Nasty and mean patients

ecmb · Sep 4, 2008

To my surprise, I found the opposite to be true. While doing my clinicals in LTC, I was amazed at how appreciative and uncomplaining the residents were. For the most part, the residents in long term care have come to accept that they will not be returning to their homes. They have lost many of their possessions simply because there is no room for this stuff in their tiny private or semi-private rooms. Their health situations have pretty much placed them at the mercy of those caring for them. I would go home each day and reflect upon my own life - how much I had in the way of health and the freedom to come and go whenever and wherever I wanted.

For those few residents who are not very pleasant to be around, my guess is that they are still coming to terms with their situation. These residents are the ones that need our understanding the most.

niali · Sep 4, 2008

I work in the hospital setting which is a lot different.I worked in the LTC

setting for over ten years and yes,the patients there seem to appreciate

the CNA's a bit more.

vmoh18 · Sep 4, 2008

Most of the patients were I work are very nice and easy to work with, but we have one lady that can be very demanding and down right hateful. Just yesterday she was slapping, pinching, spitting in peolpes faces, and cursing everybody that came in her room. She even spit her Ativan in the nurses face when she tried to give it to her to calm her down. She was also telling vistors that we were going to lock her up in the closet. The nurse finally had to call the Dr. to get an order for a Haldol shot.

momofboygirltwins03 · Sep 5, 2008

Just lastnight I stuck up for another CNA I was working with.. she was in a room at 5am helping the roommate get dressed for the day and the other roommate started yelling at her and called her a bitc* for being in there, I came in and asked what was going on and he said "where did you get her and what is she doing..blah blah blah (that is where I stopped listening) I told him that she was working and he was all ******..I told him that he didn't have to be so rude.It wasn't even like he was sleeping either, he was fully dressed and lying on his bed?!!?! what was his problem? Not sure?! He's just a grumpy old man.

MistiroseRN · Sep 5, 2008

Just lastnight I stuck up for another CNA I was working with.. she was in a room at 5am helping the roommate get dressed for the day and the other roommate started yelling at her and called her a bitc* for being in there, I came in and asked what was going on and he said "where did you get her and what is she doing..blah blah blah (that is where I stopped listening) I told him that she was working and he was all ******..I told him that he didn't have to be so rude.It wasn't even like he was sleeping either, he was fully dressed and lying on his bed?!!?! what was his problem? Not sure?! He's just a grumpy old man.

Try looking at it from his prospective. Someone comes into your room at 5 AM and is making noise. I myself would be annoyed. I think too many people are ready to dismiss the elderly as cranky without wondering if they are contributing to thier mood. When I was a CNA and even now that I am a GN, I gently wake up my patients with a smile and always take the time to let them know exactly what I am doing. All they want is to be heard and treated like a human beings. How humilating would it be to have to ask for a bedpan? Have you ever thought about having to take a shower in your facility? How would that make you feel? When you find yourself getting frustrated ask yourself these questions.

emndarmic · Sep 5, 2008

I also work in a hospital with LTC patients. We have a wing of elderly and rehabilitation patients. I am amazed at how other aides have told me horror stories about certain patients to find out myself that they are my favorites. For example this one patient that NOBODY likes (except for me I think)... anyways...I went in w/ a good attitude and TONS of encouragement on their part and LOTS AND LOTS of smiles for them. I have received nothing but respect from her the past month of my working with her. I know that certain patients are SOOOO angry and disrespectful towards us but I TRY not to take it personally. In one way or another their lives have been turned upside down from illness of some kind to be hospitalized or just plain ole' old age.

When they upset us so badly, we just need to take a deep breath and remember that we are some day going to be where they are, whether we're hospitalized for surgery or because we're 102 yrs old.

But..I must agree, people can be so disrespectful.

momofboygirltwins03 · Sep 5, 2008

Try looking at it from his prospective. Someone comes into your room at 5 AM and is making noise. I myself would be annoyed. I think too many people are ready to dismiss the elderly as cranky without wondering if they are contributing to thier mood. When I was a CNA and even now that I am a GN, I gently wake up my patients with a smile and always take the time to let them know exactly what I am doing. All they want is to be heard and treated like a human beings. How humilating would it be to have to ask for a bedpan? Have you ever thought about having to take a shower in your facility? How would that make you feel? When you find yourself getting frustrated ask yourself these questions.

I see what you are saying.

She was being quiet and dealing with the roommate, not even the man that was being cranky, and I'm not just labeling the elderly man as "cranky" without wondering. He is genuinely a cranky man. If things don't go his way he is rude, not just to CNA's but the nurses as well, perhaps if he wants to get better and get out of there and go back to the comfort of his home he should corporate with his care and not get cranky when he's not the person being dealt with at the time?

I do ask myself those ?'s so my bedside manner is awesome (if I don't say so myself) all my patients love me (thus far) and I love and treat them like they are my own. :)

MistiroseRN · Sep 5, 2008

Please dont think I was attacking you. That was not my intention. I just think that sometimes we forget why the elderly act the way they do. Maybe he was forced there or maybe he has nowhere else to go. He maybe feeling abandoned. My dad had a stroke 10 years ago. He was the kind of man you could call in the middle of the night because it was snowing and he would come and get you. After his stroke he became a very angry man. He was grieveing for the loss of his independece. We who once counted on him had to provide care for him and let me tell this was not easy for him and he often took out his anger on us. I choose to work in LTC because I love geriatrics.

momofboygirltwins03 · Sep 6, 2008

I know, it's ok :)

SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN · Sep 6, 2008

If you can try to keep in mind that the rudeness is caused, in the demented, by degeneration in the frontal lobes of the brain, which control judgment, it helps. It is called "disinhibition," and people who would never have said rude things no longer have the mental ability to restrain themselves. They just let fly.

In many cases it is largely the disease process that has people behaving this way.

Try to remember, too, that it can be pain. I had one demented LOL who would strike us when we tried to change her at night. Her arthritis was terrible and when we moved her it really, really hurt. She didn't want to be touched. She would cry.

Of course, there is the occasional plain old mean and nasty person who was mean nasty young and is mean and nasty now.

bethin · Sep 6, 2008

I've noticed it some, but I have many more problems with family members.

Last week a pt was witchin' about her roommate's IV pump going off. I mean, really going off to the point we had to move the roommate and tell the other pt to cool it.

Family members...that's a different thread. You get those who haven't seen mom/dad/grandma/grandpa in ten years running the show and not knowing the their loved one had dementia, cancer, etc. It's pathetic. And then they feel guilty so they have to run the show regarding care.