Share The Weirdest Reasons Patients Push The Call Light

celticqueen · Jul 4, 2005

You guys always crack me up, so I came up with this question to hear more funny weird stories.
What were some funny,stupied,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 intersted in knowing more about the actual daily life w/ pt.

I had a patient who rang the bell - to tell me they couldn't reach their bell!!!:redlight: :bugeyes: :lol_hitti

TDub, MSN, EdD · Jul 5, 2005

Once I answered a call light of a man who was on fluid restriction. I walked in. He asked me to PLEASE get him "a cup of that koolaid from the big jug on the wall".
The big jug being a red sharps container. Poor guy.
~Kristen

Oh, the poor guy---thirsty AND delusional.

bemory · Jul 23, 2005

I had a patient call me in the room because she swore her telemetry box was attacking her. she said I felt it grip my throat and I had to fight it.

One nurse answered a call light and asked the patient while in the room if he moved his bowels. the patients said "hell no, i **it my pants"

mstigerlily · Jul 23, 2005

40 y/o first time mom who had a c-section - took care of her 2 nights in a row. It was 6am and I told her I was going off shift and enjoyed taking care of her she asked if I could show her how to change the baby's diaper since she had "never done it before"!!!

I guess I and the other nurses (or the dad) had done all the diaper changing but jeez this woman was a CPA. Diaper changing is pretty tame stuff compared to that I would think.

Melissa

You guys always crack me up, so I came up with this question to hear more funny weird stories.
What were some funny,stupied,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 intersted in knowing more about the actual daily life w/ pt.

Cute_CNA, CNA · Jul 23, 2005

One nurse answered a call light and asked the patient while in the room if he moved his bowels. the patients said "hell no, i **it my pants"

:rolleyes:

Spatialized · Jul 23, 2005

The other day I got report about an older gentleman, who got a little confused at night. The first night the staff found him butt naked walking out the doors of the unit, bleeding, with no leads or IV on. Reoriented him, no problems. Second night he walks out of the room towards the nurses station and asks the nurse, "Can you please close the door to my room?" after he had walked right past it...at least he didn't ask anyone to wipe anything.

Cheers,

Tom

Audreyfay · Jul 24, 2005

One of the hospitals I used to work at, received a bomb threat, which was called into the Operator. The Operator was suspicious because #1 It was an internal call, #2 She could hear an IV pump beeping in the background.

It turned out the patient hadn't gotten his lunch yet and was angry!

NorthernRose · Jul 24, 2005

:chuckle:chuckle:chuckle
Read this one to my husband, who said that must be a joke. People not in nursing haven't got a clue. Says he couldn't imagine someone actually doing this. Told him this is just another day in the life of a nurse. Has a whole new respect for all of us now.
Had a 32y.o man a while back who walked the halls, went down to smoke and who called to say he needed his butt wiped. Said mama did it at home, we told him he needed to do what he could for himself, but sure enough when mama came in she bathed, wiped him and waited on him hand and foot. Was on the call light constantly until she got there to remind us what we were getting paid for. In the room next to his had a 20y.o who came in for a asthma, was doing much better no signs of resp distress and was awaiting discharge that afternoon. Called wanted a bed bath and fed his breakfast. Now this kid was up moving around too, reminded that he was going home and told him he would be need to be doing these himself when he gets home.
Wrong! mama came in bathed and asctually fed this young man his breakfast.
Good grief:eek:

Glad I'm not these two guys momma!! Bet they donn't have wives!! lol The day either of my grown kids thinks I'm going to feed/bathe/wipe their tushes is the day I turn green with purple stripes!!

I've worked LTC for 14 years....am amazed that its always the patients that are farthest from the nursing desk that have the worst cases of callbellringingitis!!!

I've gotten alot of "I need the bedpan" and when I tell the pt. you just had it 2 minutes ago and they say "Oh i forgot" then roll over and go back to sleep. Or, someone will put their light on, go to answer it, they didnt want anything. Get back to the desk, their light is back on, back down the hall..."Well, since you woke me up I need a pain pill/bedpan/drink."

We also have a few rooms with 'ghost lights' The call lights will come on when no one is inthe room. Had this happen a few weeks ago. One resident from the room was in the hospital the other was sitting in his chair at the desk....NO ONE in the room to turn it on. Went down turned it off...half way down the hall, it came back on!!! (Of course this is a room farthest from the desk!! lol) This happened about 4 times! Freaked us out a bit. Then the light across the hall started doing the same thing. We couldn't get that one to shut off at all. Usually when things like this happen, we have a death (or 3)

dinkymouse · Jul 25, 2005

I had a patient hit the call light and when I got there he said, "I just wanted to see how long it took you to get here. :smackingf

Stella-Ohio · Jul 27, 2005

I love these.

We have the kind of call lights that you can communicate with the patient through.

The craziest ones are when you ask the patient what they need help with and are met by silence. You must go down and check on the patient (who's hearing is fine) but they don't feel obligated to answer you because they did not intentionally ring the bell, as if ignoring you on the sytem will make you vanish. And of course, these are usually the furthest from the nurses station.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jul 27, 2005

I once had a patient who called me to the room to wipe his butt because he did not wipe his own butt at home....his wife did. (I'm not kidding about this):rotfl:
That same patient would call me to his room to pull the bedside table closer to him, and pour him a cup of cold water. He didn't have to do this for himself at home. His wife did it, or their "help" did it.
Was he too sick to wipe his own butt and get his own water? No. He was a walky-talky dressed in a silk robe and jammies who could do everything for himself if he wanted to. He didn't want to.

sounds like he and his wife need to be smacked!

casi, ASN, RN · Jul 28, 2005

I work in assisted living

"My butt itches." okay she was pretty much immobile, so that legit

"I didn't hear you lock my door on your way out."

Resident will hear their neighbors call button beeping and hit theres "Who are you helpping?"

Thank goodness the Alzheimers unit doesn't utilize call buttons for all the residents. Though some of them do have our phone extention so they can call us just in case. We've had several instances of this happening. So one of my pleasantly confused residents has a post-it note by his phone that says "Call 171 for help." 10:30pm I get a call. "I have a note here that says I'm suppose to call you."