What's a "difficult pt" to you?

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What does everyone consider to be a "difficult pt" and what unit/area do you work in? Curious what everyone thinks!

Specializes in Pedi.

The ones whose parents don't take care of them... and force me to spend half my week talking to the state and then banging my head against a wall because it feels like I'm the only one who cares about the well being and safety of these children.

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We had a patient with CHF & renal failure on a fluid restriction. His family told us he couldn't walk but we would find him in the bathroom using his urinal to drink out of the toilet!

He was known to ask staff to scratch his 'balls' and say he couldn't find his cell phone (take a guess where we'd find it?) The call light would go off and he would throw stuff on the floor so we would bend over & pick it up for him. Ugh.

He was such a creep! He was only in his 50s and knew darn well what he was doing. I'll take a dementia patient over him any day!

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lazy ass malingerers who whine and complain about everything and refuse to do anything for themselves.

also, dementia pts. sorry not sorry, i just don't have the patience for that sort of thing.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC/SNF, Rehab, Corrections.

- A cursing, fighting 'eloper' who won't take meds or allow bs checks + insulin.

- Anyone who rides the call light.

- A needy, whiner c 0 psych issues. These people will grope/fondle staff, throw things, hit/kick and berate everyone...but they know fully well what they're doing. They just don't care. A-holes and creeps. I usually do what I need to do and get out so I don't have to be bothered with them again. Yes, I mean that.

I have a fondler/groper pedophile at work, now. I was passing through and he stuck his hand out. I quite literally told him, '...you need to put your hand away and cut that nastiness out. No one around here wants your hands all over their bodies. Stop being nasty.'

He did and wouldn't look me in the eye for the rest of the shift.

Good. He's a nasty man and ought to feel ashamed.

It's one thing if a pt is actually ill or has dementia and is grabbing and pawing.

...but someone who is in 'their right mind' does it and because I'm a nurse I have to 'look over it'? Ignore it? No, way. I can look over the pedophilia to treat him but I refuse to deal with him trying to molest me.

We have another pt who was sent to another facility and came back because he tried to 'assault' his counselor.

The first time a pt ever tries to push me down and mount me in a room -- Jesus, 'Take the Wheel'. I will lose my license.

I don't mind 'medical' issues of any sort.

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Specializes in orthopeditics,med/sur,Rehab,skilled care.

Pr who has ELECTIVE surgery but refuses to move or participates in PT because it hurts to much. Also pt who have back surgery and pain is always 10/10 when you wake them up plus refusing to move. Family members who think mom/dad needs pain meds even though the pt says he has no pain or is unable to wake up.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

:barf02:

We had a patient with CHF & renal failure on a fluid restriction. His family told us he couldn't walk but we would find him in the bathroom using his urinal to drink out of the toilet!

He was known to ask staff to scratch his 'balls' and say he couldn't find his cell phone (take a guess where we'd find it?) The call light would go off and he would throw stuff on the floor so we would bend over & pick it up for him. Ugh.

He was such a creep! He was only in his 50s and knew darn well what he was doing. I'll take a dementia patient over him any day!

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

On my unit this would buy the creep 4-point restraints. :whistling:

These people will grope/fondle staff, throw things, hit/kick and berate everyone...but they know fully well what they're doing. They just don't care. A-holes and creeps. I usually do what I need to do and get out so I don't have to be bothered with them again. Yes, I mean that.

I have a fondler/groper pedophile at work, now. I was passing through and he stuck his hand out. I quite literally told him, '...you need to put your hand away and cut that nastiness out. No one around here wants your hands all over their bodies. Stop being nasty.'

He did and wouldn't look me in the eye for the rest of the shift.

Good. He's a nasty man and ought to feel ashamed.

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Pts. like the one I had this past weekend. He started asking for pain medication the minute I got out of report. I told him when he had it & when he could have it again. He responded "But I need it now!" He also kept begging to be put to bed-from what the PCTs told me, if he went to bed too early he was awake by 1 AM either on the call light or setting off the bed alarm getting up every few minutes. I kept telling him I would put him to bed when he could get his pain med, which was 9 PM, and I made it a point to stick to that.

He was not in bed 10 minutes when his light came on. First, he had to go to the bathroom, when he said he didn't just a few minutes before. Then, he sat on the toilet for 10 seconds & said "I guess I didn't have to go." 5 minutes later, he was back on the light & said "I think I do have to go now" What happened? You guessed it-another false alarm. 10 minutes after that, his light came back on. He was holding out his hand which was full of cr@p. He said "I got poop all over my hand because I was scratching my butt."

This went on & on & I had 5 other pts. to take care of. Trying to explain that to him didn't register in any way. He just kept up the same thing. Basically, he was on the light continuously, wanting whatever he didn't have & when he got that, he was wanting something else. This guy wasn't confused, either, because he could remember what staff said to him verbatim the next day. He reported me for being "mean" to him because I said, if his legs hurt so bad, it didn't make any sense to want to make trips to the toilet every few minutes to expel gas. Oh, & he claimed he "couldn't" use the urinal because he couldn't get "it" in the "hole". A PCT told him this was a rehab unit & he had to at least try. His "try" was successful but then he managed to spill the urinal all over the bed. This prompted the light to come on again, then he complained we made him "be cold" while we were changing the bed.

Wow. Just wow.

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As a Post Partum Nurse I find my most difficult patient's tend to be the most anxious about their new roles. They take education as criticism, they have unrealistic expectations of themselves and their infants and they often become enraged when breastfeeding doesn't come as easy as they would have hoped.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

To me a difficult patient is one that thinks only of himself. For instance someone who is non complainant with their care, such as the hemo patient that misses 2 or more dialysis sessions and then comes to the ER in Fluid overload with a potassium of 7. They need immediate care, usually in the ICU.

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We had a patient with CHF & renal failure on a fluid restriction. His family told us he couldn't walk but we would find him in the bathroom using his urinal to drink out of the toilet! He was known to ask staff to scratch his 'balls' and say he couldn't find his cell phone (take a guess where we'd find it?) The call light would go off and he would throw stuff on the floor so we would bend over & pick it up for him. Ugh. He was such a creep! He was only in his 50s and knew darn well what he was doing. I'll take a dementia patient over him any day!
Uggghh...these patients are probably my least favorite to care for. Disgusting, rude and completely inappropriate. My tactic is to find one of the male nurses (the bigger and manlier the better :)) I am working with and send them in to see what Mr. Creeper wants. They're usually happy to do it. After a couple of times of his call light being answered by men, it usually puts a stop to it.
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To me a difficult patient is one that thinks only of himself. For instance someone who is non complainant with their care, such as the hemo patient that misses 2 or more dialysis sessions and then comes to the ER in Fluid overload with a potassium of 7. They need immediate care, usually in the ICU.
Yep, see this often. They didn't feel well so they skipped their HD?!?! Maybe that's a sign you should go!!!!
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