Same patient's over and over again

[MattNurse]

Do you ever get to work, look at your assignment and have your heart sink because you know the patient's by name?

My last few shifts I have had the same alcoholic on my assignment . A person I have detoxed so many times . I know alcoholism is a disease, but sometimes I consider becoming a traveling nurse to get away from taking care of the same people for years on end.

[JerseyBSN]

For the record, I've been told by patients that their co-pay on Medicaid is $20. The highest I've heard is $35 for BC/BS. I've been told by patients that they sell their Suboxone for $25 dollars a piece to buy other drugs.

Pt's are very frequently on probation for stealing. Have stolen everything they could from their families, have stolen money out of their family's accounts, using credit cards, forging checks and put them into bankruptcy.

Have sold their bodies to support their habit. Hospitalized drug addicts DO spend $100 to $200 or more dollars a day on drugs. Drugs are not cheap.

They use 200 to 400 mg of morphine IV per day. A gram or more of cocaine per day. 50 to 100 mg of Dilaudid IV per day. 15-20 Oxy's, Roxy's, Percocet's, Lortab's per day in addition to large amounts of Xanax, Valium, Ativan. The amounts they use are mind-boggling.

Drug addicts are far more likely to fatally OD after being released. They have been detoxed and when they relapse immediately and go back to using the amount of drugs they were using, it kills them, the same as it would someone who has never used drugs.

This is not called being judgmental, these are the facts. Their drug screens are positive for at least 3 or 4 different drugs.

As a nurse, it's our duty to give these patients competent and compassionate care but it does not mean that I have to look past the fact that they are sucking the life out of our healthcare system, welfare system, etc...not to mention they are out there driving amongst us, our children and our families.

[Vespertinas]

I confirmed this with a former addict. This person said $60 for 90 pills vs. $140/day for about 1g of heroin. I stand corrected...and shocked.

Also confirmed that suboxones are resold for $15-$25/pill which is such a shame for those people who are actually trying to get on the wagon.

[~PedsRN~, BSN, RN]

I must be the oddball out - I love seeing the patients I know. :) Of course, my patient population is under 18 for the most part, and our "frequent flyers" are kids with chronic illnesses.... I might feel differently if it was the same drug abuser/alcoholic, etc, who kept making the same mistakes over and over again.

[JerseyBSN]

I must be the oddball out - I love seeing the patients I know. :) Of course, my patient population is under 18 for the most part, and our "frequent flyers" are kids with chronic illnesses.... I might feel differently if it was the same drug abuser/alcoholic, etc, who kept making the same mistakes over and over again.

Far cry from adolescents with chronic illnesses and patients who lose their children to DHS because they spend their time high instead of with their children.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Pedi frequent flyers aren't usually that bad. Their parents? Ughhhhhh..... (Not all of them. There's a few moms and dads that I really like. Unfortunately, most of those moms and dads are co-parenting with a mom or dad that I don't feel the same way about. Often, the most important info during report? "So is it mom or dad that's here now?")

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

I see some ofthe same patients who make 20 to30 visits a year alone in our ER.

That's the number of visits per month for some of our most frequent of fliers.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

There should be some sort of consequence, otherwise why would they modify their behaviors. Yet I never hear the lawmakers complain about chronic abusers of the system and the general population probably has no idea who their taxes support.

Until I started in the ER I had no clue how many people abused the ER. Yet some of our lawmakers have suggested that those without insurance use the ER as their primary care.

[psu_213, BSN, RN]

Same here. We get the same redneck DKA patients who have no intention of ever changing their behaviors when we can "fix" them every 2-3 weeks. And when we start chopping off their feet, or putting them on dialysis, that's okay, too, because everyone else in their family has amputations and dialysis -- it's their norm. And they make your life living you-know-what on shift, because they treat you like a maid/waitress.ork and treat you like dirt.

Do we work in the same place? We have one pt that comes in a couple times a month in DKA. Sometimes ends up on an insulin gtt. then walks to the vending machine to buy candy...while still on the gtt. Talk about frustrating! Now, I am not saying she does not deserve care, but it is tough to provide her care time and time again when she so clearly does nothing to contribute to her own good health.