Is it me, or are patients getting ruder and more disrespectful each time you clock in for work?
I don't usually let rude patients/families get to me, but last night I had to deal with the most insane people ever. I had the misfortune of informing the patient and his family that he had gone into rapid a-fib and his cardiologist was not on call. The patient didn't believe that he was having a rapid ventricular response since "he didn't feel that his heart was going fast," and had me count an apical pulse and call the monitor tech to see if she concurred with my rate. (I was off by 2 beats).
I was also instructed by the family to print a set of strips indicating that he was in fact in a-fib. Mind you, this patient has a history of a-fib and was on amiodarone for a while, but the family decided to stop it b/c the patient is allergic to iodine. Despite the allergy, he never had a reaction to amiodarone, but the family still didn't want him to have it and... ta-da! He went back into a-fib.
I was also yelled at because I had to start a Cardizem gtt and as this patient has a habit of going hypotensive, decided that BP checks q30 minutes was a prudent thing to do. Oh, I was also a bad nurse b/c I put him on 2L NC. Oh, and my hospital is ridiculous because we don't have those donuts for people to sit on... oh and there CAN'T be a good reason for us to not have them in central supply.
Did I also mention that I was lazy because I left the BP cuff on him and set the machine to recycle every 30 mts? Yes... I did that so I wouldn't have to go in the room all night. (He told this to the PCA and she came and told me) So he refused to leave the BP cuff on, and preferred for me to go in every 30 mts to put the cuff on and off (this only went on for 3 cycles... at this time, he fell asleep and I slipped it on over his gown). This is the same man who complained that us night shift don't let him sleep.
I just had to run out of the room at this point and cry... I usually handle these kind of people really well. Before last night I don't remember the last time I let a patient/family make me cry. I actually felt bad giving report on this patient in the morning... I felt horrible to pass this person on to another nurse!
*oh and the KICKER. During one of my visits for a BP check, I accidentally bumped his foot which he REFUSES to leave on the bed. He prefers to let his foot hang off the bed on the side I do my care on. He totally went off on me! Apparently during my BSN program I was taught not to be careful, but to bump patients' feet and cause them pain. I also after 3 years of working cardiac, am unfamiliar with caring for dialysis patients and I don't know how to monitor an a-fib patient. He can't wait until I'm sick in a hospital bed so he can give me what's coming to me. this is the most hurtful thing ANYBODY has ever said to me. I couldn't even respond. I just turned around and left the room.
Sorry this is so long, guys. I just really needed to vent.
I was told once by a drunk woman who came in after wrecking her car, was briefly unresponsive on scene, and wasn't appreciative of restraints, to "SUCK MY ****" as loudly as she could, causing the patients and staff on the other side of the ER to laugh loudly.
You poor dear it sounds like you had a horrible shift. I have been cussed out and called all kinds of names things like that do not usually upset me anymore. What does get under my skin is when residents or family members treat me like I do not know anything because I work in a nursing home. I have worked in hospitals in the past and I came to work at a nursing home of my own free will (what was I thinking, right) not because I did not know enough to work in the hospital.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i work in a large, inner city teaching hospital. i get called "fat white b-word-that-means-female-dog" a lot. one time, when my husband was working in cath lab and i was in ccu, he brought me a patient that called him a "fairy ******" and me a "nazi lesbo". i suspect that guy had issues. i took care of a child molester one time who called me a "******* pervert." that one was really special.
the one that feels the worst to me right now, though, is when i was called a "soulless, heartless witch" by the parents of a patient who have kept him alive in the icu for nearly a year while we slice off one appendage after another due to gangrene, his skin has sloughed off due to a drug reaction, and he mouths the same thing over and over all day and all night: "let me die. i want to die." these parents have insisted that we not medicate him for pain during visiting hours because "then he's not awake to interact with us when we visit." so these stellar parents call me soulless and heartless because, when i had to change the dressing that covers his posterior from shoulder blades to stumps (bilateral akas), i medicated him for pain. because he was incontinent during visiting hours, i medicated him during visiting hours. and then i cried while i changed the damned dressing. but he was too knocked out from the meds to interact with his parents, hence the name calling.
Had a patient who said she would like to kick me and knock me down just to see my rolls of fat shake like jello when I was thrashing around on the floor. (And I was a lot thinner then.)
I sit here thinking "Man I miss working" and "I wish I could work again" and then I read this and remember and think"Medical retirement is GOOD and abrasive patients are BAD" The last 5 yrs I worked I was beginning to hate nursing and mostly families of jerky patients. Now I think getting paid to avoid working is a good thing
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Moderator's Note: Several posts in this thread have required editing due to the use of thinly-disguised profanities and obscene terms. I'd like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of our Terms of Service, which mentions the use of such language in the forums, and ask that you avoid the use of partially-spelled curse words, or characters in place of letters, as it's all too easy for the rest of the world to figure out. Instead, you may use all asterisks in place of the word, or better yet, you might consider eschewing bad language altogether, as if you were speaking to a room full of nursing colleagues and management. Thank you.
You poor dear it sounds like you had a horrible shift. I have been cussed out and called all kinds of names things like that do not usually upset me anymore. What does get under my skin is when residents or family members treat me like I do not know anything because I work in a nursing home. I have worked in hospitals in the past and I came to work at a nursing home of my own free will (what was I thinking, right) not because I did not know enough to work in the hospital.
"yeah it's too bad Americans warehouse their family in facilities like these rather than caring for them their selves like other countries do..." *tempting!
Moderator's Note: Several posts in this thread have required editing due to the use of thinly-disguised profanities and obscene terms. I'd like to take the opportunity to remind everyone of our Terms of Service, which mentions the use of such language in the forums, and ask that you avoid the use of partially-spelled curse words, or characters in place of letters, as it's all too easy for the rest of the world to figure out. Instead, you may use all asterisks in place of the word, or better yet, you might consider eschewing bad language altogether, as if you were speaking to a room full of nursing colleagues and management. Thank you.
Your pumpkin looks like he needs a little compazine!
"yeah it's too bad Americans warehouse their family in facilities like these rather than caring for them their selves like other countries do..." *tempting!
Not sure I get your point here. This is very similiar to other posts you have made in various threads. This comment has nothing to do with this thread title (unless I have missed something).
I actually felt bad giving report on this patient in the morning... I felt horrible to pass this person on to another nurse!
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twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN
1,289 Posts
I was told once by a drunk woman who came in after wrecking her car, was briefly unresponsive on scene, and wasn't appreciative of restraints, to "SUCK MY ****" as loudly as she could, causing the patients and staff on the other side of the ER to laugh loudly.