How do you handle a patient who "abuses" the call light all night long? I had a patient the other night (for a 12 hour shift)who was mostly appropriate, but elderly with a lot of anxiety. She had 2.5 mg of Ativan in less than 6 hours, she was medicated twice for pain, her pillows fluffed, diaper changed, tissue within reach, curtain pulled so she could see the clock, TV on (because she gets paranoid in the dark), oxygen tubing adjusted, blankets pulled up & down, repostitioned 5X, etc... I personally answered the call light for her at least 40 times that night & that doesn't take into account how many times other nurses or our PCT answered the light. She would have been too much if it were 1:1. So seriously, how do you tell a patient to lay off the call light without ruining our customer service scores, of course!
how do you handle a patient who "abuses" the call light all night long? i had a patient the other night (for a 12 hour shift)who was mostly appropriate, but elderly with a lot of anxiety. ...so seriously, how do you tell a patient to lay off the call light without ruining our customer service scores, of course!
lol, ...send in someone big, ugly, and scary looking every time she rings the bell! that'll cure her call bell-itis real fast.
sorry, couldn't resist
but seriously, i've noticed that with patients like that, sometimes they abuse the women more than the men. i recall several occasions where female nurses would be called into a room repeatedly for the most trivial of matters, and as soon as a man walks into the room and says, "i'm the nurse now, what do you want?" the call bell suddenly remains silent for the rest of the night. go figure.
Emergency RN
544 Posts
lol, ...send in someone big, ugly, and scary looking every time she rings the bell! that'll cure her call bell-itis real fast.
sorry, couldn't resist
but seriously, i've noticed that with patients like that, sometimes they abuse the women more than the men. i recall several occasions where female nurses would be called into a room repeatedly for the most trivial of matters, and as soon as a man walks into the room and says, "i'm the nurse now, what do you want?" the call bell suddenly remains silent for the rest of the night. go figure.