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

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All day breakfast - Are you kidding me?!

Aren't you amazed by patients (and families) who think nurses are there to wait on them hand and foot. Yes, we provide service around the clock, but it is not in the form of food but medical care. What are some of the most ridiculous requests you have gotten?

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
Who on earth does it the rest of the time?

I had a patient admitted for a bowel prep for a colo. Seriously. Her GI doc really wanted her to have the test done but was afraid she wouldn't complete the prep on her own.

So of course, I, as the 7P to 7A nurse, had the joy of prepping her. Her husband was kind of annoying me so I used my skills to kick him out.

Anyway, this patient stood 4'4" and weighed around 330 lbs. She needed not only a bariatric commode, but a SHORT PERSON bariatric commode. Which turned out to be too tall for her. So she convinced me to take her in the bathroom. I told her to ring when she was done.

She rang and asked me to wipe. I asked just this question and she said, "my husband." DANG IT! I'd just sent the fool home.

Eventually she gave up the walk to the bathroom and just crapped on herself all night and had us clean her up. It WAS easier than walking her to the bathroom, but COME ON. Also, the Royal Wedding was going on and I always associate it with cleaning her up because she was watching it.

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at a previous employer some years ago our nurse managers would make rounds on new admissions within their 1st 24 hours. Apparently my elderly pt was upset that i just so happened to be born black and she wasn't so happy to have that "n****r nurse taking care of her. My nurse manager thought it was ok to ask me to go to the gift sop and by that witch a gift so that she'd be more comfortable with me caring for her. To say i was dumbfounded is an understatement.

wow that's so rude. Sorry that happened.

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Picked up this past Christmas Eve for an evening shift monitor tech. I've been on day shift for about 6 months now and had somehow blissfully forgotten that evening shift is when the crazies really start coming out of the woodwork. I got absolutely ripped a new one by a delightful visitor because it was 9 pm and we didn't have any gift wrap on the unit. I suggested they try checking our nearby 24 hour Walmart, which I guess was entirely inappropriate of me to do. I didn't realize that gift wrap was something normally stocked in hospitals. Oops. My bad.

I've secretly been writing absolutely ridiculous requests and submitting them in the "compliments or complaints" box in the family lounge on our unit because our census has been in a holding pattern for months and it gets slow at the monitor desk when I'm not being berated over gift wrap.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
Picked up this past Christmas Eve for an evening shift monitor tech. I've been on day shift for about 6 months now and had somehow blissfully forgotten that evening shift is when the crazies really start coming out of the woodwork. I got absolutely ripped a new one by a delightful visitor because it was 9 pm and we didn't have any gift wrap on the unit. I suggested they try checking our nearby 24 hour Walmart, which I guess was entirely inappropriate of me to do. I didn't realize that gift wrap was something normally stocked in hospitals. Oops. My bad.

I've secretly been writing absolutely ridiculous requests and submitting them in the "compliments or complaints" box in the family lounge on our unit because our census has been in a holding pattern for months and it gets slow at the monitor desk when I'm not being berated over gift wrap.

The closest thing to gift wrap, ma'am, is those biohazard bags. Hey, they're a beautiful shade of Christmas red! :laugh:

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Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
I've secretly been writing absolutely ridiculous requests and submitting them in the "compliments or complaints" box in the family lounge on our unit because our census has been in a holding pattern for months and it gets slow at the monitor desk when I'm not being berated over gift wrap.

Can we have a few examples of the ridiculous requests?

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.
"Can I keep my placenta in your staff frig until I get discharged?" Um... no

"Turn around! I want my family to see this! You have have the cutest butt in those scrubs!" smh from sheer embarrassment...

"Could you bring us an ice bucket for our champagne?" Um, I know you're excited about the birth of your baby, AND it's New Year's, but we are not a hotel. However, a clean emesis basin filled with ice will do the trick! :D

"Can my husband take my pain med instead? He's pissing me off and needs to chill the F out." I'm thinking um no...

that last one cracked me up! I'll have to remember to slip mine something when he needs to chill out.:laugh:

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My 0600 induction arrives at 0630. Before I can even get into the room, the call bell goes on. I head on in and the patient's sister is standing by the bed holding the call bell and asks me for a blanket and pillow.

Yeeeeeep, it's gon' be a loooooong day!

(and I'm out in 30 minutes! Wheeeee!)

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Specializes in PCCN.
. I got absolutely ripped a new one by a delightful visitor because it was 9 pm and we didn't have any gift wrap on the unit.

We have a couple chux pads that might work

:roflmao:

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I never cease to be amazed by how many family members want to give vented patients water/make them talk/pull out breathing tubes because they are 'uncomfortable,' ,' etc.. But our hospital is very 'family-friendly' so we essentially never ask people to leave. Actually, a few months ago, we had a wife who was genuinely dangerous to patient care. When I cared for the patient, she disconnected my chest tube from wall suction (intentionally). Other nurses reported that she did insane things like turning off running IV pumps, removing restraints (the patient of course pulled something important), and changing the inner cannula of a trach WHILE THE PATIENT WAS VENT-DEPENDENT! Although she continuously did these things which were endangering the patient and completely inappropriate, our supervisors made the patient a 1:1 (for close monitoring of the wife) instead of kicking her out. It was really serious -- like, if the nurse caring for the patient went on break, another one of us would have to sit in the room just so we could watch the wife.

Was your floor given an extra staff member? Who paid?

This is truly outrageous behavior on the part of the manager.

How were the Press Ganey's?

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

You just say no. You could add something about your overly full workload, your liability, the cost of gas and car upkeep, falsifying mileage, or whatever. You could say you'd like to help but simply can't/don't want to get into the habit of doing stuff her family or neighbors or hired help can do.

You could say you've been ordered to not do anything that isn't immediately tied to her case. It's best, though, to just say no. It's not always easy, you might really want to help, but you just can't do all of that.

If I had a choice, I would feed the horse.

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nevermind, don't feel like being flamed

Oh, come on! We all get flamed now and then. It keeps you warm during the winter. :laugh:

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

So true. I should have said this in my earlier reply to you. Absolutely need to get Social Services involved. Or help the pt arrange for people to help her with those necessary things, like caring for pets, getting the trash emptied, shopping, and so on. I guess I was flabbergasted by the list of requests and totally missed thinking of actually helping the pt arrange for help. or a change of residence or something

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