There are situations that arise at work when I respond professionally, but there is often things running through my head that I want to say but I don't. I'm only thinking it! I want to start this thread to express some things that I wanted to say at work, whether it be to a patient, doctor, visitor, or other person. Some of the things are funny and some are passionate! Please share :)
I am a new nurse on the unit, not familiar with the residents, and not familiar with their family members. The family members are also not familiar with me! A visitor that I have never seen in my life came up to me while I was passing medications to a patient and said: "How much did Mom eat today?"
What I wanted to say: "We don't have any patient here named Mom."
Reminded me of many years ago, I was new grad. I had a post-hysterectomy patient come back from PACU. She had a wash basin for vomiting. This was before Zofran was used....
Family had piled in so much that the PACU nurse had to have some of them vacate to put the patient's bed back in her room! They had a stack of about 8 or 10 pizzas from the local pizza place. The room reeked....
I followed them all back in where PACU nurse was holding back her hair. Between heaves, she screeched out to an older woman there, get them all out! Take your **** pizza with you!
They all bolted with pizza to the waiting area. I assessed patient and got her meds. When I came back, she said to not let anyone back!
I had a post colon surgery patient who had NG tube and colostomy. Family demanded we get patient a cheeseburger, fries, and large diet Coke immediately. It was 12 am. The patient was heavily sedated from surgery. When he came around, family was eating & I heard plates hitting the floor. They'd put several plates on his bedside table while standing over him eating! When he was coming around, he slung the bedside table aside so hard it hit the wall by his bed. We went running in and he growled, get these MF out! (He said words). The others on my team escorted them out and called for housekeeping. The family was saying he was just "hangry" and needs food. I talked to him and he said, they disrespected him and us. They wanted all of us off his care, but he told the supervisor if she made him take new nurses before day shift, she better come care for him herself, so we better be back the next night if we were scheduled. We all were and she made sure we had him too.
My thought is that this all relates back to our "customer service" model of patient care, and the family has been lead to believe the nurses are essentially random waitresses.
When pt's elderly mother was complaining about her ex-daughter-in-law, I just nodded and made sympathetic noises. I bit my tongue hard instead of saying: "Lady, your son is a drunk who you've enabled. He is an entitled, needy pain in my backside who calls my manager whenever he doesn't get what he wants (narcotics) whenever he wants them (frequently). No, I do not blame your ex-daughter-in-law one bit. I don't know how anyone (including you) puts up with him."
What makes me silently crying inside is denial. Total, irreversible, persistent and cold as a stone denial. I am pretty sure that it is not "belief" or "hope".
Its a coping/defense mechanism, and there is no reasoning with this kind of denial. So sad.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
On 7/17/2016 at 9:57 PM, GSDlvrRN said:
I had a patient say she was having a diabetic attack. I brought in the glucometer and explained that I needed to take her blood sugar. She wouldn't give me her finger and I explained that I needed to do a finger stick to check her blood sugar because she felt like she was having a diabetic attack. She said she doesn't have blood sugar problems, she said I need to check her diabetes. Oh you have diabetes but not blood sugar problems? Makes perfect sense.
Patient with spectrum disorder screaming to the top of his lungs, all day and all night. He can't help it, but other sick patients have ZERO tolerance. I get it, but still, "what should we do, kill him?" Was on the tip of my tongue, all day, when someone complained. Other patients were screaming, 'shut up!' Ugh... what a day. I felt so bad for him.
Angelicpurl
99 Posts
Reminded me of many years ago, I was new grad. I had a post-hysterectomy patient come back from PACU. She had a wash basin for vomiting. This was before Zofran was used....
Family had piled in so much that the PACU nurse had to have some of them vacate to put the patient's bed back in her room! They had a stack of about 8 or 10 pizzas from the local pizza place. The room reeked....
I followed them all back in where PACU nurse was holding back her hair. Between heaves, she screeched out to an older woman there, get them all out! Take your **** pizza with you!
They all bolted with pizza to the waiting area. I assessed patient and got her meds. When I came back, she said to not let anyone back!
I had a post colon surgery patient who had NG tube and colostomy. Family demanded we get patient a cheeseburger, fries, and large diet Coke immediately. It was 12 am. The patient was heavily sedated from surgery. When he came around, family was eating & I heard plates hitting the floor. They'd put several plates on his bedside table while standing over him eating! When he was coming around, he slung the bedside table aside so hard it hit the wall by his bed. We went running in and he growled, get these MF out! (He said words). The others on my team escorted them out and called for housekeeping. The family was saying he was just "hangry" and needs food. I talked to him and he said, they disrespected him and us. They wanted all of us off his care, but he told the supervisor if she made him take new nurses before day shift, she better come care for him herself, so we better be back the next night if we were scheduled. We all were and she made sure we had him too.