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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Male, confused patient with CDiff calls to inform us that he "fixed this thingy." Upon gowning up and entering the room, we find the patient has completely disassmbled his IV, took the remaining tape and wrapped it around the telemetry monitor - to "fix" it. Later that morning, we go to check on him because his telemetry monitor has stopped picking up - he has taken the leads and used them to tie his Foley bag to his bedside commode - in the neatest, prettiest bow you have ever seen.

Another night, a patient calls to inform us that he "needs some help in here!" We all go running, terrified of what may be wrong with him, only to find that he has stood up, taken off his diaper, messed in the floor, walked through it, gotten back in the bed, and was waiting patiently for us with his arms crossed behind his head, and his legs crossed in front of him, as though it was the most normal thing he had ever done.

We get loads of these all the time, sometimes it makes things worse, and sometimes it helps to laugh a little!!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

I nursed a patient who kept ringing three bells all the time, for the mildest of excuses! We kept telling him, that is the emergency bell but it just didn't penetrate (he wasn't diagnosed with dementia or anything). Thing was we always had to run in there just in case he was in trouble. It drove us all NUTS.

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I once had a very confused man that loved chocolate pudding, and he called out because he was "dying." Knowing he was confused, I asked him what he was dying from....his answer? "Starvation due to lack of chocolate pudding" exact words.

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Specializes in ED.

Had a patient (I am a tech) for 3-4 shifts that had his mama stay with him through the nights. She was in her late 50s I'd guess and totally capable of walking around, etc. The patient was having a sickle cell crisis I think.

She'd call for me to open or close the room door or to turn the air or lights on or off. She'd call because SHE wanted a coke or water. She called me one night to come in to put the little cap on the straw of his water jug. :uhoh3: Only ONE time did I get a page for her son.

This patient was also a little hypertensive so I was going in for Q4s anyway but they never asked for anything while i was in the room. Instead, she would mumble about me going in there and not getting any sleep then I'd get a page

just as I was helping another patient to the rest room or when changing or turning another. I think I kept track of the amount of pages one night and she paged me for HER needs 18 times in a 12 hour period. It was ridiculous.

m

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Specializes in NICU.

I had patient who'd call repeatedly, and when I'd ask what I can do for her, she'd say, "You see, if I press this button, my address will change, and I will no longer be in the hospital." I had to inform her that our call lights do not facilitate teleportation, and if they did, I wouldn't be there either.

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I work home health and had a LOL call me asking if I have her television remote, and if I don't, can I come to her home to help her search for it--at 2:30 am. I now silence the cell phone at night unless I'm on call--a minor inconvenience when compared to floor nursing call light woes!

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, home-care.
I work home health and had a LOL call me asking if I have her television remote, and if I don't, can I come to her home to help her search for it--at 2:30 am. I now silence the cell phone at night unless I'm on call--a minor inconvenience when compared to floor nursing call light woes!

I can relate to this... But I get calls from other caregivers, anytime, Where are the Incont. pads? (In the linen closet where they have been for 3 years)... Where did you put my lg gloves? (I HAVE NOT seen your lg gloves!!) Will you pick me up 5 boxes of lg gloves at the office, because I am not going there soon! (OK, I will go out of MY way to drive the 7 miles to pick up YOUR gloves... RIGHT!!! I'll take a call from my little 91 year old ANYDAY... :redbeathe

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A couple takes the cake.............

First one male patient called me in told me call 911 someone from upstairs keeps coming in and raping him and stealing his chocolate that his wife brings and that his skin is blue colored.

Second I get called to a room........working as a RT btw............they called me in for a fly. I was annoyed coming to the room for a fly? Sorry I'm respiratory I have nothing to do with this. The patient was coughing quite a bit, tachypneic, so I went and suctioned patient and inside the suction tube were tiny little bugs looked like maggots I never saw anybody with things growing inside the trach......

That's why I love medical.............you can't make this stuff up.

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Specializes in Neuro, Cardiology, ICU, Med/Surg.

Had a confused LOL use the call bell requesting me to come into her room. I found her holding the call bell to hear ear like a telephone and she said, pointing to the actual telephone, "that one only works on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I should use this one today (meaning as a telephone), right?"

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Specializes in LTC.

I'm just a student but I had a 27 year old pt hitting the call light repeatedly for me to come cover her up. I did a few times (I only had 1 or 2 pts that day so I had time) until her staff nurse heard what she wanted on the intercom thing. She promptly marched down the hall and told her that she was not incapacitated and could cover herself up. Then, she came to me and told me not to do stuff like that for able pts because they couldn't do it after I left. She had a point, lol!

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Specializes in Onc/Med-Surg, ER, Nursing Supervisor.

Two different pts.... two different hospital stays... same room. Both pts pushed the Code Blue button claiming they were looking for the light switch.......... (it looks NOTHING like a light switch!)

Another pt, continuously presses the call bell throughout the day. I decide to save the nurse a trip and answer it. I go in, the pt starts berating me for not answering sooner (literally, it rang 2-3 times) and when I ask what they needed, the pt said, "Nothing, I just want you to answer my calls faster!"

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Specializes in Emergency.

Had a LOL who was admitted s/p fall with ankle fx (not sure why she was on a tele unit instead of ortho) who was a really bad sundowner.

One night we admitted another pt into the room next to hers. She was immediately on the call light when he got to the room.

When I went to see what she needed, she wanted to know what her husband was doing there. When I explained that that pt was not her husband (she was a widow), she got more and more agitated, and kept calling, insisting it was her husband in the next room, and why werent we telling her what was wrong and accusing us of lying when we tried to reorient her and telling her it was not her husband. She kept yelling, and we finally had to call her daughter to come stay with her. She settled down after that, but we found out from her daughter that she has always had this kind of reaction from even mild pain meds (which she had to have for her fx).

Also had a older man who kept calling insisting there was a construction crew in his room working and when would they be done so he could sleep?

Amy

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