Worst/silliest/are you serious pt complaint you've received?

[odaat]

I don't know if this has been done before but I was thinking today about the one and only time I have ever been pulled into the office to be read the riot act by a manager....my patient complained that the hot water I brought her for her tea at 3am wasn't hot enough. Mind you this is after spending a lengthy amount of time straightening out legit medical issues pt had including 3am phone calls to the doctor. I'm still flabbergasted over that one, more that my manager saw fit to pull me into the office over it!

The worst one I remember is that I talk with my hands a lot, like majorly, and I was communicating a deaf patients concerns to the ER doc within visual sight of the patient. Pt thought I was making fun of him, I ended up being banned from the room and the pt advocate had to get involved 😕

[friggasdistaff]

Called into the director's office because I refused to violate HIPPA. After the director found out I was correct, she told me I was right not to give out the information out, but I didn't need to be rude or hang up on the caller. After the initial call two of our nurses complimented me on how polite I was and how well I handled the situation. It is so frustrating when a patient complains the staff member is automatically guilty no matter how outrageous their complaint is. We've reached a point where patient advocacy has gone too far.

[slauren]

I had a patient accuse me of giving her a pain medication to make her drug tests positive. She was known for her behaviors and its very rare for a patient to complain about me. Plus this certain medication wasn't avaliable in our e-kit nor any patient in the building was taking this medication. I didn't get in trouble for it because management knew how she was and that I wouldn't go purchase drugs off the street to ruin this patient's drug test. Since the patient accused me, I would always have another nurse present with me when I got her medications together and administered. The patient apologized to me after she realized she screwed herself up because none of the other nurses would accept adding her to their assignment and it would take awhile for another nurse to come to our unit to assist. We eventually found out that one of her scheduled medications would make her test false positive. The last day I took care of that patient she told me I was one **** of a nurse and even admitted to giving me hard times. This wasn't the only thing she's done. Probably the most challening patient I've ever had but she taught me a lot - good experience.

[dah doh, BSN, RN]

Patient called the police because we were starving him because we won't give him a late night snack or water. Well yes officer, we aren't allowing him anything to eat or drink after midnight because he's NPO for elective surgery that he consented to and knew he wouldn't be allowed to eat or drink after midnight, but he does have IV fluids infusing...sigh...

Fake seizure guy complaining...no sir I can't give you anything to eat or drink because you are here for airway monitoring in case you need to be intubated. No sir, you cannot leave AMA because you are in custody hence why you are handcuffed to the bed. And because you are wasting my time with fake seizures...officers, can I offer you some refreshments? It took a day or so for the doctor to witness the fake seizures that the other nurses had been watching...she said it wasn't even good acting...yup but it was entertaining!!! And he got transferred outta ICU darn quick after that!

[Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN]

Patient called police over missing $5

[Princess Bubblegum]

A patient's family snuck him Burger King when he was supposed to be NPO for surgery in the AM after getting drunk and causing a massive wreck on the freeway. His dad said, "I didn't think you guys were serious about not eating. I just thought you were punishing him." Then they got mad when his surgery got pushed back.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I would be most concerned to learn if he considered me one of the three hotties or the fat old nurse....

Since I was in my fifties and the other three were in their 20s and 30s, I know which one he considered me!

[ClearBlueOctoberSky]

Hmm, I have made Dill Pickle Soup with vegetables. Tasty.

ETA in response to the complaint of the "vegebal" soup. Sorry.