Most ridiculous things you have heard?

Nurses General Nursing

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what are some of the most ridiculous things that patients or family members or even coworkers have said to you? we had one patient complain because i bent their straw down too far. same patient also complained because we let them fall asleep and they had a "nightmare"[color=#333233] :uhoh3:

and this is more of a annoyance, but i had a patient with a bp that was going down the toilet but surprisingly this patient was still conscious and talking to me - said they felt fine! :eek: i was busy talking to the doc and getting orders and taking care of this situation when a family member of a patient i discharged earlier that night calls me at 0300 asking me, "my mom feels nauseous, is it okay if i give her her nausea medicine?" :banghead:

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
Literally allergic or literally 50?

Literally 50.

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"get me the name of the person who designed the hospital. My mom can hear her roommate sleeping"They yelled this at me but insisted they weren't mad at me. Just the designer. Hate to tell you but I don't think the designer of this 100 year old hospital is still taking calls

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Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.

Ridiculous at the time......

Very sick but still awake crashing haematology patient just moved to resus because his BP dropped to sixty- the usual, 4 docs, team of nurses doing the resuscitation thing, me, his primary nurse heads over to his (lovely) seated wife to explain what was happening. She had an odd look on her face when I crouched down next to her and as I began to speak she says Ï'm sorry, I've just farted." I know why she told me, because I smelled it as soon as she said it. We both proceeded to giggle and ended up in fits of laughter and had to leave the bay, what was happening with her husband couldn't have been less funny.

Trauma phone rings, "We have a 21yold MVA, 80kmph into a tree, no obvious injuries (suspected suicide attempt) also, pt. very distressed and flatly refusing transportation without pet blue tongued lizard, so pt. and lizard will be arriving in 10." Pt arrives on stretcher at triage with blue tongued lizard on chest. After much convincing, pt. agrees to let me look after him while he is being treated. So I have lovely (big) lizard in a box at triage all night, he was good company- and go home in the morning and completely forgot about him. Was an interesting find for the morning shift.

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Specializes in Med-Surg; Telemetry; School Nurse pk-8.

"You must be bored just sitting in your office all day with nothing to do".

Ah, yup. We school nurses do not care for any children with complex medical conditions...

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Pt (older farmer guy, single, very innocent) couldn't find his buzzer in the bed but had his cell phone so called the first number in the phone book.

the first number was for Annagry Garda (police) station. I find this out when I get a call from said Garda (police officer) to inform me that pt wanted a bottle to pee into!

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

Wife staying over, she rings the bell in the middle of the night (there was no reason the husand--the pt--could not do it). "With all this baning on the wall, my husband can't get any sleep...can you tell them to cut that out." Well, the banging on the wall was a result of CPR being performed.

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I put this in another thread awhile ago, but I'd say one of the most ridiculous things had to be a patient complaining that the patient in the next bed was getting too much attention, why didn't we get her her fresh icewater NOW, she didn't like the curtain being drawn to keep her from seeing what we were doing for her roommate (who didn't need all that attention, because SHE was a patient too, y'know...).

Oh, the roommate who was getting the attention? Trying her best to die on us and we were coding her. Which the witch "behind the curtain" knew full well, just felt that it shouldn't draw away from HER wants being met.

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Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

I love the family members that ask for unreasonable things. One patient's granddaughter asked for a cup of water....so I got it for her. Then 7 more family members came out of the room and asked for 7 cups of ice water....seriously? Do you need directions to the cafeteria?

I have also had those patients who have a list of 50 allergies. Or one patient who told me she was allergic to vegetables. I asked her if there were particular vegetables that she was allergic to. How can you be allergic to all vegetables? It turns out she just didn't like vegetables.

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I like the allergic ones, sometimes the "allergy" can be pretty funny.

As in, "I can't take Colace, it gives me the runs" or "What happens when I take Benadryl? Oh, it makes me so drowsy I sleep for hours". Uh huh.

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Years ago when I ran with EMS, we got a call for a LOL with chest pain. She had called her neighbor, an RN who convinced her to call EMS. We asked about interventions they already tried and when looking through the provided baggie of meds, saw Nitro. I asked if she'd tried those and the neighbor/RN jumped in and said "Oh no! She's allergic to those!" My partner asked what happens when she takes Nitro?

"She gets a headache". Um, WTH? REALLY?! And yes, the neighbor REALLY is an RN, she did some lectures when I was in nursing school....

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Specializes in none.

Most ridiculous thing was when I work in a prison. This doctor was stitching up this guy, not very well for the end of the cut met about 1/8 of a inch from the other side. So the guy getting the stitches would always have a ridge . Well anyway this fool, in the middle of sewing this guy up said, "I wish that I had my lead sinkers." I said "Pardon, Doc. He said "Yes, I have lead sinkers on my desk in my office. They are all sterilize. You can put them on the end of the stitches so when the wound is healed, you just pull the lead sinker and the stitches would just come out." I said, " What is to make the patient from just pulling them out himself and opening the wound." Doctor look at me and said, "Well, you just tell him not to." I kept quiet after that, Knowing this idiot needed a check up from the neck up. The patient wound healed crooked and as far as I know the doctor is still crazy.

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Specializes in Cardiac, PCU, Surg/Onc, LTC, Peds.

This pt I had was allergic to nearly 100 things and had a specialist in Dallas, Tx.Allergic to nuts, all food dyes, preservatives found in most medications, all fragrances, lactose, wheat with all types of health issues along the lines of fibromyalgia.The husband came in the day before admission and wiped the room down with a vinegar solution and set up the hepa filter, brought own refrigerator with own food. Drove over 500 miles for a lap chole I think because this hospital is the only one to cater to all her whims. All meds had to be compounded especially for her and everything that touched her had to be wiped clean of disinfectant. She was also allergic to alcohol so we couldn't swab before flushing her IV.Had to gown, glove, mask and cover hair every time like she was in reverse iso. It was the longest 2 nights of my career.

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