I have two doozies for you. I was working on a very busy and desperately understaffed general surgical ward. We had a patient come back from major abdominal surgery (excision of a bowel ca and formation of a stoma) who almost immediately started to go down the tubes BP of 60/30 HR 140 you get the picture. I fast-bleeped his team then escalated to a crash call. We worked on him a good two hours, got him stable then transferred him to HDU (he came through just fine) I was three hours over my shift time dealing with this critically sick patient.
Arriving for work the next day the Ward Manager calls me into her office and gives me a right royal telling-off for not doing a toe dressing on the patient in the opposite bed (hernia repair, slight graze on toe) When I said I'd had a full-blown crisis situation to deal with her response was "Well you could have asked someone else to do it" Words failed me at that point.
The second delightful occasion (on the same ward) was a lady in diabetic acidosis. Full on emergency. As we were working on her a relative of another patient in that bay opened the curtains around the bed and yelled at us "My mother wants a cup of tea". The medical registrar basically read her the riot act. Result? Official complaint against that doctor.
HEADDESK.
Can anyone top these fine examples of human tolerance and decency?
I had a state surveyor complain that I used the word "manicure" to a..... gasp.....male resident. Whom I know very well. And she doesn't. Didn't say anything, just gritted my teeth and went on.
I was working a busy ER...had the Extended Care Unit and was at a dead run. I got a lady who was waiting for some lab results a supper tray. She was basically healthy and in no distress. I carried the tray in and in a few minutes her husband came out and said "My wife doesn't eat meat". "That's OK," I said in my nicest voice. "She doesn't have to eat it." "You don't understand," he said. "She doesn't even want it on her tray." I almost went in and threw it in the trash and said "Now there, it isn't on her tray!" But noooo, I carried the offending tray out and ordered her a vegetarian tray...which had not be requested when she asked for her first tray, and carried it in. They can be exhausting sometimes!
This from a sixty-something man who lives at home by himself. He repeatedly asked to be fed, and we nurses repeatedly refused. I'll never understand why some people come to the hospital and suddenly "become" helpless!
"the bathroom is too far away." this from a healthy, 57 year old visitor who then peed in her pants rather than walk down the hall to the bathroom. repeatedly.
pissy-pants definetly doesn't sound so mentally healthy!!!
I had a patient's son WALK IN TO ANOTHER PATIENT'S ROOM while I was in there emptying a JP Drain to tell me "I can't figure out how to work the controls on Dad's bed."
I wanted to say..well, it's drowning out Bob who's demented and screaming next door.
Thank you so much for the laugh! This is one of those complaints that need to be added to the "be careful what you ask for" category -- silence the pipe and tune in the Bob!
I had a patient's daughter go bazerk on me one time because her mom's blanket was pink, not white. She went on to explain to me how this meant I was racist.
The absolute worst for me was in ER. We had a baby that coded and we could not revive him. Took the parents in to a private room near the ER lobby. They (both over 300 lbs) engaged in a fist fight that spilled over in to the lobby. Meanwhile evil soccer mom comes in to admit her 7 year old as a direct admit for asthma. The child was walking on his own, no audible wheeze so stable at the moment. I asked her to back it up as the Titans were slugging it out. She complained about me because "She delayed my son's treatment". I did delay it for about a minute so they would not get squished. My bad.
My boss just called me in a few days ago to tell me a postpartum patient that I wheeled down to the car called to complain about how rude I was...her complaint?
crissrn27, RN
904 Posts
I had a state surveyor complain that I used the word "manicure" to a..... gasp.....male resident. Whom I know very well. And she doesn't. Didn't say anything, just gritted my teeth and went on.