Welcome To The Hospital - From Your Nurse

[Lev]

Welcome to the hospital. From your nurse.

This is not your home. It is the place where your doctors, nurses, and therapists will get you better to return home.

Hi new patient's family. Can you please refrain from speaking so I can ask your family member some pertinent questions?

Since this is not your home, do not expects the comforts of home, such as a luxury bed.

Those hospital beds are not the greatest. However, they are designed to help prevent your skin from breaking. You're welcome.

When was the last time someone cooked a whole meal for you? If you don't like it, bring something from home, but don't complain.

Missing your personal slave? Didn't think so. Hi! I'm your nurse and I have 4 other people to take care of in addition to you.

RN. Refreshments and Narcotics. Huh?

Your pain is at a 10/10? Really? So as somebody is cutting your leg off with a saw you make personal phone calls and laugh at a Facebook post?

Actually you do need an IV. And I don't just put them in people because I'm a sicko who likes sticking sharp objects into people. (I do like getting them in though).

If you think you can dictate which order I give your medications (which tend to include Benadryl, Dilaudid, and Zofran), you don't belong in this hospital.

I feed my patients. Not their visitors. Unless I feel bad for them.

You will be woken up. Multiple times. While you're sleeping.

Don't think you can threaten me by refusing to take your medications. Less work for me!

I asked a simple question. When did you last move your bowels? I don't need the extended edition.

Keep your arm straight if you don't want that machine to beep.

Those bubbles in the IV tubing won't kill you.

Wouldn't a family reunion be so much more peaceful in your own home, at a park, or somewhere spacious.

If you don't want to deal with me and my expectations, there's a hotel down the street.

See you next month!

[ixchel]

No, I wouldn't be miffed Jensmom7. I don't attack people. I don't believe in being negative. I joined this forum for HELP with my father since it was recommended to me by a nurse as a place to get honest answers. I may not know nurses but I know people. Here, like in the hospital, the negative people ruin it for the rest.

To the bolded, do you know how ironic that comment is?

To the rest, allnurses is a colleague to colleague forum. Absolutely no medical advice is allowed to be given here, nor would we want to give it. On the Internet, there is absolutely no way for us to know all relevant details to give you accurate information. If we were to give you advice, we (and the website) could be liable for any adverse outcome that came as a result.

Not only that, but think about it - how would you actually KNOW the person giving you advice was actually a licensed nurse competent in the area you requested information about?

[ixchel]

no we are ruining it for you because you do not belong here, please take the "hint" and stop posting. We have to explain things over and over again to you so please take yourself out of the conversations. As already addressed, this site is for medical professionals not for us to educate the public on our role. We also shouldn't have to censor ourselves because you can't comprehend the reasoning or humor behind our posting.

While I agree with much of what you say, I actually think AN might be a great resource for laypeople to learn about the nursing profession as a whole and perhaps ask questions about that specifically. Think about how misunderstood nursing is in general. I definitely don't think chastising us in a thread clearly intended for venting amongst colleagues is okay, but look at how much is already on AN about what we ACTUALLY do, vs. being the handmaiden to doctors like the general public likes to believe.

[ixchel]

One I'd like to add to the list -

Please tell your family not to call me when you don't answer your phone. Explain to them that you are in a hospital, where you receive testing and treatment. You may also be sleeping. These are things you NEED, and your family/friends can call back later.

[MaudKennedy]

If you had to choose between discomfort and sepsis, which would you prefer? I'm sorry if this is shocking, but yes, there are times when comfort has to be secondary to medical treatment plans. This doesn't just apply to IVs, either. It applies to absolutely every aspect of care in the hospital. Do you want us to get you better? Or you want us to get you sicker?

I wasn't really talking about me actually because I have very crappy veins and I doubt any nurse would even try to get an IV in another vein than the antecubital if I had to get antibiotics or blood... I was asking more about the fact it seemed the antecubital was almost always chosen for an IV but now with the answers I got I understand why you do it that way.

I don't doubt it applies to every aspect of care but when your IV is placed in an uncomfortable location,you'll be uncomfortable as long as you'll need it. That's not serious and that's necessary I get it but that's frustrating,that's all I meant.

To answer to your question,I understand safety trumps absolutely everything:modesty,discomfort and even pain. None in their right mind would take the chance to expose someone to a risk. It just doesn't make sense.

However,to be perfectly honest,I'm not sure I'd be reasonable enough to make the right choice and not choose comfort to a potential risk if I were a patient but given my crappy veins,I don't think I'd have a choice anyway.

[CountryMomma, ASN, RN]

One I'd like to add to the list -

Please tell your family not to call me when you don't answer your phone. Explain to them that you are in a hospital, where you receive testing and treatment. You may also be sleeping. These are things you NEED, and your family/friends can call back later.

This times a thousand, and add that if you are sleeping, I will not wake you up to talk on the phone.

[ixchel]

I wasn't really talking about me actually because I have very crappy veins and I doubt any nurse would even try to get an IV in another vein than the antecubital if I had to get antibiotics or blood... I was asking more about the fact it seemed the antecubital was almost always chosen for an IV but now with the answers I got I understand why you do it that way.

I don't doubt it applies to every aspect of care but when your IV is placed in an uncomfortable location,you'll be uncomfortable as long as you'll need it. That's not serious and that's necessary I get it but that's frustrating,that's all I meant.

To answer to your question,I understand safety trumps absolutely everything:modesty,discomfort and even pain. None in their right mind would take the chance to expose someone to a risk. It just doesn't make sense.

However,to be perfectly honest,I'm not sure I'd be reasonable enough to make the right choice and not choose comfort to a potential risk if I were a patient but given my crappy veins,I don't think I'd have a choice anyway.

Unfortunately, pretty much every single aspect of healthcare is risks vs. benefits. What you express at the end of this comment - that you might struggle with putting comfort before potential risks - can be a thing that a lot of nurses struggle with. In fact, I imagine this struggle was a big inspiration for hospice and palliative care coming to existence. Nurses DO struggle with this.

I think the worst of it comes when a family hijacks a patient's code status, making them full code when that means living their final days, weeks, months receiving futile, invasive interventions. Ethics, compassion and law do not always agree on what should happen in these cases.

It's heartbreaking. We get past these things by trying to keep emotion out of it. We distance ourselves out of necessity. We vent the minor frustrations, like this thread here intended to do, and we cling to whatever little things there are to help us heal ourselves. Some are better at this than others, and being better at it doesn't make any one of us heartless or uncaring. If we felt the burden of not being able to provide comfort first, always, you wouldn't be able to find any nurses to staff hospitals.

[Ambiguphobia]

"I'm allergic to morphine. And tramadol. And percocet. And vicodin. What's that medication for pain that starts with a 'D?' It goes through the IV, I think. I think it's pronounced, 'dinodood.' Right? Oh yeah, dilaudid. That's it."

"WHAT? The doctor wants to give me 2mg? 2mg doesn't work for me, my pain is 10/10 right now. *laughs at TV and takes bite out of fast food order* Have them change it to 4MG through the IV for Q4H." (yes, they say Q-4-H! Not "every 4 hours")

"I also get itchy when I get it. I need benadryl, but not the pill. That one doesn't work fast enough and it doesn't help with the itchiness. No, it has to be 50mg and Q4H with the dilaudid, too."

"Oh, I also get nauseated when I have dilaudid, so I have to have the medication that makes me not sick."

"Make sure you push dilaudid, benadryl, and then zofran. It can't be in another order. It has to be this order, or it doesn't work."

*calls for nurse at 30 minutes before next pain meds due* "You remember that I have medication in 30 minutes, right?"

*calls at 20 minutes prior to meds due* "You gotta get that medication ready. My pain is 10/10 again. Can you give me medications a few minutes earlier?"

*calls at 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 minutes prior* "YOU'RE LATE WITH MY MEDICATIONS, MY PAIN IS SO INTENSE RIGHT NOW. I NEED A BREAKTHROUGH DOSE SOON, TELL THE DOCTOR NOW."

"I'M CALLING THE SUPERVISOR ON YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE 10 MINUTES LATE WITH MY PAIN MEDICATIONS. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE DEAD PATIENT, THEY'RE DEAD ALREADY. I'M HERE IN SEVERE PAIN. YOU CAN'T IGNORE ME."

Rinse and repeat.

This has literally happened. Several times. I wish I was joking.

[guestng82]

I apologize since I hurt many feelings by posting in a nurse's forum when I am not a nurse. That was simply a mistake from someone who had only been a member for 5 minutes. Thank you to those who pointed it out to me over and over.

If you're a new member, you should really take time to learn about the website before you post to it, especially when it's a self-righteous post about a profession that you have no clue about.

There are many non-nurses on AN who understand that this is not our profession, and it's not really our right to judge how these nurses vent or cope with the stress of their job, especially when there is no way for us to understand what that stress is.

I absolutely enjoy lurking on this site and reading the posts. I mostly use it to help me understand issues that come up in my med mal job and educate myself so that I can actually understand the meaning behind the medical records I work with on a daily basis, but the humorous posts are a lot of fun to read as well, until people like you come along and try to ruin it. So please, sit back and lurk as well so that you don't give the rest of us non-nurses a bad name around here on AN.

[AcuteCare4Life]

IVs are started in the AC because if IV contrast is required for imaging, the site needs to be in the AC or higher and in a 20G or larger. This is due to the high pressure contrast injector used during the imaging.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

OMG - I am just reading all the Facebook replies to this post for the first time and I am laughing my pants off! I'm thinking of making a fake FB account to reply to some of these people. They so do not know me and are making all these horrible assumptions about me how I'm such a terrible nurse and I'm bitter LOL. I am amazed!!!

(Can I be part of the COB club now?)

[SmilingBluEyes]

I agree with those who say such posts should not be on FB. It only encourages trolls to respond there and join here just to cause problems.

[shedevilprincss]

(Newish) ER nurse here. I can't tell you how many times patients have forbid me from starting an IV in their hands or wrist area because of the thinner skin//pain. If I can't start it in the AC or the hand, you are kind of limiting my options. Let me talk to the doc about getting that EJ ready for you [emoji6]