UGH! This is my first vent since I've become a Nurse Intern II while attending nursing school.
I worked over the w/e and had a pt who was extremely large (well over 300 lbs), came in with UTI and A-fib and was incontient. This woman literally drove me to nuts the entire 12 hours I worked her floor.
For starters, for some strange reason, she couldnt lift her index finger to push the call light that was LITERALLY an inch from her finger so she would yell to the top of her lungs, NURSE, NURSE whenever I walked by. I would go into her room and asked her why she felt the need to yell and not use her call light and she said she "couldnt raise her hand" to reach it, (although she could have pressed the call button on the side of the bed rail near her arm). So I ask her what I can help her with and she wanted me to (get this) close her miniblinds. I closed the miniblinds and she said, "the light is still in my eyes, can you move my bed to get the glare out of my eyes since the blinds won't close any further?" This woman is hooked up to 2 L of O2 so I told her there is no way to "move her bed" to the opposite side of the room because of the window, I told her I can turn out all the lights and close the door to see if that would help. She says, "can you put a cover over the window?" I told her no and told her if she needed anything else, to lift her finger and use the call light on the side of the bed. I even put the call light box right on her chest (within arms reach) to use it.
Why no more than 30 seconds later (literally), she is SCREAMING NURSE again? I run into her room and ask her what I can do for her, and she says (get this) Can you move my cup closer to the edge of the table so I can use the straw to drink it? She was USING her hands to eat breakfast, but couldnt use her index FINGER to press the call light.
Then the kicker, I leaves her room (after pulling her cup literally a half inch further than it was on the table) and she is SCREAMING nurse again and this time, she managed to pull out her IV and there was blood everywhere. So, I had to do a linen change (while she was in the bed, as well as clean her up and put on a new gown). The nurse had to start a new IV in which she CRIED, MOAN and complained the entire time. When I put on her grown, she couldnt lift her arms up to put them in the sleeves so I had to pull the gown over her arms, in which she complained I was "hurting" her and she needed a pain pill.
Fastfoward, to an hour later, she is constantly on her call light for little things, like "can you make me some ice tea? can you turn me to the right side? can you turn the channel on the TV?", etc. I ended up putting her on the bed pan and she would ring the light literally as soon as I walked out of the room and to say she "thinks" she is finished pooping and when I go to remove the bed pan, she "squirts" diarrehea all over the damn place, including on my sleeve. NOTHING is in the bed pan. It took 2 nurses and myself to clean her up, and this happened 4 times over the course of 12 hours. Due to her hemmroids, the nurse didnt think she would be benefit from a rectal tube.
Meanwhile, while I'm spending all this time in this pt's room, there is a little ole lady two doors down that is Influenza type A, incontient, and NEVER rings her call light for anything, and I feel bad because I know she's in need of a bath, change, and linen change and I'm wasting all my time in this pt's room who thinks she is in a Holiday Inn Express!
And her family members are just as bad! They literally hunted the nurse down to say that "my sister wants her food cut up because she can't cut it herself because her hands hurt", although her "sister" was eating just fine with BOTH her hands before she got there.
Sorry so long. I just don't get why people don't understand they are in a HOSPITAL and not a HOTEL! We are not room service there to serve your every demanding comand.
