Patients who are too lazy to open their own splenda packets

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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 geriatrics, wound care, ICU.

"why didn't you ask the doctor that was just here"

I hate it when the doctor "mentions" some possible test or medicine but doesn't come and "share" it with the nurse! Then the patient wants to know when that test is going to happen or when they are going to get that medicine the doc told them about!!!:banghead:

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, MS, Charge.

I truly think that one of the biggest problems with this from my experience is that the business end of the hospitals have made it into just that - a business. Most of us know that you don't go into nursing for the paycheck, because if you do you're gonna burn out or end up in the nut house a lot sooner than the rest of us:bugeyes:. Most of us enjoy the pt care side of it or we really truly wouldn't be in it because, NEWSFLASH, none of us are truely paid enough to deal with alot of the crap we get thrown into and we keep coming back for more. My point, however, is that the big guys is thier comfy little offices who look at the numbers and call hospitals a business and say that pt care is a customer service need to be slapped up side the head because they are the ones who are constantly cutting nurses and making the pt loads so heavy that you can't give decent attention to one over the other because you have John Doe near death in one room while Jane Doe thinks she needs you to find Wheel of Fortune for her on TV because she "just can't reach the remote" even though it's sitting at the end of her hand and Joe Blow in 206 is Harping about how he's still waiting for his pain pill while Nervous Nancy is climbing over her siderails after disarming her alarms again and Jack Black in another is saying how you need to wipe his rear because "that's what he's paying you for" all while their family members are wondering why you aren't specifically at their family members side for every beck and call because "they are paying customers and the customer is always right." When did healthcare become such a business? And if it is, why can't I ever seem to clock out on time?:nurse:

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Specializes in LTC.

I think Social Services should hold a conduct class for any and all pts that enter a nursing home or hospital setting. The first topic, THIS AIN'T NO HOTEL, YOU CAN'T HAVE IT YOUR WAY, AND THE NURSE IS BUSY ACTUALLY WORKING NOT SITTING TWIDDLING THUMBS WAITING FOR YOU TO USE YOUR DAMNED CALL LIGHT.

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Specializes in Open Heart Surgery.

I have a comment or two here. I tell them right up front, your not the sickest person on the floor/unit (I work in CVU). I also tell them, if you want to get out of here and not go to some nursing home, you will do things for yourself. There are times were people need to be held responsible for their own actions and making someone do something for themselves is one of them things! (I am not talking about someone who is on a vent and sedated here either, i am talking about the lazy one that doesn't want to do anything.)

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Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.
I believe that some patients do not understand the role of a nurse. They believe that we are akin their personal care attendant or concierge. This is not true unless you are their private duty nurse. When this kind of situation arises, the patients need to be redirected and educated about the duties nursing involves and that care is prioritized according to acuity, such as patient in arrest trumps the need to add Splenda. While nutrition is important, breathing and circulation are absolutely essential to survival.

Yes and after you explain that they will promptly ignore you. In their world their unopened Splenda packet trumps everything in the known universe and they don't care if the person in the next room is in respiratory arrest.

Seriously.

We had a patient pass out from hypoglycemia on the way through the door of our dialysis clinic. All the other patients coming through the door behind her stepped over her prostrate body and demanded that we put them on RIGHT NOW and deal with her later.

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Originally Posted by aeauooo viewpost.gif

HA! I got one for ya:

I had two patients in the ICU, one alert & oriented, relatively stable. The other was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head who had blown out one of his eyes. I had to put lacri-lube on it then cover it up with half a styrofoam cup every couple of hours.

While setting up to put lacri-lube on the guy's eye I heard my A&O patient in the next room say, "
I want a drink of water
." Then I heard one of the visitors come out of the room saying, "
Where's that nurse? Where's that nurse?
"

I removed the styrofoam cup from the guy's eye and stood aside so that the guy's blown out eye could be seen from the door.

I heard, "
Where's that nur
..."

I didn't hear another word about a cup of water after that.

HIPAA violation... Not really, the visitor is supposed to be at the pt's bedside not roving around the ICU looking into other rooms.

Good for you.:bow:

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Yes and after you explain that they will promptly ignore you. In their world their unopened Splenda packet trumps everything in the known universe and they don't care if the person in the next room is in respiratory arrest.

Seriously.

We had a patient pass out from hypoglycemia on the way through the door of our dialysis clinic. All the other patients coming through the door behind her stepped over her prostrate body and demanded that we put them on RIGHT NOW and deal with her later.

Unbelievable!! I hope someone told these people off. The selfishness is sickening.

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I have a great story from when I worked mother baby. We have the call light plugged into the wall and we educate the patients that if they are having an EMERGENCY (i.e. baby not breathing, mom bleeding everywhere, etc.) they should pull it out of the wall. When its pulled out of the wall we hear a "high alert" sound and we all run to the room. Well this mom pulled the plug and we ran to her room.

"Can you pull up my pants for me? I don't want to bend over." We helped her then educated her about using the regular call light for situations like that. 3 more times that night she pulled the plug and we ran, and it was like "can you move my diet coke closer to the edge of the table?", can you flush the toilet, I don't want to touch the handle." etc. I was pulling out all of my patience storage to deal with it. AAAAAAAAAH! Now I can laugh about it. :chuckle

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I had a patient once that cardiac arrested in a gas station......his wife told me that people stepped OVER the off-duty cop doing CPR on her husband to ask when more fried chicken was going to be ready.......People!

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Specializes in PEDS/NSY/L&D/med-surg.

Ok, so I used to work Peds, but we got tons of over-flow so here's a prime example of why I don't work Peds anymore:

I had a 300# pt who was in for the repair of her previous hernia surgery. She's post-op day 6 and getting ready to go home. She's a walkie-talkie but keeps wanting me to come wipe her behind EVERY time she goes to the bathroom. So, after about the 10th (ok, exaggeration, but it seemed like 10) time, I asked her just what she intended to do at home with no one to wipe her butt for her. Her reply? "Don't you guys have any salad tongs?? That's what I use at home to wipe with....." GROSS, and would you really want to put them in the dishwasher after that??

I now work Nursery and L&D and have a whole new set of pt. gripes to add to my list, but that was one of the most strange...besides the LOL with the "fairies drinking water in my va-jay-jay" all night long, but I'll save that for another time....

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I don't want to think about ANY salad tongs that way!!!! :(

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
Your attitude about them must be coming through.

jawdrop.gif

I learned the first month in nursing school, that regression is a symptom of every hospitalized patient (and those at home).

Take out the word "every" and insert "some", and I'd agree with you. Every patient uses their own individualized set of coping mechanisms in order to deal with the reality of their health crisis and situation. Every patient does NOT regress, and in fact, many have very good, healthy ways of coping that do not include the behaviors discussed in this thread. Some people do not have healthy coping patterns, but they do not *all* manifest as helplessness. Some people withdraw. Some people are angry and combative. Some people manipulate. Some people attempt to control every aspect of their environment. And yes, some people act helpless.

But if nursing school is teaching such a simplistic view of individual responses to hospitalization, then nursing school is doing a disservice to its students.

Be part of the solution, and tell the patient to list on "this paper" what her needs are, and you'll tend to them in groups of 5, with the most urgent one first. If all the needs are in the category of "go fer", figure out what time of day it would be best if a family member was there to tend to those needs which don't require a professional staff person. Explain how many other patients rely on you, and if the staff is complete that day.

It might be best if the charge nurse came with you for the discussion above........ He/she might discuss the role of the nurse in the hospital (nicely).:bowingpur

That's one of those nursing school techniques that *can* work in some situations, but it is not a sure fire solution. What about those patients who cannot see to write? What about the patients with cognitive deficits? What about patients who lack the motor coordination to manipulate a pencil or pen? And, if the patient is truly adopting helplessness as their coping mechanism, then they will be too helpless to write a list.

And the charge nurse does not have time for that kind of nonsense. The charge nurse will only take the time to come speak with a patient if the patient is exhibiting behaviors that indicate a potential for violence or a lawsuit. Basically, the charge nurse has a lot bigger things on their platter than the fact that my patient is too helpless to open their own Splenda packet.

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