Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

rnmomtobe2010 · Feb 16, 2007

Oh my god. You guys are killing me. I can't stop laughing!

nurseofalltrades · Feb 16, 2007

I have a resident who put his call light on one day. Usually the nurse aid answers it but i went that particular day because this resident never rings and thought there might be a problem. This gentleman is in his late 60s and is a highly functional but mildy retarded.(By all means I am not making fun of the mentally challenged just thought this was cute)I entered his room.He was doing a maze and couldnt get the baby lamb to his mommy at the end and wanted me to help him!

fultzymom · Feb 16, 2007

I had a patient who would use the light and when we went in she said, "I did not push that button." She did this several times within about half an hour. The NA's were trying to get supper passes so when I got done with my meds, I kept answering it for them. Finally I got tired of walking back to her room and I just stood outside her door. I was peeking my head around her door watching. She pressed the button and the quick laid her head to the side and pretended she was sleeping. Never did figure out what she really wanted. She refused to go to the BR saying she did not have to, was not in pain, said she got everything on her tray she asked for. Who knows!?

fultzymom · Feb 16, 2007

Worked in an AL facility and was a med aid, 87 yr old woman calls me to her room, she had just got done watching CNN, and she asked... Can you tell me what oral sex is? I am not kidding, I must have turned 30 shades of red, and eventually explained it in the most anatomically and professional manner I could.

Glad that was you!! I would have had a heart attack!! And laughed my butt off!!:roll

prmenrs, RN · Feb 16, 2007

I have a resident who put his call light on one day. Usually the nurse aid answers it but i went that particular day because this resident never rings and thought there might be a problem. This gentleman is in his late 60s and is a highly functional but mildy retarded.(By all means I am not making fun of the mentally challenged just thought this was cute)I entered his room.He was doing a maze and couldnt get the baby lamb to his mommy at the end and wanted me to help him!

I think it's cute, too!

leesespieces · Feb 16, 2007

once when i worked as a cna i answered the call light of an elderly woman. when i asked her what i could do for her she replied "yes, can you get me a new body????" :roll

Kim O'Therapy, BSN, RN · Feb 17, 2007

Once at a LTC I worked at. Blizzard has just gone through our town, pipes are frozen and I'm trying to evacuate a room before the ceiling caves in. So, the ceiling is dripping, there is no water, and the few of us that actually showed up for work are trying to move two very obese men out of this room. Residents are strolling around yelling at us because their toilets won't work and the maintanence guy is not returning my calls. A LOL down the hall keeps ringing her buzzer, so I run in thinking maybe something else must be wrong. She wants me to rearrange the plants in her room! She knows there's an emergency going on and she wants me to move a few little plants around. I tell Mrs. Patient that I'm sorry, but the only way I'll be moving any plants around for her is if the storm calms down and there are no more emergencies. So.......every 5 minutes.....buzz, buzz, buzz.....can you move my plants NOW? In order to get some work done, I picked up two of the plants on the window sill and swapped their locations. The rest of the night she kept buzzing me to tell me that she did NOT like where I had set her plants. I'll never forget that night. Out of the four nurses and 6 aids scheduled to work during that snow storm, only 2 nurses, and 2 aides (including myself) showed up. I remember collapsing when I got home and congratulating myself for keeping my cool. I put in my two weeks notice a few days later. Ever since, whenever I start getting flustered at work, I think of that night and realize that I can get through anything.

Levin · Feb 25, 2007

I had a pt buzz me to ask me how to use the buzzer.

She was in for post fall confusion.

Then every 5-10 minutes, "Nurse I forgot what you said."

Levin.

hlfpnt, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2007

I answered this one pts call light just to find out that her arm itched & she wanted it scratched...she had no disabilities! :rolleyes:

RN BSN 2009 · Feb 28, 2007

once when i worked as a cna i answered the call light of an elderly woman. when i asked her what i could do for her she replied "yes, can you get me a new body????" :roll

lol... if it were just that easy

NicoleRN07, RN · Mar 2, 2007

When I worked in LTC, I had a resident call out and ask me if I would call Cecil. Cecil is a mortician with one of the funeral homes in our area. When I asked her why, she simply replied that she was going to need him later. I told her that I would call him to please her. About 45 min later, I got a call from Cecil, and he asked me if I had a body that he needed to pick up. I told him that we didn't that I knew of, and asked for a name of the deceased. Of course, he gave me the name of the resident who had asked me to call him. I explained everything to him, we both laughed, because it turns out the resident herself had called him. It wasn't an hour later, and this particular resident passed, and I had to call Cecil.

HippieChick_RN · Mar 2, 2007

This didn't happen to me, but it happened to a co-worker I was working with. I work in an ER, and a young woman was bundling up her newborn who she basically brought in for a well-baby exam. It was very cold out and she hands her keys to the RN and goes "Can you pull my car up to the door? I'll be right out" The RN (who is very experienced) politely told her that unfortunately, valet is NOT part of our job description. The woman got irrate and replied "Well its cold outside!!! What do you mean you can't just pull it up?" Um, this is an ER. Not the Hilton.