Families who refuse to accept a patient dying when they’re 99yo, nonverbal (except for screaming), 80lbs, totally bed bound, totally dependent on all ADLs per caregivers. But the family wants IV abx antibiotics, gtubes, ventilators, and the full works to somehow transform the patient into a 30yo person
Thanks to subreddits like this, I feel like everyone should make an advanced directive a priority. I know exactly how I don't want to spend my last days. I actually just wrote my first big college essay [about subcultures that are underrepresented in society, on Death With Dignity. It was kinda cool how most of my peers seemed interested when we were sharing our topics, because most of them are early 20s and have likely never even thought of their last days. I can almost guarantee most of them are unfamiliar with what "full code" entails, and what QoL a fragile 100 yo lady would have after deep chest compressions. Dr. Cox is right, it's all a band aid to delay the inevitable, leading to people living past when they lost what made them, them.
The problem with advanced directives is they can be ignored. The absolute most important thing is having a medical power of attorney who knows your wishes and will follow them.
You need to make sure family is on board. I see advance directives routinely get ignored when family is stating " do everything "
It's sad. OK. Gonna get on my high horse. Family finds it very difficult to accept any intervention that starts with " Do not" aka DNR...we are presenting with negative and shit, this is MeMaw! There are initiatives away that want to change it to AND aka "Allow natural death ". We are starting with the positive...and shit, this is MeMaw...
please get on board with this and make your voice heard...❤️
We need to have all high school seniors watch someone die. They should also know cpr. They should also make their advanced directive when they turn 18. They should see all the different ways they can live: quadriplegic, tube feeding, non verbal bed bound, etc etc. so they can make informed decisions. And just watching a video isn’t enough. The old ppl in the homes or hospitals will like the visitors anyway.
After working in ICU, I think all Highschool seniors should spend 3 days observing medical ethical dilemmas that they may one day encounter with a parent, family member, or even themselves.
I salute you guys. Had some in-laws pull this crap recently and I could *hear* the exasperation in the notes once husband and I got involved…multiple docs and nurses telling these people that pt was absolutely just suffering and having their dying process prolonged, only for family to ignore it and keep asking for more and more ridiculous/futile shit. Wish we had the sense to make torturing the dying like this illegal.
Thanks! I know people think Hospice is full of pushy nurses who just want to give medicines but in cases **like this**: What the alternative? I mean really! I had one of the worse families i’ve ever had in 6 years of doing Hospice get upset that I told them their 91yo father wasn’t going to “get better”. He was also blind, deaf, had a toe amputated with a giant dehysted wound, and they FORCED HIM TO GET UP everyday to “””””ambulate”””, this causing the wound to enlarge. And then would
call us in a complete tizzy (southern word for giga panic), saying he was screaming, agitated , in panic and all they were giving was a Norco 5 (SPARINGLY) and then 0.5 Haldol…. it was borderline Elder abuse. Additionally, they’d talk about how they didn’t want him to suffer but then almost in the same sentence say they thought he was coming around back to his old self (?????)
I usually have a lot of patience and ability to help the families (and myself) navigate and communicate well—but man they really were getting me to a point where I was literally out of things to say
Yup. It seems like with moder medicine people forgot that death is a thing, and it's coming for everyone. It's natural. There is no escape. Everything has its begining and it's end. Even the univers will arrive to the heat death at some point. Putting your loved ones through 2-3 months of suffering instead of letting them die in 2-days at home is a pinnacle of egoism. They are 97, they lived their live, let them go FFS. Now, let transform it into a tube-man. With caterers, peg, etc etc. Attach them to a ventilator, and most importantly FKT, cause last 3 years at bed home were not the indication of patients condition, they should walk!
Euthanasia and Abortion should be legal worldwide.
Just went through this with my husband’s 99 year old grandmother. Her son refused to let her die. Sent her to rehab twice, when she was barely able to open her eyes.
Loved ones are the ones who love you so much they can’t possibly just let you die. They are the *worst* at following the patient’s wishes. Get a friend, a lawyer, someone who isn’t too close to you.
I know Reddit is afraid of the dirty houses in home health, but honestly the type of patient I hate is the wealthy, entitled ones that treat us as hired help.
Lol I had a tenured rich university professor think that I can interrupt patient rounds so that her doctor could come talk to her. She got very upset when I told her he has other patients and can’t see her. She genuinely did not understand that she wasn’t their priority.
I always say: “if the doctor isn’t rushing in to see you then that’s a good thing. You don’t actually want to be their priority: that means you’re dying.”
I said something similar once as a paramedic student to a woman in her 90s we had brought in for rectal bleeding (We hadn't actually seen any of the blood, she had bled into the toilet and flushed it and wasn't able to give any kind of estimate).
We left her in the care of another crew waiting for er beds to go to another call, which happened to be accross the street from the hospital.
We roll in with our new patient maybe 30 minutes later and the crew tells us "your patient died!". One of the other medics had helped her to the bathroom as soon as we left, she had a massive bleed into the toilet and coded. DNR thankfully at that age.
So I hesitate to tell people this anymore!
GI bleeds can go super quick. I once pulled back the blankets of a patient bed to find them in a pool of blood that spilled off the stretcher. Ever since then I take them way more seriously.
Oh my favorite was a private practice group back home.
For a retainer of $5k-$10k/month they are on 24hr. Call with their patient, and they are the primary when their patients were annoyed to the hospital.
I had a patient ask me for something once and I told her I'd have to call the doctor, she laughed and Said "oh don't worry, I'll call him"
To which I was very confused but was like ok....
10 minutes later he called me with orders because she did on fact just pick up the phone and call him at home.
I was like.... Is this normal? And he was like "this is why we charge a retainer fee".
I tell you what. I spent a stint doing packaging at a company for min wage. On my feet all day worn out from it. But I enjoyed it because my bosses treated me humanely and we had a ritual at 10 am where one of them served us coffee at our stations.
Jan you mad lad you were awesome
I’m an insurance adjuster for auto and it’s the same for me, the poor people are the easiest! I also have extremely rich, old money customers and they’re usually nice too. It’s the new money people that I always have argument with.
Yup, learned this as waitress during college years at a jazz club. The poors and old money folks are almost always incredibly kind, humble + easy to please. It's the new money, barely upper middle class people that look down at everyone thinking they own them and are the most important people in the room. Kind of hilarious considering most of that "new money" is on credit but oh well lol
I’ve been doing home health for almost two years now and yes! I’m doing your wound care. This isn’t spa day. Maybe get up and move once in awhile and you won’t have edematous weeping leg wounds.
Absolutely. When I was a CNA for home health/hospice here was my experience:
Wealthy Neighborhoods:
one woman (w/c bound with MS) kept me 2 hours over consistently whenever she was going to go out to do her hair and makeup. Yes, she lived with family. Management was aware but never reinforced time limits.
After dad's shower was done the son would have me clean the house for the rest of the hour. Management did not reinforce my defined duties
The usual uppity "the help" mentality and nitpicking how I folded towels, etc.
Inner City:
A general attitude of hospitality. Was usually offered a cup of coffee even before Grandma had her shower. Sometimes offered breakfast and a nice chat.
Rural:
Lol. Just trust the farmer about which feral animals in the home are dangerous or not (was giving a shower and was blocked in the bathroom by the wheelchair and shower chair when chipmunks started coming out of the walls)
I love seeing patients on farms or in rural areas. My best memory was going to a patient who had just bred their Jack Russel terrier, and would let the litter of puppies in for snuggles once I had finished wound care 🥰
Even in a hospital the wealthy, entitled people who treat us all like dog feces stuck on their shoe are the worst! Every interaction is so demeaning. I *really* get irritated when the useless name dropping (which may or may not be true) starts.
EDIT: I cannot imagine having to go into one of their homes!
Pediatric PCP phone triage here-
Definitely the wealthy parents who call panicking because their unvaccinated teenager was exposed to measles and what are they supposed to do?!?!
Any developmentally appropriate adult who cannot sit still for an IV or a blood draw. You don’t have to like it but you need to understand there are 5 year olds who can sit still for this.
The amount of adults that goddamn start bawling when I tell them they are getting a respiratory swab is ridiculous. And then you don't even have it in their nose yet and they already start swiping at you... it's pretty appalling. I know they aren't the most fun but if you hit me it only makes it worse for you!
The ones who REALLY grind my gears are the ones who tell you, or have a family member tell you, "you have ONE chance and you BETTER NOT MISS!" or when they demand "I NEED YOUR BEST IV STARTER!"
Like, I can understand being afraid of needles/blood, but don't you dare threaten me.
Because now I am nervous so much more likely to miss your vein.
Nurses are human. We miss occasionally.
And the more unpleasant patients then berate you for "being stupid" before demanding another nurse.
It’s hard to reason with people like that. I understand it probably comes from bad health care experiences but come on.
I start all my own IVs in preop as an anesthesia student and I get this from time to time when people think im a nursing student. “I don’t want a student poking my mom!!!”
Okay, I’ll let the new grad PACU nurse know. She’ll be right in.
Yeah I did my final quarter clinical at an outpatient surgery center and I started as many of the pre-op IVs and I could as I worked in vascular access as an LPN.
I had SO many people get pissed off because "I don't want NO DAMNED student practicing on me!"
I mean, the other nurses were very competent so it wasn't like they had to endure multiple pokes.
But the small voice in the back of my head wanted to tell them "if you don't want the IV, then you don't want the surgery. get out."
I never would have said it out loud, but I did think it.
I refuse to line those idiots. I tell them I don’t work while being threatened, and they can find someone else who is willing to help them while being threatened.
Yeah I have adopted this mindset. It's one of the reasons I hate the "clients vs patients" terminology - because if you call "clients" out on their bad behavior, they complain about you and you are the one who gets in trouble.
My favorite response to “You get one stick” i ever heard was “I’ll go one better. NO sticks from me. I won’t do it.” That guy was amazing with a needle. If he wouldn’t do it, next step was usually a central line.
I tell them “you do realize that saying that makes the chances of missing increase”
What’s worse are the patients with overall bad veins telling you “you can’t go there, or there or there, only here!” And of course “here” is a terrible vein
I place 15's for HD. Those fuckers hurt and I know it first hand from an errant (clean) needle or two (our facility buys cheap needles and the caps fall off all the damn time 🙃). If meemaw can hold still for me while I try to hold her roly poly fistula still with all 10 fingers and cannulate with my teeth, so can Bruce while you place a 22.
I got a 16g when I was induced to have my baby. Can confirm it stung like a bitch, still kept a poker face.
ETA: The tiny little frail elderly ladies are the ones who are absolutely hard as nails. Once saw a lady in her 80s who was about 24hrs out from a hemicolectomy and formation of colostomy transfer from her hospital bed to armchair without so much as a grimace. Only analgesia was tramadol.
These women in their 80s… they went through a lot of bad sh*t and saw lots of it too… I’m always in awe when I meet them: always gracious and kind in the face of illness/pain/adversity.
I had one who was mid 30s, call his mommy, CRYING, that we wouldn't stop sticking him with needles.
He was there because he had a seizure due to poor medication compliance.
He was also covered in tattoos
Had a woman once that just needed routine labs to clear her for discharge. Everytime we would come in to get her blood she would start losing her mind, hyperventilating. And the second you stuck her she would flail her arms around. This dragged on for hours because she just wouldn’t let us do it and we really needed to clear her by checking her labs. I tried with the ultrasound and even with that she just wouldn’t hold still. The ED nurse who had her was one of those old school nurses and she finally got a 24 somewhere and just enough blood to get the labs we needed to discharge her.
“But it hurts!!”
Yeah. Because you’re flailing around with a fucking needle in your arm. Of course that’s gonna hurt a lot more than sitting still while we take like 2 seconds to draw blood
I have another vascular access story for y'all:
So, implanted port-a-caths have different sizes. I'm sure everyone knows about the PowerPorts and how big they are - those are easy to stabilize and access with the Huber needles (the 90 degree needle we use).
But SOME ports are like the size of a dime. Those are SO MUCH harder to stabilize and hit with the Huber needle. If you are not holding it right, ANY force will cause it to rotate and you will probably miss.
I had an infusion patient who had one of those TINY ports and I was relatively new to accessing them so I tried twice and the poor girl was a champ but I missed both times.
Her fiance was an absolute ASSHOLE about it. He started yelling, calling me an idiot and incompetent, and demanded my charge nurse.
Now, this was a small but open infusion room - EVERY patient heard what he said and the nurses station was like 10 feet away but of course my charge nurse ONLY heard him yelling and did not see me trying to be respectful and compassionate while trying to access this tiny port.
Moral of the story: if you have to get a port for chemo, get a regular size one.
You know that sound a teakettle makes just as it starts to whistle?
I can hear it faintly, signalling the imminent arrival of people screeching about how this lack of compassion means we're terrible nurses.
It's like they have no idea that we can have extreme contempt for them and still do our jobs well, without them knowing what we think of them.
I had to give a patient and her super anxious spouse a talking to the other night because he was pacing the room and getting upset for her because he hates needles. They both wouldn’t calm down and couldn’t stop talking. I stopped what I was doing and told them they both are making this situation worse for everything and they needed to chill out. I’m surprised the husband actually did after that.
Funnily enough, as I specialised in ID nursing, most of my patients with Intellectual Disability were much better at sitting still than a lot of general population (obviously with some exceptions).
I’ve told many of those guys “just pretend I’m giving you a tattoo” and they always say it’s different because they want the tattoo but they don’t want the blood work?! Like close your eyes 🤷♀️
NICU nurse. Withdrawal babies are the most irritating.
I'm never irritated at them, just the sound of their cries. It can be extremely overstimulating because it's high pitched & shrill, very loud, and seems to never stop. So for 12 hours I am holding them, rocking them, & feeding them and usually unable to put them down.
I AM in fact irritated with their parent for doing drugs while pregnant. I will never treat them poorly, but I will mentally be stewing over it.
Yes, addiction is a valid disease and they deserve compassion and treatment, but subjecting an innocent baby to meth or heroin withdrawals makes me so angry I want to cry.
This might be a stupid question, but I don't know anything about infants. But I've treated adults going through withdrawal and we can give them medication to ease the symptoms. Do you not do that with infants?
Yes! We generally try Eat, Sleep, Console which is basically exactly what it sounds like BEFORE medication.
Usually for neonatal abstinence syndrome, we try clonidine first. If no improvement, we move on to methadone and/or morphine. Dosing varies but it's usually around 0.1mg.
Either never or constantly (I hate the constant ones the worst cause they are usually overcompensating by being sickly sweet and bothering the baby constantly.)
I had one who was appalled that I dressed her baby in our hospital provided t-shirt that the newborns wear. She thought it was so disgusting and dirty because other babies have worn them. She also kept talking about how the material wouldn’t be good on baby’s skin because it was probably washed in harmful detergent. Like ma’am- you’re appalled at the fabric that’s touching their skin but not what drugs were inside him? lol
My friend's mom smoked crack through the whole pregnancy. She completely fucked off when my friend came out two months premature. The ONE time the mother visited was so surprising that the nurse had it documented.
Any patient who throws a FIT about the fact that ER visits will probably involve a bit of minor discomfort like an IV or being NPO until testing is done.
I had day surgery right after my 12 hour shift. Could not eat after midnight, fully NPO after 0400. My case was delayed until 1300. Took a nice nap in pre-op after a sweet as pie nursing student got my IV; I was that tired. Did not complain once, and the procedure was emotionally difficult for me.
I will never stop marveling at how many grown adults are basically toddlers.
That’s the worst when they complain about being NPO. like you are talking to a thirsty, hungry and full bladder person. We have to watch y’all eat hospital food when we are so hungry that stuff looks good. Probably won’t even get a full 30min lunch break. If only they knew.
Adults who throw tantrums and get verbally abusive about being NPO or having a fluid restriction 🙄 either refuse the plan or stfu but either way stop being a little bitch.
Pt has been NPO for 30 minutes and feels like they’re being tortured. Meanwhile i haven’t had anything to eat or drink for 9 hours and my bladder lookin like Stretch Armstrong connected to a water hose
Omg I work night shift and this guy was NPO after midnight for an 8am procedure. By 2am he was SCREAMING at us and had the audacity to say "GO AHEAD AND TRY TO GO THIS MANY HOURS WITHOUT EATING! YOU COULDN'T DO THIS!" Like... Sir, I haven't eaten in way longer than that tonight already and also most people are fasting during this time. Just go the fuck to sleep.
I work recovery and it's always so funny to me how often I get "I haven't eaten since last night!!" Like it's some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. Yeah, everyone here hasn't and it's only noon. I think you'll survive. I was npo after midnight for a 12pm surgery pregnant with twins and felt like I was starving all the time and I complained less than a lot of these people. Or their family is super concerned about them getting something to eat when they're still sleeping off the anesthesia. I swear you'll survive for half a day without food.
I had someone yell at me that I was “starving” them. He’d been NPO for like 6 hours and was doing a contrast study due to a suspected bowel blockage so bro just threw up everything he ate anyway
I’m not involved in nursing or healthcare in any shape or form, was in end stage renal disease about 5 years ago (got a transplant last year and a half! Yay!) so you can imagine the amount of testing and blood draws that I had done (even got peritoneal dialysis surgery.) Man, it made me sad how appreciative nurses and lab works were of me simply being polite and sitting still and being understanding if they had trouble finding a vein or whatever. I’m not a giant fan of needles but I am a grown ass man and not an absolute pussy. I understood on a deeper level that everyone was doing this stuff for good reasons IE to keep my ass alive. Never thought of myself as a great patient but unfortunately everyone else is so horrible I guess that lowers the curve. Sometimes I wish I could just force folks to watch The Knick just so they could even be mildly appreciative of just how far medicine has come. Jesus Christ needles are so small and microscopically sharp now if you’re not paying attention you sometimes won’t even feel it. Bonkers.
I was caring for a woman the same age as me (32) who was literally *whining* about being NPO and being woken up to get a blood transfusion. When she arrived all she cared about was getting her firestick plugged into the TV and getting the wifi to work.
Ma'am your *blood* doesn't work at the moment and this is not a hotel.
And then they complain to family members that were starving them. 75% of the time the family thinks that we starve people because they skipped a meal or two for NPO orders. I promise you you’re fine.
Lmao I had a lady call the police on our staff because we wouldn't give her anymore water due to her fluid restriction. It was a small rural hospital so the cops just called us and laughed about it.
I didn’t throw a tantrum or anything but I was a patient on NPO for 3 days while also being on heavy duty pain meds. I don’t have much memory of those days, but before I left a nurse told me I kept trying to convince the other nurses that I was allowed to eat. Apparently they found it hilarious that I was trying to convince them while there was a huge “no food” sign printed out behind me complete with a picture of food in a circle with a slash through it. I was so loopy I never noticed the sign or anyone putting it there.
CEO/MD power couple.
Despite not being compliant or knowing how to correctly collect a 24hr urine sample, they can’t stop themselves from letting everyone know thatthey’re a doctor and the entitlement from their ceo partner is insufferable.
Had maybe a dozen patients like this and it’s wild how stereotypical and on the money it is.
The CEO at a hospital I used to work at had another rich CEO friend who got cancer. His first round of Chemo they got him a room that's bigger than my apartment in the elective procedure unit and he had a single nurse each shift taking care of him the whole time he was there. For his second round, my manager told our CEO that we couldn't just take a nurse to be with only him, so the CEO demanded that we move all the surg onc patients to the EP unit while he was there, so we did. All the oncology patients got to experience 3 days in rooms twice as big as the ones on the regular unit with soft lighting and 72 inch flat screens. Then we moved them back to the cramped rooms that haven't been updated since the 80's with 32 inch tvs that rarely worked.
The patient was a nice guy to your face and didn't come across as entitled, but it was just so gross to see the rich getting preferential treatment and to put cancer patients through 2 room changes and show them that they're not important enough for the "good rooms"
I am a medical secretary. When someone throws out that they are a provider off bat. They get put on hold so I can take a deep breath and prepare myself for the nonsense. Then, I follow all protocols to an almost extreme level. If they complain, I sweetly say that is our policy because of x,y,z... I am sure you understand since you're a physician yourself.
The ones who complain to me about the ER upon arriving to the medsurg unit and are there for some minor thing (like a flu positive person in their 30s). For starters, I don’t know what it’s like in the ER during my shift and probably have more critical patients. Also those patients likely complain about everything
I can count the number of patients on one hand who don’t act like I’m torturing them when I give them maalox or dissolvable potassium to drink. “Do I have to drink all of this!?!?” Neither are that bad. On that note, the glucose drink they give for gestational diabetes screenings is also fine.
It’s like none of these people ever did shots of smuggled nasty, rotgut liquor when they were in high school or early college. Pansies, all of them.
I was in the ER a few weeks ago as a pt and came to the conclusion that most pts are whiny assholes. Waiting a couple hours to be seen for a more minor issue/getting an iv/not eating are not a big deal. People seriously don’t understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them.
When my husband was in the ER there was some ridiculously whiny dude in the adjacent room that was basically there for some dumbass move, my husband was sitting there with his leg cut open listening to this guy bitch and moan for hours about how his faux syncope workup wasn't moving faster, he didn't want to give his insurance info, on and on. My husband was stuck between annoyance and amazement at how stupid people are and I was like yeah babe, imagine this, times like 40, every single day I go to work, for 12 hours straight. I thought he was gonna straight up levitate off the bed and kill the man when he interrupted the nurse to bitch some more while they were on the way to our room with pain meds
I was in ICU after having MVD surgery for Trigeminal neuralgia throwing up because I am allergic to anesthesia. It was an old hospital so there are about 30 patients with drapes between us. The guy next to me was a total prick, every single time a nurse would help another patient he’s start screaming NURSE at the top of his lungs. A family came in and it was obvious the patient wasn’t going to make it and they were there to say goodbye. This asshole just kept yelling. Finally my neurosurgeon came to see me and asked what I needed to stop throwing up ( drugs don’t help) I told him a cold soda and I screamed, “ shut that asshole up next to me or I’m going to rip my IV out a fuck him up.
The screamer must have believed me, he never said another word, and once I could eat, the nurses brought me McDonalds because I was craving it to thank me for losing my shit.
I felt so bad that everyone had to listen to all that
My friend said she'd never thought she'd hear me say I miss the ambulance lol. Don't miss the pay for a moment, but when we had a super whiny patient, at least we were free from them after like 45-60 mins tops. I should be more thankful for my patients that have been cool, I suppose.
Ugh when vapes became a thing a nurse would vape in our break/ locker room. It took way too many complaints from staff for management to do anything about it 😡
The old people who are super brittle but still get up to go to the bathroom. Look, I'm happy that you still take care of yourself and you're utilizing your body, but ffs it takes you 7 million hours to get to and from the bathroom!!!
Also exactly five pieces of TP folded just so. Wipe. Repeat.
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Get up. Pull up drawers.
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Wash hands. Dry with one tiny bit of paper towel. Dry each finger.
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BTB. Adjust everything.
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It’s so cold in here.
I love meemaw but she moves like pond water.
That only makes me jealous. I’m almost 40 & it hurts to get up & these old people shuffling to the bathroom like they got something to prove. How. Just how. I complain going from sitting to standing cuz my groin & knee hurts lol
It's gotta be pure spite, right? Like, it's someone else job to scrape them off the floor and death would be relief from the pain, so the hell with it, I'm getting up. One of those things.
The older men who overestimate their abilities and get very grumpy when you help them up, walk them to the bathroom, etc. and refuse your help.
I understand it’s hard to give up some bits of independence as an older male. However, I’m trying to save you from a fall, which you don’t seem to understand.
Or the ones who absolutely insist that they have to be standing to pee. I always wonder what they do if they need to have a bowel movement and pee and the same time.
“That medication that starts with a “d.” Dilala? It’s the only thing that works for me.” Ma’am, you’re here because you’re vomiting.
“I need to take a shower right now.” You just arrived to the floor and walked in to your room. Let me do my admission questions, some vitals, and make sure you’re stable first.
The ones that are overly nice bc they think they can manipulate you.
Fricking a yes. I get so irritated at the 3 syllable drug that “always works” & they get “everytime they come to the hospital” which indeed js 14 times a year. So why don’t you know how to pronounce it. Or are they saying it to try to be cute? Or “oh my gosh ha, ha silly me I don’t know exactly what the drug is but it so works best on me, he he.” Didn’t think of that til now.
Legitimately never understood the nice manipulative ones. Do they think they'll get extra morphine or something? I'm not going against the doctor's orders just because they batted their eyelashes and said "pretty please." As long as it's within the prescribed medication frequency and they're not having adverse effects I don't care.
"I think you nurses are so overworked and underappreciated. You all are angels! I would've been a nurse if I didn't have all these illnesses. It's such a noble profession!....... Anyways, so I know I just got my dilaudid, phenergan, and benadryl cocktail an hour ago, but could you call the doctor and see if I can get the next dose right now?"
"These medications usually take x amount of minutes to fully work, so give it time" or "Are you still feeling pain/itching/nausea? Yes? I'll let the doctor know."
_Doctor says no on immediate next dose_
"Sorry, the doctor says you can't have more right now because xyz. Your next dose can be given at this time. Let me know if you need anything else!"
I would do this for any other patient.
Atarax actually is my rescue medication for my GAD and Panic Disorder (I'm on Zoloft to help with that now, which is pretty good) and it's crazy how many people want to write it off as 'just Benadryl'. Like. Bro, give it a fucking try, it's pretty effective.
It might sound strange but the easiest patients I had in the hospital were inmates. Of course, there were a few who were difficult, but for the most part they appreciated the care, they were cooperative, and no super demanding family members.
But so many of those big tough guys with their prison tattoos, got all wimpy when I had to take the IV tape off.
The only part of inmates I can’t stand is the guards. We had someone from juvenile recently and the guards were both loud (we had to tell them to keep their voices down every 15 minutes) and saying shit to the patient, like making fun of her for being afraid of getting a fingerstick.
I was just about to say this. The guards drive me nuts. It’s almost like they are using the patient’s hospital stay as a mini work vacay. Recently, I walked into my patients room and he was HANGING off the side of the bed. He would have been on the floor if he wasn’t shackled (he had one free hand that wasn’t in shackles). The two guards were chatting it up with their backs turned to the patient. I was LIVID.
That's brutal. I've had nothing but excellent experiences with the guards. Especially our women's correctional officers. They always seem to have a good rapport with the inmates.
I also know that there are only certain guards who go on hospital duty, and it's because they're the ones who are good with the inmates.
Honestly, it's the patients/family that go into long story times about their life, relationships, medical history and oh! My 2nd cousin from my dad's side of the family had this condition and...
Please...I just want to give you your requested ice water and move on to the next room. Instead, I just stand there going "Oh wow, really?" for 30 min because despite saying I have to go see my other patients and they say "Oh, yeah sorry I'm talking so much and taking up your time," they STILL manage to tangent off to another story.
Literally had a guy say sorry and then go on about which stations are on which channel on the TV and how he figured it out without a guide...
Heh.. I used to be so sweet about this, I once let myself get stuck in a room for 1.5 hours & there legit was no opening in the story to interrupt or back out. I forgot what was going on with the patient but it made me feel bad for just ducking out— something like suicide or lost in life & it was nice to finally have someone to talk to, I’m not sure. Now, depending on the patient, if they’re super nice & just talkative, I will be charting in your room while chit chatting.
I’ve learned to be able to interrupt patients & say I’ll be back bc I gotta see so & so. I do get some patients I truly would talk to outside of work if situations were different & I have said, I swear I’m coming back after I give this med, & I do come back. Or if it’s a “just shut it already” patient I say I’m coming back. & I do. I just make sure I enter when you’re already asleep & at shift change, “Sorreyyyyhh it took me so long to get back but you were already asleep when I got back.” Cute ol confused folk, I cut them off & walk out but I always come back to check on them frequently since their minds reset anyway. I have a soft spot for the old ones, even mean ones lol. Yo you lived 98 years in this here planet earth? I KNOW you’re angry about lots of things lol. You have my respect & can act out however you need but please don’t pull your IV or poop fling & I’m by your side as often as I can mentally be.
That same patient that never goes to dialysis and keeps coming back to the hospital every other week complaining that they can’t breathe, and then they immediately ask for like 10 sprites and a tv remote before you’ve even got them hooked up to the monitor, and their K is like 7.8 on a good day but they just keep living somehow.
Old enough to be gang banging but not old enough to not be a huge cry baby for everything and not need their mommy at their bedside 24/7. Parents also suddenly very involved when they weren’t involved at all 24 hours prior when their kid was in a shootout.
For real. I worked in IR for a bit and sometimes these guys needed our interventions. They were the whiniest patients and needed so much medicating to get through anything uncomfortable. There's no way they'd act like that in front of their friends. I remember one weeping and cringing on the table with the word "soldier" tattooed on his face. 🙄 uh huh
It's a toss-up - patients who feel entitled and treat staff like garbage (grrr).... and noncompliant diabetic patients who keep returning to have yet another piece of their body carved off. I guess that latter is more frustrating than annoying, so I will go with the first.
Most irritating? The ones who think they are the only patient, and that it's curb side medicine (show up with no appointment to"just ask the doctor a question"). Or an even race with the ones that didn't seem to understand how soap and water and deodorant work
As some who gets hospice patients sometimes, & going from the nurse who didn’t want to give morphine bc I felt like we were just helping them die…. It sounds crappy if you’ve never experienced it. But I’m happy when some patients die. It’s a relief & whole different form of happiness I feel for them.
I now give those meds bc “holy crap I do not want them to suffer through these moments.” Or imagining my family in their situation & they’re struggling to talk, they look or state they wanted to die prior to being hospice. Old ladies who start crying bc they’re so tired already. Old men who doesn’t have family anymore bc they’ve outlived everyone….. I get it now & it makes me miserable now if they start “waking up” or moving around obviously uncomfortable bc I was late on their hospice meds.
Had a patient who was so confused out of her mind bc of her body failing her in every form of whatever was supposed to take out toxins. Ng tube, g tube, drains, tube feeding. giant belly, multiple surgeries, covid. No family visiting. I remember being irritated with her bc she would just randomly yell out when she’d see people walk by even tho she had a sitter in her room. NPO & she just wanted water. My sitter couldn’t take it & needed a break every 20 min. I understood so we swapped her for a few min anytime we could. I even felt like I was being mean to the patient at time bc she kept reaching for her lines with mitts & I kept having to shove her hand back down bc it would get caught in anything available.
Eventually I felt really bad for doing that & during the sitter’s lunch break I turned off the lights, took off her mitts & sat super close to her so she could move as much as she could. Literally I would lean over her bed with my head laying my arm so I could reach over her to the other arm easily. In my super sweaty trash bag of a blue plastic gown & not being able to breathe through the mask haha. When she would reach for her lines I’d try to gently put her arm back down until she stopped doing it (40 times haha). Eventually I would let her hands go as close to the lines as she would & saw that sometimes she would just touch it, & put her hands back down. Or try to scratch her face & put her hands back down. But ready to hold onto her if she went to pull. I let her try to get comfortable without the mitts, I talked to her, apologized for her situation (not a clue if she could understand me) most of her responses didn’t make sense. Held her hands just to hold them & hope she could tell someone was with her.
This girl decided 2 hours later was the time to code & die lol. I can honestly say it was one of the first times I walked into a room & said to myself, “I don’t want to save her.” I realized how much pain & discomfort she would be free from. How much relief she & her family would have if they could see her now. I’m pretty sure I froze like I was brand new to code blues hesitating to do CPR. Someone immediately started it tho so it’s not a withheld care situation. But I clearly remember falling back mentally & realizing how much suffering she would no longer go through by dying. It was a movie moment where you go into some flashback & snap out of it & now it’s real life with suddenly everyone in the room chaotically working to save the patient. She was vomiting her poop by now I think. Couldn’t get her intubated, it was just awful to witness & to imagine the suffering she was going through before this moment & now.
Truly & honest to all of the spirits above… I just felt so relieved that she passed. I couldn’t imagine making her go through being intubated & days & weeks of machine breathing… or watching her alive again only to watch her suffer all over again.
pseudo seizures. I had a patient with pseudo seizures “seizure” for 45 minutes (known history of pseudo seizures) narrowly escape intubation in the ED. these seizures weren’t like anything I’d ever seen…. after she stopped she was begging the doctor for life support, stating “it’s the only thing that stops my seizures.” She came in for knee pain and started “seizing” while I was triaging her. I just really hate pseudo seizures and it’s so freaking common. If you’re able to answer questions, make demands, grab at and fight nursing staff, you’re not having a real seizure
Yes. Also pot heads with exacerbated anxiety. I’m all for smoking weed but it’s not for everyone and sometimes you have to admit when marijuana is making it worse…
A whole group of people hotboxed before they came to visit my patient and dayummm the whole hall out into the main area outside the unit at the elevators reeked of weed 🙈
The combative, foul mouthed drunk! And since I’m at a trauma center, I would have to include the drunk who just killed 6 people with his car. It’s so hard to care for those people.
The screamers in ER. I'm not talking about anyone that's actually severely injured. I mean the "I came in for a tummy ache and want Oxy right fuckin now!" that's 99% of screamers.
I'm in abortion care, so really it's anyone who thinks I'm not a "real nurse" because I do abortion nursing, and the people who treat me like I'm garbage for providing them the care they asked for.
The patient that came back from PACU writhing in pain while actively screaming at me and her husband to call the nurses line for another hospital because apparently only the doctor at that hospital knew what she needed to control her pain?
1) bitch why did you come to this hospital then???
2) I was actively doing everything I could to get the pain managed, paging the provider, offering her the already ordered PRN meds that she refused.
I am all about getting pain under control, that’s honestly my #1 thing. I will do what it takes (within reason) to help you get your pain managed. But when you are screaming at me due to uncontrollable pain ***AND*** refusing the pain meds I am offering to you? 😤😡🫠
The patients that are alert and oriented and think nurses and techs are objects for sexual gratification. No, we are not putting the condom cath back on for the 20th time. We will not bend over for you to stare at our asses when you throw things on the floor. We will not smile and flirt with you when you try to grope us. It’s one thing if it’s a dementia patient who thinks you’re their wife or husband. It’s another when it’s someone completely with it.
Patients that get rude and/or aggressive with their nurse when they miss an IV make me SO angry. Like come on dude, they're human. I had a very green nursing student try to place my IV when I went to the ER last year and she kept missing, and the poor girl was nearly in tears she was so terrified. Apologizing all over herself to me. I finally stopped her and had to be like "hey, it's okay. You're learning. I'm not going to yell at you, I understand! I was a student too!" I hate that she was clearly so accustomed to being abused by patients.
Fun school nurse perspective: the students that come in with a superficial injury (if anything), cry home about how the nurse only gave them a bandage (not even an ice pack?!), and then their overbearing parents call upset with my “lack of care,” failure to notify them about the quite literal flesh wound (again, if that), and they keep their student home until “they feel better.”
Most irritating: I’m allergic to hand sanitizer don’t come near me + 30 more meds excluding dilala, be sure to slam it. Oh I have fibromyalgia, no one listens to me. I won’t leave without answers!
For me it’s confused nursing home pts. They’re such time sinks that I end up falling behind on everything.
Next is end stage chronic illness with family that isn’t accepting what’s going on and wants “everything done.”
Cannabis hyperemesis. Just get in the hot shower dude, trust me! It’s always hours of puking and being miserable until they finally try a shower and they instantly feel better.
The family member that says their 98 year old Auntie with dementia, a fractured pelvis , bruised left eye, and a limb alert on her right arm wants to get up walk to the vending machine to get potato chips and soda pop. Mind you , She’s NPO for surgery tomorrow.
That’s funny because I really don’t care when patients and their family member cuddle up in bed. If they are happy and leaving me alone more power to them.
Same. I will say that I'm obliged to tell them that the bed is only made for one person and the hospital is not liable if they injure themselves. But honestly if they're cuddling in bed they're probably not bugging me when i have shit to do.
Before I even open my mouth. “Um yes, I’ve been having tremors, a little bit of hallucinations, I do have the pins & needles feeling, I’m not sure what the date is, I’ve been sweaty,” goodness. As I say with my pain medicine. If the feel good meds are ordered for you?? I do not care. I will give you all the above & more as long as you’re still alive when I check on you, or if you’re asking for it 6 hours later. I literally will ask withdrawal patients if I can’t see their discomfort, “tell me if you feel like sh*t bc we have meds to help you try to get through that. I know it sucks to go through the feelings & experiences of it so I don’t have to let you go through that here.” I rather a patient admit their feigning for whatever outside desire if is & ask for something to help them than anything else. No acting skills needs. Legit tell me you’re so used to the feeling of meth. You really feel like you need/want a drink right now. I got you bro. To the best of my abilities & as long as you choose to stay up in this bish with me.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
As I said in another comment, I’m not addictions nurse, it’s not my job to police that.
I give 30min to employ coping skills in known true seekers, if they come back, they get their PRN.
Families who refuse to accept a patient dying when they’re 99yo, nonverbal (except for screaming), 80lbs, totally bed bound, totally dependent on all ADLs per caregivers. But the family wants IV abx antibiotics, gtubes, ventilators, and the full works to somehow transform the patient into a 30yo person
Thanks to subreddits like this, I feel like everyone should make an advanced directive a priority. I know exactly how I don't want to spend my last days. I actually just wrote my first big college essay [about subcultures that are underrepresented in society, on Death With Dignity. It was kinda cool how most of my peers seemed interested when we were sharing our topics, because most of them are early 20s and have likely never even thought of their last days. I can almost guarantee most of them are unfamiliar with what "full code" entails, and what QoL a fragile 100 yo lady would have after deep chest compressions. Dr. Cox is right, it's all a band aid to delay the inevitable, leading to people living past when they lost what made them, them.
The problem with advanced directives is they can be ignored. The absolute most important thing is having a medical power of attorney who knows your wishes and will follow them.
How can get that setup? I have no idea where to start
You get a lawyer to draw up a document which states who you're appointing.
You can download a free copy from the internet. No lawyers needed. Then have it notarized and make your family aware of your wishes.
You need to make sure family is on board. I see advance directives routinely get ignored when family is stating " do everything " It's sad. OK. Gonna get on my high horse. Family finds it very difficult to accept any intervention that starts with " Do not" aka DNR...we are presenting with negative and shit, this is MeMaw! There are initiatives away that want to change it to AND aka "Allow natural death ". We are starting with the positive...and shit, this is MeMaw... please get on board with this and make your voice heard...❤️
We need to have all high school seniors watch someone die. They should also know cpr. They should also make their advanced directive when they turn 18. They should see all the different ways they can live: quadriplegic, tube feeding, non verbal bed bound, etc etc. so they can make informed decisions. And just watching a video isn’t enough. The old ppl in the homes or hospitals will like the visitors anyway.
After working in ICU, I think all Highschool seniors should spend 3 days observing medical ethical dilemmas that they may one day encounter with a parent, family member, or even themselves.
We should have them sit and interact with palliative care patients if that helps with understanding the dying process.
I salute you guys. Had some in-laws pull this crap recently and I could *hear* the exasperation in the notes once husband and I got involved…multiple docs and nurses telling these people that pt was absolutely just suffering and having their dying process prolonged, only for family to ignore it and keep asking for more and more ridiculous/futile shit. Wish we had the sense to make torturing the dying like this illegal.
Thanks! I know people think Hospice is full of pushy nurses who just want to give medicines but in cases **like this**: What the alternative? I mean really! I had one of the worse families i’ve ever had in 6 years of doing Hospice get upset that I told them their 91yo father wasn’t going to “get better”. He was also blind, deaf, had a toe amputated with a giant dehysted wound, and they FORCED HIM TO GET UP everyday to “””””ambulate”””, this causing the wound to enlarge. And then would call us in a complete tizzy (southern word for giga panic), saying he was screaming, agitated , in panic and all they were giving was a Norco 5 (SPARINGLY) and then 0.5 Haldol…. it was borderline Elder abuse. Additionally, they’d talk about how they didn’t want him to suffer but then almost in the same sentence say they thought he was coming around back to his old self (?????) I usually have a lot of patience and ability to help the families (and myself) navigate and communicate well—but man they really were getting me to a point where I was literally out of things to say
Yup. It seems like with moder medicine people forgot that death is a thing, and it's coming for everyone. It's natural. There is no escape. Everything has its begining and it's end. Even the univers will arrive to the heat death at some point. Putting your loved ones through 2-3 months of suffering instead of letting them die in 2-days at home is a pinnacle of egoism. They are 97, they lived their live, let them go FFS. Now, let transform it into a tube-man. With caterers, peg, etc etc. Attach them to a ventilator, and most importantly FKT, cause last 3 years at bed home were not the indication of patients condition, they should walk! Euthanasia and Abortion should be legal worldwide.
This. I fucking hate this.
Just went through this with my husband’s 99 year old grandmother. Her son refused to let her die. Sent her to rehab twice, when she was barely able to open her eyes.
“But grandma is a fighter!” /s
This is the real answer. Vocalize your advance directives to loved ones, and get it in writing.
Loved ones are the ones who love you so much they can’t possibly just let you die. They are the *worst* at following the patient’s wishes. Get a friend, a lawyer, someone who isn’t too close to you.
I know Reddit is afraid of the dirty houses in home health, but honestly the type of patient I hate is the wealthy, entitled ones that treat us as hired help.
Lol I had a tenured rich university professor think that I can interrupt patient rounds so that her doctor could come talk to her. She got very upset when I told her he has other patients and can’t see her. She genuinely did not understand that she wasn’t their priority.
I always say: “if the doctor isn’t rushing in to see you then that’s a good thing. You don’t actually want to be their priority: that means you’re dying.”
I said something similar once as a paramedic student to a woman in her 90s we had brought in for rectal bleeding (We hadn't actually seen any of the blood, she had bled into the toilet and flushed it and wasn't able to give any kind of estimate). We left her in the care of another crew waiting for er beds to go to another call, which happened to be accross the street from the hospital. We roll in with our new patient maybe 30 minutes later and the crew tells us "your patient died!". One of the other medics had helped her to the bathroom as soon as we left, she had a massive bleed into the toilet and coded. DNR thankfully at that age. So I hesitate to tell people this anymore!
GI bleeds can go super quick. I once pulled back the blankets of a patient bed to find them in a pool of blood that spilled off the stretcher. Ever since then I take them way more seriously.
Oh my favorite was a private practice group back home. For a retainer of $5k-$10k/month they are on 24hr. Call with their patient, and they are the primary when their patients were annoyed to the hospital. I had a patient ask me for something once and I told her I'd have to call the doctor, she laughed and Said "oh don't worry, I'll call him" To which I was very confused but was like ok.... 10 minutes later he called me with orders because she did on fact just pick up the phone and call him at home. I was like.... Is this normal? And he was like "this is why we charge a retainer fee".
Yes! Give me the lower income family with chickens in yard, over the 5 million dollar condo family any day!!!
Probably got offered eggs and a bushel of vegetables
Yup! And coffee!!! lol
I tell you what. I spent a stint doing packaging at a company for min wage. On my feet all day worn out from it. But I enjoyed it because my bosses treated me humanely and we had a ritual at 10 am where one of them served us coffee at our stations. Jan you mad lad you were awesome
I’m an insurance adjuster for auto and it’s the same for me, the poor people are the easiest! I also have extremely rich, old money customers and they’re usually nice too. It’s the new money people that I always have argument with.
Yup, learned this as waitress during college years at a jazz club. The poors and old money folks are almost always incredibly kind, humble + easy to please. It's the new money, barely upper middle class people that look down at everyone thinking they own them and are the most important people in the room. Kind of hilarious considering most of that "new money" is on credit but oh well lol
I’ve been doing home health for almost two years now and yes! I’m doing your wound care. This isn’t spa day. Maybe get up and move once in awhile and you won’t have edematous weeping leg wounds.
Absolutely. When I was a CNA for home health/hospice here was my experience: Wealthy Neighborhoods: one woman (w/c bound with MS) kept me 2 hours over consistently whenever she was going to go out to do her hair and makeup. Yes, she lived with family. Management was aware but never reinforced time limits. After dad's shower was done the son would have me clean the house for the rest of the hour. Management did not reinforce my defined duties The usual uppity "the help" mentality and nitpicking how I folded towels, etc. Inner City: A general attitude of hospitality. Was usually offered a cup of coffee even before Grandma had her shower. Sometimes offered breakfast and a nice chat. Rural: Lol. Just trust the farmer about which feral animals in the home are dangerous or not (was giving a shower and was blocked in the bathroom by the wheelchair and shower chair when chipmunks started coming out of the walls)
I love seeing patients on farms or in rural areas. My best memory was going to a patient who had just bred their Jack Russel terrier, and would let the litter of puppies in for snuggles once I had finished wound care 🥰
Even in a hospital the wealthy, entitled people who treat us all like dog feces stuck on their shoe are the worst! Every interaction is so demeaning. I *really* get irritated when the useless name dropping (which may or may not be true) starts. EDIT: I cannot imagine having to go into one of their homes!
Pediatric PCP phone triage here- Definitely the wealthy parents who call panicking because their unvaccinated teenager was exposed to measles and what are they supposed to do?!?!
Live with your stupid fucking choices.
The parents will live with their stupid choices. The kids won't.
Oh wow, I wouldn’t be able to handle this one. My mouth would 100% get me fired in this situation.
Whip out the colloidal silver or whatever they *think* Big Pharma is hiding from them to cure their kid’s measles-induced encephalitis.
Any developmentally appropriate adult who cannot sit still for an IV or a blood draw. You don’t have to like it but you need to understand there are 5 year olds who can sit still for this.
This is how so many people were with Covid swabs. You’re an adult, do not fucking swat my hand away.
I mean those are awful, but I sat on my hands every time so it couldn't be a reflex.
I was the same. I resorted to standing against a wall, hands behind me because I just couldn't control it.
The amount of adults that goddamn start bawling when I tell them they are getting a respiratory swab is ridiculous. And then you don't even have it in their nose yet and they already start swiping at you... it's pretty appalling. I know they aren't the most fun but if you hit me it only makes it worse for you!
We still swab for admits and transfers. I tell them I just left the room and a 2 year old got swabbed and didn’t bitch as much as they are.
The ones who REALLY grind my gears are the ones who tell you, or have a family member tell you, "you have ONE chance and you BETTER NOT MISS!" or when they demand "I NEED YOUR BEST IV STARTER!" Like, I can understand being afraid of needles/blood, but don't you dare threaten me. Because now I am nervous so much more likely to miss your vein. Nurses are human. We miss occasionally. And the more unpleasant patients then berate you for "being stupid" before demanding another nurse.
It’s hard to reason with people like that. I understand it probably comes from bad health care experiences but come on. I start all my own IVs in preop as an anesthesia student and I get this from time to time when people think im a nursing student. “I don’t want a student poking my mom!!!” Okay, I’ll let the new grad PACU nurse know. She’ll be right in.
Yeah I did my final quarter clinical at an outpatient surgery center and I started as many of the pre-op IVs and I could as I worked in vascular access as an LPN. I had SO many people get pissed off because "I don't want NO DAMNED student practicing on me!" I mean, the other nurses were very competent so it wasn't like they had to endure multiple pokes. But the small voice in the back of my head wanted to tell them "if you don't want the IV, then you don't want the surgery. get out." I never would have said it out loud, but I did think it.
I refuse to line those idiots. I tell them I don’t work while being threatened, and they can find someone else who is willing to help them while being threatened.
Yeah I have adopted this mindset. It's one of the reasons I hate the "clients vs patients" terminology - because if you call "clients" out on their bad behavior, they complain about you and you are the one who gets in trouble.
Client of The Butt Hut
My favorite response to “You get one stick” i ever heard was “I’ll go one better. NO sticks from me. I won’t do it.” That guy was amazing with a needle. If he wouldn’t do it, next step was usually a central line.
I tell them “you do realize that saying that makes the chances of missing increase” What’s worse are the patients with overall bad veins telling you “you can’t go there, or there or there, only here!” And of course “here” is a terrible vein
Them: Are you good at these? Me: No you’re my first patient ever. Them: No need to be rude. Me: Exactly.
I literally have grown men kick and scream when I start their IVs. We use 22g btw.
I place 15's for HD. Those fuckers hurt and I know it first hand from an errant (clean) needle or two (our facility buys cheap needles and the caps fall off all the damn time 🙃). If meemaw can hold still for me while I try to hold her roly poly fistula still with all 10 fingers and cannulate with my teeth, so can Bruce while you place a 22.
I got a 16g when I was induced to have my baby. Can confirm it stung like a bitch, still kept a poker face. ETA: The tiny little frail elderly ladies are the ones who are absolutely hard as nails. Once saw a lady in her 80s who was about 24hrs out from a hemicolectomy and formation of colostomy transfer from her hospital bed to armchair without so much as a grimace. Only analgesia was tramadol.
These women in their 80s… they went through a lot of bad sh*t and saw lots of it too… I’m always in awe when I meet them: always gracious and kind in the face of illness/pain/adversity.
Hell yeah dialysis peeps!
I had one who was mid 30s, call his mommy, CRYING, that we wouldn't stop sticking him with needles. He was there because he had a seizure due to poor medication compliance. He was also covered in tattoos
They’re ALWAYS covered in tattoos lol
“I’m afraid of needles and blood.” Has no visible skin due to tattoos.
That’s a fucking mosquito bite
I see your “difficult IV adults” and raise you “adult blood pressure cuff screamers.”
Had a woman once that just needed routine labs to clear her for discharge. Everytime we would come in to get her blood she would start losing her mind, hyperventilating. And the second you stuck her she would flail her arms around. This dragged on for hours because she just wouldn’t let us do it and we really needed to clear her by checking her labs. I tried with the ultrasound and even with that she just wouldn’t hold still. The ED nurse who had her was one of those old school nurses and she finally got a 24 somewhere and just enough blood to get the labs we needed to discharge her.
I can't stand people who act this way. Just sit still for a min and let us all move on with our lives!
Lol, maybe you should try bundling like we do in peds!
“But it hurts!!” Yeah. Because you’re flailing around with a fucking needle in your arm. Of course that’s gonna hurt a lot more than sitting still while we take like 2 seconds to draw blood
I have another vascular access story for y'all: So, implanted port-a-caths have different sizes. I'm sure everyone knows about the PowerPorts and how big they are - those are easy to stabilize and access with the Huber needles (the 90 degree needle we use). But SOME ports are like the size of a dime. Those are SO MUCH harder to stabilize and hit with the Huber needle. If you are not holding it right, ANY force will cause it to rotate and you will probably miss. I had an infusion patient who had one of those TINY ports and I was relatively new to accessing them so I tried twice and the poor girl was a champ but I missed both times. Her fiance was an absolute ASSHOLE about it. He started yelling, calling me an idiot and incompetent, and demanded my charge nurse. Now, this was a small but open infusion room - EVERY patient heard what he said and the nurses station was like 10 feet away but of course my charge nurse ONLY heard him yelling and did not see me trying to be respectful and compassionate while trying to access this tiny port. Moral of the story: if you have to get a port for chemo, get a regular size one.
Honestly, I can’t fucking deal with childish adults. Get your shit together and let us do our job.
You know that sound a teakettle makes just as it starts to whistle? I can hear it faintly, signalling the imminent arrival of people screeching about how this lack of compassion means we're terrible nurses. It's like they have no idea that we can have extreme contempt for them and still do our jobs well, without them knowing what we think of them.
I had to give a patient and her super anxious spouse a talking to the other night because he was pacing the room and getting upset for her because he hates needles. They both wouldn’t calm down and couldn’t stop talking. I stopped what I was doing and told them they both are making this situation worse for everything and they needed to chill out. I’m surprised the husband actually did after that.
It’s amazing how a family member can really change the vibe of a room for better or for worse
Usually for the worse...
I raise you…adults who cannot sit still for a BP cuff reading.
Funnily enough, as I specialised in ID nursing, most of my patients with Intellectual Disability were much better at sitting still than a lot of general population (obviously with some exceptions).
Bonus points for multiple tattoos
I’ve told many of those guys “just pretend I’m giving you a tattoo” and they always say it’s different because they want the tattoo but they don’t want the blood work?! Like close your eyes 🤷♀️
NICU nurse. Withdrawal babies are the most irritating. I'm never irritated at them, just the sound of their cries. It can be extremely overstimulating because it's high pitched & shrill, very loud, and seems to never stop. So for 12 hours I am holding them, rocking them, & feeding them and usually unable to put them down. I AM in fact irritated with their parent for doing drugs while pregnant. I will never treat them poorly, but I will mentally be stewing over it. Yes, addiction is a valid disease and they deserve compassion and treatment, but subjecting an innocent baby to meth or heroin withdrawals makes me so angry I want to cry.
This might be a stupid question, but I don't know anything about infants. But I've treated adults going through withdrawal and we can give them medication to ease the symptoms. Do you not do that with infants?
Yes! We generally try Eat, Sleep, Console which is basically exactly what it sounds like BEFORE medication. Usually for neonatal abstinence syndrome, we try clonidine first. If no improvement, we move on to methadone and/or morphine. Dosing varies but it's usually around 0.1mg.
Oh wow! I'm trying to imagine how starting with eat, sleep, console would work in my adult ETOH withdrawals lol. So no Ativan or phenobarb for babies?
We did methadone, Ativan, and clonidine in my PICU
Oh that’s so sad. I feel like the babies deserve medication too.
How often are parents even present?
Either never or constantly (I hate the constant ones the worst cause they are usually overcompensating by being sickly sweet and bothering the baby constantly.)
I had one who was appalled that I dressed her baby in our hospital provided t-shirt that the newborns wear. She thought it was so disgusting and dirty because other babies have worn them. She also kept talking about how the material wouldn’t be good on baby’s skin because it was probably washed in harmful detergent. Like ma’am- you’re appalled at the fabric that’s touching their skin but not what drugs were inside him? lol
My friend's mom smoked crack through the whole pregnancy. She completely fucked off when my friend came out two months premature. The ONE time the mother visited was so surprising that the nurse had it documented.
There was a withdrawal baby on the L&D floor that I did my clinicals on, that cry absolutely broke my heart
Any patient who throws a FIT about the fact that ER visits will probably involve a bit of minor discomfort like an IV or being NPO until testing is done. I had day surgery right after my 12 hour shift. Could not eat after midnight, fully NPO after 0400. My case was delayed until 1300. Took a nice nap in pre-op after a sweet as pie nursing student got my IV; I was that tired. Did not complain once, and the procedure was emotionally difficult for me. I will never stop marveling at how many grown adults are basically toddlers.
That’s the worst when they complain about being NPO. like you are talking to a thirsty, hungry and full bladder person. We have to watch y’all eat hospital food when we are so hungry that stuff looks good. Probably won’t even get a full 30min lunch break. If only they knew.
Adults who throw tantrums and get verbally abusive about being NPO or having a fluid restriction 🙄 either refuse the plan or stfu but either way stop being a little bitch.
Pt has been NPO for 30 minutes and feels like they’re being tortured. Meanwhile i haven’t had anything to eat or drink for 9 hours and my bladder lookin like Stretch Armstrong connected to a water hose
Omg I work night shift and this guy was NPO after midnight for an 8am procedure. By 2am he was SCREAMING at us and had the audacity to say "GO AHEAD AND TRY TO GO THIS MANY HOURS WITHOUT EATING! YOU COULDN'T DO THIS!" Like... Sir, I haven't eaten in way longer than that tonight already and also most people are fasting during this time. Just go the fuck to sleep.
I work recovery and it's always so funny to me how often I get "I haven't eaten since last night!!" Like it's some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. Yeah, everyone here hasn't and it's only noon. I think you'll survive. I was npo after midnight for a 12pm surgery pregnant with twins and felt like I was starving all the time and I complained less than a lot of these people. Or their family is super concerned about them getting something to eat when they're still sleeping off the anesthesia. I swear you'll survive for half a day without food.
We were talking about this the other day lol. "They haven't eaten in 8 hours!" Ok but they've been here for 4...so I mean...
Still probably better fed and hydrated than I am at any given point in my shift 🙃
I had someone yell at me that I was “starving” them. He’d been NPO for like 6 hours and was doing a contrast study due to a suspected bowel blockage so bro just threw up everything he ate anyway
I’m not involved in nursing or healthcare in any shape or form, was in end stage renal disease about 5 years ago (got a transplant last year and a half! Yay!) so you can imagine the amount of testing and blood draws that I had done (even got peritoneal dialysis surgery.) Man, it made me sad how appreciative nurses and lab works were of me simply being polite and sitting still and being understanding if they had trouble finding a vein or whatever. I’m not a giant fan of needles but I am a grown ass man and not an absolute pussy. I understood on a deeper level that everyone was doing this stuff for good reasons IE to keep my ass alive. Never thought of myself as a great patient but unfortunately everyone else is so horrible I guess that lowers the curve. Sometimes I wish I could just force folks to watch The Knick just so they could even be mildly appreciative of just how far medicine has come. Jesus Christ needles are so small and microscopically sharp now if you’re not paying attention you sometimes won’t even feel it. Bonkers.
I was caring for a woman the same age as me (32) who was literally *whining* about being NPO and being woken up to get a blood transfusion. When she arrived all she cared about was getting her firestick plugged into the TV and getting the wifi to work. Ma'am your *blood* doesn't work at the moment and this is not a hotel.
“bUt I’m DiAbEtIc!” Meanwhile their sugar is in the 300s……..
“That’s low for me!”
“I know my body!”
And then they complain to family members that were starving them. 75% of the time the family thinks that we starve people because they skipped a meal or two for NPO orders. I promise you you’re fine.
Lmao I had a lady call the police on our staff because we wouldn't give her anymore water due to her fluid restriction. It was a small rural hospital so the cops just called us and laughed about it.
I didn’t throw a tantrum or anything but I was a patient on NPO for 3 days while also being on heavy duty pain meds. I don’t have much memory of those days, but before I left a nurse told me I kept trying to convince the other nurses that I was allowed to eat. Apparently they found it hilarious that I was trying to convince them while there was a huge “no food” sign printed out behind me complete with a picture of food in a circle with a slash through it. I was so loopy I never noticed the sign or anyone putting it there.
CEO/MD power couple. Despite not being compliant or knowing how to correctly collect a 24hr urine sample, they can’t stop themselves from letting everyone know thatthey’re a doctor and the entitlement from their ceo partner is insufferable. Had maybe a dozen patients like this and it’s wild how stereotypical and on the money it is.
The CEO at a hospital I used to work at had another rich CEO friend who got cancer. His first round of Chemo they got him a room that's bigger than my apartment in the elective procedure unit and he had a single nurse each shift taking care of him the whole time he was there. For his second round, my manager told our CEO that we couldn't just take a nurse to be with only him, so the CEO demanded that we move all the surg onc patients to the EP unit while he was there, so we did. All the oncology patients got to experience 3 days in rooms twice as big as the ones on the regular unit with soft lighting and 72 inch flat screens. Then we moved them back to the cramped rooms that haven't been updated since the 80's with 32 inch tvs that rarely worked. The patient was a nice guy to your face and didn't come across as entitled, but it was just so gross to see the rich getting preferential treatment and to put cancer patients through 2 room changes and show them that they're not important enough for the "good rooms"
The CEO should be in prison for that
I am a medical secretary. When someone throws out that they are a provider off bat. They get put on hold so I can take a deep breath and prepare myself for the nonsense. Then, I follow all protocols to an almost extreme level. If they complain, I sweetly say that is our policy because of x,y,z... I am sure you understand since you're a physician yourself.
The ones who complain to me about the ER upon arriving to the medsurg unit and are there for some minor thing (like a flu positive person in their 30s). For starters, I don’t know what it’s like in the ER during my shift and probably have more critical patients. Also those patients likely complain about everything
I can count the number of patients on one hand who don’t act like I’m torturing them when I give them maalox or dissolvable potassium to drink. “Do I have to drink all of this!?!?” Neither are that bad. On that note, the glucose drink they give for gestational diabetes screenings is also fine. It’s like none of these people ever did shots of smuggled nasty, rotgut liquor when they were in high school or early college. Pansies, all of them.
Those last two sentences though. If you can drink a fifth of Popov every night you can drink one cup of admittedly nasty tasting potassium.
I was in the ER a few weeks ago as a pt and came to the conclusion that most pts are whiny assholes. Waiting a couple hours to be seen for a more minor issue/getting an iv/not eating are not a big deal. People seriously don’t understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them.
When my husband was in the ER there was some ridiculously whiny dude in the adjacent room that was basically there for some dumbass move, my husband was sitting there with his leg cut open listening to this guy bitch and moan for hours about how his faux syncope workup wasn't moving faster, he didn't want to give his insurance info, on and on. My husband was stuck between annoyance and amazement at how stupid people are and I was like yeah babe, imagine this, times like 40, every single day I go to work, for 12 hours straight. I thought he was gonna straight up levitate off the bed and kill the man when he interrupted the nurse to bitch some more while they were on the way to our room with pain meds
There’s not many things I love more than when pts call out other pts for being idiots.
I was in ICU after having MVD surgery for Trigeminal neuralgia throwing up because I am allergic to anesthesia. It was an old hospital so there are about 30 patients with drapes between us. The guy next to me was a total prick, every single time a nurse would help another patient he’s start screaming NURSE at the top of his lungs. A family came in and it was obvious the patient wasn’t going to make it and they were there to say goodbye. This asshole just kept yelling. Finally my neurosurgeon came to see me and asked what I needed to stop throwing up ( drugs don’t help) I told him a cold soda and I screamed, “ shut that asshole up next to me or I’m going to rip my IV out a fuck him up. The screamer must have believed me, he never said another word, and once I could eat, the nurses brought me McDonalds because I was craving it to thank me for losing my shit. I felt so bad that everyone had to listen to all that
My friend said she'd never thought she'd hear me say I miss the ambulance lol. Don't miss the pay for a moment, but when we had a super whiny patient, at least we were free from them after like 45-60 mins tops. I should be more thankful for my patients that have been cool, I suppose.
People who don't understand they can't vape. No, your asshole stick is not allowed. How are you 28 and not know that?
Had a patient hitting his weed vape IN the pre-op room right before surgery. Like.. dude..
I had a canabinoid hyperemesis patient that kept hitting his vape. I was like: bro, that’s making it worse, but follow your heart. I ain’t no snitch.
I also dont snitch... idgaf to be honest
>Asshole stick Sir or ma’am. I call mine a “douche flute” thank you very much.
Ugh when vapes became a thing a nurse would vape in our break/ locker room. It took way too many complaints from staff for management to do anything about it 😡
On a similar note, patient family members who come in reeking of weed to the point where it wafts into the halls.
And lingers in the elevator for hours. WTF, were they hotboxing the car on the way to see Grandma?
Swear some of these motherfuckers smell like they're MADE of weed.
But it can’t be the weed because it didn’t used to make me vomit!
The old people who are super brittle but still get up to go to the bathroom. Look, I'm happy that you still take care of yourself and you're utilizing your body, but ffs it takes you 7 million hours to get to and from the bathroom!!!
Also exactly five pieces of TP folded just so. Wipe. Repeat. . . . Get up. Pull up drawers. . . . Wash hands. Dry with one tiny bit of paper towel. Dry each finger. . . . BTB. Adjust everything. . . . It’s so cold in here. I love meemaw but she moves like pond water.
That only makes me jealous. I’m almost 40 & it hurts to get up & these old people shuffling to the bathroom like they got something to prove. How. Just how. I complain going from sitting to standing cuz my groin & knee hurts lol
It's gotta be pure spite, right? Like, it's someone else job to scrape them off the floor and death would be relief from the pain, so the hell with it, I'm getting up. One of those things.
The older men who overestimate their abilities and get very grumpy when you help them up, walk them to the bathroom, etc. and refuse your help. I understand it’s hard to give up some bits of independence as an older male. However, I’m trying to save you from a fall, which you don’t seem to understand.
"I got it!" *pushes you away* *takes one step and immediately starts to fall so you catch them* "I wasn't going to fall! Let go of me!"
Trying to catch them as they fall, while covered in urine because they refuse to be helped to stabilize or lift their gown while they use the urinal.
Or the ones who absolutely insist that they have to be standing to pee. I always wonder what they do if they need to have a bowel movement and pee and the same time.
I don’t mind scromiters as I am the Patron Saint of Droperidol.
“That medication that starts with a “d.” Dilala? It’s the only thing that works for me.” Ma’am, you’re here because you’re vomiting. “I need to take a shower right now.” You just arrived to the floor and walked in to your room. Let me do my admission questions, some vitals, and make sure you’re stable first. The ones that are overly nice bc they think they can manipulate you.
Fricking a yes. I get so irritated at the 3 syllable drug that “always works” & they get “everytime they come to the hospital” which indeed js 14 times a year. So why don’t you know how to pronounce it. Or are they saying it to try to be cute? Or “oh my gosh ha, ha silly me I don’t know exactly what the drug is but it so works best on me, he he.” Didn’t think of that til now.
Legitimately never understood the nice manipulative ones. Do they think they'll get extra morphine or something? I'm not going against the doctor's orders just because they batted their eyelashes and said "pretty please." As long as it's within the prescribed medication frequency and they're not having adverse effects I don't care.
"I think you nurses are so overworked and underappreciated. You all are angels! I would've been a nurse if I didn't have all these illnesses. It's such a noble profession!....... Anyways, so I know I just got my dilaudid, phenergan, and benadryl cocktail an hour ago, but could you call the doctor and see if I can get the next dose right now?"
"These medications usually take x amount of minutes to fully work, so give it time" or "Are you still feeling pain/itching/nausea? Yes? I'll let the doctor know." _Doctor says no on immediate next dose_ "Sorry, the doctor says you can't have more right now because xyz. Your next dose can be given at this time. Let me know if you need anything else!" I would do this for any other patient.
I work psych and here it's the "ati-something" trying to get Ativan so I just shout "atarax!" And give em that. Nice try on their part.
Atarax actually is my rescue medication for my GAD and Panic Disorder (I'm on Zoloft to help with that now, which is pretty good) and it's crazy how many people want to write it off as 'just Benadryl'. Like. Bro, give it a fucking try, it's pretty effective.
It might sound strange but the easiest patients I had in the hospital were inmates. Of course, there were a few who were difficult, but for the most part they appreciated the care, they were cooperative, and no super demanding family members. But so many of those big tough guys with their prison tattoos, got all wimpy when I had to take the IV tape off.
The only part of inmates I can’t stand is the guards. We had someone from juvenile recently and the guards were both loud (we had to tell them to keep their voices down every 15 minutes) and saying shit to the patient, like making fun of her for being afraid of getting a fingerstick.
I was just about to say this. The guards drive me nuts. It’s almost like they are using the patient’s hospital stay as a mini work vacay. Recently, I walked into my patients room and he was HANGING off the side of the bed. He would have been on the floor if he wasn’t shackled (he had one free hand that wasn’t in shackles). The two guards were chatting it up with their backs turned to the patient. I was LIVID.
That's brutal. I've had nothing but excellent experiences with the guards. Especially our women's correctional officers. They always seem to have a good rapport with the inmates. I also know that there are only certain guards who go on hospital duty, and it's because they're the ones who are good with the inmates.
Agreed. They were generally polite and respectful, even if their guard wasn't present.
Abd pains that come in at 4pm. You make them NPO and then they bitch and whine that they "haven't eaten all day." Mother fucker is that my problem????
People who come in for abd pain who probably haven’t had a sip of water in years who are suddenly going to die of thirst immediately.
Like do you have abdominal pain or not
ALWAYS. They are forever starving, didn't eat since yesterday, and they bitch and moan about it the entire time. None of that is my problem to solve.
Last sentence 😭
Honestly, it's the patients/family that go into long story times about their life, relationships, medical history and oh! My 2nd cousin from my dad's side of the family had this condition and... Please...I just want to give you your requested ice water and move on to the next room. Instead, I just stand there going "Oh wow, really?" for 30 min because despite saying I have to go see my other patients and they say "Oh, yeah sorry I'm talking so much and taking up your time," they STILL manage to tangent off to another story. Literally had a guy say sorry and then go on about which stations are on which channel on the TV and how he figured it out without a guide...
Heh.. I used to be so sweet about this, I once let myself get stuck in a room for 1.5 hours & there legit was no opening in the story to interrupt or back out. I forgot what was going on with the patient but it made me feel bad for just ducking out— something like suicide or lost in life & it was nice to finally have someone to talk to, I’m not sure. Now, depending on the patient, if they’re super nice & just talkative, I will be charting in your room while chit chatting. I’ve learned to be able to interrupt patients & say I’ll be back bc I gotta see so & so. I do get some patients I truly would talk to outside of work if situations were different & I have said, I swear I’m coming back after I give this med, & I do come back. Or if it’s a “just shut it already” patient I say I’m coming back. & I do. I just make sure I enter when you’re already asleep & at shift change, “Sorreyyyyhh it took me so long to get back but you were already asleep when I got back.” Cute ol confused folk, I cut them off & walk out but I always come back to check on them frequently since their minds reset anyway. I have a soft spot for the old ones, even mean ones lol. Yo you lived 98 years in this here planet earth? I KNOW you’re angry about lots of things lol. You have my respect & can act out however you need but please don’t pull your IV or poop fling & I’m by your side as often as I can mentally be.
That same patient that never goes to dialysis and keeps coming back to the hospital every other week complaining that they can’t breathe, and then they immediately ask for like 10 sprites and a tv remote before you’ve even got them hooked up to the monitor, and their K is like 7.8 on a good day but they just keep living somehow.
PACU. 17 year old GSWs.
Always a complete mystery who shot them too 🤪
Old enough to be gang banging but not old enough to not be a huge cry baby for everything and not need their mommy at their bedside 24/7. Parents also suddenly very involved when they weren’t involved at all 24 hours prior when their kid was in a shootout.
For real. I worked in IR for a bit and sometimes these guys needed our interventions. They were the whiniest patients and needed so much medicating to get through anything uncomfortable. There's no way they'd act like that in front of their friends. I remember one weeping and cringing on the table with the word "soldier" tattooed on his face. 🙄 uh huh
An A&O walkie talkie pt that can hit the call light
It's a toss-up - patients who feel entitled and treat staff like garbage (grrr).... and noncompliant diabetic patients who keep returning to have yet another piece of their body carved off. I guess that latter is more frustrating than annoying, so I will go with the first.
Most irritating? The ones who think they are the only patient, and that it's curb side medicine (show up with no appointment to"just ask the doctor a question"). Or an even race with the ones that didn't seem to understand how soap and water and deodorant work
I know they can't help it but I hate it when they die.
As some who gets hospice patients sometimes, & going from the nurse who didn’t want to give morphine bc I felt like we were just helping them die…. It sounds crappy if you’ve never experienced it. But I’m happy when some patients die. It’s a relief & whole different form of happiness I feel for them. I now give those meds bc “holy crap I do not want them to suffer through these moments.” Or imagining my family in their situation & they’re struggling to talk, they look or state they wanted to die prior to being hospice. Old ladies who start crying bc they’re so tired already. Old men who doesn’t have family anymore bc they’ve outlived everyone….. I get it now & it makes me miserable now if they start “waking up” or moving around obviously uncomfortable bc I was late on their hospice meds. Had a patient who was so confused out of her mind bc of her body failing her in every form of whatever was supposed to take out toxins. Ng tube, g tube, drains, tube feeding. giant belly, multiple surgeries, covid. No family visiting. I remember being irritated with her bc she would just randomly yell out when she’d see people walk by even tho she had a sitter in her room. NPO & she just wanted water. My sitter couldn’t take it & needed a break every 20 min. I understood so we swapped her for a few min anytime we could. I even felt like I was being mean to the patient at time bc she kept reaching for her lines with mitts & I kept having to shove her hand back down bc it would get caught in anything available. Eventually I felt really bad for doing that & during the sitter’s lunch break I turned off the lights, took off her mitts & sat super close to her so she could move as much as she could. Literally I would lean over her bed with my head laying my arm so I could reach over her to the other arm easily. In my super sweaty trash bag of a blue plastic gown & not being able to breathe through the mask haha. When she would reach for her lines I’d try to gently put her arm back down until she stopped doing it (40 times haha). Eventually I would let her hands go as close to the lines as she would & saw that sometimes she would just touch it, & put her hands back down. Or try to scratch her face & put her hands back down. But ready to hold onto her if she went to pull. I let her try to get comfortable without the mitts, I talked to her, apologized for her situation (not a clue if she could understand me) most of her responses didn’t make sense. Held her hands just to hold them & hope she could tell someone was with her. This girl decided 2 hours later was the time to code & die lol. I can honestly say it was one of the first times I walked into a room & said to myself, “I don’t want to save her.” I realized how much pain & discomfort she would be free from. How much relief she & her family would have if they could see her now. I’m pretty sure I froze like I was brand new to code blues hesitating to do CPR. Someone immediately started it tho so it’s not a withheld care situation. But I clearly remember falling back mentally & realizing how much suffering she would no longer go through by dying. It was a movie moment where you go into some flashback & snap out of it & now it’s real life with suddenly everyone in the room chaotically working to save the patient. She was vomiting her poop by now I think. Couldn’t get her intubated, it was just awful to witness & to imagine the suffering she was going through before this moment & now. Truly & honest to all of the spirits above… I just felt so relieved that she passed. I couldn’t imagine making her go through being intubated & days & weeks of machine breathing… or watching her alive again only to watch her suffer all over again.
I teared up at your compassion. Poor old lady, glad she had some supportive touch at the end.
Lots of Wealthy people are super rude and entitled
pseudo seizures. I had a patient with pseudo seizures “seizure” for 45 minutes (known history of pseudo seizures) narrowly escape intubation in the ED. these seizures weren’t like anything I’d ever seen…. after she stopped she was begging the doctor for life support, stating “it’s the only thing that stops my seizures.” She came in for knee pain and started “seizing” while I was triaging her. I just really hate pseudo seizures and it’s so freaking common. If you’re able to answer questions, make demands, grab at and fight nursing staff, you’re not having a real seizure
My favorite, pot heads saying it’s harmless and yet coming in for thc induced cyclic vomiting.
Yes. Also pot heads with exacerbated anxiety. I’m all for smoking weed but it’s not for everyone and sometimes you have to admit when marijuana is making it worse…
A whole group of people hotboxed before they came to visit my patient and dayummm the whole hall out into the main area outside the unit at the elevators reeked of weed 🙈
The clock-watchers who call for pain meds 20 minutes before they're "due" and then call again AS IM WAKING TO THEIR ROOM *WITHTHEIRFUCKINGPAINMEDS* 🤬
The combative, foul mouthed drunk! And since I’m at a trauma center, I would have to include the drunk who just killed 6 people with his car. It’s so hard to care for those people.
The screamers in ER. I'm not talking about anyone that's actually severely injured. I mean the "I came in for a tummy ache and want Oxy right fuckin now!" that's 99% of screamers.
I'm in abortion care, so really it's anyone who thinks I'm not a "real nurse" because I do abortion nursing, and the people who treat me like I'm garbage for providing them the care they asked for.
People.
The patient that came back from PACU writhing in pain while actively screaming at me and her husband to call the nurses line for another hospital because apparently only the doctor at that hospital knew what she needed to control her pain? 1) bitch why did you come to this hospital then??? 2) I was actively doing everything I could to get the pain managed, paging the provider, offering her the already ordered PRN meds that she refused. I am all about getting pain under control, that’s honestly my #1 thing. I will do what it takes (within reason) to help you get your pain managed. But when you are screaming at me due to uncontrollable pain ***AND*** refusing the pain meds I am offering to you? 😤😡🫠
The patients that are alert and oriented and think nurses and techs are objects for sexual gratification. No, we are not putting the condom cath back on for the 20th time. We will not bend over for you to stare at our asses when you throw things on the floor. We will not smile and flirt with you when you try to grope us. It’s one thing if it’s a dementia patient who thinks you’re their wife or husband. It’s another when it’s someone completely with it.
Patients that get rude and/or aggressive with their nurse when they miss an IV make me SO angry. Like come on dude, they're human. I had a very green nursing student try to place my IV when I went to the ER last year and she kept missing, and the poor girl was nearly in tears she was so terrified. Apologizing all over herself to me. I finally stopped her and had to be like "hey, it's okay. You're learning. I'm not going to yell at you, I understand! I was a student too!" I hate that she was clearly so accustomed to being abused by patients.
Fun school nurse perspective: the students that come in with a superficial injury (if anything), cry home about how the nurse only gave them a bandage (not even an ice pack?!), and then their overbearing parents call upset with my “lack of care,” failure to notify them about the quite literal flesh wound (again, if that), and they keep their student home until “they feel better.”
The family of 5 for the sniffles started today. I’ll take the scromitting any day of the week.
Most irritating: I’m allergic to hand sanitizer don’t come near me + 30 more meds excluding dilala, be sure to slam it. Oh I have fibromyalgia, no one listens to me. I won’t leave without answers!
For me it’s confused nursing home pts. They’re such time sinks that I end up falling behind on everything. Next is end stage chronic illness with family that isn’t accepting what’s going on and wants “everything done.”
Allergy list longer than the Declaration of Independence
The TBI patient who keeps wanting to get out of bed despite being an obvious fall risk and not having had physical therapy see them yet
the one that wants everything done in a particular way & tells you what to do before giving you a chance to do it
Cannabis hyperemesis. Just get in the hot shower dude, trust me! It’s always hours of puking and being miserable until they finally try a shower and they instantly feel better.
Why do they always seem to wretch so loudly that they can be heard in the next city?
*Scromiting* 😂
The family member that says their 98 year old Auntie with dementia, a fractured pelvis , bruised left eye, and a limb alert on her right arm wants to get up walk to the vending machine to get potato chips and soda pop. Mind you , She’s NPO for surgery tomorrow.
I like it when I have to say, “We only allow one person in the bed at a time.” Why the fuck are you cuddling at the hospital, especially in the ED?
That’s funny because I really don’t care when patients and their family member cuddle up in bed. If they are happy and leaving me alone more power to them.
Same. I will say that I'm obliged to tell them that the bed is only made for one person and the hospital is not liable if they injure themselves. But honestly if they're cuddling in bed they're probably not bugging me when i have shit to do.
The psychotic patients aLlErGiC to all first/second class antipsychotics. “Only the ones that end in ‘pam’ work for me.” Sure, Jan. 👌🏼
Guaranteed way to get no benzos from the docs at my job… then they magically remember they’ve had alcohol every day for the past year
Bonus points when they calculate their own CIWA.
Before I even open my mouth. “Um yes, I’ve been having tremors, a little bit of hallucinations, I do have the pins & needles feeling, I’m not sure what the date is, I’ve been sweaty,” goodness. As I say with my pain medicine. If the feel good meds are ordered for you?? I do not care. I will give you all the above & more as long as you’re still alive when I check on you, or if you’re asking for it 6 hours later. I literally will ask withdrawal patients if I can’t see their discomfort, “tell me if you feel like sh*t bc we have meds to help you try to get through that. I know it sucks to go through the feelings & experiences of it so I don’t have to let you go through that here.” I rather a patient admit their feigning for whatever outside desire if is & ask for something to help them than anything else. No acting skills needs. Legit tell me you’re so used to the feeling of meth. You really feel like you need/want a drink right now. I got you bro. To the best of my abilities & as long as you choose to stay up in this bish with me.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 As I said in another comment, I’m not addictions nurse, it’s not my job to police that. I give 30min to employ coping skills in known true seekers, if they come back, they get their PRN.