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.
Had a pt. call me a "****sucker" as he was coming out of anesthesia(also took a swing)..the male CRNA got mad and said that there were ladies in the room. Pt. responds "I don't give a ****!!" At this point, you can only laugh and shake your head.
The real funny thing was once he woke up a little more he was all lovey-dovey. As in "hey, you married??" Oh yeah, let me have some of you, Mister Foul Mouth, 3 teeth in his head, substance abusing fool.
I saw the moderators note..I went back and edited what I wrote the first time..
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.
rubyvee, you are a fantastic nurse. that poor man is your pt, not his parents. i know if i were bedridden like that, and suffering, i'd want my nurse to give compassionate care, which is what you did.
Ok this patient said many gems to me but this one sticks out. And it really isn't that bad but it irritated me.
"Are you pregnant or just fat?"
Ok not that bad huh? The kicker is I weigh 100lbs and she went at least 350lbs. Boy do I love my job!
I once went into a room to greet a newly admitted patient. On my way out, she said "oh dear, when is your baby due?" I had to hold back laughter until I out out of the room. I'm 5'6 (probably close to 5'8 with my Danskos on) and on the slender side.
I went to confirm orders with the NP...who knows the patient well...she cracked up and said "well, if that's what she said to you, I'd better not go in there then"
This morning I had a little old man, alert, tell me- when I went in to check his blood sugar- he looked me strait in the eye and said " You *****, you have ruined my whole day." I thought well dude you screwed up mine a bit too. course I didnt say that!!! Worst part is, he is A&OX3. And normally likes me!! Gotta love LTC!!
my patient and his sweet wife and daughter were in the room. i was adjusting the pt positioning when his remote slid off the bed. he looked me square in the eyes and screamed "you dumb son of a blank!!!!"
the room fell silent - the tension began to rise - as the wife and daughter started at me, waiting to see my response.
i stared back at him and said - "hey, you want to go for a drive?" and of coorifice he said yes - where are we going... i looked at him and said "to crazyville and your driving me there."
everyone cracked up and the wife looked like she was going to die from relief after seeing that i wasnt offended by her husband. i work private home care - and my patient and i get along great, but that one day he was just not going to put up with me abusing his remote haha!
Well, I work psych, so I've had a LOT of stuff said to me LOL...2 things stand out, however.
When I worked inpatient, I had a guy on the unit that was major CREEPY...he remains to this day the only person I've ever been really afraid of. He would stare at me over the counter and grin, and laugh in a bizarre manner...all normal for psychotic patients, but one day I called everybody up to the counter for 2100 med pass, and I said to him 'How are you, X?' He replied 'I need a knife...it's a fine time for you to die, isn't it?' and walked away...creeped me OUT. He ended up attacking one of my techs that night.
More recently, in my current job working outpatient, I was walking down the street to a nearby diner when I noticed one of my patients, who sees me weekly for medication administration, standing on the corner. He hadn't been doing well in recent weeks due to some paranoia about being 'poisoned' by the Mafia (his meds were changed from brand to generic so he was convinced he was a target), and we watch him carefully due to his history of violent assault and sex offenses...he was arguing with some non-existant person, when he spied me suddenly and yelled 'YOU! YOU are the reason I can't take my meds! Your dad is a spy and he's WATCHING ME!' I attempted to elude him by stating that I was on my lunch break and that I would like to speak with him after lunch...not a chance. He followed me all the way down the street, about 6 inches from my shoulder, literally screaming for the entire block to hear about my dad the Mafia boss and how we'd put spiders in his veins...he ended with 'You will PAY FOR THIS, YOU *****!' and stormed off. He came in 2 hours later as if nothing happened.
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).
sorry, I hit reply and couldn't add the quote before I was locked out. It was a pretentious response to a nursing home comment:
"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."
Sorry if I reused a train of thought and converted it to a response; didn't mean to confuse by not directly adding the comment...didn't mean to cause issue :redbeathe
Specializes in Medical-Surgical-Ortho-Neuro-Agency.
Some patients do not know appreciation. You did all to care for your patient. By the looks of it, this person and his family are all difficult.
You did your best to educate them, but they wwere unwilling to learn. I feel your pain. Some people are never satisfied. It is unfortunate that people like them exist.
A lazy nurse would not even waste time catering to them. So they sould be grateful for your service!!!
For the most part, I don't have to deal with the pt's making awful comments (in SICU), but a couple of weeks ago I had a family member who truly upset me. My pt pulled her A line out- radial, she bled a bit. I was in the room and was able to handle the situation quickly. She was upset and the husband jumped all over me. He was yelling so loudly that another nurse heard and came in to help me. I can't remember everything that he said, but the one thing that sticks out was, "I ovbiously can't step out of the room for a minute and leave her alone with you!". He held to it. I actually had to ask him to step out further in to the shift and he refused to leave (open visitation). Then as I was about to leave he commented to his wife, "We know when we have a good nurse and today we weren't that lucky". Devastated me!
I can honestly say out of all of the crzy things patients have said to me or called me only 2 times come to mind that made me want to pop my top and they both came from family members. The first time was a woman who was in for osteo due to a cat bite. This woman was a sweetheart, however her daughter called me later that day in hysterics asking if her mother was receiving nerve pills in the hospital. I said she was not and she told me I had to get them for her immediately. I informed her that her mother was cool as a cucumber and has not expressed desire for anything so I would not call the doctor for such an order. She then with indignity says "Do you know that my husband is a vet!" I replied really, then he can check the cat that bit her for rabies, but as for your mother we use people doctors here.
Then the other time I received a post-op who due to a mastectomy had only one arm available for bp's, so I hooked her up for her post op vitals, began assessing her as her daughter-in law whisked into the room and is looking around and tells me the cuff hurts mothers arm you need to take it off and do it manually. I told her I would feel better to keep that cuff on her because we need to ensure that b/p, pulse ox etc. is being monitored at regular intervals. (I had 8 pt's that night no way I could do manuals as often as she required bp's). DIL says well I am not asking you I am telling you to do it in that fashion:angryfire I ended up having a spell of verbal diarrehea and I told her I am telling her that I will not be doing it that way and her mother is not complaining of any discomfort. Then she says mother needs morphine and I said well mother cant have morphine (she had duramorph) I explained this to her through gritted teeth and said toradol was probably orderd. she went off about how mother needs narcotics for her horrible pain! (mother was lying there sleeping at this point). I probably crossed the line but I told her that as I said before she can not have narcotics because breathing takes priority over pain and if I start giving her narcs mother might not have pain but she probably will stop breathing, and if she could please stop telling me how to do my job I would appreciate it because I do not go to her work and tell her how to do hers. I seriously thought I was being punked because this woman was so over the top. However after our confrontation she was fine with me and even thanked me for taking great care of "mother".
Just last night I was in a pt's room, bent over to pick something off the floor and put it in the trash and he said "Wow, they must not pay you PCT's much- when's the last time you got your roots done?" LOL.
My worst encounters are with family members it seems, not so much the pt. IDK why. I've concentrated on being more mindful of family needs along with pt needs since I've seen the trend.
Worst thing was as much what the family member did as what they said:
The family member had just completed a 3 week training course at a nursing home facility to assist people who have to care for loved ones at home. Apparently, they tried to teach these people about C-diff in the class. She had taken over much of the ADL care for her mother since the classes. D/C plan was for the pt. to go home with this daughter with homecare.
She took her mother off the bedpan after a very large BM. Stuck the bedpan in my face.........directly under my nose, the one would do with a rose on a romantic date, and asked me "Do you think this is C-diff".
I started to lose my temper actually. My plan was to take the bedpan out of her hands and smash it into her face like a pie. Luckily, a friend was near me, stayed my hand and played interference while I left the room. They did not see me the rest of the night.
I actually felt bad giving report on this patient in the morning... I felt horrible to pass this person on to another nurse!
GadgetRN71, ASN, RN
1,841 Posts
Had a pt. call me a "****sucker" as he was coming out of anesthesia(also took a swing)..the male CRNA got mad and said that there were ladies in the room. Pt. responds "I don't give a ****!!" At this point, you can only laugh and shake your head.
The real funny thing was once he woke up a little more he was all lovey-dovey. As in "hey, you married??"
Oh yeah, let me have some of you, Mister Foul Mouth, 3 teeth in his head, substance abusing fool.
I saw the moderators note..I went back and edited what I wrote the first time..