Patient called me Chubby... LOL

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Okay so I know all of you experience nurses are like " welcome to the club", but this was my first time being called a name by a pt. Granted she was disoriented but she oriented enough to see that I was chubby. So I have to admit I am chubby, I'm 5'5 and weigh about 169lbs exaxt. My question is how do you deal with name calling. For me I laughed it off and I recognize that in nursing you definitely can't wear your heart on your sleeves and you must have thick skin. So how do you all deal with name calling ? :bugeyes:

Specializes in Emergency, critical care.

I've been known to reply, in my nicest 'librarian' voice: "That's Mrs. Chubby ( or Nurse Chubby) to you."

Just want to add, in my background, chubby is cute and angelic...maybe she did not mean to offend?

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

I think handling it with a sense of humor is probably your best bet.

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I think handling it with a sense of humor is probably your best bet.

i agree, in that "chubby" is relatively mild.

when the insults start getting vulgar, you can either limit-set, tell them you are now going to ignore them...

or, tell them to bite you.:lol2:

heh...nah, can't do that.

you will learn what is worth battling for.

but thick skins do help.

leslie

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Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.

omg i have to tell yall about this patient i had. she was the meanest old woman you ever met. when new nurses would start she would ask me "where the he!l did you find her?". somedays she would tell me "why dont you get off your as* and make my bed?". i'm tellin yall she was evil,lol. i just know when she died she busted hades wide open.

when she was mad at me, which was often, she would call me fat in some way or other. anytime we put a patient in the room with her she would either torture them directly or torture us for putting them in there. it was so bad that they finally had to tell her that either she pay for a private room or she goes, lol. btw...her sister was just as mean as she was.

so one day i was in the room taking care of the poor, dying, hospice patient that was in there with her. thankfully the woman was completely nonresponsive so she had no idea how mean her roomie was. i was bent over the bed with my butt in her direction.

all the sudden i heard her ask her sister, "how do you think she even FINDS pants big enough to put that as* in???"

i was furious at her then and told them both that "now i know why you both are so miserable...you are nothing but mean old bats!" and i wiggled my butt at them and walked outta the room.

now it just cracks me up to think of the crap she said, lol.

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Oh lord how rude...but then again she was disoriented so you have to excuse her bad manners,I remeber one of my friends was told by a psych patient that she has a big feet,LOL....I havent encounter any rude comments about my looks,just few compliments from the psych patients heh....

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Specializes in CTICU.

I had an old lady say "gee, you're a fine hunk of a girl, aren't you?" many years ago. I was underimpressed, but I think she was just being factual - can't get mad at an old dear anyhow.

Now I had the world's meanest old witch last year - her I just refused to take care of because she was such a beyotch. She still calls me "the thing". Funny thing is that I hardly ever even spoke to the woman - I think she dislikes me because I won't take the crap she dishes out to all the other staff and told her not to speak to me that way. I said "Listen, Ms...., I will do whatever you want or get whatever you need, but I will not tolerate being spoken to like that". She then said "what? I didn't say anything". I think she's nutso.

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Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.

oh wait, i have one more (im a big girl so i probably have thousands if i think about it, lol).

we had this couple that lived at our LTC. he was THE sweetest thing you could ever meet. i adore him. his wife, lol, well....she just says whatever is on her mind, no matter WHAT it is. she has horrible anxiety as well so when she gets anxious it gets worse, lol. and she has one of the worst cases of OCD i've ever had the pleasure of taking care of.

needless to say...i adore her too. (the mean ones are ALWAYS my favorites).

so one morning she was um...misbehaving. she was yelling at all the staff, wouldnt allow them to take her to the bathroom and just all around being a little snot. even her husband could be heard yelling "why dont you just shut the he!l up??". but then he would always shut back up after he said something because then she would start in on him and he knew he'd never win, lol. sometimes we would stand outside their door laffing our tails off at them fighting. she threw something at him one day and a nurse i work with still cracks me up talking about it.

so anyhoo...she's misbehaving. the nurse taking care of her was literally at her wit's end. she couldnt please her no matter what she did and she was really trying hard. so she asked me (as the supervisor) to come and "have a talk" with the patient in hopes she would lissn to me and behave.

yeah...that worked real well, lol.

i go in her room and sit on the side of the bed (she's up in her chair beside the bed) and ask her why she is being mean to the people that are just trying to take care of her. at the time her husband was in a different room because he was so sick. i had just come from running his morning IV and he told me "i'm going to go see my wife. i need a kiss". it was so sweet! so i told her that i'd just left him and that he was getting ready to come visit her so she needed to let them get her ready. lol, she looked at me with the meanest look and said "you are sleeping with him arent you?".

i 'bout died! i say "NO!!" but she wouldnt hear it, lol.

so then she says to me, "just WHO are you anyway and why did THEY send you in here?". so i tell her "im the supervisor and they asked me to come reason with you". she tells me to get out cuz it wont work, lol.

so i left the room laffing my butt off.

so the nurse goes back in the room and she asks her "why'd you have to go and tell on me and send ole BLUBBER BUTT in here anyways???"

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document.png Re: Patient called me Chubby... LOL

'What do you do when a patient asked you when your due date, when your not pregnant. I had one elderly women get upset with me for lifting her. She stated " You should not be liifting in your condition, dear, you don't want to hurt the baby'

That pt is funny!

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document.png Re: Patient called me Chubby... LOL

'What do you do when a patient asked you when your due date, when your not pregnant. I had one elderly women get upset with me for lifting her. She stated " You should not be liifting in your condition, dear, you don't want to hurt the baby'

That pt is funny!

Really funny !!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

Hi Nursingstudent19 !!

I guess being called "chubby" is a mild name that we can all be called. At least she didn't curse at you ! If you are "chubby" then I would have been called "tubby" ! Hehe :smokin:

Hope you are doing well ! Miss you !

Praiser :heartbeat

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Specializes in Oncology, radiology, ICU.

I had a patient tell me once I reminded him of his sister only I was fatter than her. *Sigh* He was confused at the time so I really didn't make an issue of it with him, what's the point? Now if it would have been someone saying it to be intentionally mean I would have told the person that it wasn't nice to say that to someone after all I may be chubby but that doesn't mean I don't have feelings.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
Really funny !!

Sorry, I don't think it was "funny," and certainly not enough to post twice about how funny it is. My feelings would be extremely hurt if I was on the receiving end of that comment. Maybe you have to be female to understand that, I don't know.

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