You shouldn't be visiting this ICU patient if . . .

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Specializes in ICU/CCU.

you haven't seen him since high school, and you are in your late fifties!

a few weeks ago i intercepted a visitor who had somehow gained access to our oh-so-permeable icu. he was wandering near the unit assistant's desk (vacant! who buzzed the guy in?) and looking lost and confused. when i asked if he needed help, he told me he was there to visit a friend. "what's your friend's name?" i asked. the fact that he couldn't even come close to pronouncing the very common last name alarmed me somewhat. "wait here, and i'll ask his nurse if it is okay to visit right now."

the patient was very sick and could barely speak, but he was a&o x 3, and his wife was at the bedside when i popped in to ask about this visitor. "what????" the patient was horrified. "i went to high school with that guy." (the patient was 57). needless to say, this patient--cachectic, jaundiced, dyspneic, nauseated, and barely able to hold his head up--was in no mood to reunite with an old high school acquaintance. the rest of our conversation can be distilled down to: holy crap keep that freak away from here.

i went back to the visitor. "sorry, but i can't let you in to visit. we are only allowing family to visit."

the visitor was non-plussed. "but i drove all the way from ___. can you at least tell me how he's doing?"

"sorry. you will need to contact his family if you want information."

"but i don't have their phone numbers. i don't even know them!"

"if you don't know his family and haven't seen him in years, how did you even know to come here?"

"somebody sent a group email mentioning that he was in this icu, so i came to check it out.":eek:

i wish i could say that that was the first or only time that something like that has happened with a visitor, but you know i cannot.

feel free to contribute your own

you shouldn't be visiting this icu patient if . . .

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We had a patient last week who had a "girlfriend" call. I asked if he had a girlfriend, he said no, then told us she was a crazy drunk who wouldn't leave him alone. Who knows how she figured out he was in our ICU lol.

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Specializes in NICU.

.............If you are the patient's girlfriend and the wife is at the bedside...

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Specializes in SRNA.
.............If you are the patient's girlfriend and the wife is at the bedside...

Or, if you're the patient's boyfriend and the wife is at the bedside... :uhoh3:

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Specializes in CVICU, CCU, Heart Transplant.
.............If you are the patient's girlfriend and the wife is at the bedside...

This happened on my unit when I first started working! Pt named girlfriend to make decisions instead of the wife! I'm not sure about the exact details, but I think wife had her husband moved to another hospital & and his name unlisted for visitors.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

How about if you are going to bring in your infant/toddler with. No joke I have seen kids crawling on the floor, putting their mouths against the glass, playing with grandpas bedpan and even sitting in the sink. One time I cut down a MRSA gown for the kid to wear. I'm sure unconcious, on the vent grandpa doesn't want his grand child exposed to the hospital.

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Specializes in ICU & ED.

If you have you're dog in your purse... no joke! I had a pt.s sister sneek her little yorkie in to the ICU. It got loose and ran amuck... We thought it was a giant rat for a few minutes! Housekeeping was upset when the Charge Nurse had the rooms scrubbed!

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Specializes in lots of different areas.

I've seen people letting their toddler walk on the floor without shoes or socks. Amazing. I love it when someone is seriously ill, and their visitors bring food into the room, camp out, watch t.v, talk on their cell, etc. Like it's a vacation for them! This is my first year in the ICU, and I'm finally becoming more comfortable with enforcing MANNERS and what should be COMMON COURTESY for the sick and dying! I can only stay silent for so long. Great topic :)

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Specializes in icu/er.

a coworker of mine was working at her partime job one night and a visitor fell alseep in the pts room in the unit. the staff heard the guy snoring in the bedside chair then heard a metalic "thud" sound. a staff member walked to the room expecting to find the visitor asleep on the floor. well a 38 cal. pistol fell out of the sleeping visitors coat pocket! you shouldnt visit the unit if you are packin heat!

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.
If you have you're dog in your purse... no joke! I had a pt.s sister sneek her little yorkie in to the ICU. It got loose and ran amuck... We thought it was a giant rat for a few minutes! Housekeeping was upset when the Charge Nurse had the rooms scrubbed!

Sorry- I think it's kinda sweet. If the dog is well behaved, and well contained, a lot of my patients would do a lot better if thier four footed family members could come in for a visit. I'm not saying it's for every paient, or every pet, but I see as many pictures of dogs and cats on my patients walls with " missing you" captions as I do children and grand children. I see my grandchildren a couple of times a mos, I see my doggy every day- and I know she loves me as much as any soul can love another. For some of my patients the closest thing they have to a loving family member to provide support is "Fluffy".

I smuggled our pomerainian in to see my spouse after a week in the hospital- not ICU, but they both cheered up afterward.

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Specializes in floor to ICU.

...you just came from a bar/happy hour.

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Specializes in lots of different areas.

and at that bar :beer:you smoked a pack of cigarettes!:smokin:

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