I swear, sometimes it seems I can not get through a shift without a patient or visitor complaining about something. From pain meds, to food quality to wait times, nurses hear it all! However, this past week, I had a couple strange complaints...
1) Visitor (patient's aunt) was mad that we did not have a blow dryer available to borrow.
2) Patient stated he did not like the way the sun came through his window.
3) Parent did not like that we carried Powerade, wanted staff to "go across street" to buy him Gatorade.
What are some of the stranger (outrageous) complaints you've heard?
Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
My unit has over 500 DVDs for kids to choose from. Mom requested the Disney movie Brave. I went to where the movies were kept and the Brave DVD was gone. I informed the mom that another child was watching it or it was missing, and the mother said "Well someone will just need to run down to the store and FETCH us a copy.
And I bet, DisneyNurseGal, you immediately contacted
LASSIE'S RESCUE RANGERS !
Doncha just love Lassie? She's my favourite collie dog!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Had a teenaged patient (in the adult ICU because the PICU was full) demand that I call his girlfriend and break up with her for him.
An older gentleman (who was probably younger than I am right now) wanted me to call his wife and tell her he couldn't have any visitors today. It seems that his girlfriend was planning to visit that afternoon.
A guy in this thirties or so wanted me to "watch for" his wife's arrival AND his girlfriend's arrival to make sure they weren't both visiting him at the same time. When I told him I couldn't be in the ICU taking care of him and my other patient and in the waiting room at the same time, he wanted me to find someone else to watch for his visitors. He was willing to provide photos of both -- just give him my cell number so he could text them to me. Oh, no! There are so many reasons why that's not happening!
A patient in the ICU on a balloon pump and dialysis wanted me to toilet his mother, whom his wife had brought in to visit. When I explained that I couldn't leave his bedside and suggested that his wife toilet his mother, he said "She don't like to do that." He got quite angry when I suggested that if his wife didn't wish to toilet his mother, maybe she should not have brought her. "What's the big deal? You guys do that $#!T all the time?"
Several visitors asked me to take blood pressures because hypertension runs in the family. "And by the way, Grandpop didn't take his blood pressure pill this morning, so you'll have to give him one."
Visitor staying overnight to provide emotional support for Mamma, who had just had heart surgery. Mamma is confused and trying to climb out of bed; visitor is snorlng loudly enough that the patient in the next bed was complaining of the noise. Patient was stuck there, visitor was allowed to be there as an exception to the rules to provide emotional support for Mamma. I woke the visitor up and asked her if she minded holding Mamma's hand and talking to her as she was so frightened. "That's YOUR job," she snapped. "I need to get my rest."
There was the physician who brought his mother in to stay overnight in his father's room. At 2 AM, the security cameras caught the mother running naked down the hall, and the CNA found her in another patient's bathroom. Her clothing could not be located, and she had pooped in the hall outside the call room. I called the physician (who had such a reputation for being nasty no one else was willing to do it) and explained the problem. "Don't bother me with such petty B--- S---!" he snarled at me. "Just put some scrubs on her and give her a sleeping pill." The world famous surgeon, who was understandably upset because he had stepped in the poop, picked up the extension and snarled back "If your mother isn't dressed and out of here in one hour, you will be looking for a new job." The physician sent his wife to take care of the problem, but Mother was dressed and out of the hospital within the hour. Her clothes were later located in a pile shoved under a patient's bed in yet another room.
A chef who would not stop complaining about food. The first time he complained I did the customer service response thing, but I had this man 3 nights in a row and all he would do is non-stop complain about how "they don't even taste it before they send it to me, do they???" blahblahblah. Dude, it's a hospital. It was really ridiculous. To be fair, he was sent an almost completely raw potato, but that was the third night so I was unsympathetic by then.
Must have been Gordon Ramsay in one of those disguises lol. I love watching his show and he loses it when his newbies don't taste the food they make.
My hospital does let visitors order food for themselves, they just have to pay for it. I don't think that's too uncommon. I've done laundry for patients there for extended periods of time. If I were stuck in the hospital I'd be worried about my cat.
Who delivers this food to the visitor? I would NOT be very happy to be delivering food to visitors with all the other things I would have to do. And I don't think that's something an aide should be doing either. And I can see offering to do laundry for someone there for a long time, like over 2 weeks. But for someone to ask that....no. And I'd be worried about my cat too, but none of these are a nurse's job. Would they ask the doctor this? No. We're there to take care of them, not their visitors, or their laundry or their cats.
Lol, that was literally one of the things we were told to say at one of my jobs...I always asked if there was anything else they needed but I think the "I have the time" only came out of my mouth a couple times.
I had a patient in PACU after surgery tell me that her toe was itching, that she had a toenail fungus and wanted me to take a needle and scratch under her toenail. I told her that I could not do it, that it could cause her bigger problems than she had at the moment. After she left, she reported me. It was a hospital that had signs everywhere asking if the patients had had a 5 star experience. Thank God when I got called in to answer for myself, (of course her complaint was that I was rude), I told my side of the story and it was dropped.
Davey Do
10,666 Posts
And I bet, DisneyNurseGal, you immediately contacted
LASSIE'S RESCUE RANGERS !
Doncha just love Lassie? She's my favourite collie dog!