Hello Mr. VIP! I'm your servant nurse for the night!

[SICU Queen]

So, yeah... VIP patients. I had one for the last two nights and let me tell you how much I wanted to pull my hair out.

Old dude, post exp. lap. w/ lysis of adhesions, stable to the point of taking PO, one maintenance IV, lotso runny diarrhea (15 times the first night with 5 total bed changes :uhoh21: ), you get the picture... sorta kinda COULD be ICU material but not really - but his son is a MAJOR bigwig for our hospital so he got to stay for the better nurse/patient ratio.

He was CONSTANTLY on the call light.

Some of the reasons he called me:

"I need a sip of water." (Cup within reach on bedside table, he wanted me to hold it to his mouth.)

"I need you to pull my blanket up ONE INCH. It's a little chilly in here."

"Can you turn the thermostat down? No, not to 65, that's too much. How about to 66."

"Move my arm up on the pillow."

"Can you turn the thermostat up? No, not to 70, that's too warm. Go to 68."

"My room needs to be cleaned. Get some wipes and clean the area by the window, and get the floor mopped." (This was at 2am. I refused, as I was busy with my second, REAL ICU patient.)

This was ALL FREAKIN' NIGHT, both nights... and my second patient was truly sick (bivad, drips, lines, etc.).

Add to this the CONSTANT harassment of all the doctors and residents who were wanting to brown nose, so they came by out of "concern"... The poor dayshift nurse had FIFTEEN pages of BS orders and looked like she wanted to cry when I got back the second night. He drove her insane as well.

I cannot stand a "VIP" desgination. ALL of my patients are treated with the same diligence, compassion, and respect... and it irks the crapola out of me to be made to feel like I have to serve someone or I'm going to get in trouble. This old fart made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the "head of nursing" would be coming to see him to see how his care had been. GRRRRRR... administration just perpetuates this superior attitude and I can't freakin' stand it. BY the time my shifts were over I wanted to stick a straw in his eye.

Have any VIP stories? How do you feel when you're told that a patient is a VIP?

[katfishLPN]

Since When Is One Human Being A Vip And Another Human Being Is Not? Money Is The Vip!!!!! Lord Help Those Who Would Ever Judge A Human Being According To Financial Status---judgment Day Is Real!!!!!!

:yeahthat: :yelclap: Well put, I absolutely agree!!

[PsychRN-Kris]

This is the time I love to pull out all the post op routine procedures. Yes I will pull your blanket up but lets turn first. Lets get up and walk to the bathroom just in case your bowles have to move again. Time to get oob and to the chair again. Here is your incentive spirometer, this time when you get it to 1000 hold it there for 2 minutes...can't hold it that long? Thats why they call it an incentive spirometer. O.K. I'll give you an ice chip if you cough and deep breathe 10 times. You want to go back to bed well let's take two more trips around the unit. Pretty soon you are the last person the patient wants to see.

ROFL! I practically spit my coffee out this morning when I read this....too funny!

[JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP]

I particularly like that longwinded speech, because it sets a good tone for the therapeutic atmosphere that the hospital is and should be. I HATE the perception that pts mistakenly get that they are in the Four Seasons. It is harmful to their recoveries (even though there are 'hospitals' out there that I feel, mistakenly, cater to such 'clientele').

Tell me again which hotels have room service to hold your water to your lips, pull your blanky up to your chin or wash your face for you.

[RNNoMore]

Haven't had any VIP's - but quite a few 'FFP's' (Frequent Flyer Princesses/Princes)... my latest a couple of weeks ago pulled the following stunts...

"Can you photocopy all 45 of my Winnie-the-Pooh coloring sheets so I can color with my roommate" (She was 26 years old and lived with her Fiancee). I refused, but she kept coming out of her room and bugging everyone at the nurses station until someone photocopied them for her

"I don't care if the Doc wants me on strict bedrest, I'm going out to smoke and you can't stop me" (She was possibly going into organ rejection)....Oh, and if I didn't answer the call light within 30 seconds she would come out to the Nurse's station to find me.

"If you have some free time, can I do your hair - I have my straightener with me"

She also stayed up (coloring & giggling) with her Fiancee until 0400 am EVERY night, despite being in a shared room and then 'requested' that she should NOT be woken up for vital signs or 2nd assessment until at least 0900 because she wanted to sleep in (I get off shift at 0730....)

She drove me crazy for the 4 nights I had her, my other patients suffered because she was so demanding of my time (She would even enter other Patient's rooms to come and find me whenever she wanted something) and I was so far behind on my charting that I ended up working 2-3 hours overtime every shift I had her

Paint.

[NJNursing, ASN, RN]

OMG I had this one lady a few weeks ago that drove us so nuts I chose a different section of pts every time after that so I wouldn't get her again. She came in with dizziness and near syncope. She previously had 2 strokes and they were preceeded by the dizziness and a syncopal episode, so I could understand why she was brought to the ER. From the first moment she walked into one of our new, lavish private rooms in our new wing it was hell on earth. She was very needy, demanding and felt that the entire floor staff was there to accomodate her. We've got brand new Hill-Rom VersaCare beds which are absolutely excellent. They do constant pressure relief and we have had absolutely ZERO skin breakdown since we got them. She complained that the bed was uncomfortable and sent her daughter (who was equally nasty) home. Half hour later the daughter comes back with this thick, massive roll of foam. She unmakes our bed, puts the foam on top and remade the bed. Our CC went in to tell them that it was contraindicated to the use of the bed as well as the purpose of it and laid out the risks of deviating from our system. They both acknowledged the information but were insistant. Fine, at least we warned them. The daughter left and then her mother was suddenly bowel obsessed. She demanded that we call her doctor (it's now 11pm) to get him to order an enema because she hadn't had a bowel movement in 2 days. We get a 1x order from the house md instead. Gave it to her. 30 minutes later with only some flatus and no BM she demanded that we give her another one! I had already given her 100mg of colace plus the enema. I told her that it doesn't always work immediately and it could take a while. This was unacceptable to her. I suggegsted she drink more water and ambulate in the hallway. She demanded that when she was ready either myself or our tech (we had 2 that night for 32 pts) come immediately to escort her. I gave her a walker for added stability, but she's been ambulating in her room fine on her own. 30 minutes after that and 2 trips around the hall plus 2 trips to the bathroom of flatus but no bm. Every hour she requested yet another fleets enema adn was absolutely impatient. She always wanted more ice in her water, the bed was uncomfortable. She had 4 pillows that were put in a U shape around her in the reclining chair and it wasn't good enough. Drove me nuts. Then she wanted her meds on HER schedule and some of it was contraindicated to the use of the meds. She wanted all her BP meds only at night and came with a whole chart as to the exact timing of her meds and meals. Also came to find out that she was only taking her BP meds about once every 3-4 days because she didn't like the side effects and that her BP in the ER was 200/110. No wonder she was dizzy. No amount of education to her that night was acceptable and she swore she was on the cusp of another stroke - well yeah with a BP like that! She was on Actonel for osteoporosis which you take once a week and she was taking it once a month. O M G. The topper was that she absolutely REFUSED to take our profiled meds and insisted on her own for every prescription because she said our meds didn't work like hers even though we had some of the EXACT same meds in the same brands. That first night she said that there was no way she could stay in that hospital, even though it was her 4th hospitalization in 8 months, but come to discharge time she felt that we were letting her go too soon. :selfbonk: She was nasty to every staff member up until the day she left.