Why do patients.....?

Nurses Humor

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Specializes in Med Surg, PCU, Travel.

It behooves me to understand why do these little old ladies especially...you know the ones,they are the nicest patients ever who got like 100 pills. You take you time pull and verify each pill. Place it neatly into a medicine cup then these nice patients take your medicinal cup then all of a sudden dumb all the pills onto their sheets on their stomach, pills start rolling everywhere and they start taking them one by one by one.....WHYYYYY!!!! :banghead::banghead::banghead:

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Specializes in Addictions, psych, corrections, transfers.

It's hard for them to take all those meds at once and they don't have the dexterity to pick them out of the cup, I'm guessing. Maybe you can start handing them out on trays. That's a joke, but it might be a good idea.

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Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

My favorite is when they ask you one by one what each pill is & what it does.

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My favorite is when they ask you one by one what each pill is & what it does.

All after you just read off each one, stated what each was for, asked if they had any questions BEFORE opening each package and placing them into the medicine cup in front of them. I cannot remember which tiny white pill is which, that's why I went over everything BEFORE opening them:(

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

This is mostley unrelated, but I had a patient with schizoaffective disorder who had the delusion that she had dissassociative identity disorder. She did not.

Anyway, she had several names for herself and depending on her mood, she chose which one to call herself.

She knew her meds very well though and when taking them, would say, "oh, this is my Clozaril, this is my vitamin, this one I only take in the morning" and so on (not spot on but she knew them).

One day she started doing this and I wasn't really listening to her as I was used to it. Then she started telling me all of the pills were named "Susan."

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
My favorite is when they ask you one by one what each pill is & what it does.

And they haven't had any med changes for three months. "Uh, same thing it did last week."

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab.

Oh yeah, we've all seen that. But that's not as bad as someone who has several pills, you get them all out, crush them, put them in pudding or applesauce, and then they refuse.

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Oh yeah, we've all seen that. But that's not as bad as someone who has several pills, you get them all out, crush them, put them in pudding or applesauce, and then they refuse.

I got that a couple weeks ago. Chocolate pudding...refused after spoonful in mouth...by spewing it all over my scrubs. I now remember why I used to keep an extra pair in my car years ago. Messy.

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Specializes in Med Surg, ICU, Infection, Home Health, and LTC.

OMG so YES, been there and done that!!!!!!!

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Had a patient years ago, who took 18 & 1/2 pills every 8 AM med pass. She took them one. at. a. time. while I stood at the med cart watching all my patients yet to receive their 8 AM's, walk into the dining room, where pill-passing was verboten. I hated chasing patients around trying to get the pill-push DONE before I had to start the next one! AAARRRGGGHHH!

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I hate it when they dump all 18 pills out in the palm of their hand and try to toss them into their mouths but the pills end up in, around and under the bed. Then you have to crawl around in the floor to round them up. Next day we do it all over again. GRRRR! And once I had a patient who insisted he always took his pills with his MOM but I didn't realize he meant he dropped them in the MOM. He goes "This is the way I always take them at home." Proceeded to nearly choke to death right in front of me!

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
It's hard for them to take all those meds at once and they don't have the dexterity to pick them out of the cup, I'm guessing. Maybe you can start handing them out on trays. That's a joke, but it might be a good idea.

This. It's not reasonable to expect them to swallow more than 1 pill (or just a couple) at a time. Many (most?) older people have swallowing issues, with irregular peristalsis of the esophagus. Provide the pills in a different container so that the pills can be removed more easily -- or provide a better place where they can dump them out.

As for asking what each one is, that is a wise safety strategy for all patients. I've read many experts recommend to patients that they always double-check their own meds and to be sure they know what they are taking and why.

Those little old ladies are being smart patients. I intend to be one of those patients someday.

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