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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Specializes in Acute Care.
ok not a call light story but the funniest story i have to offer:

i had a patient last week who was the sweetest lady. she was so proper and very quiet and reserved. she was incontinent and on lasix - no foley to prevent infections - needless to say i had changed her linens several times that day. i had just rolled her to her side so i could make her occupied bed yet again and in trying to help pull herself further on her side to let out the loudest, fastest, wettest blast of air i have ever heard! i jumped a mile and without thinking said, "gosh mi!d*ed, you scared me half to death! i thought it was coming after me!" she proceeded to laugh hysterically all the while tooting up a storm which made her laugh even harder! this quiet reserved woman and i rolled for 15 minutes till we were both in tears!

everytime i walked into her room after that we laughed till we cried! oh and the best part was she was in for pneumo but had been unable to work up a proper sputum sample. in laughing so hard so had a coughing, tooting, peeing fit, which meant we had to change the partially made bed yet again but...we got her coughing and brought up a nice healthy sputum sample for the lab finally! :lol2:

i love my patients!

this is the mark of an absolutely wonderful nurse !!!

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

Apparently you answered your own question. :D We get "ortho" pts often who are demented/delirious s/p ORIF to manage their... um... non-ortho issues.

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I just had a lady yesterday who rang her call light to ask me to move the call light so she could reach it ;)

We also had a patient who was completly confused, keep ringing to 'stop the bus' because he wanted to get off.

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Specializes in Plastics. General Surgery. ITU. Oncology.

I had a good one on my latest set of nights.

3 AM raining hard outside. Patient rings the bell and I went to answer it.

Patient : "The rain is too loud. I can't sleep"

Me: "Sorry Sir I'll bleep God and get him to turn it off"

:)

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
I had a good one on my latest set of nights.

3 AM raining hard outside. Patient rings the bell and I went to answer it.

Patient : "The rain is too loud. I can't sleep"

Me: "Sorry Sir I'll bleep God and get him to turn it off" :)

Hilarious! Did they expect you to do a reverse rain dance to stop the rain!!

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I once had a pt call us in to his room because he had accidently pulled out his foley- but he proudly pointed down the the netherlands and said "but don't worry, I fixed it." We looked down and saw that he had found a loose snap cardiac electrode (not the clippy kind, thank goodness) inserted it in his urethra! We all went out to the desk laughing about the "p"-wave.

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i had a little 104 year old call me to her room to talk to her niece on the telephone one evening. When i asked where her phone was she proceeded to pick up her box of tissues and say hold on honey here she is. Shes a cutie :).hehe

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had a resident who called 30+ times a day all for dumb things, even did it in his sleep. most often it was because on part of his body was hotter/colder then the rest, he never wanted more/less blankets, when asked what he wanted us to do he said he didn't know. he never, ever said thank you.

>

this happened last week when i wasn't on but the story has been told a few by now where i work. a very independent, together woman called and was yelling incoherently. rushed to her room. she was standing in the bathroom, gasping, flushed and ranting, about to cry or something. she said "i've been like this for hours, i can't fix it, ahhhh" "what's wrong, are you in pain", "ohhhh..don't you see" "uhh no" "my left eye brow is shorter the then other" !!!

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Specializes in med-surg, mother-baby.

When I first started nursing, I did mostly LTC, and we had this one relatively young guy who was a quad, but was still fully A&O. We just start 0h00-8h00 shift, and the emergency bell goes off in his room. We all freak out, thinking hes choking or something...All run to his room, only to have him tell us that he's thirsty and wants water. We ask him why he felt the need to ring the emergency call...'Im REALLY thirsty' UGH!!!

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Not much of a story, but here goes:

I had just introduced myself to the patient about ten minutes earlier and heard him shouting my name loudly. I knew he was a bit confused, so I went in to check him. He was on all fours in his bed with his O2 going.

Me: What's wrong?

Pt: I'm sick!

Me: Yes, sir, that's why you've come here. Can you tell me exactly what is bothering you right now?

Pt: My oxygen!

Me: What's wrong with it?

Pt: Is it running?

Me: Yes, sir, it's going in through your nose right now.

Pt: But how will it get out?!

Me: Sir?

Pt: How can i get the oxygen out of me!

Me: Sir, trust me, you're getting plenty of oxygen out just by breathing, and speaking to me.

Pt: Oh, I didn't want to fill up with oxygen and explode.

Me: You're in no danger of that.

Pt: OK, goodnight.

Patient repositioned onto his back and fell asleep. :smile: :nurse:

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Ortho, Oncology, PACU.

This isn't a weird reason, per se...but

We had one man. Oh, he WAS a chore. But we had a male AUA and I was the RN for this patient. Now, we always tell the patient to give a brief reason they are calling for when our aid answers the call light (so we know whether to send and aid, RN, LPN...etc (makes it faster response, and helps decide whther nurse needs to stop what she is doing to go to patient for urgent need)

So anyway...he just up and refused to give reasons. Kept saying he just needs his NURSE. Always specified needing the RN. I would run down there, thinking it was urgent (while I had others who needed RN care) to find he wanted water. Or his remote. Or to be changed (I am not beyond wiping butts...but during certain times, we really need the aid or AUA to do that as we have duties due that require RN only).

Finally we got to the bottom of it...he felt the RN should have to do the "woman" work. He made sure the RN got sent because the "woman" is suppoed to do the "maid" work.

Chauvinist a**! He would only ask for AUA if it was something like fixing a piece of equipment. I finally made the front desk send the AUA each time (if I was busy). He didn't like it. But I fixed his wagon.

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One particularly irritating woman in the nursing home I work in screams for help all the time. If you didn't know any better you'd think she has fallen and broken a hip. She has another habit of stripping for no apparent reason other than to get attention. Here are a few of my "favorite" reasons she was screaming for help.

"I want to sit in my chair." Two minutes after she is in her chair, "I want to lay back down" Repeat 9 or 10 more times.

"I need help with... sitting here."

"I'm having trouble breathing." (To which my co-worker responded "Maybe you should leave your oxygen on and stop screaming.")

I walked in and asked her "Why did you take your clothes off?"

"I did it to protest."

"Protest what?"

"You taking so long to get here to put my clothes back on."

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