Okay, I have noticed patients (some, not all) think they can get away with saying just about anything to their nurses. Things I don't feel they would say to other people. What some of the rudest you have been told?
*A patient receiving physical therapy (87 female) mentioned how handsome the therapist is. Another nurse in the room pointed me out as his "sweet, little wife". The patient promptly proceeded to ask me "what he wanted with something ugly like you, couldn't he do better?"
*A friend of mine, and LPN, has Psoriasis. She does have "outbreaks" even though she has treatment, and she is very self-conscience about it. A patient asked her about her elbows, and she explained what it was and that it wasn't contagious. The patient asked another nurse to speak to the supervisor. She told the super that it was nasty and she couldn't look at it any longer. And the super proceeded to make the nurse "dress" the elbows!:angryfire
*I was sick last week (still am, but better). I still had to work, and hadn't sleep much the night before. I oversleep, and didn't have time to put on makeup, fix my hair, ect. Just showered, slapped my hair in a pony tail, and run out the door. A patient, a 30 year old female, informed me I looked like s**t and should be ashamed to be seen like that. And she didn't feel comfortable with me as a nurse since I obviously was unable to care for myself.
I'm sure some of you have gotten worse...so let's hear it!
I had a patient tell me that I could stand to lose about 20 lbs. I just laughted. I was working on the dementia unit.
We had a male STNA in our facility. A LOL asked about his family. He said that he had 4 kids. She asked if he was married, he tells her no, and she tells him, "That's all this world needs....more little bastards out there!" He said nothing. What are you supposed to do?
I had a patient in LTC who wheeled herself up to my medcart and asked me if I had a permit to pedal drugs on her street? I replied that I had a license, and she seemed happy with that and went on her way up the hall.
Had a pt who had had a baby 1 week prior and was admitted for complications. The OB and her PCP could not pin down exactly what was wrong. She tells me "man, I had the best sex last night. I'm telling ya, sex right after a baby is wonderful. You should try it. And my boyfriend loves going down on me after birth." Keep in mind she had this sex in our hospital bed.
I told the dr that the reason for her troubles may be that she was having sex immediately after having a lady partsl birth.
Had a pt who had had a baby 1 week prior and was admitted for complications. The OB and her PCP could not pin down exactly what was wrong. She tells me "man, I had the best sex last night. I'm telling ya, sex right after a baby is wonderful. You should try it. And my boyfriend loves going down on me after birth." Keep in mind she had this sex in our hospital bed.
That is prob the most disgusting thing I've heard.
Had a pt who had had a baby 1 week prior and was admitted for complications. The OB and her PCP could not pin down exactly what was wrong. She tells me "man, I had the best sex last night. I'm telling ya, sex right after a baby is wonderful. You should try it. And my boyfriend loves going down on me after birth." Keep in mind she had this sex in our hospital bed.
I told the dr that the reason for her troubles may be that she was having sex immediately after having a lady partsl birth.
I am currently pregnant and I was seeing an elderly female patient (who by the way has no children and never did). I have a very small chest (almost nonexistent :) and she asked me if I am going to nurse the baby. I said yes I want to, and she looks at my chest and says, are you sure your going to be able to with no boobs? I just smiled and said well see.
Wow I imagine it has to be hard at times to just let things roll off. I imagine the actual moment things happen isn't as bad as knowing you have to continue to deal with them until they get discharged :icon_roll
thank you so much. i love you guys. i feel like im part of a new family now. me personally i honestly dont know what i am capable of doing because i have no experience what so ever. i was studying to become a respiratory therapy but i realize that that wasn't for me. so i decided to become a lpn. if its something that i grow to fully love and to dedicate my life to then i study to become a rn. And also does lpn's use stethoscopes in there daily routines?
She looked right at me and said "well it doesn't look like it should be a problem, I mean you are rather WIDE." I almost fell over because she was about my height and weighed AT LEAST twice what I did!! uggh... someitimes patients are just TOO much. :angryfire
around 10 yrs ago, and on one particular gruesome day, i was feeling excessively tired.
more like, puddle material.
and this pt made a similiar comment about my wide hips and childbirth.
i didn't get the least bit offended.
interestingly, i started singing to the tune of "these boots were made for walkin'" by nancy sinatra...
" these hips were made for pushin'
and that's just what they'll do.
and one of these days these hips are gonna push all over you...." :smmdi:
the nsg asst's eyes widened to the size of half dollars, and immediately started w/this nervous laughter.
my pt just stared at me with silent contempt.
and following w/the ocd i have, i had to finish my song.
nothing as rude or nasty as what anyone else said but I did have a pt tell me where he kept his illegal drugs at home and asked me if I would get rid of them for him if he died.He didn't want his Mom to know.
Specializes in Acute rehab/geriatrics/cardiac rehab.
Actually, I had a patient with dementia go on about about being surrounded by "darkies" to me. She also threw her meds at me and accused me of trying to poison her. I'm an African American and actually had it easier than the nurse who had taken care of her before my shift. That particular nurse, who was also an African American RN, had the same patient kick her and warned me during shift report to watch out for this particular patient so I too would not be kicked.
All in all. I learned that patients on narcotics or who are demented tend to say things they'd be embarassed to say in their right mind. (not that this totally excuses such behavior). I usually was too busy with 5 - 7 other patients to let such behavior bother me.
Then there was the family member of one of our patient who accused our cafeteria staff of stealing her purse. she literally confronted our poor cafeteria staff, yelling about all the immigrants in our cafeteria who could not speak English and saying that she knew they had her purse and were going to use her credit cardsx. (the cafeteria staff could speak English... though that's beside the point). She rushed from the cafeteria, down the hall of the hospital screaming as she rushed past other folks' hospital rooms that she was going to call the police. I followed her and when I arrived in the room, there was her purse on the floor of the room. Turns out the patient, who was this individual's daughter, had taken it back to her room when they'd left the cafeteria. She was made to apologize to the cafeteria staff face to face by the unit secretary....
fultzymom
645 Posts
I had a patient tell me that I could stand to lose about 20 lbs. I just laughted. I was working on the dementia unit.
We had a male STNA in our facility. A LOL asked about his family. He said that he had 4 kids. She asked if he was married, he tells her no, and she tells him, "That's all this world needs....more little bastards out there!" He said nothing. What are you supposed to do?