I'm gonna sue you

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I heard it for the last two days till I am sick of it.

Actually, I'm just sick of the patient. She is without a doubt the rudest patient I have had the displeasure of caring for.

She frequently told me she knew I wasn't a good nurse. If I were a good nurse, I wouldn't be fat, because nurses shouldn't have time to sit around and eat all the patient's food (I'm 5'4, 160lb, btw-not exactly a whale of a woman). And I am lazy because I took 5 minutes to bring her a pepsi-that I had to walk to the cafeteria and get for her 250lb tail.

Was told numerous times she would sue us when she was discharged-when I asked her exactly what for, I was just told becuase I was so incompetant.

I could go on about this witch, but I'm so sick of her, I don't want to type anymore. Not confused, BTW. A&Ox4, 58 years old. Gave all the staff hell. Even told the doc not to come back in her room till her learned english (he's from india, and does have an accent, but has good english skills). This was after he waited outside her door 20 minutes for her to finish bathing-at which point I went in and told her to get dressed and get back in bed, or he was coming in with her bathing. (if he did, she would sue). :banghead:

I just hate people like her. They make the job a little hard to swallow.

Specializes in Skilled nursing@ LTC.

Our patients favorite line lately seems to be "I'm going to call administration." I guess they don't realize that we document every threat that comes out of their AxO mouths. It doesn't hold up too well when administration sees multiple notes about "Resident threatening to sue", etc.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
Our patients favorite line lately seems to be "I'm going to call administration." I guess they don't realize that we document every threat that comes out of their AxO mouths. It doesn't hold up too well when administration sees multiple notes about "Resident threatening to sue", etc.

Agree, and I've also gone a step further. If I can't de-escalate the situation very quickly, I immediately offer to write down my full name and the phone number of my manager or the hospital's safety hotline, whichever they would like to voice their complaint to. ;)

And I document the conversation in my nurses notes, using direct quotes from the patient/family and who I referred them to.

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.

and i document the conversation in my nurses notes, using direct quotes from the patient/family and who i referred them to.

yup, frequently in terms i can't write here due to tos. i was asked once why the "f" bomb was in my notes..politely pointed out that it and a string of other four letter words were direct quotes from the patient, and supported why some care wasn't done (as in, "get the ---- out of my room you stupid ------- -----!")

holds up better in court than "pt refuses .....):D

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Specializes in orthopaedics.

i am so sorry to hear about your rude patient. i would love for you to reply the next time she says she is going to sue, "i am glad you are going to sue and waste your money, i have excellent documentation skills and have been documenting meticulous notes on your behavior."

dumb people suck:crying2::angryfire:angryfire

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

Since I work in a medical detox now I get it all day but if it gets too bad our Doc tosses them to the street and red flag the chart and they can't come back with out talking to him first. Our patients for the most part are grateful but we can get the mean and nasty drug addict or a mean drunk. And some time you just can't reason with them. Lots of them have no clue about what is and isn't acceptable behavior. I am constantly telling them to clean up the language. I address them by mr or ms so-n-so. I bet in just the last month I have been told I was going to get sued more than in 5 yrs of working in ICU,But I love the job. I also think that people like that are just miserable with themselves and and life in general. Misery loves company.

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
yup, frequently in terms i can't write here due to tos. i was asked once why the "f" bomb was in my notes..politely pointed out that it and a string of other four letter words were direct quotes from the patient, and supported why some care wasn't done (as in, "get the ---- out of my room you stupid ------- -----!")

holds up better in court than "pt refuses .....):D

i agree completely with this strategy. i think that sort of quote, used frequently in staff documentation, might go a very long way towards reducing the sympathy factor in a courtroom.

it would help, of course, if a variety of staff over a period of shifts and days documented the same sort of thing.

it really does have a whole different flavor than "patient refuses...."!

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we were taught to always, always quote the pt word for word.

and it has been my saving grace.

when a family member goes off on me, i often reply quietly, "duly noted".

sometimes they just look at me, perplexed...

other times, it's, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DULY NOTED?????????"

hahahahahaha, loving it.

leslie

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
we were taught to always, always quote the pt word for word.

and it has been my saving grace.

when a family member goes off on me, i often reply quietly, "duly noted".

sometimes they just look at me, perplexed...

other times, it's, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DULY NOTED?????????"

hahahahahaha, loving it.

leslie

LOL.:yeah::yeah: duly noted as in it will be noted that you are a crazy, overly-demanding, and irritating family member.

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Specializes in ER.
I had a wonderful 19 year old patient last night with gunshot wound and he was ok for the most part until he referred to me as a b*tch while using an array of four letter words. Then we had a talk. "I am not your maid, I am your nurse. Do you talk to you're mother like that? Do you think you're cool with that nasty mouth. You will not refer to me like that, I will not tolerate it."....He got some puppy-dog look on his face and said "yes ma'am"

Sometimes you don't have to look far to see why they were shot!!

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Specializes in ICU.

I had a pt who was very verbally abusive, screaming at the top of his lungs about how we were using "cruel and unusual punishment" and how he was going to sue us. Finally, he called me an f-word c-word. Oh my. I chewed him out like I've never done before. I think I was even wagging my finger like I do at my kids. "I'm very sorry miss, I won't do it again." He didn't stop the yelling completely, but the swearing was kept a little more under control. Embarrassingly, when I walked out of his room, the family of my patient next door was standing in the hall and had heard the tongue-lashing I had given him. I apologized quickly, but they thanked me. It's hard to make the most of quality last days with a loved one when foul language is pouring out of the next room.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Sometimes you don't have to look far to see why they were shot!!

Sure don't. He was on his best behavior for the rest of the night though. I just wanted to say to him "you are lucky to be alive after the crap you got yourself into. You should be appreciative that you have all your limbs attached and you can breathe on your own."

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Specializes in ICU, OR.
I would make sure to document the patient"s constant threats. I'm not sure it it would be ok to do so in her chart but I would definately write an incident report. At my job, we are allowed to write an incident report for verbal threats such as lawsuits. That way at least something is documented. Anytime a patient refuses to do something I always document it in the chart along with "risks and benefits explained to patient" "patient still refuses".

Anything said that is pertinent is fair game to chart in the pt's medical record. I don't care if it is a sentence full of expletives, spell them out. One cannot avoid charting vital signs that one doesn't like; the same goes with patient statements. It proves that the patient was more than difficult and unreasonable.

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