VENT--Boundaries please!!!!!

Published

Specializes in WOC, Hospice, Home Health.

Dear patient's fully grown adult son,

Do not under any circumstances flick my scope tubing while I'm taking a BP. Do not tell me I'm a "hot-ass nurse". Do not interrupt me while I'm teaching my patient about her asthma triggers. Do not purposefully make obnoxious noises while I'm listening to breath sounds. Do not tell me that you will look for an air purifier in someone's garbage. Do not tell me that you refuse to clean out your nasty bird/rabbit/snake/mice cages more than every 2 weeks even after I explain how animal feces in the air is, well, BAD for people with severe respiratory issues. Do not flick a nasty dirty jacket out over your mother's open wound because you can't bear to look at it. Try vaccuuming sometime. Never ever procreate, for the sake of the species. Oh and please, please just go away and never be here ever again during nursing visits. Thanks,okay, Bye

Love,

ProBeeRN

Pardon typos, on my Blackberry

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Home Health.

Are you serious? Did he actually do those things? :eek: Yeah, he and I would have a nice chat about that! The nerve of some people!

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Specializes in LTC.

***applause***

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Specializes in student; help!.

It would be all I could do not to kick him in the taint. Good on you for coming here instead.

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Specializes in ED.

I know this is the same guy that visits his mom in my grandmother's nursing home every single day and night because "visitors eat free."

How did you not hit this guy when he flicking your scope? I woulda thumped him right in the head.

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How obnoxious!

I'm curious (I'm still a student in the pre-req stage of the game, so no patient care experience), can you tell people like that "If you cannot refrain from interfering with your [insert family member]'s care, you may leave the room." ? Or will that get you in hot water if the person complains?

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If you want to see how people really live, do some in home nursing care. pts houses I've been to would make a pig look as clean as a new bar of soap from the box. As a paramedic I've seen the worst of the worst. I don't know how many times I have almost pucked from the stench and filth of some peoples houses.

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Specializes in WOC, Hospice, Home Health.

In response to the first post, he did actually say/do all of those things.

I barely refrained from thwomping him one on the head. There was some serious teeth-gritting going on. For the record, this was home care, so I have limited environmental control. During all this there was 2 kids under age 5 running around as well. I left with a headache.

I didn't go as far as starting a confrontation but I gave a few death-looks and stayed stone cold in response--think of when you ignore a toddler crying for attention. It worked pretty well. I'm actually really easy going and it takes a lot to get me agitated--plus, again, home care and no one to back me up on site. He doesn't actually live in the home, so I don't have to deal with him all the time. Met him a few times before and he was mildly annoying but this took the cake today :uhoh3:

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Specializes in LTC.

I would have given more than death looks! I know nurses who work homecare and hear stories all the time. The one nurse recently had been caring for a girl with a new trach/vent. Her father was coming onto my friend in front of his daughter when the mother was gone. My friend had to ask him to stop repeatedly. The father would always make his remarks to her while she was giving pericare. He kept walking around her with only his thin short bathrobe on!! :clown: OMG, I don't know how she stayed there for 3 months!!!

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health, Hospice.
If you want to see how people really live, do some in home nursing care. pts houses I've been to would make a pig look as clean as a new bar of soap from the box. As a paramedic I've seen the worst of the worst. I don't know how many times I have almost pucked from the stench and filth of some peoples houses.

Do I understand you completely. I once went into a home that had PATHWAYS to the kitchen, bath and bedroom. Trying to provide care was next to impossible. I hate it when they say "have a seat on the stack of newspapers"...I've been in homes where roaches climb the wall during daylight hours, where a baby lay on the dirty floor and flies all over the baby:confused:...I've called CPS and APS numerous times to report, it grosses me out:uhoh3:.

And for the families that love to interrupt when examining a patient, I just say "Can you please give me a few minutes here with your............ and I'll be happy to answer your questions" or Can you step out of the room so that I may provide some privacy for your.................." that usually works.:devil:..at times!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

Sounds like a come to jesus meeting was in order :|

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Specializes in psych nursing/certified Parish Nurse.

You that do in-home nursing: my goodness! That is a job "above and beyond the call of duty!" I remember some of the stories my great-aunt (died at age 104 just a couple of months ago) tells about being an industrial nurse for General Electric, then went on to be a private duty nurse for some of Cleveland's most wealthy people! The things she saw and did... absolutely amazing and highly-educational. I, too, babysat in the homes of some of these wealthy people while a nursing student... and saw similar things to what is being described... it isn't just confined to the poverty-stricken! (my great-aunt and I attended the same nursing school--fifty years apart). Just say, well you just can't figure out what is going on in the heads of most people! (Thank goodness, here, too!) keeps us humble, to say the least!

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