Your Call Light is On Can I help YOU?

talaxandra · May 13, 2008

Hey, at least she asked first!

Our 4th floor ward had a great view of the park, marred only by a tall brick smoke stack (I think it's for infectious waste). One morning an apparently oriented stroke patient in his 60's buzzed because he was worried about the man he could see climbing th stack. No man.

Otherwise oriented, denied any other hallucinations, and seemed quite calm. The nurse looking after him contacted the unit. The resident came and spoke with him - patient still concerned about the man climbing the tower. The resident called the reg, who came and talked with him. Same story, so the reg called the consultant.

Just as they're organising a CT brain the patient yelled "There he is! I'm not mad!" - and yes, there indeed was the maintenance engineer, swinging around from behind the back of the smoke stack, suspended in a harness!

buggal1989 · May 13, 2008

While waving her nitro patch, "Can I get this off layaway?" A little ICU pschycosis I think!:redbeathe

tish666 · May 13, 2008

My hospital recently opened a new patient bed tower and moved my floor (Medical/Oncology). We know have tele and all the "fun stuff" that the others units have had, and that we are not used to. I was assigned to a 78 year old man who was admitted with chest pain, ischemic changes. He put on his light to tell me that he was going to die if I didn't spend the night in his room. After explaining that I couldn't because my other patients wouldn't appreciate it, he put the call light on every 15 minutes "so you know I'm not dead yet." I finally told him that I could see his monitor (ours are in the hall, attached to the wall). and I knew he was fine. He wanted me to move it in the room, because he didn't think I could watch it constantly. When I explained that wasn't possible he called his wife who showed up at 2:30 A.M. "to watch the monitor" because I was too busy.

pattyweb · May 14, 2008

IMC is intermediate care- sort of a stepdown unit from ICU.

I had one very confused elderly man a few months ago on his call light every two seconds, whether you were in his room or just left. Got to the point where we used the part of the system to remotely turn off his call light about every 3-4th time. it was only a few minutes between visits to the room anyway!

wooh, BSN, RN · May 14, 2008

At least they're just using the call light. I had a LOL call 911 from her room phone because I had killed all the patients on the unit, and she was going to be next because she'd seen me do it.:)

Best call light though was the little old man that wanted to know how to get out of the zoo. Tech had put his tv on Animal Planet thinking that would be pleasant to fall asleep too.

wooh, BSN, RN · May 14, 2008

I was assigned to a 78 year old man who was admitted with chest pain, ischemic changes. He put on his light to tell me that he was going to die if I didn't spend the night in his room. After explaining that I couldn't because my other patients wouldn't appreciate it, he put the call light on every 15 minutes "so you know I'm not dead yet." I finally told him that I could see his monitor (ours are in the hall, attached to the wall). and I knew he was fine. He wanted me to move it in the room, because he didn't think I could watch it constantly.

So he wanted the monitor in the room so HE could watch it to see he wasn't dead yet? :lol2:

aeauooo · May 14, 2008

[H]e called his wife who showed up at 2:30 A.M. "to watch the monitor" because I was too busy.

It's hard enough to get medical personnel to understand the principle of "treat the patient, not the number."

I've seen docs freak out when the SpO2 drops into the 80s on the monitor - "He's desaturating!"

"Look at the wave form. Do you believe that number?"

I tried to explain motion artifact to a patient's family one time and after I left the room I heard the son-in-law say, "He thinks he knows more than the machine."

Of course I do, the machine doesn't know anything.

donsterRN, ASN, BSN · May 14, 2008

That's too funny...!!!

talaxandra · May 15, 2008

No, no! We must always obey the all-knowing, machines.

I once had a family member come running into the corridor, frantic, yelling "My father's pressure's crashing!" We charged int here - not stopping to ask ourselves how they'd know - only to see the atient sitting up in bed looking fine.

"What makes you think there's a problem?"

Yeah. Apparently the IMed pump doesn't just infuse fluid (at an 8/24 rate), it also monitors BP. Or the steadily decreasing number indicates the volume left to be infused.

aeauooo · May 15, 2008

I once had a family member come running into the corridor, frantic, yelling "My father's pressure's crashing!" We charged int here - not stopping to ask ourselves how they'd know - only to see the atient sitting up in bed looking fine.

Last week I admitted a patient with a diagnosis of sepsis. Her SBP was in the 80s, but she was in no apparent distress and had walked to the toilet a couple of times.

At the end of my shift as I was giving report I was told that this patient had called the nursing supervisor and told her that her SBP was in the 60s - which was news to me.

Sure enough, she was sitting up in bed, HR in the 80s, not the slightest bit of pallor, NAD. We checked her pressure and she still had an SBP in the 80s.

My final word to the on-coming nurse: "Sorry."

talaxandra · May 15, 2008

At the end of my shift as I was giving report I was told that this patient had called the nursing supervisor and told her that her SBP was in the 60s - which was news to me.

What's the thinking there? "Wow, I [somehow] know my BP's even lower than usual - should I let the nurse looking after me know? After all, it could be soemthing s/he needs to know, it could affect my treatment, and I am worried about it. Nah, I'll call the superviser instead!"