Nurses: How Do You Feel About Your Patients Being Nurses?

[All4NursingRN]

Or worse yet when their family members are nurses at the same hospital.

Well I recently went per-diem at my ER job and worked my first shift back in a month and a half. (Thank God I wasn't as rusty as I thought I would be)

So of course, crazy busy ER, new patient from triage like every 15 minutes. Plus we were short a nurse and a ward clerk, and the ED tech is on break. So we're answering phones, processing our own blood, etcc.!

In comes a patient, uncomfortable looking? yes, he is shivering and bundled up, basically here for flu-like symptoms.

By his side are two women both with our hospital badges on, right away I see they're both RN's

By this time we're in the middle of the usual storm, the waiting room is bursting at the seams, triage is backed up, we're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off docs included!

He isn't even in my area 15 minutes (according to the computer he has been in the ER from door to my area only 22 minutes, obviously he got in quick, he's with two RN's!) when one of the ladies he's with chases me down and asks abruptly are you his nurse?, are you his nurse?

I stop dead in my tracks and nod eagerly Yes maam, I'll be right with you (I had blood specimens in my hand that needed to be sent to lab, I couldnt just drop it!)

5 minutes didn't even go by and the other ladies he's with also one of our RN's goes, hey he has a 102 fever and his HR is 140, this time I look her dead in the eye and through my teeth say, YES just please give me a minute I'll be right there. I understand I'm his nurse, but he hasn't even been seen by the doc yet. I get the whole you work here thing. Heck I brought my brother to ER (which is my own dept) but I waited like everyone else but I certainly didn't pressure my fellow nurses to get on it!

Then as I place the blood tubes down to draw his blood she decides it would be cute to pick up each blood tube and name them all and what they're for, like really? please stop showing off, I'm sure your sick husband doesn't appreciate this right now, we all get it your a nurse, I'm a nurse, the other ladies a nurse, you work here, grow up!

So I take care of him, thankfully he's not seriously sick. It's the flu!

A few hours later another patient comes in with severe pain. Docs are at a trauma, I go ahead get him lined and labbed and promise him the ER doc will be back soon.

Unfortunately ER doc is with trauma patient for a while, so I grab another doc and beg him to order some pain med for my guy, which I then give.

patient then asks for more pain medication about an hour or two later, we give him a stronger dose, he was thankful and said he knows how busy it can be his wife is one of the nurse managers upstairs.

Few hours later his wife shows up!

I let her know I'm his nurse tell him which nurse would be covering me while I was on break.

I come back from break and lets just say the nurse who was supposed to be relieving me left more work for me plus it hadn't slowed down, I had two new patients who weren't even seen!

Now I dont' know if I was so busy cleaning up the nurse who was supposed to be relieving me for my breaks mess or if it was never relayed to me that he was once again in pain.

Then his wife comes over to me (with a very typical nurse manager's tone as if I was one of her nurses) and says a bit sarcastically, ''hey, he's been in pain for 45 minutes now''

I say yes, yes I'm on it, at the same time ER doc interupts me looking for a patients urine specimen and again I get caught up with that and getting pain meds for yet another patient who was in excruciating pain!

Now it's time for shift change, me and oncoming nurse are rounding and when I get to him he yells with frustation, HEY I've been lying in pain for 45 minutes here, what's going on!

I felt horrible, like his wife is a NM now I look bad, is she going to tell my manager? Then it reminded me of the two nurses who came in with the patient earlier that night who were absolutely pressuring me to get to their family member right away.

Ugh I'm so used to having bad nights that they don't faze me (unless a patient was harmed) but for some reason this bothered me a bit as if I looked incompetent. Not to mention both nurses and the nurse manager were all from different units they must think our ER is a zoo, so disorderly and poorly run. *Sigh*

Do you ever feel weird when your patient or patient's family member is in the medical field? worse yet fellow nurses?

[NurseDirtyBird]

The worst patients are other health workers. Phlebotomists, CNAs, nursing students (sorry guys)...they think they know. I also don't tell doctor's I'm a nurse, unless they ask after I said something "telling."

[Hygiene Queen]

Usually, the nurses I care for are pleasant and they get it when they see me running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

One, however, rode my butt for not making her bed... really?

I told her that she obviously understands priorities and patient safety comes before bed-making.

I work psych, so I'm just trying to keep my eye on everybody and trying to keep things cool.

I had another one ride me for keeping her waiting to put her to bed. She went on and on about how she contributed to nursing texts and blah blah blah.

I said, "great, then you should understand my predicament!"

But, usually, they are, as I said, pleasant and actually THEY are the ones uncomfortable because they are caught amongst their nursing peers in a psych setting.

You would think, that as nurses, the ones that act like buffoons could place themselves in our shoes, but I guess the priorities of care apply to everyone but themselves.

The most intimidating patient I had was actually a pharmacist.

Boy, I researched his meds like a champ before I gave him anything!

He was teaching me!

lol

[blackandyellow]

I find that I'm the opposite of the women you described if anything I'm too nice. I usually do not tell people that I am in the healthcare profession because I do not want to be like those women you described but it always ends up coming out one way or another. For instance when my grandmother was in the ICU I was helping the nurse turn her and her monitor kept going off so I asked her if she would mind if I silenced it. Let the cat out of the bag there. Usually most of the patients family members I have who are nurses are generally very nice and it makes it easier explaining things to them such as why a pt on lasix needs potassium. However I did have one patients daughter who kept silencing and restarting her fathers pump and he was on pressors I had to put a stop to that behavior real quick.

[pbuttercups]

I do find it intimidating but only because I'm a new grad. I'm sure with time and more confidence, I won't feel that way. I treat everyone equally, nurse or not.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

IME nurse patients are either wonderful and understanding and appreciative or challenging and difficult and demanding. I'm lucky to have had more of the former.

I had a patient whose parents were doctors. The patient was getting a bolus, so the pump was running at 999ml/hr, which was already a SLOW blous since the patient was getting a liter. The parents turned it down because they thought it was "too fast." I had to explain that actually, it was going in very slowly for a bolus, and had already slowed it down significantly by putting it on a pump instead of running it to gravity. But seriously, don't touch my IV pump.

[Daisy_08, BSN, RN]

The worst was when I was a student. Took care of a pt whos daughter worked in X-ray or something. Questioned why I would want to be a practicl nurse as they have no education ( longer then hers was) are not inteligent and I would never get a job ( in front of my preceptor who had been her friend for years). First I put too much apple sauce in her pills then not enough. I think she was so upset about her mom that she took all her anger at me. And there was a lot! I ended up crying in the bathroom. I could do nothing right. Sometimes you just have to eat ****, maybe put someone back in their place, but remember they're probably scared - especially knowing what we know

[M/B-RN]

I hate it when my patient's are nurses. It makes me nervous! But the worst is when they are related to someone who works in a doctor's office or they are a medical assistant, something not even involving nursing and they think they know everything. It makes me crazy to have to justify everything I'm doing to someone who thinks they know everything about nursing! No point in showing off when you don't even know what you're talking about.

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

It doesn't matter to me who the patient is because everyone is entitled to the same standard of care. I've had many nurses and physicians as patients when I worked acute care, as well as family members of patients who worked in the health care field. As long as I'm doing my job in a respectful manner, I'm not concerned.

[Anoetos, BSN, RN]

I had an MD the other day, a Rheumatologist from the hospital. She was nice but man she was demanding and self-managing of her care: got herself ordered kayexalate for a potassium of 5.1; called the pharmacy to find out how much K was in herTPN. She also had a lot of meds, many of which we rarely ever give. The story was that she came to us after having RRTd herself for SOB/DIB on the rehab unit. So, yes, she was also an admit. I got out an hour late that day.

[Mulan]

Some people are just obnoxious.

They should know better than to act in such a low class manner.

That nurse manager sounds just like someone I may know.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

For the most part, they have been great. Its the nurse family member that makes me want to jump head first off our helipad.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Patients who happen to be nurses are still patients- I'm not going to treat them any differently because of it. Be careful of making assumptions as well- just because the patient is a nurse doesn't mean they will know what's going on. Just like any other patient, they may be confused, overwhelmed, what have you- and cope the same way as any other patient who is out of their normal element. I know I would be.