurse because I was "too young to be a nurse."  She'd actually taken a picture of my badge and looked me up on the Board of Nursing website and decided that I "wasn't born long enough ago."  She was a very strange patient, though, so I didn't really mind.  I figured there was nothing to be done about my age.   

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4 minutes ago, SilverBells said:

I've only been "fired" once so far.  It was when I was a brand new nurse, and a patient of mine decided they wanted another nurse because I was "too young to be a nurse."  She'd actually taken a picture of my badge and looked me up on the Board of Nursing website and decided that I "wasn't born long enough ago."  She was a very strange patient, though, so I didn't really mind.  I figured there was nothing to be done about my age.   

Wow!?!?

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Specializes in Rehab/Nurse Manager.
28 minutes ago, DesiDani said:

Wow!?!?

Right? It actually motivated me to have my last name removed from my badge to an initial only.  My last name is unusual and long, so up until that point, I hadn't thought about patients looking me up, figuring they would find my name too difficult to spell.  

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Specializes in retired LTC.
20 minutes ago, SilverBells said:

Right? It actually motivated me to have my last name removed from my badge to an initial only.  My last name is unusual and long, so up until that point, I hadn't thought about patients looking me up, figuring they would find my name too difficult to spell.  

 

59 minutes ago, SilverBells said:

I've only been "fired" once so far.  It was when I was a brand new nurse, and a patient of mine decided they wanted another nurse because I was "too young to be a nurse."  She'd actually taken a picture of my badge and looked me up on the Board of Nursing website and decided that I "wasn't born long enough ago."  She was a very strange patient, though, so I didn't really mind.  I figured there was nothing to be done about my age.   

One of the recognized reasons why nurses (and others) are so skittish about identifying data on official facilty ID badges.

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At least (tiny least) they used your name. They could of easily went by "that white, black, Asian, Mexican (Don't you know ALL latinos are Mexican?) nurse who took care of me".

After all some can't distinguish when they have ill conceived notions about people?

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Specializes in Cardiology.

Yesterday was the first time I was "fired". Apparently I was "badgering" him because I said he should stay up in the chair today because he spent the previous day lying in bed sleeping all day then complaining to nightshift that he couldn't sleep. This is a post-op pt. 

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I've been "fired" once, by a patient's daughter though.  The daughter was known on our unit to be veryyyyy difficult, claiming she was an oncology nurse and critiqued everything any of her dad's nurses did (we later found out she was a medical assistant at a PCP office). 

The night I was "fired," I'd been given a challenging assignment.  3 patients, including her dad (I worked on a cardiac PCU).  One patient, post-op CABG and demanded a nurse or tech to hold his urinal for him when he peed every 15 minutes (is my phone ringing again?  Oh yep, he needs to pee again). Another patient on an insulin drip, requiring q1 blood sugar checks and drip titrations (one tech for our floor or 36 patients, so I was typically the one doing the sugars).  And then this patient, "dad," who was end-stage heart failure compounded by delirium r/t liver failure; lasix drip, near total-care, very complicated plan of care because his daughter challenged every provider's assessment that didn't align with her wants and needs.   I understand not being able to accept a loved one's inevitable fate, but she took it out on every interdisciplinary member that walked through his door.  Nothing was ever good enough in her eyes.

Simply, I was overwhelmed with my patient assignment that night.  "Dad's" daughter was unsatisfied that I seemingly wasn't in their room often or long enough at a time.  She was unhappy about it all, like that I left his water cup on his bedside table (next to him) instead of putting the straw up to his lips directly when he wanted a drink.  Unhappy that I took too long to get to his room because I was fist-deep in the urine of my other patient.  It was a relief to be fired from this patient!  I was not the first to be fired during his stay, either. 

 

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Pediatric Float, PICU, NICU.

I've been fired less than a handful of times over my 15 years, all for "silly" reasons and nothing legitimate. The very first time was a tough pill to swallow, not just because it was the first time I was "fired" but because it was my third day with the patient and mom got butthurt that I had to enforce visitor restrictions for an infant sibling during flu season, so she took it personal and turned it into me being a bad nurse. 

Nowadays I'm practically praying to be fired from some of these patients/families. 

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1 hour ago, JadedCPN said:

Nowadays I'm practically praying to be fired from some of these patients/families. 

I totally get this.  I was "fired" a couple of times when I worked in the hospital - first time I felt so bad, huge blow to my ego, like I had done something wrong when in reality there was nothing anyone could do to please the patient.  Second time I was like "THank you Lord, get me outta here" -  I didn't have the patience, nor the time to deal with the nonsense. 

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I wander if people know that everything that happens in a hospital sets off a chain reaction? That 15 min urinal task just delayed help to someone else. Even if another nurse helps out that nurse's care is affected. It just goes around and around.

 

Chain reaction events are to be expected like with a RRT or a code. When they happen because people are unreasonable. Not good.

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