I don't know why but that statement makes my jaw clench up everytime I hear it.
I had a patient the other day ask me how I was going to insert a foley since "the head is down there, wont that hurt the baby?" For the love god, people .... come on .. 2 HOLES! SERIOUSLY!
and my favorite of all time ...
"Does that machine beep everytime I dilate?" .. this one left me speechless
Please share your "omg, no she didn't say/ask that" quotes
Several years ago the RN's around here got a big raise and it was published in the newspaper!
I don't recall any more what a patient asked for but I expressed that I wouldn't be able to oblige him for a little while (so it can't have been anything critical). He responded by saying that you wouldn't think it'd be too much trouble seeing as how I was making $XX an hour to do it for him.
I love it when you go into a patient's room to start an IV or some other procedure, and the patient's family asks, "do you know what you are doing?" I am so tempted to say, "well sort of, you see they were short staffed tonight, so they just yanked me off of the street corner - hey I clean-up pretty nicely don't I? I love the scrubs!". Or, my personal fave "No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!". Geeezzz :rotfl:
hgehehe. I have had this asked of me as well. ONE time, I looked at the pump, with a thoughtful look on my face, and said "well, I THINK so..."
When I was in school on my OB rotation. Me and another student were in the room to observe a lady partsl delivery on our first day on the rotation. This was the mom's 3rd child. During the delivery every cuss word imaginable was flying out of her mouth, screaming at her husband. I absolutely could not believe it. I felt so bad for the poor guy listening to his wife tell him how she was never f-ing touching her again and so on and so forth. Although it was very amusing when the delivering MD Politely smiled at her and said " I bet you had fun making this baby though didn't you." After that she shut up and actually started pushing instead of yelling.
After admitting a patient in labor, starting her IV, assisting with epidural, pushing for 2 hours with her and cleaning her up after delivery, I went back in to check a fundus and she says to me....I have a question for you...but oh...are you a nurse?? For one shining moment I wanted to say...no....housekeeper, the girls were short tonight....but I held my tongue and said...yes honey...I am your nurse.
After admitting a patient in labor, starting her IV, assisting with epidural, pushing for 2 hours with her and cleaning her up after delivery, I went back in to check a fundus and she says to me....I have a question for you...but oh...are you a nurse?? For one shining moment I wanted to say...no....housekeeper, the girls were short tonight....but I held my tongue and said...yes honey...I am your nurse.
This rant is from the patients point of view: (mine )
Patient..... tired & in R.E.M sleep @ approximately 2 AM , Nurse vigoursly shakes the patient & calls name several times to awaken, then asks...."Do you need a sleeping pill?"
I figured I'd join the discussion - have only been doing L+D for 2 1/2 years, but believe I have had some good ones..
So, as for the patients I have who ask me if I'm old enough to be their nurse - I would just once LOVE to say, "No, it's official take-your-daughter-to-work day!" (my mother is a nurse as well, I'm 26 and am still getting the question)
And then ... from the story side, I have dealt with quite a few patients pregnant for their first or second times, in pre-term labor or with signs/symptoms of pre-ecclampsia (which seems to be related to their positive urine-tox screen for Meth or Cocaine, signs coming on about the same time they went on their benders). After observing some of these girls for a while, getting a consented drug-ua on them, and planning to stop a preterm labor, or keep them for a r/o preeclamspia, the patients will ask, "Is this medicine going to hurt the baby?" along with their most accusatory glare ever. I usually explain the testing that terbutaline and nifedipine are going through, and that it has worked very successfully, and it is certainly deemed safer for their baby than an early delivery. Sometimes I'm educating them about antihypertensives. What I'd rather say to all of them who have done drugs, is "what did you think that the marijuana / cocaine / meth / etc. was going to do to your baby?"
I did have a very difficult teen like that once, who's first question after coming in was, "can I just be induced, I'm over 34 weeks?" (she was 32 1/2 weeks per her doctor and prenatal, looked like the record had been updated after ultrasound to reflect the new edc, which we also discussed, and she had been aware of) After many hours of discussion, education, etc, and the third time she asked if terbutaline would hurt the baby, I just asked her if she had understood any of the information I had given her, and she was able to repeat it in her own words, and then she told me she was "just sick of being pregnant." SO WHY ARE YOU PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE?
"Can I get anything to eat?" is my favorite thing asked to me after a patient has been told we are goign to start pushing.. epidurals really are nice things for some people.
"Can you get my boyfriend something to eat / a bandaid / a blanket / something for his headache?" from a r/o labor patient who had come in 7 different times in a week an a half (I only had her 5 of those days)
I have two things that have been said to me from other nurses that makes me groan as well, one being about a pre-termer who's SO had come in and was staying with her in the hospital, "what do you mean, that's nice he's here with her, he's probably unemployed" (very nice example of assuming the worst about someone, they actually worked at the same company and their boss was very family oriented, and it was covered on the guy's family leave accrual) and another nurse, of scandanavian/mixed european descent, "going off" about people coming to the USA to have their babies here to get them greencards - how did your family get here?
Who is being judgemental Mariedoreen???? We are just telling some of the things we hear and either can't believe or can't stand. Thats it...Lighten up....Of COURSE we are kind to the patients and attempt to alleviate them from their ignorance....
My favorites...
Oh you work in maternity? It must be nice to work somewhere that is always happy.
Oh you work the night shift? It must be nice to have nothing to do.
Oh you're a maternity nurse? Aren't you glad you don't have to work as hard as the other nurses?
Am I having a contraction? (wouldn't you know)
And from nurses...
I am just orientating...That is not a word..ORIENTING is the word.
Just because some people aren't aware that there are two holes (when it comes to the foley) doesn't mean we are making fun of the patient but hey some of the things they say are funny...
I just love it when they don't want to "bother" the doc but don't mind making my world a living hell...
I've never posted anything here, so I hope I'm not invading a world I don't belong in. I'm not an L/D nurse but a CNA that does home health care but I have to pass this on. When I was in school I worked around to ER of a local hospital. When the triage nurse was doing her work up she (or he) would get to the question "...and how long has this been bothering you?" The pt would respond "Oh, 5 or 6 days." Even I wanted to say "And NOW you come to ER? We have a walk-in clinic right across the street.
Thanks for letting me share. I enjoyed the comments.
I don't know why but that statement makes my jaw clench up everytime I hear it.
I had a patient the other day ask me how I was going to insert a foley since "the head is down there, wont that hurt the baby?" For the love god, people .... come on .. 2 HOLES! SERIOUSLY!
and my favorite of all time ...
"Does that machine beep everytime I dilate?" .. this one left me speechless
Please share your "omg, no she didn't say/ask that" quotes
THE FREQUENT FLYERS-
PTS THAT COME IN FOR R/O LABOR STATING THEY HAVE BEEN CTX'ING, THEY ARE INTENSE AND FREQUENT, PUT THE TOCO ON, NO CTX'S, STILL NONE AFTER 10 MIN'S, 30 MIN'S..........YOU ARE SITTING AT BEDSIDE PALPATING FOR CTX'S IN CASE MONITOR NOT PLACED RIGHT, BUT STILL NOTHING. PT SAYS "THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS EVERYTIME YOU GUYS PUT THE MONITOR ON THE CTX'S STOP, I DONT KNOW WHY"
AND SOMEONE ELSE SAID AND ITS MY OTHER FAVORITE, SO WHEN WILL THE BABY BE BORN, I NEED TO KNOW WHEN TO TELL SO AND SO TO BE HERE.
OKAY I WILL PULL OUT MY CRYSTAL BALL AND GET BACK TO YOU, LOL
My personal favorite is the Dad who called us on PP and asked how long to leave the baby under the"grow light" with the "duck tape" on the baby's eyes to get the "yellow color to go away". One of our OB docs was a bush pilot and when you woke him at night for orders he would say, "take 'er up to 10,000 feet" and one time he said "give her the same old dog food you've been giving her"! One patient we had evidently slept in a feather bed because there was a chicken feather on my glove after doing a vag exam!
)
NurseforPreggers
195 Posts
Thats a good one!