"She'll put your butt in a nursing home."

Nurses General Nursing

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I hate it when parents use nurses, doctors, etc. to threaten their children to behave. For instance, "if you're bad, that nurse will give you a shot". Not good. Well, now I've heard it all. I got to my little old patient's home and the sister/caregiver was yelling, "Oh boy, just you wait now. The nurse is here, she'll put your butt in a nursing home." This does not set the stage for a therapeutic interaction. Also the patient pinched me. Can't say as I blame her.

All I can say is that people are idiots. We get the whole if you don't behave the Nurse is going to do x,y, & z to you. We always promptly inform them that it is inapporpriate to use us to threaten the patient. It ruins any chance at respect, trust, and communication with the patient.

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.

Mother Nature is usually so wise. I don't know why she didn't hook the gonads up to working brains.

CCM: I've been informed by more than one "religious" person that I was going to Hell, and for a variety of reasons :D

I figure I'll be in good company! :)

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
That happened to me a lot when I worked in urgent care. Parents would tell their kid that I was going to give them a shot if they didn't act right. Truthfully, in urgent care we rarely gave shots to kids, but we did give a lot of tetorifice shots to adults. I would politely ask the parent (usually the mom) to please not say that, as it really served no purpose at all...except to guarantee the kid to act up even more.

I cringe when parents say that to kids. I cringe too when parents tell kids that the policeman will take them to jail for something like not listening. UGH

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
When I was a child, I had NURSES threaten me. I fell and bit my tongue so hard my mom couldn't stop the bleeding. The nurse in the ER told me I 'had to hold the gauze tight or I'd have to get stitches and it would hurt.' I was 6.

Another time, I had pneumonia. I was 9 years old. The nurse told me if I didn't cough up the stuff in my lungs she would have to stick a long needle in my chest...she whipped out a thoracentesis needle to prove her point.

And the absolute worst thing a nurse ever said to me.....I was 8 years old at the Mayo clinic where I was going to have open heart surgery (the year was 1963 and I was about the 4th person to ever have this particular surgery)...the nurse who was also a nun asked me what religion I had been baptized . I hadn't been baptized and told her that. She told me I was going to die on the operating table and go straight to hell.. It's not always families who are inappropriate.

WOW! That takes the cake.

I once had a mom in store tell a child who was acting up, "if you don't behave I'll have that guy in the wheelchair run over your foot." My reply, don't worry kid I won't run over your foot, I told the mom she was inappropriate for saying that, I also told her people in wheelchairs and the disabled have a hard time with people accepting/ understanding them as it is, they don't need a parent adding to it by making their child fear us at a young age. She had no reply.

I never understood why parents use nurses /police to scare children, when they should be telling them they are a person they can trust if someone hurt them or if they get hurt that they are a safe person to go to. Good to hear many of you set the kids and parents straight!

They should be telling them the truth which is Nurses Rock!!

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I used to work in community health and parents used to use "nurse will give you a shot" ALL THE TIME. Pizzed me off so much. I'd stop what I was doing, get down on the kid's level, and say, "We never ever give shots for misbehaving. We give shots to help you get better or to keep you from getting sick." And I'd look at the parent and say, "Correction is your job, not mine." It caught many a parent off guard, but I didn't care, and those that said it once never said it again.

"yes, sweetheart, and if you are good, your Mommy is going to take you out for ice cream after this!!"

I like this response best! If Mommy is going to put me in an inappropriate situation, I want her to be there with me!

I did have a patient with a cruel family member that made comments about the "people at the hospital" putting the pt in a nursing home. I smiled, turned to the patient and said, "yeah we don't do that, we make recommendations, your family makes the decision of whether they can take care of you or not."

My wife threatens me if I don't behave she will put me in a nursing home with carpet! :wacky:

Specializes in ED.

My sister can be a dingbat but sometimes I can't help but love her. She has a 14 month old son. The last time he went for shots the nurse said "The mean old nurse is going to give you some shots now." My sister went nuts. She said "His aunt is a nurse, you are training him to be frightened of nurses. You are giving him a shot which he NEEDS, and his aunt, who is a nurse loves him. I don't want him to be afraid of his aunt or shots." Too true. I won't lie, as an adult and a nurse, I REALLY HATE SHOTS. But I deal with my yearly flu shot. And I get irritated that nurses dealing with peds treat themselves as villans in front of said kids, as many of them have nurses in their lives.

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