What's the meanest thing a patient has said to you?

[fangirl]

Just curious, what's the meanest, rudest, nastiest thing a patient has said to you? Tonight I had someone tell me they wished I would die and go straight to he!! Then they said they hoped it rained everywhere I went. They also told someone they were a son of a b. What's your best line?

[weirdscience]

Scariest and meanest things ever said to me was by a patient the day shift nurse started report off with saying "Girl, you are going to love this patient. She is just the sweetest little thing ever". Before she could even finish giving report, that sweet little thing could be yelling "F you you Fing N-word" down the hall at anyone who passed her room. I start thinking to myself maybe sundowners is a thing just as day shift nurse informs me she DC'd her order for restraints (because why would anyone possibly restrain such a sweet little thing?!) and that she was currently up in the chair that happens to have a broken chair alarm. AWESOME.

I figure the first thing I should tackle this shift is getting grumpy granny back in bed, so I head over to her room where she is just shouting vile and nasty things at passerbys and the television. I walk in her room and am immediately pelted with a full, but open can of pepsi and told to "get the F out" before I even completely enter the room. Now soaked in pepsi, a bruise already growing on my chest and neck...I venture in further to see what kind of IV access I have to give the haldol I had the good sense to bring with me. As I lean behind her chair, she grabs me by the stethoscope stupidly hanging around my neck. She pulls me in and starts clawing at my neck screaming "I WILL PAINT THE WALLS WITH YOUR BLOOD, B____!" Which thankfully attracts the attention of some coworkers. They help untangle her talons from around my neck, which is now bleeding. As four of us endevour to get her carried over to the bed and strapped down in soft wrist restraints she yells out threats against us including such classics as "I will make you drown your babies in the river with your own hands", "I have shot 3 people dead and I ain't afraid to add your @ss to the list" and perhaps most perplexing, pleading for someone to "remove the sorghum from her lady parts". All this between the most unholy, animal like howls and screams you ever heard.

I called her husband to see if maybe he could come down and calm her down a bit. He hung up the first time I called. The second time he said it was our problem now, and that he is so scared of her himself he locks himself in his bedroom at night. Evidently this behavior was not new. Somebody needed to order that patient a young priest and an old priest and to chuck the walls against the green vomit that would later ensue....

I was crying with laughter reading this. Every night shifter has had the "Oh, I d/c'ed her restraints, she's fiiiiine..." pt at one point. 😂😆😂

[KarengoMiriam]

My confused patient woke up in the mid of the night, looked @ my face closely and said

Patient: oh.., you are a ni&$r

Me: what did you just call me ?

Patient: Thats what we used to call them in the south.

I stormed the nurses station to tell everyone and after a short while, we all started laughing hysterically. Poor confused lady was polite and genuine during the whole conversation.

[aliciaro]

"You're gonna make a terrible nurse."

[myownboss]

I am a black male nurse. A patient asked for the charge nurse and said, " He does not want a ni**a touching him"... I switched patients with a Filipino nurse for he rest of the shift...

[KarengoMiriam]

My worst incident was when I was a new grad. An a/ox3 serious looking mid age man told me that I will never succeed "this country" with my accent. I kept insisting I have come along way and he kept insisting I had to change my accent to succeed. I asked him if he preferred a nurse without an accent to take care of him but he declined. As soon as I left his room, I was crying like a baby. He was so wrong because 17 years later I'm very successful in my career mainly concentrating on critical care while in graduate school

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

When I was a student, I had a lady who was sun downing pray that I would die in a car wreck on my way home.

[myownboss]

Yep, had a verrrrry similar experience: an older woman with ovarian CA with mets kept screaming and bad mouthing everyone... we just ignored it because of the dx, but she kept 'firing' nurses and phlebotomists right and left because we never knew what we were doing and hurt her. I went on vacation and when I returned, found out she had died after being moved to ICU.

[Amistad, RN]

In my first hospital job out of nursing school, we had a notoriously mean/nasty patient who I was lucky enough to have in my assignment on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... At one point there were multiple family members in the room and I entered the room to check her blood sugar and give insulin before dinner. I introduced myself to the family, chatted, and asked the patient if I could check her sugar/give insulin. The patient literally acted as if I did not exist... No eye contact, no verbal refusal, nothing. I repeated my question, asked if I should come back later and still no response. Never before had I been treated like I was completely invisible. Needless to say it was uncomfortable and robbed me of some holiday cheer!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I've been called a fat, ugly, white (bad word that means female dog) so frequently I answer to it in my sleep. Usually by someone who wants more drugs than they're prescribed or who wants to have absolutely NO post-op pain. (Sorry, sir. I can make sure you have no post op pain, but I'd have to put this garden hose back down your throat and hook you up to a machine to breathe for you.)

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

If this were "the creepiest thing a patient has said to you," I would have some stories. We had a late-50s male patient convince his cute, 23-year-old new grad nurse that he "needed" all his meds as suppositories. Bless her heart, she called the prescriber and got orders, until the 6'5" body building male night shift nurse came on... and suddenly he didn't want PR meds anymore.

I worked four nights in a row with Lynn, who was a beautiful, young, blonde and unbelievably smart nurse. (I'm old, fat and blonde.) We had the patients in 4A and 4B. They were both old, obnoxious and creepy men. I'm not sure which one was a bigger pain in the rear; they were both vying for the title of "Most Obnoxious Patient I've Ever Had The Misfortune To Tolerate For Twelve Hours." Did I mention that they were both racists? They had "fired" every nurse to enter the room who wasn't Caucasian. And every male. The first night, I had A and she had B. The next night, and this may have been a mistake, she had A and I had B. They were so foul mouthed and suggestive that we made sure we were either both in the room or both OUT of the room . . . safety in numbers.

Mr. Nasty in A was grabby, and every time a nurse got close enough, he'd reach for "the sexy parts." We got pretty adept at tag teaming. She'd hold his hands while I started his IV, I watched her back while she was between the two beds with her back to him, caring for her patient. Mr. Nastier in B was bowel fixated -- always wanting his meds rectally, rectal temperatures, etc. It was bad when I had him. It was worse when she did, her being younger and prettier and all.

Then the suppositories worked, and Mr. Nastier had to have a bowel movement. He was incontinent, of course, and as we cleaned him up, we were subjected to all sorts of sighs and moans implying he was having a jolly good time. The next time he had to have a bowel movement, she was right there with the bedpan, which he refused. "I'll just (four letter word starting with S) the bed and you girls will have to clean me up," he said smugly. Lynn started to try to reason with him. I said "No, I got this." I stood there and watched him strain, soil himself and then demand to be cleaned up.

"In a minute," I said.

"No, you got to clean me up NOW."

"In a minute." And I left the room, towing Lynn behind me, and went to talk to our assistant manager, a tall, Black, bald body builder named LeRoy. It so happened that my DH was also working that shift -- a tall, bearded Hispanic martial artist named Matteo.

When I came back into the room after leisurely obtaining linen and supplies, instead of Lynn I brought LeRoy and Matteo. "Sorry this took so long, Mr. Nastier," I told him. "I just had to get some supplies and some help. LeRoy and Matteo are going to clean you up. Lynn and I are going to lunch."

Mr. Nastier was suddenly a whole lot nicer, and the last two nights of our stretch were ever so much more pleasant.

[Nurcpou]

I've heard a lot of mean things in my relatively short career. I've been called a lot of expletives and been threatened with lawsuits and broken bones. Confusion, psychosis, fear, and pain seemed to be at the root of most mean things said to me and know that took away some of the sting. The one that really got me though was the lady who seemed to be mean for her own enjoyment. I was working as an RN at a family practice clinic and was called to perform a dressing change. The wound was in an awkward location, but it didn't seem too difficult. As I was working, the patient commented that the people at the wound care clinic did a MUCH better job than I was doing. No specifics of what I was doing wrong, no suggestions on how to do it right, no complaints of discomfort, just that someone else generally did it better. I was a little taken aback, but smiled and agreed they are very good at what they do. I guess that wasn't the reaction that she wanted, because as I was putting the finishing touches on the dressing she looked at her arm and said again "yep they definitely do it better than you" Out of the corner of my eye I saw her looking intently at my face. I realized that for whatever reason she wanted to see a reaction (not sure if she hoped to see me angry or hurt or what). So I responded by again smiling and happily complementing the other nurses on their skills, but avoided agreeing with her that my work was somehow lacking. Her insult didn't hurt my feelings much, but it bothered me because there didn't seem to be any reason for it, at least nothing that made sense to me. I really hoped that my face didn't show any reaction that she was looking for.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I worked four nights in a row with Lynn, who was a beautiful, young, blonde and unbelievably smart nurse. (I'm old, fat and blonde.) We had the patients in 4A and 4B. They were both old, obnoxious and creepy men. I'm not sure which one was a bigger pain in the rear; they were both vying for the title of "Most Obnoxious Patient I've Ever Had The Misfortune To Tolerate For Twelve Hours." Did I mention that they were both racists? They had "fired" every nurse to enter the room who wasn't Caucasian. And every male. The first night, I had A and she had B. The next night, and this may have been a mistake, she had A and I had B. They were so foul mouthed and suggestive that we made sure we were either both in the room or both OUT of the room . . . safety in numbers.

Mr. Nasty in A was grabby, and every time a nurse got close enough, he'd reach for "the sexy parts." We got pretty adept at tag teaming. She'd hold his hands while I started his IV, I watched her back while she was between the two beds with her back to him, caring for her patient. Mr. Nastier in B was bowel fixated -- always wanting his meds rectally, rectal temperatures, etc. It was bad when I had him. It was worse when she did, her being younger and prettier and all.

Then the suppositories worked, and Mr. Nastier had to have a bowel movement. He was incontinent, of course, and as we cleaned him up, we were subjected to all sorts of sighs and moans implying he was having a jolly good time. The next time he had to have a bowel movement, she was right there with the bedpan, which he refused. "I'll just (four letter word starting with S) the bed and you girls will have to clean me up," he said smugly. Lynn started to try to reason with him. I said "No, I got this." I stood there and watched him strain, soil himself and then demand to be cleaned up.

"In a minute," I said.

"No, you got to clean me up NOW."

"In a minute." And I left the room, towing Lynn behind me, and went to talk to our assistant manager, a tall, Black, bald body builder named LeRoy. It so happened that my DH was also working that shift -- a tall, bearded Hispanic martial artist named Matteo.

When I came back into the room after leisurely obtaining linen and supplies, instead of Lynn I brought LeRoy and Matteo. "Sorry this took so long, Mr. Nastier," I told him. "I just had to get some supplies and some help. LeRoy and Matteo are going to clean you up. Lynn and I are going to lunch."

Mr. Nastier was suddenly a whole lot nicer, and the last two nights of our stretch were ever so much more pleasant.

I loved that story!