Why?

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..

Why is it that time and again it is the A&Ox3 residents that are labelled as 'difficult' !Why is this? Is it because they can actually voice their choices while the demented residents basically have their choices made for them.Is it because it is easier for the staff to make those choices instead of the resident? The resident that can make choices is surely the easier to take care off?you ask them,they tell you,you do...simple.with the demented ones you have to find out from other sources what their favourite things were ,what their routines were etc,not so easy.

What do you think?

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I think they're bored, cranky, and don't want to be talked to in baby talk-ish language. It's would get on my last nerve, too.

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..
I think they're bored, cranky, and don't want to be talked to in baby talk-ish language. It's would get on my last nerve, too.

I think the staff get so used to talking to people with dementia they forget how to talk to alert residents then get surprised when they answer back and actually have a mind of their own!

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I love when I get report and the nurse says "Oh this patient is so rude" and adds "have fun tonight"...Then I have the best night because the patient is totally cool with me and I love telling the nurse that the next morning when they come back.

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I only had problem with one resident, ever, and she was a narcissistic drama queen. Even the allegedly combative didn't fight with me - maybe necause I never grabbed them and tried to drag them.

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Specializes in cardiac, ortho, med surg, oncology.

I usually get on great with the "rude, demanding" patients. I find those patients usually just want someone to treat them with respect and answer their questions and address their concerns and all is well.

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I love when I get report and the nurse says "Oh this patient is so rude" and adds "have fun tonight"...Then I have the best night because the patient is totally cool with me and I love telling the nurse that the next morning when they come back.

Ugh! Me too, all I say is "just be nice to her", "listen to her", or "explain to her when you are doing things"... It boggles my mind how often this happens!!!:banghead:

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I usually get on great with the "rude, demanding" patients. I find those patients usually just want someone to treat them with respect and answer their questions and address their concerns and all is well.

I find the more educated or independent they were in youth the more difficult they are as elderly patients. You can tell when someone was brilliant in young life and losing their mind is losing one of their most treasured assets. We had a brilliant physicist as a patient for a while and in moments of lucidity he would look at me and say "If I could only have one complete thought..." Then he would go back to being the "difficult" LOM I grew to cherish. No one else wanted to deal with him, he was "mean" but all he wanted was someone to talk to him and help him have that "complete" thought, he even gave me a homework assignment one night so we could discuss some mathematical theories the next day! I miss him.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Babyish talk? No one in my facility is allowed to talk baby talk to ANY resident demented or cognitively intact. It is truly demeaning and disrespectful.

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Specializes in LTC.

I have found that my more "difficult" pts are the ones who are acutely aware they are not leaving LTC, and whose family has just sold the house that they lived in for 58 years, who know their meds are supposed to be there at 0700 but doesn't get there until 0830, etc. Most of them are lonely, depressed, scared, miserable. Can you really imagine working for 60 years, raising a family, gaining the "American Dream", then watch it all fall away just because your stupid body doesn't want to cooperate anymore? I'd be difficult, too. Having to give up their independence after 70+ years has to be horribly demoralizing, and I can see how some of them are "cranky". My LTC falcility is one of the better ones in town, but daily I pray I don't end up in one. It makes me sad just to think about it.

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Specializes in Nursing Home ,Dementia Care,Neurology..
I have found that my more "difficult" pts are the ones who are acutely aware they are not leaving LTC, and whose family has just sold the house that they lived in for 58 years, who know their meds are supposed to be there at 0700 but doesn't get there until 0830, etc. Most of them are lonely, depressed, scared, miserable. Can you really imagine working for 60 years, raising a family, gaining the "American Dream", then watch it all fall away just because your stupid body doesn't want to cooperate anymore? I'd be difficult, too. Having to give up their independence after 70+ years has to be horribly demoralizing, and I can see how some of them are "cranky". My LTC falcility is one of the better ones in town, but daily I pray I don't end up in one. It makes me sad just to think about it.

Amen to that!

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I always tell my staff "Put yourself in that bed" . My guess is that you will be "difficult" too. I get that all the time in report, my guess is the same as the rest...they are able to make their needs know and know the Residents Rights...makes you do your job, huh?

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