Reasons patients turn on their call light

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I had a very enjoyable night two nights ago, because for the first time in my nursing history I had a patient who literally turned their call light on every 2-5 minutes.

Reasons the patient turned her call light on:

1. I farted.

2. I coughed.

3. Can I sit at the nurses station naked?

4. My neck twitched when I took a breath.

5. Can you scratch my left pinky finger?

6. My tongue keeps touching my teeth, what should I do?

7. I think I have to poop but I'll wait until tomorrow to do it.

8. I'm about to call 911 because I keep hearing the nurses walk by my room.

9. Am I breathing ok?

10. My legs are really pretty, what do you think?

That's to name a few!

Specializes in LTC, SNF, Rehab, Hospice.

Lady that can walk and will walk to the door in the nurse hasn't come on time with PRN pain meds or the CNA is late to take her down to smoke break...she will call to plug in her cell phone, plug in computer, fix her pillows....The HUGE issue is the main full-time CNAs are not assertive enough and COMPLETELY enable these people...drives me nuts, because these hard working nurses and CNAs get manipulated and walked all over!

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"The man in the black suit has come to get me and I am scared" ..creepy

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We all have the confused patients. One story that a secretary told me makes me realize we always need to confirm what the confusies are saying...

A patient (female) was confused and pressing her call light, once the nurse or tech arrived she would say there is a naked man in the closet. They would turn the light off and say "no, it's ok there's no one there" get her settled and leave. She would call again and after about 7 times of this the nurse finally went to the closet (our has doors) opened it and low and behold there was a naked patient (male) just standing there looking even more confused than the patient in bed!

So now everytime they say there's a little boy staring at me from over there or any other creepy confused thing, I check :nailbiting:

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Yes, I obtained an order for Ativan 2mg but it had absolutely no effect on her

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Thank you so much for understanding!! It's like you post things for fun and there is always someone who has something negative to say...If it bothered me I would have said so she actually made my night in a good way not bad so please stop taking things so serious for the ones with the negative comments.

One thing my patients love about me is I am guaranteed to answer their light in a timely manner I'm not the kind of nurse who sits around the nurses rolling my eyes and complaining every time a patient turns on their call light I'm a busy girl and I love to stay busy so before you judge what people post you have to understand their mindset and you really can't do that over the Internet.

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Specializes in Neurosciences Stroke Nurse.

We had a guy hooked up to the EEG equipment for seizure monitoring that kept setting off his seizure alert. I finally asked him why he was hitting it so frequently and he looked me bold in the face and said, "It gets people here a lot quicker than using the call bell does." Needless to say even our Neurologist was unimpressed and discharged him the next day.

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Specializes in critical care.

Today I have "reasons why my phone rings....."

Patient doesn't realize that her phone is ringing. Like, fully doesn't understand due to orientation. She has a MASSIVE family, who all have my phone number. So every five minutes..... "My mom isn't answering her phone....." Doesn't even want to talk to me. Wants to talk to mom and knows she can't answer her phone.

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Today I have "reasons why my phone rings....."

Patient doesn't realize that her phone is ringing. Like, fully doesn't understand due to orientation. She has a MASSIVE family, who all have my phone number. So every five minutes..... "My mom isn't answering her phone....." Doesn't even want to talk to me. Wants to talk to mom and knows she can't answer her phone.

LOL!! This used to happen to me all the time, although for a different reason. The patient wasn't answering the phone on purpose, because she was annoyed with the annoying family member. After the third time of "she's resting and doesn't have to answer the phone if she doesn't want to," I finally got blunt and told the family member "she said she doesn't want to talk to you and to please quit calling so she can sleep."

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"There is a cat over there and it won't stop staring at me."

I have heard this one more than once. Always because of DTs or ICU delirium. But when it's a coworkers patient saying it, I extort them by threatening to sit by the door and meow. :whistling:

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1. Responded to call light because a patient wanted me to throw away her baby's dirty diaper! (was a postpartum nurse at the time) 2. Another call light was to throw away a candy bar wrapper 3. and yet my all time favorite was because the patient wanted to know what time of day it was!!

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I have heard this one more than once. Always because of DTs or ICU delirium. But when it's a coworkers patient saying it, I extort them by threatening to sit by the door and meow. :whistling:

There is a certain kind of IV pump that sounds like a mewling kitten in the middle of the night. In my first hospital job as a CNA I worked on a geriatric unit that had those pumps. All the confused LOLs asked us where the kittens were and why wouldn't we let them sleep in the beds?

Some of my favorites are the "help" calls.

"I need help!!"

"What do you need?"

"I don't know. Don't you know?"

"No, I don't."

"OK, then."

20 seconds later - "Help!"

I love having a good secretary who screens calls. Ute, if you're out there, I love you and I MISS YOU!!!!

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
Thank you so much for understanding!! It's like you post things for fun and there is always someone who has something negative to say...If it bothered me I would have said so she actually made my night in a good way not bad so please stop taking things so serious for the ones with the negative comments.

One thing my patients love about me is I am guaranteed to answer their light in a timely manner I'm not the kind of nurse who sits around the nurses rolling my eyes and complaining every time a patient turns on their call light I'm a busy girl and I love to stay busy so before you judge what people post you have to understand their mindset and you really can't do that over the Internet.

You will find on this site that any attempt at humour or just to vent will bring out the Goody-Two-Shoes. Their job is to point out that sick people are sick and need your compassion. Because of course you never figured that out on your own. Any attempt to laugh at yourself or the situation you find yourself in will be seen as laughing at the poor patient. Tsk tsk.

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