Your CALL LIGHT privileges have been revoked!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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I had this one patient who had severe dementia. He was on the call light every other minute...and NO I am not exaggerating. Due to his severe dementia, even when I had just been in his room, immediate I walk out, the call light would go on. At the beginning of the shift, I went in, check vitals...give him water to drink, put chap stick on his lips, give eye drops, fluff his pillow, and anything he wanted. Before I left the room, I would ask, "Is there anything else I can get you?" And be reply, "I can't think of anything at the moment, except my call light." And I walk out, and 1 minute later, he calls and asks for his eye drops, he needs his pillow changed, he's thirsty. Anyways, at the same time, I was TRYING to discharge a patient, and kept getting interrupted by this call bell. (FYI, in this particular facility, the nurses DO NOT help each other. Once you get your assignment, it's the only people you tend to. Having a nurse help you is like pulling teeth. They would spend 10 min looking for you to tell you your call light is on, instead of going into the room to see what the patient needs - so..understand my frustration). I finally discharge my patient, and the call light has been on for like 15 min coz i just ignored it. So, now i'm getting irritated, I went to him and told him he is not my only patient (it's a tele floor) and that I cannot be in the room with him for my whole 12 hour shift. I told him I just gave him his eye drops, water, and his lips couldn't not have dried in that 1 minute. He says he's constipated and he wants an enema. I don't understand why old people obsess about having BM. He had had 3 ememas during the day with no results, and I refused to give him an enema. He said okay...and I asked, "is there anything else you want." He replies, "not at the moment." .and i step out. Again, 3 min later, the call light goes on. Can anyone guess what he want??? He's thirsty, wants his meds, his pillow changed and his eye drops. I told him I would round on him every 1 hr. and for the rest of the shift, that is what I did. OH...and his sleeping pill didn't work, nor did the dilaudid for pain (that were given at 10 pm) until 4 am.

So..have you ever taken a call light away from a patient or been really really tempted to? How do you reorient a dementia patient? do you go to the room every 3 min? this is a hospital setting.

p.s I just came from an night shift, so my english may be a bit off.

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Specializes in Hospice, LTC, Rehab, Home Health.

Have never taken a call light away from ANY patient. Don't know the rules in the hospital but in the world of long term care the patient not having access to a nurse call system of some sort is a MAJOR state tag -- it is a safety issue and will get you cited by state. To deliberately deprive a patient of the call bell would most likely get you fired, and depending on what if anything happened to the patient (a fx hip from trying to get to the BR because he couldn't call for help) might even cost you your license!

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

I agree that taking away a call light leaves you open for big mess o' trouble. I have told pts that will check on them every 30 minutes but in the mean time I will be with other pts. And i will write the time i'll be back on the dry-erase board in their room. And try to give them something else to think about--folding towels, sitting in the hall or nurses station, getting family yo come in...

Our call light system also has an intercom so i can ask the HUC to repeat what i've said.

but there are just some shifts where there's not much you can do.

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Specializes in ER, LTC, IHS.

I have never taken a call light away from a pt and never would, and trust me I've had some ones I really really wanted to! I would advise you to not do that again. It is a huge safety liability. Check you hospital's policy but I'm pretty sure what you did was wrong. Sorry

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Specializes in Emergency, CCU, SNF.

Taking away the call light can get you in big trouble....not even worth it. Safety issues aside, that is depriving them of their rights.

The last tele floor I worked on we would sometimes put the patient in a geri-chair and bring them out to the nurse's station. Sometimes a necessity.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

The OP did NOT take away the pt's call light. She was venting and asking if anyone HAS EVER TAKEN away a pt's call light. I work a VA hospital on the Med floor and we have numerous demented patients. We put them in a room across from the nurses station. If they are really bad (fall risk, pulling out lines) they get a sitter. We don't have techs and do all our own pt care for 4-7 patients, plus admits, discharges. In a situation where the pt is confused..they automatically get a sitter or if milder..q30 min checks.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

Where does it say that she took the pt's call light away...?

Anyway, I've never taken a pt's call light away, though yes, I have been tempted to many times. In my hospital, we have "comfort rounds" which take place every 2 hours and the PCT and I check on the pt. It's very difficult to reorient a demented pt because as you can see, they will forget very quickly. The best thing to do in that case is when he calls, see what he needs, assess his actual need by the sound of his voice (i.e. if he's in pain, you'll hear the groaning and moaning), and prioritize your other pts. Realistically, you can't expect to be in any pt's room every 3 minutes, but making sure that you're there on a consistent basis might make the pt feel better, though again, if he's got Alzheimer's or dementia, it won't really matter. Do the best you can by keeping safety as the number one thing for that particular pt.

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Specializes in ER, LTC, IHS.

Take it away, ignore it only to check on pt once an hour, what's the difference?

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Where does it say that she took the pt's call light away...?

The OP edited her first post. Originally, it said that she did.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.
The OP edited her first post. Originally, it said that she did.

Ah, okay. I was a little confused. :cool:

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

Won't take a patient's call bell away, as tempting s it has been.

For a patient with dementia, it's sometimes helpful to help them keep track of certain things - try writing on a paper what some of their frequent requests are:

10 pm - you got eye drops, chapstick, pain meds, sleeping pill and a drink

10:30 - helped to bathroom, got a drink, fluffed pillows

11 - drink, tissues, fluffed pillows

Sometimes they forget that they just had something done for them - just don't write things like "got yet another drink", "fluffed pillows again", MORE chapstick, etc... you wouldn't want people to think you were getting snarky about it.

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Specializes in ER, LTC, IHS.

Ok I knew I wasn't crazy. I was sure when I answered it she did say she took it away, half to know I'm not losing it. Why would she edit it though? OP can you tell us why?

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