My patient fired me!

Nurses General Nursing

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I actually had a patient get in my face...UP IN MY FACE, FINGER WAGGING, when I told her I was going to call her doctor to get her IV Demerol changed to a PO med. You see, the woman (hx drug abuse/ETOH) came in with a scratch on her finger. I swear, I can't believe she was even admitted. She had already been in the hospital for three days and there was hardly any evidence of said scratch. The IV Demerol, however, had left chemical phlebitis all up and down both arms. We started IVs on her every shift. There were several red lines..the length of the veins on each arm. I told her, when I was taking the IV out: "I'm going to call the doctor and ask for some PO pain medicine. This Demerol is eating up your veins." She started crying. I NEED MY DEMEROL, she said. I told her that we could find a way to manage her pain without causing her injury. She had no veins left for me to use anyway. She told me "I don't care if you mess up my veins, just give me the Demerol." She acted quite desperate. I said, "Let me just call your doctor and see what he suggests" She chased me down the hall saying "You have NO RIGHT to call my doctor. That is between ME and HIM!" I told her I would relay the condition of her veins to him, which I was OBLIGATED to do, and let him make the decision. She packed up her stuff and left AMA...inflamed arms and all. It was quite a scene. You can't always do what the patient wants you to do -- even if it results in them "firing" you.

Well a person with alcohol addiction dose need something, like librium to help with the DT, i would have disagreed with the treatment ASAP....I would have called the DR. right away and have them deliever the bad news.....and contacted the charge nurse to have her colaborate.....those people are unpredictable.....

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If you work in this field long enough you will eventually get a patient complaint. Whether it's VALID or not doesn't matter- it hurts. It's inevitable that there will patients w/whom you just clash or that you can't do anything right for. I know it HURTS, but in order to be effective and keep doing the job you know you do well- you have to let it go & move on. Sounds to me you didn't do anything wrong- she sounds like a very manipulative patient!

I always enjoy having the answer ready before the question.....I can read a person as soon as I walk into the room......i make sure that i ask them what they need when i assess them at the start of my shift....and tell them the nurses aides name and that i will be on the floor and the aide will assist them with anything they need.......and if they are in pain just to let them know when they come in and i will be happy to give them relief, but try not to let the pain to get to severe, and estamate the next dosage for them, because i have several other patients that r in the same position they are and it may take me a couple of minutes to give them relief......let them know i am always available but to please be patient because i will be with other patients.......and if i do not address them with in a 15 min time span, unless emergency, just ring again and that i apologize for any discomfort this may cause

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We do them once per 12 hour shift (unless of course they need to be emptied sooner!)

Shannon

Umm, how do you get an accurate assessment of how much they are putting out per hour if you don't empty them more than once a shift? Here we are to do it every 4 hours minimum.

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Please, please try not to take this personally. I know it's hard. I have been "fired" before too. It's not easy especially when you know that you have tried to do everything for the patient. Sometimes there are just things about you that they do not like or you just don't do something fast enough or you say something that you think is innocent and they take the wrong way. Remember you cannot please everyone even though we try so hard. I've had a patient tell me I've thrown syringes at her and had a patient tell me that I didn't care for her at all when I had spent almost the whole night in her room. It doesn't get any easier to hear when a patient complains about their care that you give, but you have try and not take it as a personal attack. Remember that they are at there worst when they are in the hospital and sometimes they take it out on the nurses.

I actually had a patient that I gave him the worst care ever and that I was a lazy nurse and gave him a horrible backrub and If I am an example of the nurses to come that it is a bad example. Meanwhile in the background there is a bed alarm going off that I have to run too etc.. The next day the patient apologized because he had a bad roommate and was not able to get sleep, there is usually something going on behind those mean words, keep your armor on.

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leys just say-been there done that, I feel I have been kicked in the teeth or please remove the knife from my back now!LOL

Sherry

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hey honey i really wouldn't let it get you down. I am a student nurse and worked with an RN for 6 weeks on a clinical placement. During this time we cared for an elderly woman whose daughters were her main carers at home as she was very weak. one daughter in particular was always commenting on how well we cared for her mother until one night when things took a turn for the worst and unfortunately the woman passed away. This was due to her illness and age and definately not the standard of care she recieved, but all of a sudden the daughter changed her mind and decided to make an official complaint against the RN claiming that her mother was neglected, despite her previous opinion. I am sad to say that the RN in question has unfortunately been suspended due to these obsurd allegations. But it just goes to show that people can change their mind about you and your capabilities at any time. Yes its unfair and upseting but is one of the down sides of the job. you know that you were doing your job properly so let it go. keep smiling!!!!

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hey honey i really wouldn't let it get you down. I am a student nurse and worked with an RN for 6 weeks on a clinical placement. During this time we cared for an elderly woman whose daughters were her main carers at home as she was very weak. one daughter in particular was always commenting on how well we cared for her mother until one night when things took a turn for the worst and unfortunately the woman passed away. This was due to her illness and age and definately not the standard of care she recieved, but all of a sudden the daughter changed her mind and decided to make an official complaint against the RN claiming that her mother was neglected, despite her previous opinion. I am sad to say that the RN in question has unfortunately been suspended due to these obsurd allegations. But it just goes to show that people can change their mind about you and your capabilities at any time. Yes its unfair and upseting but is one of the down sides of the job. you know that you were doing your job properly so let it go. keep smiling!!!!

So management did not back the nurse? If the allegations were absurd,..WTF? That one of the big pitfalls of our job...EVERYTHING is considered to be OUR FAULT. We get patients who are SICK and DYING, but when they actually die then we MUST have done something wrong. Ignore the fact that they are 85 years old with end stage renal disease or an ejection fraction of 5%! Since when did we assume the role as SAVIOUR?

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So management did not back the nurse? If the allegations were absurd,..WTF? That one of the big pitfalls of our job...EVERYTHING is considered to be OUR FAULT. We get patients who are SICK and DYING, but when they actually die then we MUST have done something wrong. Ignore the fact that they are 85 years old with end stage renal disease or an ejection fraction of 5%! Since when did we assume the role as SAVIOUR?

only now do i fully realise what a hard job nursing is....and the responsibility of what we do, its hard being a student as i feel that i cant comment on issues like this sometimes. And as much as i would never quit because i love nursing, i do sometimes wonder if i am doin the right thing, its not that i mind being held accountable for my actions as i am the first to admit if i do something wrong, but its the attitude of others that worries me as they often seem to forget that we are only human and doing our best in a profession we love, but we are not god and can no more change what is ment to be despite all our efforts.

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I've just done my first year as an LPN, and it was a tough one. I was very emotionally vulnerable at first - still am sometimes - but you DO toughen up. The comments about fulfilling your own needs through your patients are well put. With practice, you will move beyond that. I do love nursing - but it is not my life. The way my patients respond to me do NOT define who I am as a person.

As for stating it would have been better to just empty the cath - in the middle of my evening med pass, that's not something that's a priority. And when you are taking care of a patient who would be QUEEN, often a simple two-minute task leads to another, to another . . . and then I'm passing the rest of my meds an hour late.

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