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!
Specializes in UR/PA, Hematology/Oncology, Med Surg, Psych.
When I was working in LTC and pregnant, I had a very demented LOL tell me she hoped me and my baby would die. Not a feel-good moment, but she was so demented I'm sure she had no idea what she was really saying. She could sweet as pie at other times.
I had a patient (LTC setting) tell me that " I've been feeling funny lately, I guess I shouldn't keep taking those little morphine pills my daughter in law is giving me".
Specializes in Burnout & Resiliency Coaching for Nurses.
I had a very nice old lady tell me my hair looks like ****. Here I thought I was in the latest style! Still one of my personal favorite patients to this day.
i had a pt yesterday who had a history of gastric bypass and he was actually in for taking 60 xanax.. he was telling me how to loose weight he said " you should cut your meals in half ( needless to say i had no lunch that day) and maybe you should look into gastric bypass" i could of slapped him... grrrrr, i ignored him and asked him what he needed... he told me he wanted extra ice creme and cookies... he proceeded to bring weight loss again and how he could eat that stuff and i should stay away from sweets... i just said i'll get the ice creme for you... and walked out.. what a jerk ...
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
I had a patient scream across the room "You lost weight". While many can see that as a compliment, to me, it is really embarassing and insulting. What did you think I looked like before? I actually went to her, took her to the side and told her that as long as I am clean and professional looking, I do not wish to hear any remark made about my weight ever again-I am not her friend in the street or visiting her. She looked miffed, but, so what??? Enough is enough.
Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.
Here is a funny one, even though it may not fit here. When I worked in psych as an aide, a patient was really giving us a hard time to the point that we were about to restrain him. The doctor asked him "Are you hearing voices?" Patient says "Hell, I hear yours...and you are bugging me". We all, including the doctor and the patient laughed so hard that we left him alone. The patient quieted down and we didn't restrain him at all.
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.
Specializes in Day Surgery, Agency, Cath Lab, LTC/Psych.
*My picture for my hospital ID was taken when my hair was having a "curly" day. Curly hair makes my face look fuller. I have never been overweight in my life but was quite insulted when I was admitting a patient and she was checking out my hospital ID picture. She stated very loudly to everyone in the room. "Is this your picture!?! WOW, you must have lost SO much weight."
*I went to work on a bad hair day and was assigned a very elderly, sick patient on the Stepdown unit. I had tried to engage him in conversation but he was so lethargic and practically catatonic that he did not utter one word to me. Later in the morning as I was doing some cares for him I leaned over him until my face was almost right next to his. I was talking to him and trying to get him to respond. Finally he gave me eye contact and blurted out, "Your hair is a mess." I think it was the only statement he made that whole shift.
*Brain injury unit. Male patient in his 40s with practically no inhibition. Demanding constant attention. Every time I went into his room to turn off his call light he needed something. Finally I told him I had other things to do and as I was leaving his room he yelled very loudly, "Get back in here you little red-headed fart!"
*Brain injury unit again. Very happy, talkative patient with brain injury and bipolar. He was very cheerfully chatting with all the staff in the dining room and then made a point to tell me specifically that he loved me.
"Do you know why I love you?" he asked.
No I didn't.
"Because you have such pointed ears!"
I had to go check myself in the mirror after that comment.
wow. Some rather intense stories here. I have not been 'blessed' with some of the nasty comments, however, I seem to have a "I'll be able to tell you everything and anything about my life and still be secure" type of face. I have had some patients tell me their entire life stories including the first time they lost their virginity, where they keep their spare house key, all the (street) drugs they take that no one knows about and where they keep their stash, when they are going on vacation, what they did (like certain crimes) that no one knows about, and my all time favorite...that their current spouse is not their childs father, but is so-and-so's child, and how long this affair has been going on and where they go and all the sex stunts they have done, blah, blah, blah.
Now really, there are just some things that really should not follow, How are you feeling today?
dream'n, BSN, RN
1,162 Posts
When I was working in LTC and pregnant, I had a very demented LOL tell me she hoped me and my baby would die. Not a feel-good moment, but she was so demented I'm sure she had no idea what she was really saying. She could sweet as pie at other times.