patient questions

meownsmile, BSN, RN · May 30, 2005

Absolutely NOT!!! NO nurse should get aggrivated at a patient who is just trying to understand more about their condition and how to better care for themselves.

That is what nurses are FOR!!! Teaching starts on admission.

sharann, BSN, RN · May 30, 2005

It doesn't annoy any nurse I know. What may annoy us is when doctors do not provide informed consent and we are left to explain things(which is not right). Also, you may come across a patient asking a question when you are at your busiest time. I would tell the patient that in order to answer their questions fully you will come back when you have a block of time to devote solely to them.

allele, LPN · May 30, 2005

Does it annoy you when a patienct asks questions to better understand their treatment?

I'm actually happy to see it. Too many patients just let us do our job without asking questions. The ones who ask about their condition, treatment and meds are taking responsibility for themselves and keeping themselves safe, IMO. Plus, if I don't know the answer, I end up learning something too!! I don't mind at all, I wish more patients would ask more questions. :)

z's playa · May 30, 2005

Does it annoy you when a patienct asks questions to better understand their treatment?

Why do you ask?

Z

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · May 30, 2005

Why do you ask?
Z

I am not yet a nurse and possibly will be having surgury. I have had this type of surgury before but i was always to young to really understand what was going on. so i wanted to make sure that if I do have questions the people I ask will not get annoyed

talaxandra · May 30, 2005

As long as the aptient understands that I can't necessarily answer every question right then, then absolutely not - bring on the questions and concerns!

z's playa · May 30, 2005

I am not yet a nurse and possibly will be having surgury. I have had this type of surgury before but i was always to young to really understand what was going on. so i wanted to make sure that if I do have questions the people I ask will not get annoyed

By all means ...ask away ! I don't know of any nurse so far that doesn't like to help out a pt by answering questions.

But..if you happen to get a nurse who is having a bad day and seems annoyed..don't think all nurses are like that. :)

I've never encountered one though and I've had many in pt visits.

Z

snowfreeze, BSN, RN · May 30, 2005

You are my dream patient, one who wants to really understand what is going on so you can make intelligent decisions. Not the ones whose sig-other will decide but the sig-other dosent want that responsibility and no one wants to learn the treatments or how to inject the insulin. But they want us to make them better by tomorrow so they can go home.

Even the dementia patients who ask me every day to explain the pills to them are not annoying.

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · May 31, 2005

It's the ones who DON'T ask questions that worry me.......

I have had patients actually save my butt by asking questions. When I was fairly new, I once brought a cupful of pills to an elderly woman who told me she knew what every pill in the cup was except the little pink one; she wanted to know what it was, so I looked closer at it. Turned out a medication from her roommate's med box had made its way into HER drawer, and it looked enough like one I'd given her the day before that I more or less took for granted that it was the same drug. It wasn't: instead of her blood pressure med, it was Coumadin, and this patient was in for a GI bleed!! Thank God she was alert and oriented enough to notice the difference and question me about it........and in all the years since then, I have never repeated this error. Lesson learned.

No nurse should feel annoyed by having to answer patients' questions........you never know when it may save you from a horrible mistake, and it forces us to expand our own knowledge base so that we stay fresh and updated in our practice.

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · May 31, 2005

Thank you all for replying.

I want to understand my own healthcare better, although the surgery does not effect my everyday life (benign tumor removal on the right orbit) but I do not want to annoy the nurses because they are so busy I sometimes feel like my questions are stupid and insignificant also.

bsnrnoh · Jun 1, 2005

Thank you all for replying.
I want to understand my own healthcare better, although the surgery does not effect my everyday life (benign tumor removal on the right orbit) but I do not want to annoy the nurses because they are so busy I sometimes feel like my questions are stupid and insignificant also.

No question is stupid or insignificant when it applies to YOU. You are the one who will have to live with the recovery, scars, pain, risks. And you deserve to be informed about all of it ahead of time. Obviously no one can tell the furture, but nurses and doctors can tell you the "expected" outcome.

:devil: Never, never, never let anyone tell you to keep quiet if you are not sure or just want to know something, especially about your own health.