What are some of the most ridiculous requests you have heard?

TriciaJ, RN · Jan 1, 2016

Ugh. How do you reply to them? (Student here, taking notes on how to respectfully say no!)

Steer them towards any resources that are actually set up to help with these things. Depends on what's available in your community.

allnurses Guide · Jan 1, 2016

For some things, you going to peel them. Puddings, gnocci, potato bread, latkes, noodles, roesti, pommes Anna, you'now
But I'm a passionate cook and a d*** foodie with European taste... both things, and the second one in particular, are hardly compatiblle with TOO thrifty style of life.

I am a bit of a foodie myself - though I tend toward Rustic Peasant cuisine - farmhouse cheeses, Home cured meats, Plus I run a rather large vegetable garden and preserve a can a bunch to stave off hunger in the event of the Zombie Apocalypse :zombie:

Hppy

allnurses Guide · Jan 1, 2016

I want to learn to cook. I'm super passionate about food. I love food and wine. Or food by itself and you know wine on its own is great too... lol. Food, family, and wine is where it's at. My great grandpa was from Seville, Spain. Go figure, this stuff runs through my veins.

Almost anyone can learn to cook. If you can read a recipe and follow directions it's entirely possible. There are also tons of demonstrations for almost any dish on You Tube. I have faith in you!

Hppy

enchantmentdis, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2016

The hospice pt's daughter's house was dusty, cluttered, dishes in the sink, and musty sheets, stained rugs: she refused our hospital bed when i coudn't get the DME company to provide a brand new one. I had to explain that all equipment is refurbished. She asked why they don't just buy brand new ones all the time. I explained that they they make great money in this business because they aren't stupid. She was from a Latin American country and had a bit of a problem speaking English, but i could tell from the look on her face that she understood my insult. Brand new bed for a filthy house---nope!

enchantmentdis, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2016

As a hospice field nurse there was an 80 year old man married to a woman in her 30s. Gigantic member. His wife was a mail order bride he proudly said. Anyway. He had a catheter fetish. Yes, he had to have an indwelling catheter or he or his wife could do intermittent caths. He prefered an indwelling. Well, holy fruck, this guy called every single freaking day asking for his cath to be changed. I had to do this 3 times. I hated it because he would moan in ectasy and his eyes would roll up in his head during the procedure. I really coudn't stand this patient for this. And every time any nurse went to the home his cath was patent with no leakage.

Another hospice pt: a 60 yr old female blowhard. Wanted a catheter. I inserted one. Got a call--"my catheter felt great first few days, i was having orgasms all day. What is up. I want it changed." After describing the situation to management i had to change my panties from laughing so hard. I called pt. She said urine was flowing, no leakage. She was ticked off that i coudn't drive 40 miles to change it so she could climax. Later, some poor male nurse got talked into changing her cath. He was so embarrased when he described her writhing as he "put it in." She then asked for him whenever there was catheter trouble. I was praying that she would refuse my visits and ask for a different RNCM. Later she asked if it was okay to have sex with her boyfriend with her catheter. I told her it was an activity that could lead to infection, dislodgement, etc. Next visit she told me, "we did it, and it felt grrrrreat!!!"

TriciaJ, RN · Jan 1, 2016

As a hospice field nurse there was an 80 year old man married to a woman in her 30s. Gigantic member. His wife was a mail order bride he proudly said. Anyway. He had a catheter fetish. Yes, he had to have an indwelling catheter or he or his wife could do intermittent caths. He prefered an indwelling. Well, holy fruck, this guy called every single freaking day asking for his cath to be changed. I had to do this 3 times. I hated it because he would moan in ectasy and his eyes would roll up in his head during the procedure. I really coudn't stand this patient for this. And every time any nurse went to the home his cath was patent with no leakage.
Another hospice pt: a 60 yr old female blowhard. Wanted a catheter. I inserted one. Got a call--"my catheter felt great first few days, i was having orgasms all day. What is up. I want it changed." After describing the situation to management i had to change my panties from laughing so hard. I called pt. She said urine was flowing, no leakage. She was ticked off that i coudn't drive 40 miles to change it so she could climax. Later, some poor male nurse got talked into changing her cath. He was so embarrased when he described her writhing as he "put it in." She then asked for him whenever there was catheter trouble. I was praying that she would refuse my visits and ask for a different RNCM. Later she asked if it was okay to have sex with her boyfriend with her catheter. I told her it was an activity that could lead to infection, dislodgement, etc. Next visit she told me, "we did it, and it felt grrrrreat!!!"

Good lord! Would your management not support you if you refused these inappropriate requests? I'm thinking, document the weird behaviours, the lack of medical rationale and increased risk for infection or trauma. Do you get to bill Medicare for provision of erotic services? Just say no.

Partly Cloudy · Jan 2, 2016

Well....the one that tops all the other requests for me was more of a demand than an actual request by a family member. We admitted individual after being found "down" at home in a sea of vomit, stool and other equally appetizing bodily fluids. The family member wanted to know which one of us was going to go to their house and clean up the mess - a couple of days after the fact. Uh.....they have crime scene clean up crews for that if you don't want to do it yourself. Lol... they didn't want to have to pay for that.

Davey Do · Jan 2, 2016

And yet Another Perspective:

roxypoxy · Jan 3, 2016

I was asked by a patient's son to floss his dad's teeth. I was so shocked speechless. I then told him, I have never been asked that but that we would 'attempt' if his dad allowed it. I would have told him to floss ......but I wanted my job, and my employer at that time catered to these entitled families. Needless to say the patient refused.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Jan 3, 2016

I was asked by a patient's son to floss his dad's teeth. I was so shocked speechless. I then told him, I have never been asked that but that we would 'attempt' if his dad allowed it. I would have told him to floss ......but I wanted my job, and my employer at that time catered to these entitled families. Needless to say the patient refused.

That's not a ridiculous request at all if Dad could not physically floss. Oral care is part of nursing care. We have several residents with intact teeth that staff brushes and flosses during ADL cares.

0.adamantite · Jan 3, 2016

The floor was chaotic and I was running around myself busy with a patient who had just vomited a large amount of blood and a critical hemoglobin came back (I think 5.3 or 4.7, can't remember). I was rushing to grab some supplies when I saw a patient had an emergency light on (this was back when we had code buttons in the room). It wasn't my patient but no one else was around, needless to say I responded immediately to this "emergency." I dropped everything and ran to the doorway, it was a patient on Contact Precautions. The family had brought food and a woman was standing there with her arms crossed. She demanded that I heat up her mothers food. I told her because the room was on isolation we couldn't use the community microwave to do that. I told her that I had an emergency and would be back later once I had handled it, I shut off the emergency light, and ran off to my vomiting patient with her saying "Is my mother supposed to eat her food COLD?!"

God forbid.......................

Edited to say that most days I would gladly address the issue, but the whole unit was in the toilet that day and I was scrambling to keep my own patients safe and deal with an active, new onset upper GI bleed. At the time cold food was the last of my worries. I'll never forget the rudeness and outrage of cold food lady!!

TriciaJ, RN · Jan 3, 2016

The floor was chaotic and I was running around myself busy with a patient who had just vomited a large amount of blood and a critical hemoglobin came back (I think 5.3 or 4.7, can't remember). I was rushing to grab some supplies when I saw a patient had an emergency light on (this was back when we had code buttons in the room). It wasn't my patient but no one else was around, needless to say I responded immediately to this "emergency." I dropped everything and ran to the doorway, it was a patient on Contact Precautions. The family had brought food and a woman was standing there with her arms crossed. She demanded that I heat up her mothers food. I told her because the room was on isolation we couldn't use the community microwave to do that. I told her that I had an emergency and would be back later once I had handled it, I shut off the emergency light, and ran off to my vomiting patient with her saying "Is my mother supposed to eat her food COLD?!"
God forbid.......................
Edited to say that most days I would gladly address the issue, but the whole unit was in the toilet that day and I was scrambling to keep my own patients safe and deal with an active, new onset upper GI bleed. At the time cold food was the last of my worries. I'll never forget the rudeness and outrage of cold food lady!!

Where the H is management at times like this? They should be taking people to task for this nonsense, not slobbering over Press-Ganey. Healthcare definitely needs to be patient-centered, which means we take care of the medical and nursing needs of the patient. It needs to stop being so idiot-centered.