Patients who are too lazy to open their own splenda packets

[FireStarterRN]

Good grief, some patients want to revert back to being 9 month old infants!!! They also like to ask requests one at a time. Then, after you wait on them hand and foot all shift with the patience of a saint, they turn on you in an instant when their latest trivial request is not immediately granted due to the fact that there is someone circling the drain in the room next door.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

I had a patient who was NPO after abdominal intestine surgery and who was "reading me the riot act" about his "right" to have food right away! No amount of kind patient education about the dangers of eating too soon after this surgery would convince this patient that the purpose for the NPO order was about safety for his condition. This patient said to me "if you do not give me food right now, I am checking out of this hospital this morning!"

I called this patient's surgeon to inform him of the situation. This great realist doc came right over to the hospital, went with me to the patient's room, kindly explained again the potential risk if the patient ate, and then bluntly said something like: "you can follow my order not to eat to protect your health, or I can discharge you right now". Then this know it all patient actually shouted at this doc and me and said something like "ok, send me home now because I am going to eat no matter what!"--patient was discharged and ended right back in the hospital emergency room and to our floor the next day with major abdominal complications! Go figure?

Just proves "you can't cure stupid."

Having had a couple of abdominal surgeries, I can't imagine having any desire whatsoever to eat right away.

But then, NG tubes aren't real high on my personal "bucket list."

[Peri]

Another exactly.

I have been convinced that when people walk through the entrance of the hospital they lose all common sense.

At our hospital it is known as P.I.P.

Pyjama Induced Paralysis

[leslie :-D]

i remember in school, learning the benefits of the sick role.

and i'm very relieved to read about the newer breed of nurses, who just won't put up with it.

hopefully gone is the day of the ever diligent, compassionate angel of mercy.

i wear my horns with pride.

leslie

[quezen]

Did nursing ever really do the "ever compassionate, angel of mercy" thing, or were we somehow pigeonholed into this image as a literary device by those who were trying to say something metaphorically (think those maudlin pictures such as 'Lady of the Lamp-which I actually like- and so on).

Then there was the association with the religious orders, taking in the starving, the devastated plague victims, the wounded battle survivors. How about the St. Bernards with the brandy keg digging the half frozen out of the snow? What happened after these people were well enough to get around in those days of no central heating, washing machines, mass food production and so on? I am willing to bet that unless they were very well connected (as in Daddy send the money and the servants, quick), these recovering patients were expected to do a job around the premises to earn their keep, which probably included changing, feeding, and waterings the next group of starving, devastated survivors.

When, historically, did the 'sick roll' evolve into daily bed changes, PRN Morphine or Dilauid interspersed with ativan and oxycodone, choice of menu, someone hovering over the bed to 'open the splenda packet', and satisfaction survey with all of the above?

Don't get me wrong, I will do whatever I am hired to do to earn my more than generous salary in todays health care environment, and I am not including the patients here who come in, get well and go home, or the ortho, neuro, and CA patients who benifit from a lot of medical planning. It is just that I see so many drug addicts (not just drug seeking -the real ones with the infected 'skin pops', and the demanding gang buddies who like to hang out in the hospital because they have nothing else to do), ETOHers who have been to 4 or 5 inpatient rehabs (all public funded), and enormously overweight people with ESRD, I sometimes wonder when I look at the contrivances of some of the patients half my age who can hardly walk down the hall because of illnesses brought about by "too much", food, drink, unoccupied leisure time, and other diseases of excess whether I am doing humanity any favors by practicing a winning manner trying to get an 'honorable mention' on a satisfaction survey from people who, in many cases I would cross the street to avoid in my regular life.

If the only penalty for ill health due to "self inflicted" disorders is a disability check, free health care for life and minions of 'nurse servants' at your beck and call, what are we doing to the society we live in?

You get more of what you subsidize, what do you suppose we will be getting more of?

[leslie :-D]

wonderful, wonderful post, quezen.

as you so eloquently stated, this is precisely what happens when one lives in a society where the almighty dollar is revered to the point of nonexistent ethics:

compounded w/how to be most successful w/the least amt of effort;

and the extent of servitude is revealed by who it benefits most.

overall we truly do live in a selfish society, fueled by little insight and much judgment.

it's no wonder it has resulted in slovenly lifestyles w/narcistic expectations.

we have indeed, created some monster hardships that only we can undo...

once we can truly appreciate where our priorities should be.

leslie

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

What are you talking about?

I took the advice others gave her. I don't bother reading what she posts anymore because it doesn't make any sense.

[Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN]

i remember in school, learning the benefits of the sick role.

and i'm very relieved to read about the newer breed of nurses, who just won't put up with it.

hopefully gone is the day of the ever diligent, compassionate angel of mercy.

i wear my horns with pride.

leslie

You're my hero.

We spent a bit of time learning about somatoform disorder and especially malingering. I found the information very useful.