welcome to the hilton...please dont forget to tip your waitress

thisnurse · Jun 12, 2002

my all time favorite PIA award goes to carl.

ordered morphine q2...asks for it on the dot, calls you in his room every half hour or more....fix my bed....get me juice....change the channel...go get me coffee

AND THEN SAYS.......

honey ive been trying to reach my girlfriend all day...she doesnt answer...ill give you her number and you keep trying.

zudy · Jun 12, 2002

Well, I think one of my favorites was a young, obviously well-to-do couple that brought in their 8 month old boy for fever ( of course, had not given any tylenol) baby had a wet diaper, they didn't bring any with them, I got them one, and they wanted me to change the baby, and were quite irate!! I told them no way. but perhaps my very fav was the lady that brought her DOG to the ER becuase "He goes everywhere with me, and my doctor lets me do this" I told her to get the dog out. How stupid can you be? I get so tired of people that are functioning on two neurons that are held together by a spirocete! :rolleyes:

Brownms46 · Jun 12, 2002

Nooo...I like the PP mom...who was putting her pads in the bedside trash...and had the room stinking when I walked in. And her poor roommate had...had to endure the odor and being in the room with this nasty woman! I told her to get up...take her peri bottle in the bathroom with her( as the pad she had on was quite soiled......take her trash can...place the soiled pads in the provided brown bags...place them in the red bag lined containers...and clean her behind...EWW!!!"

Hate to be the child she took home..Eeewwwww!

live4today, RN · Jun 12, 2002

When I worked in Hawaii as a Traveling Nurse, this one Japanese male patient that I had refused to do ANYTHING for himself. Each morning, his female relatives would show up to bathe him, groom him, and make him comfortable. Great for the nurses assigned to him since we did not have to do any morning care for him, assist him with his toiletry needs, or feed him. Mind you, he was healthy, good looking, strongly built, and extremely wealthy. His nails were the best groomed nails I'd ever seen on a man, so it wasn't that he COULDN'T perform his morning care, it was "against his tradition to do so" according to one of the ladies at his bedside. :rolleyes:

I rotated to 12 hour nights shortly after his admission, and was assigned to him since I knew him quite well - Grrrrrrrrr... Anyway, after supper that one particular evening, he turned on his call light, I saw that he needed his nurse, so I went into his room to inquire as to what he needed. He said "Glass of water, please." I looked at his bedside to see a full fresh pitcher of ice water and cups on his bedside tray that were within easy reach of him, then asked "Do you not like the water that is there for you to drink?" He looked sternly at me before saying "There is none in the glass. I'd like for you to pour me a glass of water, please." I said "Sir, are your hands broke or are you afraid you'll spill the water if you try pouring it yourself? Are you feeling okay this evening?" He stared at me in surprise and said "I can pour the water just fine, but it's not my job to do so." I said "Nor is it my job to do so, either, sir, so if you are THAT thirsty, pour yourself some water and when you run dry, THEN I will see to it that you get more fresh water." I turned and left the room, and cracked up laughing at the nurses station with the other nurses who refused to cater to his every little whim. He also did not want to wipe his own butt after a 'BM'... can you believe that guy? I certainly never wiped his butt! The nerve of that man! :rolleyes: :chuckle

mattsmom81 · Jun 12, 2002

I read your story Renee...gotta say in today's community hospital you would likely be counseled for being 'culturally insensitive', and no doubt would get zero support for your behavior from the suits when the patient/family complained.

Anyone else as sick to death of the suits' buzzwords as me? Culturally sensitive? Work smarter not harder? The customer theory? GRRRR.

live4today, RN · Jun 12, 2002

Originally posted by mattsmom81
I read your story Renee...gotta say in today's community hospital you would likely be counseled for being 'culturally insensitive', and no doubt would get zero support for your behavior from the suits when the patient/family complained.

Anyone else as sick to death of the suits' buzzwords as me? Culturally sensitive? Work smarter not harder? The customer theory? GRRRR.

Hi mattsmom, :)...for THAT particular patient, it wasn't a culturally insensitive thing. We had tons of Japanese male patients that we cared for, and not ONE of them EVER demanded so much from a woman. The women who came in every morning to care for him even complained to the nurses about how demanding he was. His own sister complained about how spoiled her rich big brother was. We all knew that he was only being that way because he could "financially afford" the luxury of being catered to. Can't blame his behavior on culture. He was trippin' that's all, and EVERY staff member, and his female relatives knew it. We never caught slack for making that man pour his own water or wipe his own buttocks. If anything, his sister commended us on getting him to do more than hold his own newspaper while he read it. :chuckle

ChristenLPN, LPN · Jun 13, 2002

As I read these posts, I am reminded that one of the things I love most about urgent care is the very limited time that we spend w/ pts, but with some of them, 5 minutes is about 10 too many!

I had a 3-year-old kid with a head lac that really did need suturing. When I sat the family down in the tx room, mom was holding the kid as he happily played with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger... ZERO distress, until I attempted to take an axillary temp. Why the process of holding his arm at his side was so intolerable, I do not know. I then intended to take his pulse by holding his wrist, but he hit me in the face with Tigger. Mom did nothing. Still trying to be patient, I placed my stethoscope lightly on his back, reassuring him that this would not hurt. He immediately yanked my Littman, ripping the earpieces out of my ears. Mom said languidly, "Oh, that must've hurt" I looked her in the eye and said, "Yes, ma'am, it did hurt, and as a result we will just not know your son's heart or respiration rate today." I walked out of the room and documented it word for word. Even worse, when the PA went to suture him, he screamed and hit her, while the parents looked calmly on. She ended up closing the lac with Dermabond since the kid wouldn't hold still enough for suturing, and this was a kid who was playing happily 15 minutes before! It makes me crazy that people bring their kids to us so we can help repair self-inflicted damage, and then let the kids beat us to a pulp and leave complaining about inadequate treament!!!

I loved the lady who checked herself in as an EMTALA (state law says a licensed nurse has to triage w/in 10 mins) on a day we were short a doc, had a house full, backs against the wall. Her c/o? Varicose veins. She's right up there with my EMATALA guy with life-threatening hiccups. Every mom w/an EMTALA kid gives his temp as "103". When I check it, it is 98.7. Mom says, "Oh, I gave him a Motrin 30 minutes ago" A miracle drug! It will lower your temp 5 degrees in half an hour!!!

So far our favorite has been the "Meatball Terrorist". This 19-year-old checked in (with his mother!!) refusing to tell the receptionist why he was there. Finally he yelled at her, "I have a rash and my d*** hurts!" He had waited for about an hour (which he filled by throwing magazines, spitting on the floor, and cursing) when a lady came in with a gaping, bleeding laceration. Our policy requires that such wounds be taken back immediately, which agitated our rash guy to no end. He had at some point gotten a meatball sub from Subway, and as he threw it across the lobby, he yelled that he was sick of humanity and would be back to f*** us all up with his toxic waste truck. Immediately one of the PAs asked him to leave, and the entire waiting room applauded. Before he left he rescued a meatball from the sandwich lying in the corner and used it to write "Death to All" on our front door. The police actually said that in order to act, they needed "more key words". ?????

I want to put up a sign that says "This is an URGENT CARE. We treat medical problems that can't wait. We do not give booster shots. We do not insert Norplants. We do not refill old prescriptions from other doctors who are not available today. We do not do Pap smears or give orders for screening mammograms. We will treat your sinus infection, but if someone with chest pain/uncontrolled bleeding/active vomiting/SOB/labor pains comes in while you are waiting, we will see that person first. We offer no guarantees that since you have waited longer than 5 minutes, absolutely no one will arrive who is sicker than you. Once you are in the exam room, if you ask if, "as long as we're all here..." we perform well-child check-ups on your 4 Medicaid-covered children, you will go back out to the front desk and check them all in individually, as the law requires, and you will then wait for their turn. We are not a one-stop-Dr-shop, 'in and out and on your way!' kind of place. We are obligated to your immediate health needs only, not your work/personal/feeding/excercise schedule. For every profanity you utter about the wait, and every staff member you threaten, you will be moved back one place in line."

I have the support of all the staff, but none of the suits! I can dream anyway..... :rolleyes: The sincere desire to help others is why we all went in to this line of work (most of us, anyway) but some patients make that danged hard to remember.

ChristenLPN, LPN · Jun 13, 2002

OH. P.S....... A man who checked in with "dizziness" apologized profusely for making our day busy- he had a BP of 50/18 had was dx'd with a GI bleed. A sweet old lady who was bleeding buckets from her rectum felt "just terrible about bothering" us. These pts are so incredibly polite and grateful, and I think they would really rather die than be an impostition! It's one extreme or the other.

l.rae · Jun 13, 2002

Gotta blame the media and the hospitals for portraying nurses as service workers.....

__________________

Mattsmom81

Amen to this!!!!!!!Really pizzes me off too....

Peeps Mcarthur · Jun 13, 2002

Before he left he rescued a meatball from the sandwich lying in the corner and used it to write "Death to All" on our front door. The police actually said that in order to act, they needed "more key words". ?????

Do they need a "key" murder weapon? A "key" body?

Think of all the "beautiful people" that the police get to enjoy all day! LOL!

Uhmmm...........Without a complete HX I can't be sure but could the rash have been.............STRESS RELATED?

:chuckle

SOCRATES SOUL · Jun 13, 2002

what i really find revolting is those patients that demand an ambulance escort upon discharge/transfer and they demand one when they have a million annoying relatives to do the simple task......they damend in order to prolong their dying swan acts......makes me sick....... ....especialy when one thinks of how much money the public system is wasting on these leeches when it could have been put towards someone that really needs it........

or those precious ones that complain non stop about the food (yeah right asswipe, ive been to countries where people can die in the street from hunger..)....often they are the fattest grossest greediest patients and they send their analheaded relatives to the nurses station to demand we order another meal.....and when not one of them even dares contemplate trotting on down to the hospital cafeteria to buy their fat loved one a sandwich.... leeches leeches leeches no wonder the system is in dire straits.........

and the general opinion here of those that are able bodied to tend to their own adl's but demand assistance therefore taking us away from the ones that really need us there.......not to mention gnawing into our time management......

relatives that intrude on out of bounds areas such as staff toilets, ward kitchens to make a round a 10 coffees(leeches....), those that set up their own little coffee shops around a patients bedside and disregard all others....... ......alot of people have no idea out there do they.....or just no manners......... :eek:

on a final note how about those that demand trolley escorts when they could have a wheelchair or those that insist on o2 allthough their o2 sats are above 98% on room air??.....dont even think about the o2 cylinder i have to lug with me on top of everything else you precious puntzzzzzzzzz............ :rolleyes:

had a shift from hell guys sorrrrrrrrrrry to sound like a prized whinger!!!!! but only other nurses really understand the other dont they....... thats why this forum is such a fantastic outlet only wish i had more time to peruse it.........

whipping girl in 07, RN · Jun 13, 2002

I had a patient again last night in ICU that I took care of last week after she had surgery to repair an esophageal perforation. She had peritonitis, on the vent, a real train wreck but she seems to be pretty nice. Anyway, I had been warned that the daughter (who's in nursing school, just finished her FIRST semester) is full of questions, like 1) "Why are the QRS segments different now than they were when I visited at 5?" (because I changed EKG leads to v1 instead of lead II) 2) "Why is the vent alarming?" (because your mom just coughed) etc. But I did not expect this one from the husband: "Is there an order written in my wife's chart that you can't give her pain medicine unless she asks for it?" What?!? What the h@!! are you talking about? (OK, so I said, what do you mean?) "The day nurse said she couldn't give my wife pain medicine unless she asked for it. I don't think she can with the tube down her throat, do you?" Well, I said, she just asked me for a shot about an hour and a half ago, so I guess she can ask. "Oh, well, can you give her medicine anyway even if she doesn't ask?" Yes, we can give it, but if you ever want her to come off that vent, she's going to have to be a little awake and breathing over it. We can't keep her sedated all the time when she's this close to coming off. (She was on IMV of 4 and pulling her own TVs higher than the vent was giving her). I told her I would ask her regularly and premedicate before dressing changes, etc., but I was not going to push morphine on her every two hours if she didn't need or want it. He said he understood and that was fine. "And by the way, we don't want the nurse that took care of her back tomorrow. I don't want her to ever set foot in that room again." Now, granted, the nurse in question can be pretty gruff (I thought she was a total bytch when I was in orientation, but she's kind of grown on me here lately) but she is a good nurse, and I know that she was doing what was in the patient's best interest. She even called the doc and got the MS order increased and to be given more frequently because it obviously wasn't lasting long enough. So I just told the husband OK and passed the word on to the charge nurse who was making assignments.

Night before last I had a post-op lobectomy who wanted hot tea. Now, ICU is not the best place in the hospital to find food or drink, and certainly not something as obscure (at least around here) as hot tea. But I searched and found it, made it, and brought it to her. "Oh, it's decaf? I don't want it then. I'll just wait till my daughter comes," she sighs. (BOO-HOO) Stupid me, I left it on the bedside table, thinking if she changes her mind, it's there. Half an hour later, d@mn call bell, "I spilled my tea, can you get me some more?" Sure enough, whole f-ing cup of tea in the bed AFTER I gave her a bath and changed the sheets. I changed her gown and rolled one of the draw sheets out from under her. That was all she was getting. And needless to say, NO MORE TEA! The only reason she came to the unit was because she was on Neo to keep SBP above 140 after surgery (resp. distress with lower pressures?!). I looked under the pillow and never did find my tip!

Ugh. I'm with SICU Queen! Intubated and sedated (on Diprivan preferably!) is the best patient in the world!

Can we pass out chill pills to the families?!?