Your most annoying, obnoxious family member stories

[JDZ344]

Give them to me!

Here is a contender for mine: We have open bays in our hospital, not private rooms unless you are isolated. So its the middle of the night but this patient has just been admitted so the daughter is staying a while until we get her settled in. She walks over to the patients bed opposite, UNPLUGS HER IV PUMP and PLUGS IN HER CELL PHONE TO CHARGE. The RN, alerted by the beeping, tells her she can not plug her cell in and she most definitely can not unplug anything that is already plugged in. The daughter ends up pitching such a fit about HAVING to charge her phone that we get security to escort her out. You guessed it- she wrote an official complaint!

Any family member horror stories you want to share?

[JBudd, MSN]

I hope hope you realize that a bruise of unknown origin, is a " state reportable"

That post was written in 2011, the poster hasn't posted since 2014.

[wondern, ASN]

In addition to the above maybe the OP could show her someplace to charge her phone before letting it escalate to the point of calling security. Ridiculous! Certainly the pump can run on battery for a while as well.

I am thankful for family and the few times they've been so-called 'obnoxious' that I can even recall I chalk it up for being stressed out in a often times short-staffed, short-supplied hospital, where the patient and family feel they have no control over anything.

Oh, I just noticed the OP is under Nursing Humor and Jokes. Maybe it's a joke.

I'm sure not getting on a message board to complain about 'obnoxious' family, maybe coworkers but not families of patients. Work with them. Look inside yourself.

[Neats, BSN]

As a LNHA I had a patient who was in hospice for over a year. The last time of recertification she was declining and we anticipated her to be gone by the end of the year. This resident has daughters who really loved their mother and would tag team from 0700 hrs to 2100 hrs consistently to be in their moms room. We learned to live with them and would bring them ice water daily, it was care planned. The daughters were demanding, their mother was changed every 1.5 hours, new pads...new sheets...I had to intervene to a more sheet changing/pad changing friendly plan so the mother could get some rest. One day the daughter were more demanding than ever and this happened about a month before the mom passed away. I came into the room and both daughters had their heads pointed towards their moms bottom area...they were sniffing to see if she needed to be changed. I paused at the door and loudly said Get your snouts out of your moms bottom...your mom would not want your noses near her butt. They moved back and told me they were checking to see if their mom needed to be changed. I sat down with them and asked them if they wanted their daughters to do this to them, they just looked at each other like it was a revelation to them...I told them I never wanted to see their noses near their mom bottom and if it was reported, , I would contact the state, doctor, ombudsman and anyone else I could find. When their mom passed away they bought the facility enough pizza to give each staff half a pie as a thank you for taking such great care of their mom. I will never forget walking into the room to find two humans sniffing a bottom. Something's are just burned into your eyeballs.

[Susie2310]

As a LNHA I had a patient who was in hospice for over a year. The last time of recertification she was declining and we anticipated her to be gone by the end of the year. This resident has daughters who really loved their mother and would tag team from 0700 hrs to 2100 hrs consistently to be in their moms room. We learned to live with them and would bring them ice water daily, it was care planned. The daughters were demanding, their mother was changed every 1.5 hours, new pads...new sheets...I had to intervene to a more sheet changing/pad changing friendly plan so the mother could get some rest. One day the daughter were more demanding than ever and this happened about a month before the mom passed away. I came into the room and both daughters had their heads pointed towards their moms bottom area...they were sniffing to see if she needed to be changed. I paused at the door and loudly said Get your snouts out of your moms bottom...your mom would not want your noses near her butt. They moved back and told me they were checking to see if their mom needed to be changed. I sat down with them and asked them if they wanted their daughters to do this to them, they just looked at each other like it was a revelation to them...I told them I never wanted to see their noses near their mom bottom and if it was reported, , I would contact the state, doctor, ombudsman and anyone else I could find. When their mom passed away they bought the facility enough pizza to give each staff half a pie as a thank you for taking such great care of their mom. I will never forget walking into the room to find two humans sniffing a bottom. Something's are just burned into your eyeballs.

The daughters, while demanding, were doing their best to take care of their mother and didn't want her to lie in urine/stool. While their mother needed to have adequate rest, I understand why they sniffed their mother's bottom to check if she needed cleaning/changing; their noses provided them with very good sensory information for this purpose without having to disturb their mother further. It would have been appropriate to educate them, gently, as to why their mother needed to be able to rest. I can't agree with your demeaning them in the way you did, and I don't agree with your threatening to report them to the doctor, ombudsman, etc., as they were not abusing their mother. This is hospice, not the military. I think you were very fortunate they were co-operative and that they brought the staff pizzas.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

The daughters, while demanding, were doing their best to take care of their mother and didn't want her to lie in urine/stool. While their mother needed to have adequate rest, I understand why they sniffed their mother's bottom to check if she needed cleaning/changing; their noses provided them with very good sensory information for this purpose without having to disturb their mother further. It would have been appropriate to educate them, gently, as to why their mother needed to be able to rest. I can't agree with your demeaning them in the way you did, and I don't agree with your threatening to report them to the doctor, ombudsman, etc., as they were not abusing their mother. This is hospice, not the military. I think you were very fortunate they were co-operative and that they brought the staff pizzas.

Susie would you want your daughter or son sniffing your bottom? Seriously? I mean we do need to vent occasionally about the looney things loved ones do or we will go insane. I think that those women needed a reality check. If I EVER found out my son was sniffing my butt to see if I needed to be changed then I would want someone to do exactly what this nurse did by telling him to knock it off.

[Leader25, ASN, BSN, RN]

Nurses need to support each other ,no wonder doctors laugh at us ,..always the need to be a downer on another nurse who was proud of how she managed a difficult situation,IMHO

[Pippynurseuk]

We had a family member who was quite open about the fact that she was keeping a record of every mistake that anybody made and that she was watching every move we made. She would tell us how she was keeping it all in a notebook and she was going to use it as evidence to make a massive compensation claim at some point in the future. This family member was so intimidating and intense that she made people nervous and I think this actually caused people to make mistakes. The sad thing was; her relative, the patient was actually a very sweet lovely person.

[Amelia Bedelia]

Had to blow out candles I found burning in my pt's room- sent them home with the family and explained why they are a hazard.

[HazelLPN, LPN]

One of my the weirdest family incidents occurred when I was taking care of a fairly routine s/p crain in the PICU. The mom and dad of course were very relieved I told them "we are just waiting for a bed upstairs...he doesn't need ICU anymore." The mom said "oh thank you....we are going back to the hotel now to have oral sex."

I was so shocked I dropped my pen on my flow sheet.

When I called report to the floor nurse I said "um...yes.....the parents are.....ah....getting some ice cream....they will be back later tonight."

[Mergirlc, MSN, APRN, NP]

One of my the weirdest family incidents occurred when I was taking care of a fairly routine s/p crain in the PICU. The mom and dad of course were very relieved I told them "we are just waiting for a bed upstairs...he doesn't need ICU anymore." The mom said "oh thank you....we are going back to the hotel now to have oral sex."

I was so shocked I dropped my pen on my flow sheet.

When I called report to the floor nurse I said "um...yes.....the parents are.....ah....getting some ice cream....they will be back later tonight."

Holy cow..........talk about a celebration! This one takes the prize!

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

One of my the weirdest family incidents occurred when I was taking care of a fairly routine s/p crain in the PICU. The mom and dad of course were very relieved I told them "we are just waiting for a bed upstairs...he doesn't need ICU anymore." The mom said "oh thank you....we are going back to the hotel now to have oral sex."

I was so shocked I dropped my pen on my flow sheet.

When I called report to the floor nurse I said "um...yes.....the parents are.....ah....getting some ice cream....they will be back later tonight."

Sounds like parents needed crains. LOL

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

We had a family member who was quite open about the fact that she was keeping a record of every mistake that anybody made and that she was watching every move we made. She would tell us how she was keeping it all in a notebook and she was going to use it as evidence to make a massive compensation claim at some point in the future. This family member was so intimidating and intense that she made people nervous and I think this actually caused people to make mistakes. The sad thing was; her relative, the patient was actually a very sweet lovely person.

What ever came of it?