"You Nurses!"

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

oh you just have to love it when your very first patient of the shift has a family member that is all that and a bag of chips that choose to look straight at you, point their finger, and disgruntally lecture you about things starting with "and you nurses...". happened to me last night, and uhgggggggg! gave me such a warm fuzzy...not!

so this guy was sitting next to his loved one and just grumpy looking! very gruff! after i introduced myself and talked about the plan of care and doing my assessment...he looks dead on at me and said "and you nurses won't shut the door all the way...don't you have a heart! she is npo and the smell of food is driving her nuts! i thought you nurses were more compassionate about these matters, but i guess not!".

suprised i just smiled and said "you know what...i will get a nice sign on the door that says please shut all the way. that usually helps...i mean it is not only *used my fingers to make quote marks*'us nurses' that enter this room to care for her *wink*." he looked very perplexed and gruff when i said that...and i went off...closing the door completely...

as i came up to the rn desk and with all the rn's gathered around said "oh yeah...hit me with "you nurses" within 30 seconds...hey guys is that a new record???" they informed me this guy was mean as heck. he saw a spot on the floor and got all up in the charge nurses face saying it was pee, was ticked that the bed wasn't made the moment a wrinkle was on it, that the nurse wasn't there within 30sec-2 minutes from a call from them, and said we were the most unorganized group he had ever seen! yeah...a nice guy! uhggg~!

so i made the sign, got the pt some comfort medications, a cold cloth for her head. i came into the room and gave her the medications, finished my assessment and was just miss happy sunshine the whole time...nothing but smiles and joy. the guy looked at me and just laughed outloud and said "now here we have someone with energy and sense! leave some of that energy for us will ya?". wait a tick...he is being nice???

the rest of the night was spent laughing with this couple, and had a blast! i had guessed early on that he had not been confronted boldly before, and this was a right of passage i guess...lol! then i found out he was a retired fire chief...okay that explains his 'be on scene' criteria, lol, and not having an understanding of what a nurse is! lol!!!! i am the dil of an ex fire chief...and i guess my look back when i said his quote back to him was one of 'don't you go there and all will be fine'...and it worked! lol!!!

no we got along wonderfully, and all the nurses were very greatful!

have you had a day that started with 'you nurses' and turned it around when you didn't think that was possible? lol!!!!!!

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What a great post.

I'm only a student but I did have a lady who was very mean to me and then while I was cutting her food for her she started thanking me and broke down and was crying and apologizing for her behavior. It really brought home to me that one can't really expect folks who are sick to be easy going and roll with the punches so we shouldn't take their complaints personally.

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Nice to hear that sometimes those very obnoxious, awful family members/patients can turn sweet-as-pie if the "right" things are said to them in the "right" way. Now if only there were some sort of secret code so that we could always figure out the correct way-!:lol2:

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I know what you mean. Some families just suck the life right out of me. I hate the "you nurses" crap.:lol2: :lol2:

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I know what you mean. Some families just suck the life right out of me. I hate the "you nurses" crap.:lol2: :lol2:

Unless, I am assuming, the person is saying "you nurses are awsome" which I have said.

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