Oh oh, the patient is a nurse

tokmom, BSN, RN · May 16, 2014

I had them read the orders for the PCA and I double checked them with the nurses. I didn't trust they would get them correct because they both look stressed and came in like the devil was chasing them. Too unfocused for my liking.

SE_BSN_RN, BSN · May 17, 2014

I did not. All my time as a patient was spent in L&D, and PP. Never bothered me. I enjoyed the pampering and attention. And the warm blankets. I can't tell you how nice a warm blanket is!

I was a little worried when the OB nurse didn't get my IV in the first time, but someone else got it the second time. I appreciate the triage nurses believing me when I came in, flushed and breathless....when they asked me if I could give a urine sample, and I said "We don't have time..." I am so glad they listened....I was in transition, and I had no clue. I think I gave new meaning that day to "stop and drop"!! I had an A&P final, and didn't want to miss it, and I thought I had plenty of time to take it, and then maybe if I was still having contractions, the hospital was just down the street......just in case. Ha. Didn't happen that way. I took my final a week later.

I LOVED my OB and PP nurses. They are the reason I chose OB in the first place....now, if I could only get the job.....

yesterday · May 17, 2014

During labor, I couldn't stop watching the fetal monitor to the degree where at some point my OB was on the phone politely telling me to stop watching the monitor! Also, when I first was admitted the nurse that started my IV placed it in my wrist area (I don't remember where exactly) where it hurt every time I moved my hand. I nicely asked if she could start one in a different location and she said it would be fine. So...I ever so casually mentioned the discomfort when the charge came in and she placed a new one right away that was much better. I absolutely hating being the patient and I'm pretty sure some of them thought I was that nurse! haha!

Oh, and to answer brian's question...EVERY job! :-)

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · May 17, 2014

34 years ago last week, I was an OB patient- getting a pitocin induction with NO epidural. About twelve hours in- I had had quite enough, thank you very much, and pulled the IV pump over to me and shut it off. My husband asked me if that was OK thing to do. I lied and said 'Sure!'.

Fast forward- I got busted by my nurse, four more hours of pit THEN a prolapsed cord and stat section.

Had my husband sneak me in a cheeseburger to the recovery room after I woke up. Again lied and told him it was fine- I hadn't eaten in two days, and the nurses wouldn't want me to be so hungry.

sharpeimom · May 18, 2014

When I was hospitalized a few years ago, I was assigned to a final semester student nurse. When she came to my room and realized that my IV hadn't been started yet, she burst into tears. The ER had been an absolute madhouse with a several vehicle pileup and two

MI patients and my IV was to be started on the floor instead.

The accident victims began to arrive on the floor and the instructor got hung up with them. My student was to get the IV in, and come get her before getting the bag. Shoulda worked. Woulda worked... But she was so nervous and hyper that she tried twice to hit a vein unsuccessfully. I was feeling desperate. Finally I told her that I'd talk her through it. Her eyes got huge! "You're a NURSE!"

We did a dry run with my explaining what she'd do, then she did it with absolutely no problems at all. She said her instructor made her so nervous she couldn't listen to what she was saying. I went home the next morning so I never saw her again. I hope she didn't let the instructor rattle her again because I suspect all she needed was some confidence.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 18, 2014

When I had my first child (insert depressing long story of botched "epidural" that turned into a high spinal, necrotizing fasciitis in the episiotomy, pressure ulcer where the Foley was d/t the edema, and angioedema to an antibiotic I knew I was allergic to, and house staff that tried to guilt me into getting a 12-lead on my normal breastfeeding baby (who was sleepy because her mother was getting dilaudid round the clock) and they did it anyway ...not a great ten days, but the baby was normal and perfect) I was still lying immobile in bed in postpartum a good 18 hours after my birth because my "epidural" hadn't worn off, and a crusty old postpartum nurse came in with a student. She asked if it was ok if the student helped her bathe me. I said, "You betcha, and why don't you do one side and she can do the other, and it will be faster for all of us?" They laughed, and I got such a great bath I just about cried, and told them I was proud to be a nurse after all that.

Of course two days later when my necrotizing fasciitis declared itself and I couldn't get a night nurse to cath me because my whole perineum was so swollen I couldn't pee, and then I begged her to do it, and she finally did, and got 2300cc, and didn't bother to wipe off the Betadine (which was now very painful, since I had a huge epis with sutures under tremendous tenson and the anesthesia was worn off by then) or put a dry pad under me... whole 'nother feeling.

lamazeteacher · May 22, 2014

Its so hard to let go of the caretaking role, even when its the nurse thats ill. We've all had patients who are nurses and they get up and change their beds, keep their own I&Os, empty their catheters and in general also look out for their room mate. If you've been a patient, what nursing job was the hardest for you to abdicate to someone else? Or...did you?

I was retired, and had been an Infection Control Nurse when I was admitted for gastric bleeding; and noticed that my caregiver, an RN didn't change her gloves or wash her hands when she came into my room - constantly. She also kept her gloves on the entire time, for everything she did (most of which didn't require wearing them). When I asked her why she did that, she said it was required that gloves are worn whenever there's contact with patients at all! My skin was intact, and I wondered if she had infectious lesions on her hands... which she wanted to hide.

Having nothing else to do, worried about my diagnosis and treatment, I asked the team leader if I might check out that policy by talking with the ICN. (She had agreed that wearing gloves all the time a Nurse is in a patient's room is required.)

So a power struggle ensued, and I was informed that the ICN was too busy to come to see me. I called Nursing Administration, as the focus had shifted to me as the problem. Lots of lip service was given by the administrator, but no change in attitude was acknowledged as being needed. I was seen as just a cranky Nurse who happened to be a patient, their bad luck!

An earlier beef I had was the lack of attention I received in the ED. I heard the paramedical ambulance driver that brought me there, give a thorough verbal report when I arrived at 4:30 PM, but no vitals were taken by the ED staff, or medical attention was given to me for 4 hours thereafter. I drifted in and out of consciousness and couldn't draw my presence to anyone's attention.

Once I was seen by a physician, it took another 2 hours for an H&H to be drawn. By then it was 10:30 PM and when the shift change occurred, I was taken to a darkened "step down" area that had no other patients, and a male Nurse started my IV, saying that I'd be transfused with 3 units of blood in the AM. He stayed with me exclusively. He slept well. I didn't, as I was frightened by the lack of other personnel or information about my condition. This was the major facility in Williamsburg, VA, and didn't come near my expectations of quality of care.

I'd had a severe gastric bleed years before this one, (caused by physician prescribed Aleve for 2 years). I'd been diagnosed through radiological procedures (upper and lower); and treated with alacrity with 1 transfusion and a series of iron IVs, by a GI doctor as an out patient (my choice, as I had pets at home in CA, then). I felt like I was included in my care team, there.

Obviously patients here, by virtue of being that, were not considered knowledgable or worthy of serious consideration. The situation left me wondering how I might have handled this differently. I had been calm and spoke only of a need for further staff education. I was far from assertive.

AmandaTheNurse · May 22, 2014

After years of experience in nursing, actually... to my surprise.. the nurses r one of the most pain in the butt patients (top 1 is teachers)...

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 22, 2014

That's because when we ask why our 135-lb teenagers have to be awakened every 55 minutes around the clock by loud IV pump alarms because their volutrol is empty of its 30cc because it's the policy not to give any patient in a pedi hospital more than one hour's fluid in a volutrol.

Or we say, "Two Percocets knock her out every six hours, how about you get an order to give her one every three hours?"

Or we say, "No, she doesn't have lice, see? This is dandruff, can you tell the difference? I want the IC nurse to see her and get this isolation order revoked. What do you mean, the IC nurse can't change it? If it's instituted by an RN, why can't an RN d/c it?"

Or, "Her hand has developed new numbness laterally and she had surgery for the olecranon fracture yesterday. Think someone should evaluate that?"

Or, "So he got confused last night and the intern told you to give him Haldol (haloperidol)? Did somebody notice in his chart that he has Parkinson's and remember that haloperidol is pretty much absolutely contraindicated in Parkinson's? No? Really?"

Or, "She needs a total hip replacement? OK. Did somebody notice the abscessed tooth?"

Or... oh, hell, you get the idea. If the paid nurses can't do their job of observing and evaluating, then the volunteer one has to.

lumbarpain, ADN, RN · May 22, 2014

I have been so ill many a time. I find that people just fiqure OH she is a nurse, she can take care of herself.....and yes...that's true...but nothing comes more welcome than someone giving their time or caring for YOU for a small fraction of what you donate to everyone else...I find this so upsetting.....for what good is a CARE TAKER, or HEALTH PROFEsSiONAl...when everyone thinks they are emotionally numb or don't feel physical pain or hurt......I have experienced this a lot....and the most painful of all is not getting help from your family.........they send you money and feel that that will make everything ok....yep...a lot of good that does.....

T-Bird78 · Jun 3, 2014

The biggest gripe I had as a pt was in the ER. I had hyperemesis gravidarum with both my pregnancies but my last one was the worst. I was in the ER, 2nd ER visit in 3 weeks and just a week after I'd been D/C from a 4-day hospital admit for it, taking 3 antiemetics around the clock but still vomting and dehydrating. The ER doc just nodded and gave me one bag of fluids with 4mg zofran IV. When that was done he came back in and when I told him I was still feeling horrible he nodded and gave me a 7-Up. He told me to drink that and it'd settle my stomach. I told him that it wouldn't help because if it was that simple I'd have saved myself the $200 copay and drank it at home. He insisted that I drink it because there weren't any available beds in the women's center so he couldn't admit me anyway. I drank the 7-Up as fast as I dared, then threw it all up just as he was standing outside my curtain. He conveniently opened the curtain and told me a bed had opened up so they were admitting me. I growled at him. When I got upstairs to the women's center, I commented that it was a good thing a bed finally came open and the nurse told me that they'd been empty all morning--the ER doc had never bothered to check.

My biggest thing is when someone is starting an IV or drawing blood, I'll ask what gauge needle they've got out then immediately ask for a smaller one. One home health nurse (I wound up on home health care and a zofran subcu pump after that ER visit and admission) tried to get a 22 in the back of my hand until I told her she was crazy and to get the nice little 25 out. I also tell them they get 2 tries then they're done.