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.
Specializes in Peds Critical Care, Dialysis, General.
I got fired by one of my patients' mother. She said I had given her nothing but attitude all day long, and it worsened after the 1000 incident. The child has asmtha and was also congested up the wahoo. The RT and I NP suctioned the child. Said child, of course, protested vigorously. Lost the IV, but I was going to dc the thing because he didn't need it anymore. She wouldn't let me near the child to do cares - she actually swatted me away. The RT was with me and rolling her eyes. After the 2pm assessment, she called me in the room and unloaded with both barrels (and her two bulging eyes and hair standing straight up). Under no circumstances was I to re-enter the room. She wanted another nurse for the rest of the shift. Get out!!!! and she slammed the door after me.
I told the charge nurse and she was aghast. She went in to speak with the mom. Mom decided it was okay if I continued to care for the child because I knew him, but I could not, under any circumstance, speak to mom. Mom was told that was not an ideal arrangement and she'd find another nurse.
The news got around our unit quickly that Cindy had a bad attitude. It was the unit joke for awhile. There are several people they could believe the bad attitude part about, but not me. The attending just laughed - he didn't get along with her either. My nurse manager couldn't believe it - the mom had not given any problems before and that I had been accused of attitude.
The dad came back from the cafeteria and was told by mom what had happened. He came out and apologized for his wife's behavior. Said she gets like that when she's really stressed. Her mom and sister were with him and confirmed what he said. Everyone heard the apology and he asked me to please come back and take care of his son. Said I'd been nothing but caring and professional and appreciated the care I'd given his son.
Everyone loves to joke about my attitude now. The incident made its way up to the president of the hospital who knows me - all management teases me to this day!
Sometimes I just ignore people like that, and other times I give the attitude right back to them. It depends. Most of the time I try to straighten them out in the beginning. I basically tell them that I'm not going to allow them to be rude.
Working in med/surg for the past five years, I can think of quite a few memorable moments but there is one incident that really sticks with me: it was almost the end of my shift (I work nights 7p-7a) and one of my patients asked me to get her a cup of coffee. On my way to the pantry, an alarm sounded- one of my other patients was crashing! We coded her and she ended up being rushed to ICU (she made it!) When I got back to my floor, I remembered my other patient's coffee request and brought it in to her:
patient "what's this"
me "it's the coffee you asked for"
patient "I wanted it 45 minutes ago, I don't want it now."
me "I'm sorry, we had an emergency and I wasn't able to come back right away."
patient "you mean in this entire hospital NOBODY has the time to get an expletive cup of coffee for me when I want one!?"
me (starting to get a little annoyed) "Did you hear the alarm sound earlier? One of my other patients was dying. I'm sorry you had to wait, but that takes priority over a cup of coffee."
patient "if they had to look at your ugly lazy mug all night then they would be better off dead! I needed my coffee THEN you expletive. How dare you make me go without my caffeine, expletive. People like you shouldn't be nurses."
At this point I just turned and walked out of her room because I didn't trust myself not to say something I shouldn't
patient "Yeah, that's it. Go away. Just waddle your fat butt out of my room when I'm talking to you!"
As I was walking away, miss rude patient proceeded to throw the full cup coffee at me, getting it all over the back of my scrub top. Sheesh. Talk about a sense of entitlement. I was a bad nurse because I didn't get her coffee on time. The worst part was, she was an alert and oriented x3 40-ish year old with no psych history.
I give you guys all the credit in the world...I'd be fired my first week on the floor, because NONE of us should have to deal with that. That's assault, plain and simple.
Someone heavily medicated, anesthetised or mentally ill or deficient is one thing..but I think I would have lost it in your situation.:angryfire
If anyone ever tells me to go to you-know-where, I just look them dead in the eye and say, "I'm already there!".
And no, I don't care what they think. I work for a living, and I don't get paid enough to take abuse.
I'll lead with this then tell my story:
I hate nurses who think EVERYONE is seeking drugs. In my four years of nursing (on M/S floors at that), there are about 5 or 6 people at the most I am convinced were. The lady in this story is one of them.
I was working the floor, doing crazy OT, switching between this and that shift to help out (doing all three shifts the same week) and I was dead on my feet. Short on patience for the booing and hooing.
Had a woman who was an obvious drug seeker. She couldn't get enough. She tried all the tricks........asking for it right at shift end, waiting for the next nurse to come on and asking for it again.........everything. She put her light on, and when I got there, she proceeded to explain to me that she had called her doctor in NY (I am in PA) and it was OK with him for her to get 4mg dilaudid instead of 2mg and that he ordered a "now" dose also. She then went on to let me know I did not need to call him, she would NEVER lie about such an important thing, and that he was on his way to surgery and would not be available for me to talk to.
I explained to her that I could not take a verbal order from a doctor who does not round at the facility. She got upset, insisted I could, she had seen it done a thousand times. She was convinced the doctor had given me an order, and the only reason I would not respect is was because I didn't believe her and I didn't like her (yes, I made sure I did not deny that I did not like her, I didn't confirm it, but I didn't deny it either). She told me to "Go to Hell."
My response: "If you go to hell for med errors, I certainly am. I'm just glad the last one I messed up with didn't die like the others did." And I walked out the room. Left it up to her imagination.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
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.)
for some reason, that one just struck me as hilarious! i was laughing so hard that both dh and the dog were giving me strange looks!
This one isn't funny; it was terrible. I was charge on the week-end, with about 15 patients and 2 pulled nurses to try to help. A specialty floor. One doctor to round on all 15, and he expected the charge to go with him so he could fly like the proverbial bat from **** through them all. He got delayed for a few minutes and I ran in to give a patient pain pills because I knew PT was coming to get her. She told me to change her dressing (routine daily dressing change) and I explained that I couldn't just then but would as soon as I was able. I was very polite about it. When the dr. and I got to her room she was packing to go AMA and told the dr. it was because of my rude and unprofessional behavior. I was asked to leave the room while she trashed me to him. When he came out, I told him I could just be fired. I couldn't take any more of that no win type of situation. Nothing ever got resolved, of course. I just took myself off her case and stewed the rest of the shift.
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.
ruby, bless you for advocating for this dear patient. those parents need help; from chaplains and the doctors to let their son go.
I actually felt bad giving report on this patient in the morning... I felt horrible to pass this person on to another nurse!
AlabamaBelle
476 Posts
I got fired by one of my patients' mother. She said I had given her nothing but attitude all day long, and it worsened after the 1000 incident. The child has asmtha and was also congested up the wahoo. The RT and I NP suctioned the child. Said child, of course, protested vigorously. Lost the IV, but I was going to dc the thing because he didn't need it anymore. She wouldn't let me near the child to do cares - she actually swatted me away. The RT was with me and rolling her eyes. After the 2pm assessment, she called me in the room and unloaded with both barrels (and her two bulging eyes and hair standing straight up). Under no circumstances was I to re-enter the room. She wanted another nurse for the rest of the shift. Get out!!!! and she slammed the door after me.
I told the charge nurse and she was aghast. She went in to speak with the mom. Mom decided it was okay if I continued to care for the child because I knew him, but I could not, under any circumstance, speak to mom. Mom was told that was not an ideal arrangement and she'd find another nurse.
The news got around our unit quickly that Cindy had a bad attitude. It was the unit joke for awhile. There are several people they could believe the bad attitude part about, but not me. The attending just laughed - he didn't get along with her either. My nurse manager couldn't believe it - the mom had not given any problems before and that I had been accused of attitude.
The dad came back from the cafeteria and was told by mom what had happened. He came out and apologized for his wife's behavior. Said she gets like that when she's really stressed. Her mom and sister were with him and confirmed what he said. Everyone heard the apology and he asked me to please come back and take care of his son. Said I'd been nothing but caring and professional and appreciated the care I'd given his son.
Everyone loves to joke about my attitude now. The incident made its way up to the president of the hospital who knows me - all management teases me to this day!