Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

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You guys always crack me up, so I came up with this question to hear more funny weird stories.

What were some funny, stupid, or weird reasons patients push the call light for?

Are you supposed to go to the room right away or how does it work? I will be an RN next year and interested in knowing more about the actual daily life w/ pt.

Here are some of the best...

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I once had a female patient ring the call bell and announce very loudly "Yes, theres a squirrel on my bed and it's a mangy one too" Well we all cracked up and went to check. There was no squirrel and the Doctor came a little while later and said she told him she saw birds flying over her bed curtain. He told me she was Dig toxic and that it would go away. It did. She was a very nice lady when she got leveled out and I never told her what she said. We had quite a laugh though! We still talk about it till this day.

:chuckle

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Specializes in L&D, Family Practice, HHA, IM.

I had a pt who pulled the emergency call light in the BR.

Her reason: "I wanted to see what would happen!"

:angryfire:banghead:

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

My 1st job as a new grad was on a floor that had post-op kidney transplants, among other things.

One night, my transplant pt put his light on. He was sitting straight up in bed pointing out the window towards the parking lot. "My horses have escaped! Look!!" (In those days, one of the anti-rejection strategies was to inject lymphatic fluid from the recipient, inject it into a horse, then collect serum from the horse and re-inject it into the pt.)

I looked @ him funny, went to the window, and sure enough, several horses were meandering around the parking lot. My pt insisted that they were "his" horses, the ones who had been given his lymphatic fluid. I didn't know whose they were, but they didn't belong in the parking lot.

I called the House Supervisor, who called Security and pretty soon, the pt and I could see the "round-up" just fine from the 6th floor. Turned out, they were indeed "his" horses! They'd busted out of their corral, and were on their way to parts unknown.

I told the pt to keep an eye out from now on. I figured the last thing I-8 needed for the morning commute was a bunch of horses on the freeway!!

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Just recently there was a girl on the ward I work on who thougth the world owed her something. Her family wwas just as bad, and I had explained to them on admission the process of activating the emergency bell.

An hour later at hand over this girl (well, she was 17) rung the emergency bell and the AM and PM RNs along with the doctors and several RNs and med staff from our on ward theatre streamed into her room to see what the heck was the emergency.

The ice in her water was too melted for her to use and she was well aware that she'd rung the emergency bell IHO, it was an emergency!

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Specializes in Rural.

OK, this is a story about what else a call light could be for.

We had a patient that was very confused and we were unable to ever re-orient him. The doctor ordered a Physical and Occupational Therapy consult on him despite our assurances that the patient was not ready. When the OT came to do her consult I informed her of the patient's mental status and she went to see for herself and do her admission assessment. Less than 30 seconds she came back and told me with a straight face that:"It is a good indication that a patient will not qualify for OT if he tries to eat his call-light"

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A patient called me just to say he hadn't had a bowel movement in 4 days. I expected something more, like 'Can you help me go to the bathroom, it's coming'! or 'Can you tell the nurse I need a laxative' or anything else of the sort. Nope, he just wanted me to know he had not had a bowel movement in 4 days, end of story :D

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Specializes in ICU.

Does it every aggravate you that someone on your unit answers the call light, and one of your patients wants to "see the nurse." You get there and they want pain medicine, or nausea medicine or a pillow or a blanket...so you have to make more trips and use more time than you would have it the person over the call light would have just asked the patient if you could bring something to them.

But yeah, the confused patient that pushes the call light and you ask "how may I help you" and they reply "a burger and fries." classic stuff.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

I always tell my pts (assuming they are alert and oriented, of course) that when they ring the call bell to tell me what they need, as it helps me prioritize. If they want more diapers or pads or something, they get bumped while I help my PP hemorrhage. Most understand that and are ok. It has saved me many trips.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

There was a lady I knew in a nursing home who had a reputation for pressing the call light very frequently. Anyway, one night the staff apparently decided to ignore her calls. After a while when her call light wasn't answered , she picked up her phone and dialed 911 telling the police that she was terribly worried about the staff at her nursing home, because they weren't answering her and she thought something had happened to them and could someone please come and check on them? Now, you'd think after getting a call from the police that the staff wouldn't ignore her calls again, BUT, a few months later they did the same thing and ignored her calls, so guess what? She called 911 again asking the police to come and check on the staff, AGAIN!!! The police actually came and spoke to her after the second incident and basically told her off for wasting police time, however, they also gave the staff a good talking to so as it wouldn't happen again!

The same nursing home, the same lady: An agency nurse threatened to take the call light away from the lady if she didn't stop pressing it. The lady in question, picked up her walking stick and started waving at the nurse saying if she came anywhere near her to take it away she'd whack her with it! In the morning, said lady reported the nurse to her agency for her actions,( and quite right too).

By the way, did I mention the lady in question was my own Grandmother?!-she always was a force to be reckoned with - God rest her soul!!:cry: And no, she didn't stay very long at that nursing home after that.

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My all time favorite is when they call you to unplug their IV machine so they can get up and to the restroom.

I phrase it unhook but ya I do that because i know that they need to for me to leave the bed otherwise i would just get up without bothering them, but as the iv is attatched to the bed, that doesnt work to well

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Specializes in M/S,TELE,ORTHO,ER.

On telemetry:

I repeatedly answered the calls of a woman who told me vehemently "My heart has stopped!"

Brain,maybe...

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.
On telemetry:

I repeatedly answered the calls of a woman who told me vehemently "My heart has stopped!"

Brain,maybe...

Rather have than than the ones who push the code button because they want a glass of water or some other form of attention :grn:

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