Patient requests

Nurses Relations

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We all know patients can be demanding. What's your "favorite" patient request? Mine, an iPhone charger...

Specializes in ED, LTC, SNF, Med/Surg.

Wait I'm confused... The pt. or the mother was DD? lol

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89yr old patient: I can't see! I just can't see! Please hand over my glasses

My response: Ok, but first you have to open your eyes for me.

(literally)

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What?????? Lol! "I'm sorry ma'am, hysteria is no longer a recognized medical diagnosis... So no vibrator therapy for you!" Bwahaha!! That's awesome

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That's horrible!!

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

A young man who requested a paternity test for his newborn son who was up in our NICU since "they were both there anyway."

Had something similar to this happen on my non-pediatric unit. I actually think social work gave the guy all the info/contacts to get it arranged. (It was his kid!)

I'd helped take care of the sweetest lol who went home with hospice. She asked me several times to be her private home hospice nurse -- she was totally alert and oriented, but offering sums of money that I know she didn't have or else I would have thought about it.

Pt's family asking not just for the usual blankets and pillows to sleep in the waiting room, but sheets too. Apparently they had brought in an inflatable mattress to sleep on. Uh, no.

Wife of a pt who was definitely not actively dying brought in her newborn (seriously -- the baby was maybe a week old) and kept asking staff for formula, a crib, etc. It was actually other family that set her straight & even apologized.

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Specializes in Psych.

Some of my adolescent psych pts wanted me to tell them "Scariest stories of working in the psych hospital." I get weekly requests to borrow my name tag, so they can get off the locked unit.

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Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
Some of my adolescent psych pts wanted me to tell them "Scariest stories of working in the psych hospital." I get weekly requests to borrow my name tag, so they can get off the locked unit.

Hehehe. Your first story mirrored how my nursing school psych group asked questions.

But it does happen? I was a frequent flier on several psych units as an adolescent. Just *asking* helps; you often lose sight of the context of your issues.

I did my psych clinical in nursing school *on* the unit that I basically lived in between 13-15. I'm also vaguely certain that the tech chatting with us nursing students about some of the "worst" patients that the unit had seen --) was talking about something that I had done. (And probably got passed down in unit lore.)

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Specializes in Psych.
Hehehe. Your first story mirrored how my nursing school psych group asked questions.

But it does happen? I was a frequent flier on several psych units as an adolescent. Just *asking* helps; you often lose sight of the context of your issues.

I would have no problem telling students my stories. I wouldn't share them with the kids because they would either be inspired to try some of it or scared. I ended up telling them about my painfully manic pt who hadn't slept in 3 days and pretty much never stopped talking. When she finally dozed off, the entire unit (mostly borderlines with a few narcissists) actually tiptoed to keep this pt sleeping.

When people ask for my nametag, I always say, "Absolutely. Hey, you probably don't have a car here, so would you like my car keys, too?" Most of them laugh and stop bugging me. One kid didn't. He promised to come back before my shift ended so I could get home. Yeah, right.

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Specializes in Hospice.

Wife of a pt who was definitely not actively dying brought in her newborn (seriously -- the baby was maybe a week old) and kept asking staff for formula, a crib, etc. It was actually other family that set her straight & even apologized.

We always accommodate these request. they get formula samples for free , so we just call the baby area and they send us. and we actually have and newborn cart/crib because it comes up a couple times a year. Maybe it sounds balllsy...but think about it having just given birth a week earlier and now having your spouse in the hospital (even if it's not serious by our terms) is still very overwhelming. we let the baby and other spouse spend the night as long as someone other the pt is there too in case the pt needs to leave the floor for testing. This doesn't feel like its that huge of a request.

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You guys sound ridiculously petty. You are complaining because a hospitalized patient has the audacity to ask you for a phone charger. There seems to be no shortage of delicate nurses out there.

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