Had a few of the weird ones on the same hallway yesterday but by far the most time consuming was the 22 year old who demanded her husband spend the night. At first I thought sure, as long as it's okay with the night nurse, if it'll make you feel better it's okay. She started talking about how mean the nurses on the other floor were last visit and how she went AMA. Okay so we called the other floor, apparently at night the husband goes into other patient's rooms asking for money. So, no, he can't stay, and the director put her foot down. So out comes the psych. "I have nightmares and multiple personalities, ooh, here comes another personality right now, what are you F*ing going to do when I start hitting nurses? You better have a document to restrain me from my husband, he's my legal guardian!!"
And of course her husband, who has been sitting there picking scabs from his arms, chimes in with the threats of how he's going to "sue this hospital." Then comes the usual from the patient: " I WILL go AMA."
So my questions: How do you actually deal with these psych patients? Of course you can't give in to their demands, but how to be diplomatic? And why can't we say, "go ahead and sue, take on our corporate lawyer with your imagined disrespect," or "Please do go AMA because I'm sick of you already." And why is this AMA such a big threat with the people you really, really want to go AMA, do they think we need them?
Maybe I have several questions. But I'm perplexed by psych, they make the job tedious and the day long, the same people keep needing the nurse in there constantly and are always asking to speak to the charge.
