What type of family member drives you craziest?

Nurses General Nursing

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This one is compliments of Virgo RN on another thread. I wish I would have had a beverage alert before reading it. I am going to post Virgo's first, then for a little fun add a couple of my own.

Back to the topic at hand; some other annoying family member types:

The Comedian: This is the guy/gal who is always cracking a joke, they think they are hilarious, and if you don't laugh at their stupid jokes (as if you haven't heard them all a million times), then they make some snide comment about how the nurse has no sense of humor.

The Attention Seeker: This person likes to talk about their own ailments/illnesses/medication regimens, so the focus is on them and not the loved one in the hospital bed.

The Family Member with Broken Arms: This person plops down in a chair and turns on the TV, and every time Granny needs a sip of water or a pillow fluffed, they come out into the hallway and hunt down the nurse to do it.

The Consumer Advocate: This person's priorities are out of order. As you are preparing the patient for open heart surgery scheduled for the next morning, the Consumer Advocate draws attention to 2cm in diameter mustard stain on the patient's gown and points it out as evidence of poor customer service.

The Ineedanurse: This is the one who puts a call light on saying I NEED A NURSE IN HERE! Then when you get there, they need a refill on their water picture or the lights out in the room.

The Supervisor: This is the family member who has absolutely no idea how to do your job, but they are going to tell you how to do it.

The Do you know who I AM: Enough said

Ok, those are a few of mine. What are yours?

Specializes in Acute Care.

The Reporter:

The polite, friendly and helpful family member... who keeps a freaking journal detailing every time you come into the room, how long it took to get there, what you did, said, touched, how long you were there, the medications you gave, how many times you washed your hands, if you fluffed pillows, were quiet, adjusted the heat, your name, education level, when you last spoke the the Dr.............

Specializes in Acute Mental Health.

For me it's the Family Member Wannabe. This person acts just like the head of the family of the person they are visiting. Demanding anything and everything like I'm a private duty nurse! I have no time for this person. When you finally get a word in and ask what relation they are...they tell you they are a close family friend! Ok, close family friend Go Away!!! Unless your on the list stating I should give out information to you, you get gooseggs from me buddy!

I love love love family members that claim to also be nurses when they're not. I work on a surgical unit I recently had a fresh post-op patient whose daughter asked me as soon as i got in the room how many other patients I had that night. I answered that I had 7 total. Daughter excitedly said to mom "Oh Mom! She hardly has any patients tonight so she can spend a lot of time in here with you if you want her to!" Then the daughter looks at me and says "Don't worry, I know what I'm talking about - I work in healthcare too. I'm a doctors assistant. Which is pretty much like a physician's assistant." She made a few more comments about her extensive medical knowledge. When I asked her which practice of physicians she worked with, she admitted that she was a CNA in a doctors office.

Hmm I bet she's not a CNA either, sounds more like she's a medical assistant.

Mother Knows Best: Last night we had a pt. in L&D with her boyfriend and mom as labor coaches. They want a totally natural birth which is good and we always support that, but they resisted all of our care. When we would explain the need for something, the pt. would listen to us and start to comply, but the mom would intervene and insist on "totally natural," and the pt. would then side with mom. I am all for natural, but the ultrasound showed a possible 11 pound baby with chest size 4 cm larger than the head size. (Big risk for getting stuck!) (D/t baby's size, the midwife was pretty sure it would end up in a C-section, so a doctor was on the case also.)

They refused an IV or any restrictions on diet (hopefully no emergency C-section!) After the initial check, they refused most fetal monitoring. The mom had the pt. constantly walking or in the tub. Now, this is all excellent to do in labor, but they couldn't stop for five minutes to see how the baby was handling labor? Pt's mom was afraid the doppler would make the baby go deaf.

At the end of the shift the labor nurse asked the pt. if she could please sit in the bed for just 15 minutes so she could check the baby on the monitor. The nurse explained that a few minutes of rest is good, a position change of sitting is good. Pt. was willing. As soon as the pt. sat on the bed, the mom leaned forward, grabbed her hands and told her "You can get up if you want.":icon_roll

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