Patients who are too lazy to open their own splenda packets

Published

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. :rolleyes:

Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.
I had this happen just recently. Post CVA patient. Wife used to be a speech therapist and wanted to sit and criticize my feeding skills the whole time. I only put up with it for three minutes before I thanked her for her "advice" and then asked her to show me how she did it. I then said, Oh, you're doing wonderfully with a big beam on my face and left the room.

:yeah: Love it!!:bow:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I've been told ,in ltc places I've worked, family members should not transfer residents, or assist in repositioning,etc. It's ok to let them feed their loved one though,(but then I worry the res. will choke)lawsuit time?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I've had docs complain that I wasn't doing my job because I didn't make coffee or load paper into a printer.

"Sorry, I wasn't taught how to do that in nursing school."

And do you simply TELL THEM that you flunked those classes in nursing school, then go about your business? If they 'complained' to me I would.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I had a pt complaint once about something trivial like that, too. She complained that food service forgot to bring her a soda, so I secured one for her- with a cup of ice. She asked me to pour it for her (!) and later complained that I ruined her drink with too much ice.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I want a button that says, "NO, I don't know when the doctor will be in!"

What, you mean doctors don't sit by the patient's bedside and wait for the family to arrive like they do on TV?

And aren't they supposed to inform family members of the patient's death or devastating diagnosis in the parking lot or a crowded hallway?

:bugeyes:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CNA, Surgical, Pediatrics, SDS, ER.

Just had a pt the other day who had been given a suppos at the NH before coming to the ED so of course when she got there she needed to be chngd. The family did not feel the need to leave the room for this and as we were cleaning her bottom the daughter said "Oh there is some towards the top there." The other nurse I was working with said "We got this." It's like for god sakes don't sit their and tell us how to clean someones a** it's not the first or the last time we'll be doing this. The daughter kept on the call light about every five minutes to get her mom a new warm blanket and of course the famous she is so hungry has not had anything to eat since breakfast "Can she have something to eat." NOOOOOOOOOO DO NOT ask for food when you are in the ER w/ abd pain because you will not get it.

Seriously these people just get under my skin. Thank goodness I did not have to deal w/ them on the floor. I apologized to the nurse taking her because they were going to be challenging/demanding.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Okay, not exactly a laziness example, but annoying just the same. Smack dab in the middle of shift change report, young twenty something female comes bustling up to the nurses station with an air of urgency and blurts out "My grandma needs a Tums! She has an upset stomach!", in the same tone of voice as if Grandma was in cardiac arrest.

Okay. For one thing, this is not a matter of life or death. Your urgency is unwarranted. Sorry that Grandma has an upset stomach; we want her to be comfortable and will do what we can to keep her comfortable, but at the moment, if it's not going to kill her, it's not the priority.

For another, a nurse cannot just run in there and give your Grandma a Tums. Grandma has to be assessed.

For another, who is your Grandma? What room is she in? Do you even know the nurse's name (written on the white board in the room)? We are not interchangeable.

For another, Tums may not have been ordered for your Grandma. Technically, we need a doctor's order to give Tums to a patient. The nurse will have to assess Grandma, look through her chart to see what she can have, and call the doctor for an order if she has nothing for upset stomach.

For another thing, Grandma's nurse may have another patient who is in respiratory distress or something actually life threatening. Grandma's problem will have to wait until the life threatening problems have been resolved.

I am compassionate, I hate having an upset stomach myself. I certainly don't wish that on anyone. I just hate it when family members come rushing to the nursing station with that panicked look to tell anyone that looks like a nurse that their family member needs: more water, a warm blanket, something to eat, to use the bathroom, a denture cup, a Tums, etc. etc.

Use the stinkin call light and tell the person who responds!!!!! Running up to the nurses station should be reserved for things like bleeding, cardiac arrest, respiratory distress, you know, actual emergencies!!!!!!

Family members who come out into the hall to ask for little things are one of my pet peeves. I've had my hands full of syringes and pills and minibags and IV tubing, with my hand literally on the door to go in and do a med pass, only to have a family member for a different patient, in many instances not even MY patient, come out and ask for a pillow or blanket.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ED/trauma.
I want a button that says, "NO, I don't know when the doctor will be in!"

OMG! I hate hate hate when the doctor has JUST been in to talk to the patient about change in meds, plan of care, whatever... then the patient rings me a few minutes later (almost always just AFTER the doc has left!) and asks if s/he can have such and such medicine. Why didn't you ask before your doc left?! You were bothering me ALL day about your dr coming in, and NOW you want to ask for something else... after s/he's left? COME ON! Seriously?! :banghead:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
i once had a pt who would spit on the floor: (basin in front of her)

blow her nose and throw the tissues on the floor;

and use her call light for "her nurse" to pour her a drink, even though the carafe was right in front of her on the overhead table.

(she was not immobilized.)

after a few polite 1:1's, she blew me off and continued w/her offensive demeanor.

although i had provided her with a sm trash bag taped to her table, she continued to huck and spit on the floor, as well as throwing her snotty tissues there.

i got a little tougher with her, w/firm limit-setting.

when i had to change her and was cleaning her bottom, she 'let one loose', with my face only inches from the source.

and then she snickered.

mean, mean lady.

leslie

I personally might have laughed but it would have been more of an "Oh god, did that really just happen!!!!!" type of laugh

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Kudos to all of you who deal with these toxic families:yeah:...I would last one day-maybe not even that. I'll take the 1 or 2 surgeons that can be nasty in my group over the families anyday. Pretty much, the only time I see family members is pre-op and if the patient is a child, we let the parent come back for intubation, and then take them to the waiting area. Most are well behaved, only had one woman get snarky with me because the surgery was delayed a half hour.

oh come on just a half hour? I usually EXPECT surgery to start ATLEAST an hour late. One time I had 3.5 hours wait.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
how about the patients who, when you go to hand them their water for their pill, they jut their chins forward, pursing their lips, so you can hold the water to their lips,but they definetly can do it them selves? I feel this is an indication some nurses do enable them.I tell them, as I put thecup in their hands ,laughingly," I'm not going to take away your ability to help your self!"

OMG people have actually done that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I would never have even THOUGHT of it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am seeing that my my experience is not bad at all. When my mom is there (about an hour a day) she actually does things for me. And one of the times my roommates friend would be going to do someting for her friend, and would ask if I needed anything.

Found out she was a doctor, had gone to med school with my docs resident.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion