Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

LPN1974, LPN · Dec 14, 2005

We had a blind, often confused patient who screamed out for the nurse every minute. The visitors were startled by the screams at first, but eventually they got accostumed to it. The patient would continually call out "nurse, nurse, nurse" and when you went to check on her to ask what is wrong, she would reply "oh nothing, I just felt like saying nurse." One night one of the young nurses got tired of hearing this. She went to her room and told her start saying another nurse's name (not knowing the pt would actually remember the name). As soon as the nurse stepped out, the patient started calling out that name over and over again. The nurse rushed back in, "oh no no, don't say that, please go back to saying NURSE!" .... :chuckle And it was back to the same old mantra "nurse, nurse, nurse." One night she stopped saying nurse and started saying "mercy" but it soon switched to "nursie!" And there was no stopping her.

This reminds me of a little patient I had in the nursing home who would repeat everything she heard on tv.

She started calling out, "Channel 7, On My Side." {We have or did have, a program on channel 7 in my state where the news station would help out folks with problems they encountered with other people, rip offs, that sort of thing.}

After calling that phrase out all day, the next day she might call out....Help, h.....e......l......p {actually spelling it out}, then "Help. H.....e.....l.....p. Help."

Next day she might call out....call 911. 911, call 911.

All day long. It was one phrase or another, over and over.

Bless her heart, I really liked her, she was funny and cute with it, but it could get to be annoying.

The above story was from my part time nursing home job I had for awhile.

At my primary job, I've been at for 25 years come these 2 stories.

We don't have "call lights", because the nurses are stationed in a different building than our people we serve. {It's a facility for developmentally challenged people so they have 8 "homes" on this campus. A large facility but supported living for our people.

Anyway, the caregivers who work with our people, will call the nurses if they notice anything that needs a nurse's attention, then we have to get in these little "golf karts" and go to the "home" to check on our resident. Some are major emergencies....some are not.............one day I got this call, from the worker, that a person served was bleeding on his finger. So, I do my thing, get my emergency bag I carry, get in my golf kart and rush down there to find.........you're gonna laugh at this.........a "hang nail!!!!!!!!!!!" Yes, a tiny little hang nail at the side of the person's finger, that had a little "raw" spot at the side...you know how they look when you've pulled a hangnail off your finger.

I said, "You called me down here for this?" He said, "Yes." Well, I put a little neosporin and bandaid on it, then went back to my major job of getting meds ready for about 55 people to deliver to the homes.

The next story does not come with a call light, but one of our developmentally challenged people is very ..shall I say...."expressive" in her choice of names that she chooses to call you.

One day, a tour group came out to visit, and it was composed of a male pastor and about 8 or 10 ladies. They came into this particular person's place of residence, and the person served says to these people, "One b***h, two b***h, 3 b***h, 4 b***h, and counted everyone of the people in the tour group, correctly, right up to the last one.

NurseWilliam · Dec 14, 2005

In the ER, I once answered the call light of a woman in her sixties for whom I had been attending. I asked her what I could do for her. She answered, "I'm just planning my trip to Mexico, and I was wondering if you would be interested in coming with me and being my 'boy'."

Now, if this had been a fine young lass in her mid-twenties, I would have been flattered. But 40-year-old salts like me do not make good 'boys.' I also had to consider that fact that I was married, and I answered the woman to that effect.

The real kick was that her twenty-something-ish daughter, who was no slouch in the appearance department, just sat there and grinned at me. I shook my head and left the room, feeling as if I had just been subjected to some twisted cosmic test.

nursetrese · Dec 19, 2005

I had a patient that rang the bell and told me that his IV was leaking... This was 3am so I went rushing in only to find this 35 yr old male lying naked and fully erect behind the curtain...omg.... so being the professional nurse we are trained to be...I looked at his hand,, told him the IV looked fine with me and proceeded to leave the room..

allnurses Guide · Dec 20, 2005

Okay, instead of the patient it was me....

I worked in an LTC a long time ago, got paged by the operator. I ran back to the desk, but instead of calling the facility operator, I got the phone company, when she asked what I wanted I said "you paged me! what do you mean what do I want?" Took us a few minutes to figure out who was the "crazy" one :rotfl: :imbar

LoriAlabamaRN · Dec 20, 2005

I work in a long term care facility, and we had a resident (sweet little 81 year old lady) call 911 because "my roommate is having a baby!" Thankfully they recognized the address, called us at the nursing station, when the nurse went down to the room in question, there was this 81yo standing at the bedside of her 87 yo roommate (who only responds to painful stimulation and is a tube feeder) yelling "PUSH!!! PUSH!!!"

SHANNONDESIRE · Dec 20, 2005

i DON'T KNOW IT THIS IS THE WEIRDEST, BUT IT CERTAINLY IS THE GROSSEST REASON FOR PUSHING THE CALL BELL. I HAD A MAN IN HIS 50'S RING ABOUT 4-5 TIMES PER SHIFT. HE STATED,"CAN I HAVE A TOWEL, SOME VASELINE AND 15 MINUTES OF PRIVACY?" I KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING!!! :nono: WE KEPT TELLING HIM THAT THE HOSPITAL DOES NOT HAVE VALELINE. WELL, SOMEONE MUST HAVE TOLD HIM WE HAVE KY JELLY. FROM THEN ON HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED. THE WORST PART ABOUT IT WAS THAT HE HAS A ROOMMATE. THE ROOMMATE EITHER DID NOT MIND OR JUST DID NOT REALIZE WHAT HE WAS DOING. YUCK!!! :nono: :nono:

Wen83 · Dec 20, 2005

This was a while ago when I was working as a CNA. I remember this kid had broken a bone in his right leg. He used his call light and I went in to see what he needed. He asked if I could take a couple washcloths and put them in between his toes on the casted leg. I think he notice the weird look I had on my face (not that I was making a face on purpose haha) so he explained to me that his toes get sweaty in between. So I did as he asked and stuck 4 washcloths in between each of his little toes that were poking out of the cast. It looked funny but he said that was what he wanted and thanked me... :rolleyes:

TreetopAngel_RN · Dec 20, 2005

I work in a long term care facility, and we had a resident (sweet little 81 year old lady) call 911 because "my roommate is having a baby!" Thankfully they recognized the address, called us at the nursing station, when the nurse went down to the room in question, there was this 81yo standing at the bedside of her 87 yo roommate (who only responds to painful stimulation and is a tube feeder) yelling "PUSH!!! PUSH!!!"

:rotfl: Thank you! Thank you! I needed that one after my weekend.

**RosesrReder, BSN, MSN, RN** · Dec 20, 2005

I work in a long term care facility, and we had a resident (sweet little 81 year old lady) call 911 because "my roommate is having a baby!" Thankfully they recognized the address, called us at the nursing station, when the nurse went down to the room in question, there was this 81yo standing at the bedside of her 87 yo roommate (who only responds to painful stimulation and is a tube feeder) yelling "PUSH!!! PUSH!!!"

LOL! That's cute :chuckle

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Dec 20, 2005

LOL's call light goes off. I walk into the room and she waves the balloon end of the Foley cath at me and says, "So what'm I supposed to do with THIS?"

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Dec 20, 2005

LOM in wrist restraints calls me into the room. He's managed to get his blankets off and his gown partway off, and blinks at me from the bed, where he's lying all cockeyed.

He holds up his hands with the restraints still attached and says, completely serious, "I'm not kidding this time, I really think there's something funny going on here."

And you know what?

He was right.

dian57 · Dec 21, 2005

JBudd reminded me of a silly thing *I* did on the job recently.

The DOH was in for the annual survey. I was 6 weeks into my new position as DON and feeling more than a little stressed with their barage of questions, requests for records, "quizzes," etc. At one point I was rummaging through my desk drawer for some file they wanted and my phone rang.

I grabbed it and said in my professional phone-voice, "This is XXXXX, can you help me?"

Talk about Freudian slips.