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've worked in long-term psych for over 7 years. I've had so many negative things said to me that it mostly goes in one ear and out the other now. I've been spit on, hit, and had juice thrown right in my face. However, the 'good stuff' outweighs the bad, and I do like my job and the people I work with (well, most of them...lol).
Specializes in Neuroscience/Neuro-surgery/Med-Surgical/.
Being called a stupid *****, while attempting to bite my arm. The male co-worker put his hand on the patient's head and pushed it back down to the bed and yelled ' don't you dare call her that!'
Most times I have found patients behavior is caused by pain or poor coping skills. Dementia and TBIs too.
I usually give them warning that I will not tolerate name calling or violence. I am trying to get them comfortable and get pain medications, but I need their cooperation too. I will sit and listen to their fears and provide support.
And these behaviors and interventions will be documented.
Family/visitors will be asked to leave if they can't control themselves. And it will be documented.
Next call is to security.
I am done battling with patients and families.
Wish I could wear the badge that says "Ask me about AMA!"
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.
My next phone call would be to the local police- If she wasn't confused, that is assult- People seem to think being patients gives them permission to do things they normally wouldn't. Perhaps if a few of these type of patients got prosecuted, and embarrassed in the local newspaper, the general population might think twice before they do something like that! Disgusting that we have to deal with fooloshness like this.
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
I tell you what, that would have been the last time she would have thrown a cup of coffee or anything else at anyone. As the charge nurse I would have been in her room in a heart beat and we would have had a little come to Jesus meeting. My goal would have been to make her mad enough to leave AMA. I would have taken everything out of her room that she could use as a weapon and I would have told her that she is now considered a danger to the staff and that we would treat her as such. No one would be coming into her room alone and as such she would have to wait for things. Security would be called and would have to be with the staff when they came into her room. So she would have to wait until security was available before staff would come into her room. Housekeeping would not come into her room without a security escort. If she hit anyone else, assault charges would be made against her. Verbal abuse would not be tolerated. If she became verbally abusive, staff would turn and leave her room immediately. She would not get anything else until she could speak to people in a calm, non abusive manner. Her dinner tray would be brought into her room by staff with security escort only. This would probably be enough to either get her to leave to clean up her act.
I asked my first ETOH patient if there was anything I could get for him. His reply "Yeah a nice piece of pu**y!" I said "I'm sorry but we don't offer that on this floor."
I cannot tell you how well I identified with how you felt at the end of your shift. It's unfortunate that "he" had a bad day and "kicked" the nurse because he was not dealing well with his health problems. I don't want to stereotype, but I would guess that he is obese, as well as in renal failure (dialysis) because he has taken such great care of his health and followed all the physician's prescriptions up to this point in life (tongue in cheek of course). He and his family sound like bullies. In reality he is an insecure, frightened person lashing out at others offering help because he feels so powerless. I know that doesn't make his behavior any easier to tolerate.
just a few weeks ago I had a lady on trauma that refused pain meds time & time again only to complain to the MDs rounding that "that mean student nurse doesnt care about me at all, i've had no pain medicine all day!" the primary RN i was helping heard it & ran in and explained to her that i'd been in there many time, and documented each time i'd inquired about pain & she'd denied intervention. document like crazy!!
first semester of nursing school: cute little old skinny minny lady: "honey can you get this f****** iv taken care of, it's making my f******* arm itch." i said, "oh ma'am, i'm sorry, i didn't realize it was bothering you so much, i'll get the primary RN. (i was level 1 so i couldn't do iv stuff yet) she used alot of really inappropriate language at inappropriate times, i think she had the beginnings of dementia.
later than same semester: nice guy in his, oh, late 80s early 90s. i gave him a bed bath then was cleaning up my mess, bent over to pick up a washcloth, not provacative or anything. "Boy, i sure do miss when nurses wore those white dresses. Used to see lots of [four letter inappropriate word for female genitalia] back in the service in the hospital, i really liked that...oh yes, i miss that. why can't you go back to those uniforms?" i was thinking, this is why i wear pants...and to think some of the older nurses from the white dress era think they were respected in the white dress.... now i have enough confidence that i would have said something about being respectful...
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 have had one family member tell me that I should be sure to take the patients used commode chair to the ICU where he was being transferred along with a huge bag containing a wardrobe, personal computer and electronic games. I told them that the ICU did not allow so many personal items and that a new commode chair would be ordered for him. They stated that "exceptions would be made for them" and that it was just too difficult to wait to get a new commode chair ordered that I had to take the one in his room. Just about that time the docs decided to take the patient for emergency surgery and i was quickly trying to complete the check off list on this patient for whom I had not recieved report as he was to be transferred to ICU and the day shift nurse gave report to the ICU and left as I was working extra and had agreed to transport him for her. While I was trying my best to get his pre surgery work done as transport was already there, the wife asked me what his blood type was, I told her I didn't know that I had to complete the check off sheet. She acted very miffed and said "well,I was only trying to help!" I don't know what she was trying to help by attempting to make me stop what I was doing to look up something she was curious about. Then as we were preparing him for transport, she informed me that I had forgotten to take his contacts out(true). I replied, thanks so much, and please get the contact case and remove them. She acted stunned, but complied! Boy was I glad to get these folks out of my hair. The huge bag of personal articles were left behind as they all went to follow him to surgery. I put them in the storage room as a favor and they picked them up sans commode chair. I guess they just had to wait to get another one in the unit. I have run into some families who acted entitled but never quiet like these folk.
On the other hand, I had a patient's grandfather who must have been in his 70's tell me that I must have led a hard life.........after he asked me if I was his age. I had a patient become very irrate the other night because his internet access was not working and we don't have anyone available at night to work on internet issues for patients. I know I have tried to get technical support for them before. I pretty much take things in stride but set limits with them when I need to.
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.
You said it best. You go girl. You are so correct, we don't get paid enough to take abuse. I understand that you are sick, however, I didn't cause it nor do I wish for you to be sick. Some of these patients are just plain ole nasty and their sickness is just an excuse to be nasty.
I actually felt bad giving report on this patient in the morning... I felt horrible to pass this person on to another nurse!
TreehuggerRN
70 Posts
"You're as big as an elephant and about half as strong."