This is your emergency????

[AtlantaRN, RN]

I'm a weekend on call rn and had the strangest call earlier today. My job is to keep patients out of the ER and symptom control.........

Primary caregiver calls into the service to report "mother is refusing her eye drops." Lady is strong willed, I told her if mom says no, then don't try right now, try later......Try after she goes to bed, just lift her eyelid and put a drop in.....

She says "when she was on home health, the nurse would hold her eyelids open so i could put her drops in." I asked,

was your mother refusing drops at that time? she said "yes." Then that is assault.........

try to put the drops in later today.....

I textd my boss and told her. told her i'd be happy to write myself up for not going to patients home and assaulting the little old patient.....

I'm not driving 90 miles round trip to perform a task the patient is refusing.....

thank you for listening.....sometimes i don't know how people functioned before signing up for hospice....

Atlanta Rn

[Hospice Nurse LPN, BSN, RN]

Ah! The joys of being on call. Eye drops? You've got to be kidding, but then I've had calls that were just as strange.

PCG: I need a nurse out here right away.

Me: O.K. Whats going on?

PCG: Mama just had a very large BM. We need someone to come clean her up.

Me: Um...that's you're job.

Sometimes I do wonder how these people made it before hospice.

[wigglesgogo]

Ok, So I have had both types of calls before and wonder how some did it before Hospice before also. And if we are on a call for something like pt refusal of eye drops. Then what about the pt in pain that needs assistance or has a real emergency. I always try to explain we are here for emergency purposes and not routine calls. Some understand and of course there are those who want you to move in! Any who I feel your pain!

[Ginapixi, BSN, RN]

yup, been there and done that!"my husband/wife/mother/father is refusing to take his pills! can you come and give them?" if they do not want them.... some people think the pills or eye drops will cure and keep them alive... i suppose

and i have gone out already to clean up large BMs just so the patient is comfortable, but in the majority of cases can't do, i have other patients who have bigger problems... like the ones on TPN and increasing moist respirations - another one of my "favorites"

[jschut, BSN, RN]

Or how about "his legs are swollen and I can't get him to leave his shoes off"... or "He hasn't urinated since I changed his catheter" ...

(Both f these by the nurses in LTC on duty....

*sigh*

[ErinS, BSN, RN]

One of the things that always leaves me wondering is how people can not seem to take their medication without a detailed explanation. How did they take their meds before a nurse came to their house twice a week? I know my doctor does not explain my meds in great detail to me. It is truly mind boggling sometimes...

[AtlantaRN, RN]

One of our case managers asks quite frequently "how did u handle said situation before hospice?". I don't mind driving, I don't mind the calls, but I do expect it to be a true "issue" and not just an annoyance.

[SoCalRN1970]

One of my most favorite reported emergencies happened several times before I put 2 and 2 together.

I worked prn as a weekend on call / triage RN for a small local hospice. I noted just about 99% of the time I'd get a middle of the night call from a man who lived alone. His cadd pumps site "was disloged".

I noted the trend for the calls to happen well after midnight. After looking at my call logs requiring early morning or late late night emergency calls because the pumps sq site "fell out:

After noting just one too many 2am calls I finally asked this pateint what was going on? He admitted he was a night owl and he just wanted a visit.

Sad as this is, it went on all the time. He wanted to visit with someone. I was shocked he admitted it. But, it's sad the company I was with didn't intervene as it should have. Instead we got paid alot of OT and the man kept pulling out his sq sites which resulted in a social chat as far as he was concerned.