Patients We Love to Hate

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

Well, it's finally happened........I've met her at last.......the only patient I have ever truly disliked.

I've long been famous for getting along with some of the most aggressive, petty, mean, combative, rude, hostile, nasty, abusive patients ever to come through our hospital doors. "Kill 'em with kindness" is my motto, and even if I couldn't make such a patient turn into a pussycat, I could at least keep them from killing ME. I've never been hit, and other than having a man who wasn't allowed to see his crack-addicted newborn threaten to shoot me, I've rarely been scared at work. (That's not to say I haven't dodged a few kicks, as well as a telemetry unit that was thrown at me by an 80-pound LOL.)

But now I've experienced it: caring for a patient I can neither stand, nor get along with. She came in over a week ago, this middle school teacher (who happens to work at my 12-year-old's school:eek: ), for an open cholecystectomy.......should have been no more than 3 days, but her pain was a 12 out of 10, so she ended up with an epidural. Then her legs were numb, so she couldn't walk. So we turned the epidural down, and the pain came roaring back, and in the meantime she's whining about the room temperature, the bed, the food, the nurses, the roommates, the visiting hours, the physical therapists, on and on, ad nauseam.

OK, I thought, I can deal with this. But I spent over half my shift in that room and STILL couldn't do anything right......she accused me, as well as the rest of the nursing staff, of being clumsy and incompetent and uncaring. (Me, uncaring??! I've NEVER been accused of that in my entire career.) I busted my hump doing everything I could to make her comfortable, and nothing was enough.

Then yesterday, I was caring for her roommate, a perfectly nice TKR patient (I'd assigned Ms. Complainer to another nurse) and this woman just kept going on and on to her visitors about how all of us were just "unbelievable" and the care "terrible". I put my patient on a bedpan because I didn't have the time or the help to take her out of the CPM machine while serving dinner, and off the woman went again: "God, these people are so lazy, my roommate couldn't get up to the bathroom because the nurse wouldn't unhook something!" A few minutes later, she demanded that I not touch her food tray since my hands were dirty from handling the bedpan (DUH), then told me to spray some room freshener around because of the "urine smell". I had to look in four different rooms to find some, then when I went to the middle of the room to spray, she yelled at me, "DON'T SPRAY THAT STUFF IN MY FOOD!! GOD, ARE YOU PEOPLE COMPLETELY STUPID?!"

Well, I wasn't anywhere near her OR her food when I was doing this, and I couldn't help gritting my teeth when I said, "YOU were the one who asked for the spray, and as you can see, I'm over HERE." I had to leave the room just then, because I was about to explode, and she was proceeding to show off again to her visitors how disgusted she was with the hospital, how NOTHING had gone right, etc. "I know I'm just being b****y", she sighed, and her visitors just petted her and told her she had the right to be, because of all she'd been through, poor thing, yada, yada..........:angryfire

Where's that puking smilie when you need it?

All I know is, I'm sure glad she's not one of my son's teachers.......I'd like to think she's not that way at work, but I'm afraid that if he ever does end up in one of her classes, I'm gonna pull him out of there!!

Thanks for letting me rant. I feel better now.:)

[Headhurt, ADN]

That sounds horrible. Was she one of those bitter old teacher types everyone had when they were a kid. You know, the ones who never married, became old maids and decided to be a teacher and make everyone else miserable too??

I think I would rather get a confused senior and be beaten up by them that deal with that.

Sorry you had to go through that. You shall be rewarded in heaven for putting up with her. Satan is probably getting her torment ready in hell as we speak.

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I don't know about the "bitter old maid" part......she is only in her mid-50s and has grown children. But I agree with you, I'd rather deal with the confused elderly and risk getting bopped upside the head than put up with the likes of this patient!

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

This is the kind of patient that i recommend that they move to a private room. These folks tend to feed off the roomates needs. You cant get out of the room without having to accomodate them somehow, and moving them to a private keeps them from focusing on what others need "and you arent supplying" as opposed to what you "arent" doing for them. If no privates are available i try to keep from admitting someone as a roomate to this person. I know its not always possible, but if i have to i usually will hold out until i can put someone who doesnt have full faculties in there. If they dont have someone they have to listen to ask for things, they cant critic the care and they dont have others needs to feed off of.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Unbelievable that a person that is so selfish, uncompassionate towards others, immature, etc. is a teacher.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Boy, this thread came at a PERFECT time!!!

Went into a pt.'s room (post-op lap choly) to do her q4 vitals. I knew she was a retired nurse, matter of fact, worked on my floor the last 2 years prior to retirement. I was my usual self at work "Hi my name is _____, i'm the CA that will be here until 7:30 this morning, and i need to get your vital signs."

I took her temp first, which read 99.5. Ok i'll let the nurse know this (anything over 98.6 i tell the nurse, just in case the pt. has a tendancy to spike fast). I took the BP on the left arm with the datascope, getting back 81/49 (she was flat on her back, arms at side). Oh yes, definately low, so of course i'll take it in the other arm. Reading 89/51.

Through all of that we didn't say anything else to each other, but as soon as that 2nd BP reading popped up she had the BB to say "Well SURELY you'd be smart and competent enough to tell the nurse about this."

EXCUSE YOU???? Who peed in your Wheaties???

My reply was "Oh yes MA'AM of COURSE i will tell the nurse right AWAY!!!"

Which i did, like i always do, but that comment was way out of line, and i would think after years of working in healthcare, she would know what it's like to have pts. p*ss all over you.

Literally and figuratively.

[AuroraRN]

I believe that these type of patients have such unhappy lives that they want to spread the "joy" to others. That makes me feel better anyways. And anyways, some people are never happy now matter how much we give them of ourselves.

[Doglover]

>

Surely having such serious complications after surgery and being unable to walk are among the worst things that could possibly happen to a human being. This patient needs compassion and emotional support, not such hatred and criticism. It is not "whining" to want one's room temperature adjusted or to dislike hospital food (when a family member was hospitalized last year the food was so terrible that I had to regularly pick up Starbucks coffee and carryout food to bring to their room).

I read this posting several times before replying and for the life of me, I can't see that this patient did anything to deserve such dislike.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by Doglover

>

Surely having such serious complications after surgery and being unable to walk are among the worst things that could possibly happen to a human being. This patient needs compassion and emotional support, not such hatred and criticism. It is not "whining" to want one's room temperature adjusted or to dislike hospital food (when a family member was hospitalized last year the food was so terrible that I had to regularly pick up Starbucks coffee and carryout food to bring to their room).

I read this posting several times before replying and for the life of me, I can't see that this patient did anything to deserve such dislike.

Are you a nurse, and if so , how long have you been one?

Actually numbness after having an epidural is not that unusual nor that "major" a complication. It generally resolves within a day or two. Number two, picking on and being rude to the nurse is NEVER called for, I don't care how bad your complications are. Yes, we have sympathy for the patient, but the patient has no right to be rude and abusive to us. EVER!!!!!

Judges, police officers, and MDs deal with "stressed" individuals all the time and people are not permitted to abuse them.

And, yes, as a cancer survivor, I have been stressed and in the hospital - I would never dream of treating nurses/staff in such a manner. And I have had relatives dying in the hospital, and would not behave in such a manner.

[warrior woman]

Methinks I hear a troll.

[caroladybelle, BSN, RN]

PS. The nursing staff has no control over the food - trust me, most of us wouldn't eat where we work. We frequently have no control over the thermostat - I wish that we did. So, why does the public abuse us?

If you have a problem with those issues, speak to food service and environmental services, as they generally control those issues.

[Brita01]

Originally posted by warrior woman

Methinks I hear a troll.

I think you're right.