We had a woman admitted to our floor tonight that wasn't confused, wasn't a psych patient, she was just plain MEAN. The CT department called and said, we are sending her, be prepared, in 20 years we have never met anyone like her. Well, it didn't get any better for us. The nurse tried to do her assessment and was told "YOUR PUSHING TOO HARD WITH THAT STETHASCOPE, STOP YOUR HURTING ME!" She refused to answer any of her P&A questions because "her doctor knew everything and we didn't need to know her business." So I call the doctor and tell him, first thing in the morning, you need to talk to your patient, She is being abusive to my staff and I will not tolerate it. In the meantime, any advice you can give on how to handle her would be greatly appreciated. Ofcourse, she is on the call light every 3 minutes, the room is too hot, the dinner is too cold, can she have a second dinner tray, her stomache hurts, she is having chest pain, her hip hurts, her neck hurts, her back hurts. This went on ALL night. THEN, the nurse calls the doctor about her hip, because it seems to really hurt more than the others:uhoh21: she REFUSES to go to the X-Ray he ordered. We are in the middle of an RRT and she is screaming at the transport guy...I left the RRT room and told her that she needed to get on the cart because she told us of the hip pain and this is what her doctor wanted. Yes, ofcourse it is her right to refuse, but she was just doing it for attention....So, I go back to the RRT room where we are pushing 12mg of Adenosine:imbar and I hear this woman carrying on. I go back to the room tell the nurses to leave her alone and stop fighting with her, if she doesn't want to go to the X-Ray, she doesn't have to but to sit and fight with her about the reasons is useless. I then informed the patient that the swearing at my staff and the punches she was throwing and abusive behavior would stop NOW, I had a real emergency down the hall and needed the nurses to focus on her. I was DONE playing her games and she was not to call out anymore for nonsense issues, expecially when she would not let us do anything about i. I then called security and they came up to talk to her. After the RRT, I looked out in the hallway and she had found a wheelchair, she decided the X-Ray might not be such a bad thing and was waiting by the elevator for transport to come back up to get her. Poor doctor, I then called him back and gave him a piece of my mind, lol. He said, what do you want me to do, something for nerves? I said, yeah what do you have for me?:chuckle Luckily, I have a good relationship with him, I said, I am just giving you a hard time because I am frazzled and at my wits end with her. He told me he would try to get her home tomarrow:rotfl:
I get tired of nurses (especially new ones) who says "Remember this person is sick, she is physically and I think psychologically ill blah blah blah..."
There are many more mean people in the world than there are mentally ill people.
Also, even a person with some psych problems can still just be a mean person. In no way should nurses ever have to put up with this kind of crap.
In most cases I have the type of attitude you're describing, even though I'm just a direct care worker at the moment (going for my LPN)... but I think it really only applies to when a pt. is refusing treatment or doing something that puts themselves at risk. When a (mentally capable) pt. is being abusive in anyway, it needs to be corrected immediately. No one has the right to treat anyone like the are less that what are: human. I'm not saying you should be rude, but strictly professional and make sure that they understand that the behavior will not be tolerated. I read somewhere else in this thread about the pt. agreement form... I think that is a beautiful idea.
...... make sure that they understand that the behavior will not be tolerated. I read somewhere else in this thread about the pt. agreement form... I think that is a beautiful idea.
But it will be tolerated. The new world order of hospital admins tolerates everything from the pt, and nothing from the nurse.
MQ Edna
1 Article; 1,741 Posts
In most cases I have the type of attitude you're describing, even though I'm just a direct care worker at the moment (going for my LPN)... but I think it really only applies to when a pt. is refusing treatment or doing something that puts themselves at risk. When a (mentally capable) pt. is being abusive in anyway, it needs to be corrected immediately. No one has the right to treat anyone like the are less that what are: human. I'm not saying you should be rude, but strictly professional and make sure that they understand that the behavior will not be tolerated. I read somewhere else in this thread about the pt. agreement form... I think that is a beautiful idea.