Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

Gromit · Mar 2, 2007

Nicole- thats spooky! I've had patients before who just KNEW when they were going to die (and they did) -but I've never had one call their own mortician first!

daisydukes · Mar 5, 2007

I had a woman demand to see the RN on duty and said it was an emergency. So I walk into the room and ask her what I can do for her.
She says "Pick my nose" OMG :angryfire I said maa'm I don't pick my nose I am surely NOT going to pick yours. She said well that's what I am paying you for! You are supposed to do whatever I say. When she did this it made me very angry but believe me we have gotten a lot of laughs out of it since.

Did u request for her to be admitted to the mental ward later on? OMG Crazy. Crazy. :smokin:

Tiwi · Mar 5, 2007

Originally Posted by Rosie-
I had a woman demand to see the RN on duty and said it was an emergency. So I walk into the room and ask her what I can do for her.
She says "Pick my nose" OMG :angryfire I said maa'm I don't pick my nose I am surely NOT going to pick yours. She said well that's what I am paying you for! You are supposed to do whatever I say. When she did this it made me very angry but believe me we have gotten a lot of laughs out of it since.

why didn't you take her up on it, but do it with the biggest set of metal forceps you could possibly find, or some artery forceps, or what about scissiors? Or how about a surgical blade? I mean that is what she "pays you for"... *evil grin*

I can't believe she said that!

daisydukes · Mar 5, 2007

I have a resident who does that every evening!

Great resident, he'll be a great doctor. Call bells are ER use, and if can't work then defeats the purpose. I think this resident is great and it's not a laughting matter. If a pt does it each morning it's okay too. but every hour it is silly

Tiwi · Mar 5, 2007

Actually our patients are pretty clever. Part of the code call is three buzzers. If they do that accidently, and get 5,000 staff of every description running in their direction, then they quickly learn that to get a nurse, press three buzzers and they will come quick! The thing they forget is...they usually get a few very angry nurses...:angryfire :nono:

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Mar 5, 2007

Recently a call light kept going off, and every time I answered it, the old guy said he didn't know why it was on, must have hit it by accident. Ok, well after three of these events in like five minutes, I asked him HOW he could POSSIBLY keep hitting it by accident, when it was laying on his belly??

Turns out he was trying to change the channel on the TV and kept hitting the giant RED CROSS call button instead....LOL...no wonder he couldn't find CBS!!

grace90, LPN, LVN · Mar 5, 2007

Actually our patients are pretty clever. Part of the code call is three buzzers. If they do that accidently, and get 5,000 staff of every description running in their direction, then they quickly learn that to get a nurse, press three buzzers and they will come quick! The thing they forget is...they usually get a few very angry nurses...:angryfire

At the end of a nightshift last week, I walked a 70 yo LOL s/p lumbar OR to the bathroom with the help of an aide. The aide then disappeared while I stayed with the LOL. After a couple minutes the LOL tried to stand up and took a step then her legs gave out from under her. She started to sit down but wasn't close enough to the toilet and despite my pleas to please not sit down yet and take a step backward, down she started going. I think she weighed 200 lbs. I yanked the bathroom light on and SOMEHOW got her to the edge of the toilet. She still kept trying to get up even though she couldn't stand and I kept telling her not to. Finally, after a couple minutes of this, a nurse came in and turned off the light because I was in there and almost left until I yelled at her that I needed help. I called the nurse's station because the two of us couldn't get her off the toilet ourselves either. It took a few more minutes, of us trying to hold her half on the toilet and keeping her from getting up before someone answered the phone and came and got us. If no help had come soon, I would have called a rapid response for the simple reason that I HAD to have help and help just wasn't coming.

Pattiecake · Mar 10, 2007

I'd like to know who the great mastermind was that made the call bell, the TV remote and the bed controller all one unit!!!

If I had a nickle for the number of times I've answered an attempt at a TV channel change...or a bed adjustment, I'd be a rich woman today.

RN2B78 · Mar 10, 2007

lol these are all very good haha makes me feel like I am right back at work!! i once had a gentleman ring his bell because he wanted to make sure it worked...and then I also had a lady that would hit the call light just to see how fast we could get to her talk about frustration

CNAinNeb · Mar 26, 2008

I had one resident put on her call light to tell me she couldn't reach her call light. What?

chihoro · Mar 27, 2008

some clever but trouble seeking patients will deliberately ring the call light and time you to see how fast you respond. if you are slower than what the facility administrator bragged to them(as the response time) about when they were admitted, then they read your name badge or ask for your name and go rat out on you and the rest of the floor nurses!!!hoping for a severe scolding/firing and or write up by the administrator/DON.:nuke: True.

flightnurse2b, LPN · Mar 27, 2008

we had this 80 something demented gentleman come into the ER for abdominal pain one night. he hit the call light and as soon as i said "how may i help you?" he started screaming "NURRRRRSE NURRRRRSE IS THAT YOU? I NEED YOU" so im thinking ok this man is falling on the floor let me go check... so me and the nurse go in the room and hes sitting there in the knee chest position, gown wide open in the back with his toosh in the air and says "oh thank god! i need you to come over here and stick your finger in my *** and pull this terd out".

i about died.