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 was on a clinical shift recently when a large, screaming intoxicated woman was brought in to the ER in handcuffs with a menagerie of police, hospital security, techs, and EMTs trying to hold her down. She was a big girl and she was bucking like a Brahma bull trying to get loose. I'm suprised they did not have to Taser her to get her in the ambulance.
By the time they got her in bed, strapped down, and were trying to take a history she had kept up a running stand-up comedy routine of insulting and name-calling everyone in the room.
She gave everyone a nickname. The effeminate paramedic ER tech was "Fairy Princess", the big Black security guard was "Brown Sugar", other people had various names, some of them quite profane and even racist, but all of them were funny in some way, considering the circumstances and the grim sense of humor that ER people usually have.
Except mine.
I had to be "husky boy". HUSKY BOY! geez. All I could think of was those stupid pants with the elastic waist that fat kids had to wear when I was little (in the pre-PC days, there was actually a "husky" section in boy's clothing departments).
I actually asked her if I could have another name. No dice. Husky Boy stuck with me through the shift. Fortunately it was my only shift there.
One day, a male patient in our facility asked to be discharged immediately with his antibiotics. He was admitted for cellulitis. Of course, his request was denied. Then came the explanation: both the wife and the mistress were on their way to see him.
I work on a geriatric unit...so I hear some pretty interesting things...
*I always wear my hair pulled back at work, and am aware it isn't the most flattering look on me, but hey, it's work. A little old lady once said to me "You look ugly like that. Like a little boy!" I responded "Why thank you, my boyfriend tells me the same thing."
*I've also been asked on particularly bad skin days if I've ever tried ProActive.
*I've heard more expletives than I even knew existed...coming out of the mouths of 95 year olds.
I guess for me it is funny, because I know none of these people intend to be rude. But if I had alert, oriented, patients doing this, it would be a different story. :)
i have neurofibromatois which results in birthmarks and nodules...i was attending a patient when the woman with her just couldn't stand it anymore..
what are those, she said, pointing to my nodules on my hands, are they catching?
i told her that they were something i was born with, she responded with yo have a birthmark on your face, i told her yes i noticed
she got huffy, our mother always said that you could talk about anything if you said it in a pleasant voice and smiled
'did she mentioned anything about manners??
i should have shut up it got me pulled off a hall i had worked for several days and had to work rest of week on another hall when she complianed to head nurse
the only thing that pleased me is the nurse that replaced me had a bad habit of lhaving ear plugs and swaying to the music
More on the funny side. When I was in clinicals as a student there were many funny little things that I remember. Mostly because it shocked me some of the things that these grammas and grampas said... LOL but I always say that I will be the same way (well maybe not in these example hehe)
*In an extended care facility I was wheeling a elderly woman to lunch and she said something I couldn't quite understand and I said "pardon me" and she said " I SAID... wheel me closer to that nurse so I can reach between his legs and grab his B@lls" I was sorry I didn't have some one there with me to appreciate it at the time... It's been one of my favorite memories of long term care, it was just classic.
*When we were in clinicals at a different facility one of my fellow students and I were assigned to do baths for the day... Well it would have been fine except we had no experience doing this and together as a team we found everything rather funny... We were getting a little lady from the chair and transferring her to the tub and she exclaimed "You're holding my T!T you idiot" We both just regarded eachother trying to figure out which one of us had done it. The same day we had used the lift to get a man in the tub and he looked at my classmate and said "Why don't you hop in here with me" He was serious... I had to leave...
Now I work in Ob and honestly I hear too much about who's sleeping with who and how many guys might be the father of this baby. How they had to raise money for paternity testing in utero to PROVE to the one it could be his cause he denied it, yet they can't afford to feed their other two children. It goes on and on... It's touchy when there are three "dads" in the room. And sometimes they all get along.
One last one for tonight. I had a patients husband one day talk my ear off while I was making her bed, she was in the shower. He was going on and on about their relationship issues, how she had cheated on him, how she had low self esteem, how she didn't want anymore kids, so she accidentally got pregnant with twins and now they got married, she has a history of a drug problem blahblahblah... I really wanted him to just shut up because frankly NONE of it really affects me and the care of her while she's here. And frankly some of it seemed fabricated... Uggh
I've dealt with old senile racists before. When they are in LTC and are faced with Black nurses or CNAs and have lost the ability to self censor, they can be very blunt in expressing their viewpoints. Even KKK members can end up in nursing homes and run of the mill racists can also let it all hang out.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
a (male) patient was obsessed with the size of my breasts -- kept remarking over and over that "my nurse has the biggest knockers i've ever seen." finally he happened to mention it to the nurse from the cath lab who came up to take him down for his heart cath. cath lab nurse leans over the bed and whispered in his ear -- patient apologized profusely over and over and over again. later, i asked the male cath lab nurse what he'd said to the guy. "i just told him that he was insulting my wife, and if he wanted to get along with me, he'd best apologize. then i told him i knew where he lived." cath lab nurse is a large man, and a martial artist. patient was rather obese and soft. he was quite polite the rest of the time i cared for him. and he did occaisionally ask me about my "husband."
a patient offered me $25 to come back after my shift and perform sexual favors. (should i be insulted that he offered me so little?)
i had come to work with wet hair because the electricity in my part of town was out -- for the fourth day in a row. i'd been showering in cold water, getting dressed in the dark and hadn't applied any make-up because no make-up is better than the clown face i'd get putting it on in the dark. patient told me that while he was relieved to know i was clean, i looked like he!! and "you could be a halfway pretty girl if you worked at it." then when my hair was dry and i'd pulled it up in a pony tail, he told me that i could use some beauty pointers because that style did not flatter me. i told him he should be more concerned about whether i knew my job or not.
stranger in an elevator asked me if i'd ever tried "product xyz" because "you'd be pretty if you didn't have so many zits." turned out he was a doctor. ignorance and nastiness is not reserved for patients!
patient told me he needed to go home with his cvp in place because it would be so handy for injecting his drugs. i told him he wasn't going home with it in place -- it needed to come out as soon as his antibiotic was finished. the guy sneaked out while i was changing his roommate's dressing and took off. being young and stupid, i went after him. i caught up with him at the elevator, and got on with him. i told him he needed to come back to his room so i could take out his cvp. he was about 6 foot 8 inches tall and all muscle -- he grabbed me by the upper arms and lifted me up so we were nose to nose and growled into my face, "i'm taking this home. if you try to stop me, i'll kill you." then he slammed me up against the back wall to the elevator. the elevator arrived on the first floor, and i, crumpled on the floor of it, stayed right where i was and let him walk out the door with his cvp in place.
and then there was the guy who told me he needed to go "out on pass" so he could harvest his "crop". i grew up on a farm. i couldn't imagine what he'd be fit to harvest in his condition (cardiomyopathy, chf). "marijuana," he said.
I too was told I looked like s*** with my blonde hair. This lady was confused and calling me Monica (my name is Angie) and told me to dye my hair back brown. Eventhough she was confused I was still insulted because I am a natural blonde.
I was at work one night while still in med/surg and we had a pt have a strange reaction after receiving dilaudid. The pt roomate angry that she was in for cellulitis of the finger and hx heroin abuse and demanded that she too get her pain med NOW as the other pt in the room is having this strange seizure like reaction to the dilaudid and we are trying to help her ( had crash cart in room just incase and pt connected). I ripped the curtain back and told her that she would get her pain med as soon as her nurse was available. (I thankfully wasn't her nurse) She then kept proceeding to call her nurse by name and I finally told her again that her nurse wasn't available because she was with her VERY sick roomate. Then she proceeded to tell me that "You need to get your fat a** on the other side of the curtain I want my nurse." The house PA and house Doc actually opened the curtain and told her to keep herself quiet and that she isn't the only person in the hospital. She then proceeded to tell someone on the phone that she wanted dilaudid because her roomante got it. The pt that had the reaction to the dilaudid did end up being transferred to the ICU for closer monitoring for the next few days. The poor pt having the med reaction kept apologizing for causing so much trouble. I told her that she didn't do anything wrong, but she still felt guilty. After she was stabilized she asked us not to leave her alone in ther with the other pt. I had a aide stay with her so I could help the other nurse get her meds caught up.:angryfire
You want Dilaudid, Honey? Here is a nice big dose. Oops you're still breathing here let me give you a little more. OK OK Forum Moderators, so I would not actually voice such thoughts.
bigjim
137 Posts
I was on a clinical shift recently when a large, screaming intoxicated woman was brought in to the ER in handcuffs with a menagerie of police, hospital security, techs, and EMTs trying to hold her down. She was a big girl and she was bucking like a Brahma bull trying to get loose. I'm suprised they did not have to Taser her to get her in the ambulance.
By the time they got her in bed, strapped down, and were trying to take a history she had kept up a running stand-up comedy routine of insulting and name-calling everyone in the room.
She gave everyone a nickname. The effeminate paramedic ER tech was "Fairy Princess", the big Black security guard was "Brown Sugar", other people had various names, some of them quite profane and even racist, but all of them were funny in some way, considering the circumstances and the grim sense of humor that ER people usually have.
Except mine.
I had to be "husky boy". HUSKY BOY! geez. All I could think of was those stupid pants with the elastic waist that fat kids had to wear when I was little (in the pre-PC days, there was actually a "husky" section in boy's clothing departments).
I actually asked her if I could have another name. No dice. Husky Boy stuck with me through the shift. Fortunately it was my only shift there.