What Patients do to make you mad!

pagandeva2000, LPN · Dec 12, 2007

I can think of millions of things they have done to really toast my cookies. I had a client in the room with me doing teaching, and I heard an impatient knock on my door. I said "Yes" and the woman with a stroller just walked in and started making her demands. I said to her " I have a patient here, please give me a chance to come outside and see what you need" and she says "Once you said 'yes' I should have been allowed in whether someone was there or not". Then, I had to tell her to leave before I screamed.

I have had patients come to our clinic with no appointment but demand to be taught certain things such as how to use their glucometer, etc. and we explain to them that we will, but they have to wait for those who already have appointments to be serviced. This woman said to me "Oh,you don't like me because I am ugly". Well, at THAT point, she was to me.

Had another one that was to be counseled by a nurse because she was given Clonidine 0.1 mg po for HTN. She was to return for a blood pressure check in two weeks, and I had to explain to her to take her meds daily, diet information and the importance of returning for re-evaluation as scheduled. She leaves. I went to lunch and when I return an hour later, she was waiting for me with her hands on her hips telling me that "This 'counseling' must be stricken from the record, because I KNOW what medications I am on, and you are assuming that I am stupid." I explained to her that I am obligated to remind her of the purpose of the medications, why she is to return, and the implications that would be made if her pressure remained high. She then wants to tell the clinic manager (who is not a nurse) that I assumed she is stupid, and that I "wrote her up". Goodness, she pissed me off. I said to her " How should I reword this...Nursing tidbits, Dear Nursey, or what...because I am not changing what I documented". I am getting pissed as I type this...let me go to bed...

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Dec 12, 2007

I seldom loose it over my patients. One thing however gets me every time.
When a patient, even more so if they are not old, has no teeth, and mumbles so you can not understand them even after asking them to repeat for something the fifth time, gets all mad at you for not being able to understand them.:trout:
If they are 20 and have no teeth because they did too much meth it makes me loose it even more! I had one little crackhead tell me the other day she lost all her teeth because of bad genes at age 20, funny part was that only the front ones were affected by this genetic defect !
Don't get me wrong, I will take best possible care of anyone, regardless of their bad choices in life, but some things get beyond absurd and make you want to pull your hair out!:angryfire

That reminds me of something not patient related. How about those young people with multiple piercings, tatoos up the yin yang, multi colored hair, weird clothes. You look at them a little longer than you would normally and they cry "What are you staring at??????"

not now, RN · Dec 12, 2007

When someone who has no problem getting up and walking around calls my phone asking if I can come to their room to shut their door.

pinksugar · Dec 12, 2007

hopefully, he went to Heaven, where he could learn to love.
leslie

Wow, you are nice. I would not be wishing him into heaven if I were you. Everyone dies. That doesn't give us the right to be nasty. Death is a part of life.

My patient called me into her room the other night to throw away her tissue. Just throw it on the floor like you do all of your other tissues. :idea: She also held out her finger for me to wipe her snot off of it. I wrinkled my nose in disgust and I think she got the idea because she wiped it on a tissue herself.

EmmaG, RN · Dec 12, 2007

Hmmm, let's see, I hate it when you have spent a good 20-30 minutes in a patients room doing education, discussing disease management, explaining what diagnositics mean ect, etc, etc so that when the good doctor comes in and repeats verbatim what I have just said, the patient/family can look surprised and say, "well no one ever told us that!":banghead:

Along those lines are the ones that deny any pain or discomfort, deny nausea, sleep like a baby all night; then when the doc comes in, they hit 'em with a litany of complaints of how they were in horrible pain, were throwing up their toenails and didn't sleep a wink all night long--- and the nurses did nothing to help them.

lil' girl, LPN · Dec 12, 2007

Oh my, LOOSE IT???, loose as in loose pants???? OR lose as in lose your cool???

AND "I'm glad he died" ?? What in the world??

Just say that I am truly shocked!

Diary/Dairy, RN · Dec 12, 2007

Oh my, LOOSE IT???, loose as in loose pants???? OR lose as in lose your cool???
AND "I'm glad he died" ?? What in the world??
Just say that I am truly shocked!

Lil Girl - if someone had deliberately sprayed not only me, but the entire room with poop, I probably would have been a little upset too-

lil' girl, LPN · Dec 12, 2007

Lil Girl - if someone had deliberately sprayed not only me, but the entire room with poop, I probably would have been a little upset too-

Oh yes I would have been too, but I would NEVER say something like that.

Diary/Dairy, RN · Dec 12, 2007

Well, then more power to you - I am not ashamed to admit when I have human feelings.

lil' girl, LPN · Dec 12, 2007

Well, then more power to you - I am not ashamed to admit when I have human feelings.

Thanks for your input.

smk1, LPN · Dec 12, 2007

who knows?
he was just a nasty, nasty man.
he grabbed a tech's head, and vomited on it.
he continually spit at the staff.
we stopped all im, iv's w/him, because he would try to jab us.
i know being a hospice pt brings out the worst in some.
but before/when he was admitted, the social worker was hesitant in bringing him in.
he had always been trouble.
hopefully, he went to Heaven, where he could learn to love.
leslie

There was a man at an ALF I worked at that would throw his full urinal at you when you answered his call light. "clean that up!" he'd say as you stood there dripping with his urine. :angryfire He also would swing his cane and "accidentally" hit you with it or step on your foot. He even bumped someone with his car once. Evil man.

I have a pet peeve. I hate it when I ask a patient something like are you having any nausea, pain _____, and they tell me "no", and 5 mins later when the doctor shows up they tell him a completely different story. :rolleyes:

bethin · Dec 12, 2007

This happened this weekend: had a&o x3 elderly woman who needed assist to bsc. She demanded, yes demanded, not asked to have a depends on. I go get a depends, and before I do I ask her if she needs to go to the commode. She says no. As I put the depends on her she squawks "well, aren't ya gonna take me to the commode?" :banghead: She was a 2 asisst up, but I had 14 pts to take care of and I didn't have time to find help. So I broke my back to get her there and guess what? She does nothing!

I know, I know, it's not her fault. Frustrating. It was like that for 12 hours.

And I cannot forget my friend who peed on my leg. Twentysomething admitted after a bar fight. He was still wobbly and needed help standing to use the urinal. I get the urinal and help him up. He grabs the urinal, throws it, then whips out his member and sprays my leg like I was a car at the carwash! I was livid, I had to go to OB after that and now I'd have to shower. He laughed and I told him in not so polite terms that the next time he did that he'd be peeing out of a tube for a few years. I know, it's not good to threaten patients, but dang it, how many people can idly stand by while drenched in urine? I'm not Jesus, I'm not perfect.