Share your "problem patient" stories!

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I know I've had pt's I couldn't wait to get rid of. Some are just plain boors. This is the thread to share your stories about THOSE pt's.

Wish I could find a magic book that tells me what makes an able-bodied pt suddenly incapable of basic self-care once they enter the hospital.

Recently I had a pt who could feed himself, brush his teeth, wipe his ass, etc(this was an older male who just had his toes reattached after cutting them off while edging his lawn barefoot) suddenly lay on his call bell every ten minutes wanting me to fix his hair, feed him jello or give him a drink of water. These were all things he could do just fine by himself. He was also really nasty to me if I didn't come the second he rang his bell. Sorry pal, I had a critically ill patient next door and getting her on the bedpan before she soiled her bed is more important than combing your hair. Anyway, he'd complain about the food, whine that he was cold(and then complain he was hot when I gave him a blanket), whine that nothing good was ever on TV and then he'd yank his hands away when I checked his vitals.

This man was NOT suffering any dementia btw, he was perfectly a/o the whole time.

But wait! It gets better! If his family was around, he'd be all sweet and polite to me only to turn right back into Captain Jerkwad the second they left. I've never been so glad to discharge somebody. From what I've heard....he isn't taking the antibiotics we sent home with him. He'll probably be back in the ER with a raging infection pretty soon. :hdvwl:

So, how about the rest of you? Ever have a pt who made you practically tear your hair out?

Had a confused old guy who was always into something.

He used to be a crafter of eye prostheses.

Yes, he made glass eyes.

Anyway, he loved to work with his hands.

If something could be dismantled, he dismantled it:

*The bed (he got that head board and side rail outta the way!).

*The drinking fountain (hey, gotta mop the floor anyway).

*The fire alarm (and the big broad grin on his face when he saw all the commotion was actually quite funny. We could not be mad at him!)

*The electrical outlet (I got to him just in time before the steel butter knife went in, thenk god!)

He also was an escape artist.

I don't know how many times we had to into emergency seek-and-find mode. People driving by the highway, no doubt, wondering what on earth all these "nurses" were doing briskly walking around the grounds and highway calling, "Daaaaaavid! Daaaaaavid????!"

Or at night with flashlights. That must have looked good. Especially when we were stooped over flashing our lights into the drainage ditches.

One aide found him at the hotdog stand down the road. The aide drove into work with "David" in the front seat.

"Holy cow! Look who I found!!!"

We were so pleased to get a state-of-the-art door alarm system, as you could imagine.

It was just too scary!

Posey vests (which were very common to use back then and that's just the way it was) had no real benefit.

This man was a regular Houdini.

He would have that thing off and was running around the building before you could say "boo!".

We loved him dearly though. He was a sweetheart and we just couldn't get too annoyed.

We suffered more from anxiety that he would get hurt.

We were heartbroken when his disease progressed and he eventually died.

So he was a big problem, but at least he didn't have a mean bone in his body.

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Specializes in Emergency.

Kudos to the last poster!

Some of my most difficult patients who made me consider seriously assisted suicide were also some of my favorites.

They may have been problem patients, but they were still patients, and I have missed several when I heard they died.

Amy

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Specializes in School Nursing.
We have a man in our SNF that refused to walk initially, until we took the w/c away. Now will walk to BR with staff and wait for them to pull down his pants and for them to pull them back up when he's finished. One of our sassy CNAs told him, "you can do it yourself." He says, "You're kinda lazy, aren't you?":smackingf

I think I would have told him "at least I pull my own pants up" Geesh!

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

We have a lady on our unit right now that I swear is going to put me over the edge. As charge I am at the desk in direct line of site into her room. She yells out for someone to come in there every three minutes (and I do mean every three minutes, I timed her). She is not confused. She is used to having her family do EVERYTHING for her and she told me it is our job to come in and help her. I went to her room and told her that she was just one of the 34 patients we have on that unit and that we could not come in to her room every time she called. I told her it was night time and time to go to sleep. I turned out her light. She was so mad. We finally found something to sedate her with. I called the hospitalists who was taking care of her and told him that either they had to discharge her by the time I came back to work on Thursday or bring me in a gun so I could either shoot myself or her. If she is there Thursday, I am calling in sick.

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Specializes in LTC.

I have a lady in her 90s with dementia...she can be mean as a rattlesnake with the cnas but I just adore this woman! The other day she told me she was cold...so I covered her up and she said " do you know what i want?' and i say " what?"...she replied..." I want a 2 piece bathing suit with a beer so I can lay out in the sun" ...coming from this 80 lb devil was just hilarious to me...I love it!

I have another lady across from my lil devil who always yells out 'ohhhhhhhhhh bring me a pain pill!..bring a whole bottle"....I go to her ask her whats going on and she says ...honey....I tell ya..i know about pain...I have gout".....it was just funny the way she said it. You'd think she was in there giving birth to triplets all breech or sumthin.

Last week I had a 99 yo lady who went to the dentist to get a tooth pulled....she came back and told me "that man kissed me...I kissed him back even though he was fat and fluffy'....

I find my pts very amusing @ times...they make a bad day somehow better when they say off the wall stuff that would make anybody smile. I find its a good way to pass the time.

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We have a few frequent fliers in the ER with strange diagnoses, usually found on Web MD. One was disoriented and weak until the nurse went to help her put her shoes on. She kicked the nurse and told her it was her "Restless Leg Syndrome". The nurse told her to look it up again, she got the symptoms wrong.

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Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I had one that was a guy, weight 435, c-diff. He would get on the BSC, then want to be back in bed, back on the BSC, back in the bed, literally every 5 minutes. What's worse is he would refuse to wipe himself, and want the aide or nurse to do it, and was almost orgasmic when we did.

I had patients coming out my ears the night I had him, the ER dropped 6 (!) patients on us in 2 hours (4 nurses, no secretary, one aid, and one tele tech who about ruptured her bladder because one of us would have to go in the tele room when she ran to the restroom.) I didin't have time for Mr. "oh, it feels so good..."

The 5th time he called me to the room, I brought a fecal bag and 2 mg of Adivan, which made the "oh, guess it was gas" calls come to a screeching halt. You see, I'd called the doc and said, "Look, Mr X is driving all of us crazy {SBAR}. Either he gets a fecal bag, or 10 mg Haldol."

Doc: "He doesn't need Haldol!"

Me: "No sir, I do. If he doesn't stop, I'm going postal."

I got my fecal, the pt got ativan, and I got 4 hours before it all started again....

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Cath Lab, Cardiology,Neuro.

I had a client when I did Home Care and I was her HHA. She "claimed" she had osteoporosis, severe arthritis everywhere, low blood sugar, etc... Also her husband who had the real medical problems was getting all the attention from the nurses, and she would get jealous and make up stories of how today she has heart palpatations, and the next she was in so much pain she couldnt drive to the mail "hut" (she lived in a condo complex and the mail box was some distance from her home). Well I did her housecleaning while she was on my a** to clean the place top to bottom (but she was in "pain") and to do $200/wk worth of grocery shopping at 2 different stores (a supermarket and Costco), but she was in "pain". Well one day after busting my a** and making 2 trips back to the store and Costco because I didnt get the right brand of chicken then I didnt get the right size even though she was clear the first time and she complained her BP was high and her sugar was low and her pain was beyond a 10, I made a trip to Costco myself a couple hours later, and I caught her at Costco redhanded driving away in her car! Also she would get my services on Saturday and her daughter was there doing ALL the work. I had enough. I told my home care agency that this lady is taking our agency for a ride! My home care agency called her and her daughter and she was NOT happy.

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Had a LOL come in today claiming pain. The pain is related to a bowel impaction. She's impacted because she's having an affair with Vicodin. The Vicodin is constipating her. She swears the Vicodin helps her pain.

Trying to wean her, but every hour she's on her call bell crying for drugs. All orders point to NO VICODIN. We're putting an enema in her tonight because laxatives haven't worked.

Ugh. I'd like to smack her doctors!

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Specializes in ER, Med/Surg.

"The confused patient" is what gets me. I can't stand working with the confused little old lady or man that can't remember anything, except that they have this call button. Or the ones who just yell "Help! Help!" all night long. I had one little lady who would say, "Don't hit me," whenever I'd go in her room.

I can't hardly take 12 hours with these people. And if I should have one on a Saturday night, and know they aren't going to be gone by Sunday night...it's almost more than I can take.

Does this mean I don't care? No. I care, my granddad was one of these people.

Is it their fault? No, I know it isn't. people keep telling me that *I'll* be that confused little man one day.

Does this make me a bad nurse? I don't think so. Just that geriatric/nursing home nursing is NOT for me. I'm an ED nurse, trained in the field as an EMT and on the floor as a Tech. I'm all about doing what I can for this person right now, and get them to someone who can take better care of them long term.

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How about the patients who are "nurses" (whether they really are or not), who are constantly writing down everything you do, complaining to all of management about the horrible care she is getting, and on the call light every 5 minutes to do something she could do herself? AND, management chews you out for the horrible nurse you are, and insists everyone bends over backwards for her??!!

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Specializes in Geriatrics, skilled nursing, hospice.

Oh my gosh this week has been the cream of the crop for our floor lol! I'm in med-surg and we get tons of hips and knees...let me tell you about one that almost made me want to slit my wrists. I knew her and I were going to hit it off when first thing in the morning she calls and when I go in she has totally messed up her bed...liquid green goo filled the pad and she's like"I had an accident and you need to clean me". I'm looking at her thinking, your 52 and had a partial knee replacement...Tues, it's Fri and you can't have the decency to call for assistance or a bed pan? So I clean her up and I'm fuming, in comes phys. therapy and she is screaming that she cant get up, it hurts, it's too hard, blah blah blah. Of course she refused to cooperate so phys therapy left and an 2 hours later here we go again, **** everywhere...did I mention she has snuff cans and spit cups everywhere? I walk in and clean her up and in comes phys therapy and she starts the routine again. I couldn't take it and said, "you know what, if you don't want to walk anymore and you want to lay in bed the rest of your life that's fine, however, I'm going to get a depends and I'll let your doctor know you need references of nursing homes in our area!" haha. She just looked at me and I left her and the therapist. Needless to say she walked and called for help to use the bathroom after and was very pleasant after lol ! :hdvwl:

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