Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

justjRN · Feb 11, 2009

OMG the 911 ones!!! That reminded me of the pt i had one night who was "pleasantly confused" - called 911 from her room at 2am b/c she needed to have a bowel movement!

We didnt know it until the 911 dispatch called us to inform us of our pt's need!!!

knittedmittens · Sep 2, 2009

i work on a standard med/surg floor at a hospital and we had an elderly pt call 911 to complain that her lunch wasn't there yet. about 6 security guards appeared in her room in seconds, and she was all "where's my food?!?!?!?" she knew how to use the call bell too, i guess she decided 911 would provide better results?

ayla2004, ASN, RN · Sep 2, 2009

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ladnewnurse · Sep 2, 2009

Before you read this let me explain....Our call lights ring directly to our wireless phones, so I'm sitting at the computer in the hallway down the hall from the patient and my phone beeps....

"May I help you?" I say

"Did you know that Tonya is on the city board and she's exhausted? It really makes her tired. She's on the city board. I don't know why Tonya isn't here tonight, I guess it's because she's exhausted. I really wish Tonya was here. You know, she's on the city board & she's just exhausted."

To which I say, "I did not know that about Tonya. Is there anything that you need help with or that I can bring you?"

"No, I just wanted you to know that Tonya was on the city board & she's really exhausted."

And I say, "Ok Mrs ..., I'll be in to check with you shortly."

The pt. says "Ok, bye honey."

Note to the readers: I have absolutley not got the foggiest idea who Tonya is! I went in shortly after to ask who Tonya is and the pt. was a little irritated to know that I didn't know Tonya (I'm a fairly new nurse & this pt is a frequent pt. at my job, so I guess she thought I should know everything about her) She basically decided that since I didn't know Tonya, I didn't need to know her & she wouldn't tell me who she was. I guess the pt. forgot that the call light system is not a telephone system. OH...I later found out from a co-worker, that Tonya is a neighbor, or at least we think so! :rotfl:

ladnewnurse · Sep 2, 2009

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! I guess, I can understand why that man was so upset! How funny!

I was called to a room in assisted living because we had a 101 yr old man that was terrified because "his plumbing was gone!". Come to find out he must have been cold, and his "johnson" shrank back.
Now, I am NOT going to pull it out for him..and gave him tea till he had to pee, just conversing and having a good time..then when it was time, he peed just fine and I said..."Look! It is right there!". He was very greatful! LOL!
I have been called to a elderly womans room to take out a baby she swears was in her light fixture. No baby there, however I said..."no honey, there is no human baby there...but there is one heck of a dust bunny there!" I retrieved it and she was very relieved.
Then of course there are those other professions I suppose folks assume we do! I was called into a room for a stuffed up toliet (full of towels!!!!!!). I was able to actually fix that suprisingly and submitted a fake bill to the administration for my plumbing expertise. And a bird hit a window and I had to do CPR on it because of a very freaked out elderly woman demanded I did...I gave it two minutes and prounouced death (I think legally I can on a wild bird..LOL!).
I LOVE the one about the 101 asking if she was still alive! CLASSIC!

ladnewnurse · Sep 2, 2009

I am not a nurse.(yet) But reading these made me think back to my childhood, and of all the nurses that inspired me to join thier ranks. When i was 6 or 7, I got a bad case of croop, 2 weeks in an O2 tent. Thinking back on it I don't remember much of that time I spent alone. The nurses seemed to always be there. I remember that if they left my room, it was for very short periods of time. Looking back on it, I relize what a pain in the butt this must have been for them. The middle of the night hitting the call button cause I had had a bad dream. They would never leave me till i had fell back to sleep, and never seemed to be bothered by it. Those nurses must have been saints. But they changed the life of a little boy...I only wish i could look them up and tell them just how special they were, and to thank them.

It is really nice to know that a nurse effected you in that way! :up:

ladnewnurse · Sep 3, 2009

I remembered another one. This wasn't my patient or the patient who did the calling. There was a bathroom light going off, we have special lights for the bathroom, it wasn't my patient but I was close so I went on in. When I saw that the pt. was laying in bed asleep I thought it was a little strange. I opened the bathroom door to shut off the light, in the bathroom was the pt. husband who was a elderly confused man. He was standing there looking that the red light on the button. I asked him if he was ok and he said, "Yep, I just wanted to see what that funny little button did."

diane227, LPN, RN · Sep 3, 2009

For the patient to tell me that he was no longer dying. (He was not dying in the first place).

imaflute03 · Sep 3, 2009

Probably not weird, but frustrating is patient's not wanting to be proactive in their care like, the patient that wants a drink, can reach the water cup, but refuses to do it for themself because they think that hospital=hilton.

chicookie, BSN, RN · Sep 3, 2009

I got:

"Honey, can you change the channel. I can't find the remote."

This was from a 42 year old man who came in with ......actually I don't remember what he came in with but he was perfectly fine that day.

fuzzywuzzy, CNA · Sep 4, 2009

What about the "I didn't do it" game? Where they swear up and down that they didn't hit the button. Or you go in there and they pretend to be asleep. We used to have one lady who would do that all the time but you could see one eye cracked open, and if you "woke her up" to ask why she rang she would scream at you for "waking" her. As soon as you walked out the door she'd hit it again. It got so I would walk out, then sneak back in behind the privacy curtain and shut it off when she rang the second time.

Or when they ring to tell you that you never gave them their call bell?

Or when they hit the bell on behalf of their roommate. You go in there:

"What?"

"Nothing"

"Didn't you ring?"

"No"

Then the roommate pipes up. "I rang! I think she has to go to the bathroom!"

"Do you?"

"No"

"Do either of you need anyting while I'm in here?"

"No"

"Okay goodnight!"

sasha2lady · Sep 5, 2009

How about the ones who ring the call bell and when you go in to see what they want they say "I didnt ring"....when they are usually either the only one in the room or the only one with it enough to actually use a call button. Kills me every time. LOL.