Anyone ever have it where one patient's "needs" have impacted the care other patients have received?
Let me explain. We had a patient admit late last week who has done nothing but file grievances and complain to her daughter ever since her arrival. While some of the complaints are valid (e.g. long call light waits in some instances), others are ridiculous. For instance, this patient filed a grievance form because her TV remote was not fixed fast enough (it was repaired within 10-15 minutes) and that it took someone 20 minutes to bring her a new Diet Pepsi. This patient and her daughter also demanded to know why the patient, who is a diabetic, had a blood sugar over 300 even though the patient admitted to having a couple of treats and why the doctor had not been called immediately. They stated that the patient should be able to have treats/desserts without her blood sugars becoming "extremely elevated" and that we "should know how to manage her blood sugars better so she can have treats." This is also a patient that will call her daughter weeping when nurses have brought her PRN pain medications 2 minutes late and complain that she has not been given a shower, even though she refused several times when offered, stating that "the timing isn't right." They also have a list of staff members they do not wish to be involved in her care, even though all of them are competent. Because of all of these grievances, I have had no choice but to dedicate 1.5 hours or more every day listening to them vent and addressing their complaints. Yesterday, at least 3 hours was dedicated to this person alone. This doesn't include the time involved with contacting providers, typing up an individualized medication list, and completing other "duties" they demanded.
The thing is, this week I was covering for my co-manager, so there were almost 30 other patients that also needed some of my attention, and I barely knew what was going with any of them because a large majority of my time was spent accommodating this one individual, with the hopes that by doing so we won't get reported. I understand that some patients are simply going to require more attention than others, but in my opinion, 1.5hours-3 hours every single day, when there are about 30 other patients who also require care, is excessive. I can't help but feel that someone else, or multiple other individuals, were neglected because this one patient demanded so much of our attention.
There were several patients that I sent to to the hospital over the past week, and part of me wonders if we could have kept at least some of them in the facility altogether if I would have had more time to focus on their needs. Additionally, there are a couple of patients that I am concerned may decline over the weekend, but couldn't get further recommendations from the provider other than "to keep monitoring" and "send them to the ER if needed" because by the time I was able to address concerns staff had about them it was very late on a Friday evening.
Anyone else ever had an experience like this, where one patient's demands possibly impacted the care of other patients? **Note: Informing this patient that there are others who also need care isn't an option because they have already threatened to report staff members who have mentioned this to the board of nursing, stating that comments like that "are an unacceptable way to speak to a patient."
