I really like the Reader's Digest new monthly article. 13 things_____ won't tell you. This month it was teachers. So here are some I would like to see listed for nursing:
I really resent when you call and say you need a nurse immediately and when I get to the room you tell me you need a drink of water with a lot of ice. That is NOT something you need immediately and not something you need a nurse to do for you. Next time I won't hurry.
Standing at the desk staring at me isn't going to get me moving any faster, I am on the phone with the doctor getting orders. Glaring doesn't help either.
I understand you just had surgery, part of your recovery process is getting up and walking, so get up and walk.
Your doctor is an #@$hole, he will kill you sooner or later. Please don't sit there and say to me "well, my doctor says..."
Your family is crazy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
If you hit me, I will prosecute. I am not your punching bag.
You break my heart. You have been sick for so many years and yet you still smile when I walk into the room. AND manage to make me smile.
I love my work, but it is my work. My life is outside this place with people I love.
Please don't talk to me like I am stupid or deaf. I have a four year college degree and great hearing.
Use your call bell and your inside voice. Screaming nurse, nurse, nurse and banging your cup on the tray table will have people thinking your crazy and they will just ignore you.
When you come in acting like an idiot, your not advocating for your mom. The second you leave every nurse on the floor will avoid that room because they don't want to do a thing to tick you off.
That hug you gave me meant the world to me. The thank you for your great care? Made my day. Yes, I will be back tomarrow and one way or another you will be my patient.
Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Well, I DO read lips and that's because I care about my vented patients and want to be their advocate. I will stop doing whatever it is I am doing and GET that bedpan because I dont like cleaning crap off the sheets. Perhaps a vacation away is something you need just so that you can take a breather.
Great post, I have enjoyed reading just about all of these, but I had to cringe at the bed pan one, I have been a Pt. and was mortified enough to have to use a bed pan, I can't imagine having to ask for one and feeling like I am a burden for doing so.
1. You are fat and disgusting. You are only 60 years old, but you live in a nursing home because you weigh 400 pounds. You can't move because you are fat and lazy. You can't feel your feet because your HgbA1C is 12. And you moan when we try to move you, "because of the pain". Your hygiene is awful. And you brought all this on yourself.
I know Grandpa's left-over Roxanol, Ativan, and Fentanyl patches are your property, and my offer to dispose of them is only that, an offer, not a command.
But, since you have 7 kids from toddler to teen running around here right now, don't you think it would be a good idea to at least secure them if you won't let me get rid of them? If you harm yourself with them, well, it was your "informed" choice. But why take the risk with children?
After all, according to at least two of your family members, these meds just killed Grandpa (never mind the cancer, profound weight loss, pain, SOA, mottled extremities X4, NPO x 5 days, unresponsiveness, hypotension, tachycardia before I gave any meds), so you might extend the logic and realize they're dangerous wrongly-used.
So, you see, my bringing this up 3 times does not mean I'm sure you're addicts, or that I'm the drug police. I just think you're acting stupidly. :angryfire
Do not pull on my neck, when I assist you to standing. You will break my back. I truly do not mind what else you grab, because it is all better body mechanics than my neck. Do not grab your daughter's neck. You will break her back.
However, if you will please just put your hands where I tell you and do what I say, I promise you that we can do this. I'm a country girl; we are strong (but odor isn't everything). Good, here is the walker. Now put your right hand . . . . .
1. You are fat and disgusting. You are only 60 years old, but you live in a nursing home because you weigh 400 pounds. You can't move because you are fat and lazy. You can't feel your feet because your HgbA1C is 12. And you moan when we try to move you, "because of the pain". Your hygiene is awful. And you brought all this on yourself.
Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
Well, now, in all fairness, this IS titled "13 things a nurse WON'T tell you". What was said may seem harsh, but I'll stick my neck out and confess that I have had similar thoughts about some of my, shall we say.....fluffier patients. Especially when they are entitled and have the aforementioned comorbidities that, yes, they probably DID bring on themselves.
Then again, I'm not without fault myself. After my last visit to the doc revealed that I had hit 150 pounds, I snapped. Here it is 1:30 in the afternoon, I have yet to consume 500 calories, and am about to head out for my first (of three) miles for the day. Yes, I am aware of the potential health consequences of NOT eating, but it's worth it (to me) to lose the weight. Maybe those "healthy" patients we vent about have their own reasons for they shape that they have allowed themselves to get in.
1. PLEASE and THANK YOU go a loooonnng way!! i say it to you, no matter how big of an a$$ you are; it would be nice if you would return the favor once in a while.
2. i am your nurse, NOT your maid, personal assistant, servant, etc.
3. when you turn your call light on, dont have or let your family keep sticking their head out the door and look down the hall, yell down the hall, or immediately come up to the desk expecting a staff member to immediately come and answer the call light, which 9 times out of 10 isnt for something that it is urgent.
4. i know, i know, the BP cuff hurts, but like ive told you about 50 times, keep your arm still or it will have to pump higher! and yes, you still need to keep it on, bc if i dont know what your BP is, you might just have issues later on (or now) on this tridil, cardizem, amiodarone, procainamide gtt!!
5. your family is rediculous!
6. no, i do not have time to call all of your family to let them know you have a small cough which you have had forever. i have 5 other pts who actually should be here and are actually sick!
7. to families: stop calling to complain that "mom's pills are late, are you trying to kill her" q 5 minutes!! cant you figgure out that when you call, you are taking time away from trying to take care of her. and her pills are 'late' bc we had a code, and last time i checked, a code is more important that someone getting a colace.
8. if you dont like it here, well, by God, I found the door!! here, sign this paper!
9. if you dont want to be admitted, then WHY did you come to the ER, knowing that you had the possiblity of being admitted!
10. just bc im fat in the midsection doesnt mean that im preggo, and no you may not "touch my belly" that has no baby in it; but thanks for making me feel worse about myself than i already do!
11. oh, i look tired?? yeah, actually I am bc you have had me running all the way down the hallway all noc long bc you keep "bumping the call light... oops"
12. do i get paid well for what i have to put up with?? h3ll NO!! but i wouldnt trade it for anything!
13. it means the world to me to tell me that I am a good nurse and that you request me everytime you are here!! i love taking care of you probably more than you love me taking care of you! its truly wonderful to know that you actually appreciate me!! :heartbeat
Don't ask for a respiratory tx after returning from a smoke! Or ask me 100 times " when can I eat?" while NPO for surgery, ct scan etc.. or send a family member to the nurses station.
I agree with so many of these comments, but wow...
As a student, I may not know all the in's and out's of nursing but I have been a person for 31 years. I would HOPE some of these people are kidding. I would never want to work with them OR have them as a nurse. Turn up the white stuff and no bedpan for someone that can't do it themselves? Why the HECK are you a nurse? It is NOT all about paperwork and read-out's, shots and BS.
Maybe it has been too long for you to remember what a nurse is. Let me remind you:
Nursing is a health care profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from birth to end of life.
Nursing evolved from the familial roles NURTURING and CARETAKING. The hallmark of nursing is caring more than curing.
The role of nursing has obviously evolved tremendously since Nightingale's era but the idea has not. Have some of you been out of school too long to remember why you wanted to be a nurse in the first place? Has the bureaucracy burned you out? If so, the University's and local college's are offering some GREAT courses for re-training America's work force. The taxpaying public is even paying for it. I will get you the number if you are too busy to look it up.
~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN
5,259 Posts
Great post, I have enjoyed reading just about all of these, but I had to cringe at the bed pan one, I have been a Pt. and was mortified enough to have to use a bed pan, I can't imagine having to ask for one and feeling like I am a burden for doing so.