Odd interactions

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Some interactions are just plain odd. What's one that will stay with you forever?

Mines is I had a 34 y/o female pt. She would always put her light on to tell us that she had just used her diaper. She had been there about a week using diapers. She has also been DEMANDING us to put in a foley. So early on in my first day with her as I'm changing her I ask her how she uses the bathroom at home. "I just walk" She was in for a lap chole. So I ask her if she can use the restroom right now and she just jumps right out of bed and goes to use the restroom. Turns out she just really really really didnt want to get out of bed. After that she was still very insistent on getting a foley.

Oh my God. :facepalm: :unsure:

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Yes I totally agree that doing these activities to attract the attention and handling by staff is inappropriate and disgusting. I had a male patient who was always asking for suppositories. He would refuse oral laxatives and say he was constipated even when he wasn't just to get the female nurses to give him a supp. Then the staff decided to give this task to a male nurse. The latter agreed. Patient took oral laxatives after that. But the old nuns where I trained would not have considered this inappropriate. They would tell us the patient had unmet needs.

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I do think this behavior to staff is abuse of the staff.

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Once we had a patient who wanted to discharge AMA, but she couldn't get a ride home. She called 911 to come drive her home in an ambulance. Over. And over. And over.

When I worked in memory care, there was a little lady resident that was getting agitated. One of the other residents was trying to calm her and he said "If you don't learn to mind, we're going to have to put you in a home!"

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Okay, folks. Here's a couple for you.

My old job had an outpatient sickle cell clinic. My floor was the go-to spot for the clinic patients when they were in crisis so the Dilauded was a-flowing! 10, 12, 14mg q2H. On the dot. With IV Benadryl. The most I gave was 16 but that's beside the point.

There are people who can still breathe with 16 mg of Dilaudid AND Benadryl coursing through their bodies?!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Yes I totally agree that doing these activities to attract the attention and handling by staff is inappropriate and disgusting. I had a male patient who was always asking for suppositories. He would refuse oral laxatives and say he was constipated even when he wasn't just to get the female nurses to give him a supp. Then the staff decided to give this task to a male nurse. The latter agreed. Patient took oral laxatives after that. But the old nuns where I trained would not have considered this inappropriate. They would tell us the patient had unmet needs.

The best solution to a creepy male patient with semi sexual requests is to bring in a male care provider. Funny how often that request then gets taken back by the patient!

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The best solution to a creepy male patient with semi sexual requests is to bring in a male care provider. Funny how often that request then gets taken back by the patient!

We were having a conversation about how he treats the female nurses and the male nurse stated he did not do this with him, how he was appropriate and didn't ask for supps from him, so he offered to help the female nurses out so we would not be subjected to his inappropriateness and abuse. I think the management should have dealt with it and confronted him about it but they did not. The previous CEO would have taken it head on and confronted him, but not the current management who will not stand up for the staff.

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Specializes in med-surg, IMC, school nursing, NICU.
There are people who can still breathe with 16 mg of Dilaudid AND Benadryl coursing through their bodies?!

Oh you bet your boots! Breathe, wander around the unit, order Chinese food. They didn't start out on doses that high, of course. Narc tolerance is a tricky lady.

As a new grad, it was terrifying pushing that much. By my 6 month review, I was a pro. I could draw up those vials in my sleep.

About a year after I started, however, they started a new policy that required any dose higher than 2mg had to be mixed in a minibag, locked in a lock box and run over 30 minutes.

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Another memory stirred to the surface:

A frequent flyer came to my hospital's ER complaining of uncontrolled pain. She was admitted for CHF exacerbation. Her K was low, she was fluid overloaded, and you could hear her crackles with every breath - from the hallway outside her room. She refused to take Lasix unless we put a Foley in, which the doctor ordered (because "patient asked for it" is totally an indication for an invasive device, right?) and she refused the liquid K the ER tried to give her before transferring her to me in Med-Surg because it tasted icky. Oh, and she could barely stay conscious for more than a few seconds.

ALL she wanted was pain medication. I told her I would be happy to see what PRN had been ordered for her as soon as her Give Now meds were taken care of. I managed to get the Lasix and K into her before she fell asleep. Then she slept through a blood sugar check.

I spent the night watching her tele like a hawk and swinging by her room every hour or so (and charting progress notes with each check) because her respirs were 30-40, she was drowsy, and her audible crackles continued. I wasn't sure Med-Surg was right for her, but they declined to admit her to ICU. I gave her no pain medication because I didn't want to decrease her LOC even further.

The day shift treatment must not have been any more to her liking, because she left AMA the following morning.

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Another memory stirred to the surface:

A frequent flyer came to my hospital's ER complaining of uncontrolled pain. She was admitted for CHF exacerbation. Her K was low, she was fluid overloaded, and you could hear her crackles with every breath - from the hallway outside her room. She refused to take Lasix unless we put a Foley in, which the doctor ordered (because "patient asked for it" is totally an indication for an invasive device, right?) and she refused the liquid K the ER tried to give her before transferring her to me in Med-Surg because it tasted icky. Oh, and she could barely stay conscious for more than a few seconds.

ALL she wanted was pain medication. I told her I would be happy to see what PRN had been ordered for her as soon as her Give Now meds were taken care of. I managed to get the Lasix and K into her before she fell asleep. Then she slept through a blood sugar check.

I spent the night watching her tele like a hawk and swinging by her room every hour or so (and charting progress notes with each check) because her respirs were 30-40, she was drowsy, and her audible crackles continued. I wasn't sure Med-Surg was right for her, but they declined to admit her to ICU. I gave her no pain medication because I didn't want to decrease her LOC even further.

The day shift treatment must not have been any more to her liking, because she left AMA the following morning.

Just wondering if she pulled her Foley out before she LAMA'd.

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Just wondering if she pulled her Foley out before she LAMA'd.

I didn't hear, which means I'm sure she let them take it out. We did, however, have another repeat patient (small town problem) with MO, severe COPD, who waltzed home without letting us take the Foley out.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
One of my favorite stories ever, although more funny than odd:

Back when I was a tech at a hospital, I had a patient who was in his early 20s, alert, oriented x3, walkie talkie. At that hospital, patients needed an order to be able to shower, so most got bed baths, or in the case of the walkie talkies, would be given a basin and supplies to wash up. When I went to his room to give him washcloths and towels, etc. he insisted that he was unable to wash himself, even after I explained how most patients usually did it, and then I even filled up the basin and set everything up for him. Being that he had absolutely no physical limitations whatsoever, I asked him why he believed he couldn't wash himself, and he started with some story about feeling "weak," and unable to move his arms enough in order to wash himself. The strangest part of all of this was that his girlfriend was right there and even started crying. It was so awkward. Even though I wanted to slap him, I very politely offered to help him wash his back, but stated that he should be able to do the rest himself. He kept insisting that I needed to do his "entire body." He then ripped off his hospital gown, and while sitting at the side of his bed, closed his eyes and spread out his arms as if to say "wash me." The girlfriend then cried even more.

I excused myself, stating there was something I needed to go do, and I went to the male nurse who was on that shift and told him the story. He decided that HE would go in there and offer to "help." Now this nurse was probably about 6 1/2 feet tall, on the heavy side, and had a handlebar mustache... I was DYING with laughter! When he went in the room, I hovered near the doorway to listen in.

Male nurse in his big deep voice: "Hello, I heard you needed some help washing up."

Patient: "Where did that girl go?"

Nurse: "I'm afraid she's busy, and I'm the only one here who can help you."

Patient: "Man, bring that girl back here, I don't wanna get washed up by a dude."

Nurse: "I don't understand why you can't wash yourself. What seems to be the problem?"

Patient: "Well, I can't reach here, and here..." as he points to those places.

Nurse: "Well it looks like you just did."

Patient: "Oh screw this BS, I'll wash myself."

Nurse: "I thought so. Have a good day."

The tears were pouring down face and my stomach hurt so bad from laughing! That nurse was awesome!

Super Murse to the rescue!!

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