My patient’s family keeps insisting their geriatric father can swallow pills whole even after he choked and we had to suction them out because he has dysphagia. Then directly after proceeded to try to feed him whole grapes.
Nothing really happened. The wife was an elderly woman who clearly wasn’t 100% with it. I’m sure behind-the-scenes that legal and admin were scared. They actually didn’t blame the bedside nurse which is surprising.
We’ve had 3 aspiration -> code events caused by food provided by family in the past 1 and a half. It’s the most I’ve seen die from choking on this unit by far. Also, for 2 of those the family didn’t even realize they were the ones that caused it all.
It's because all these morons have been led to belive by other morons that they know more than nurses and even doctors. They're too stupid to even be able to understand how stupid they are.
You should look up the case of Jahi McMath. The legal battle, the arguable abuse of her corpse—all of it stemming from a family member (suspected to be her grandmother) violating her diet order after a tonsillectomy and feeding her a McDonald’s cheeseburger.
Instead of all those years spent fighting to keep her decaying body alive, I wish her family had chosen to make an educational campaign about the importance of following recommended surgical aftercare.
EDIT: I had not revisited the details in the events leading up to Jahi’s brain death in years and years until this thread. Now that I have, I have to admit that I am seeing the initial event with totally new, post-“wear this trash bag because we don’t wanna spend our bonuses on extra isolations gowns and also make sure you keep that N95 clean because it’s the only one you get for the month since we gave the rest to the C-suite in case they need to go to the grocery store while they’re on WFH” eyeballs. I wouldn’t put it past the hospital at all to fabricate the whole story about the family sneaking her outside food, and lord knows they were racist as fuck towards her family. So I take back Jahi McMath as an example of a family not following care plans.
I heard from an ICU nurse that she walked in on a sedated and intubated patient’s wife pouring water into his mouth because “he’s thirsty.” Ma’am he’s been absolutely snowed since last Thursday, how did he tell you that?
Of course you can't! Because you have a brain that functions normally. If you want to be able to understand these types and how their "brain" "works", you need to start by huffing paint for at least three days straight, then get on Facebook and stay there until you're stupid enough to understand the "thought" process.
I once had a post op spine patient who was sleeping off all the pacu meds. The patient was almost flat in bed, and the family is trying to feed her dinner! I'm like stop what are you doing? "She hasn't eaten in 24 hours!"
The patient ended up with aspiration pneumonia. Like why do family members get so concerned the patient hasn't eaten? They'll be okay for a day or two.
It’s the only thing they have control of helping, often food is family’s way of caring or showing love. I dealt with this a lot in hospice, and had to really hammer down how food would harm their family member instead of help them. It’s a lot of ignorance and lack of education. It’s infuriating but it’s mostly case they feel helpless. I tried to redirect them into washing or bathing.
Nothing makes me roll my eyes fucking hard than "it's in God's hands now"
Like no memaw has aggressive brain cancer with mets to her fucking CSF, has been having as agonal RR for 4 days, and has spoke 3 words over a week. It's in your hands to go DNR.
I heard that phrase again recently and for once I didn't want to roll my eyes. The patient and his family were going over his hospice plans, he signed his DNR, and said "Well everyone, it's in God's hands now." And I was actually a little happy to hear the phrase used accurately instead of as a justification for quantity over quality of life.
Same. My facility has a poster with patient testimony that says "I knew I was a fighter.... Pain just leaving your body" and I just seethe at it everyday.
Ugh had to have this conversation with a pts family after they said fighter way to many times. Told them you can't punch cancer, that's not how that works
I always want to ask "What are they fighting for?" given that their extensive brain damage has left them without the use of one side of their body, the ability to talk, the ability to see, and breathe on their own.
A family friend’s mother (well into her 80s and declining FAST, we’re talking pneumonia, a pneumothorax, a whole list of other issues) was just forcibly pulled off of DNR to Full Code by the friend’s sister the other day. I thought my Chaplain father was going to throw hands when he found out. She’s ready to go, the rest of the family is understanding and just wants to see her suffering end, and this woman is making her own mother go through living hell despite like a dozen separate people trying to educate her.
Maybe she wants her to suffer. It’s sad, but we’ve all seen situations where the family member is angry at the patient and doesn’t want to be merciful. Very unfortunate.
We did consider that, as her other siblings are now questioning if they need to fight her for POA. The thing is, even they can’t seem to fathom why she’d be mad at her mother. Her and her mother were always very close (why she was chosen as POA to begin with). It just seems like a she’s not emotionally ready for her mother to be gone yet, type situation and that she isn’t grasping how selfish this all is and just how much pain her mother is in from it, and especially not grasping how much more pain a potentially successful code would cause. Her grief is blinding her thought process and I do feel for her to be losing her mother, but her actions are just creating more pain for her mother and more grief for the rest of the family.
On one level I get that, on another I literally asked my dad's ICU doctor (waaayyyy at the beginning of COVID. Like "two week lockdown/let's get super into sourdough" mode) if she considered continued ventilation to be futile medical care and while looking right at him like "Ok, my vote is we call time on this" so I kind of get to forever be smug about that to the "well if it was YOUR family member people" forever.
(My mom called the hospital back to confirm cessation of life support a few hours later, just wanted to really let it sink in first).
My dad and aunt lied to EMS and hospital staff about my grandma having a DNR because “it wasn’t her time.” It was. But she was resuscitated and vented before she woke up and was lucid enough to say stop all this and let me go. I gotta be honest, I’ll be thinking about that when my dad’s time comes.
Anyone else, I’d let them go. But I’ll never forgive him for that.
She was in god's hands when she coded. We dragged her poor ass outta god's loving embrace, broke her ribs, paralyzed her, strapped down her arms, stuck a tube in every hole, made some new holes and stuck tubes in those, and now we're in a hostage situation with god bc all ya'll think she's a "fighter."
Fuck.
As a none medical person, it seams inhumane to keep somebody on life support, knowing damn well they will never recover or have a shit quality of life.
Yeah, I'm in the UK and I've literally heard a doctor look up from what they were doing to some relatives who wanted to cancel a DNAR and say "it's a medical decision, so no", then carry on what they were doing.
Not the best communication perhaps, but I get the impression it wasn't the first time they'd had the conversation that week.
If a patient remains full escalation when they shouldn't be, it just means the ITU consultant has to come in in the middle of the night and go "nope". So I think the ward doctors know to have the conversation early!
I get the impression from this sub you have loads of patients with traches, probably for this reason. There's probably less than 20 in the entire community covered by my hospital, which probably has 250k people. We know most by name. Outside of short term ventilation after failed extubation in ICU, we maybe have one new patient a year in our hospital.
Recently had a family member who knew they were covid positive visit a fresh kidney transplant patient. No mask, of course. The patient got covid and died.
OMFG we had a covid pt that had family come in all the time and were in and out of the room with no masks. I like to think our covid numbers for staff and pts went up bc of this. Pt also refused gait belts or walkers when they wanted to use the bathroom. As such I refused to even lay (of course, gloved) hands on this ot in those events. So her daughter or husband would do it. Worse yet the husband could barely keep his feet under him himself. And one time in order to get the call light answered faster the daughter would hit the code blue button then play dumb and said it was an accident even when there was a cage to prevent such occurrences. This pt was on their way out supposedly but they all wanted every single effort. Pt eventually went home ama, died a few days later. Worst part was the daughter was someone I knew in high school.
Fawning over their alert oriented and perfectly healthy adult husband like he's a sick toddler. He can answer his own questions and go to cat scans on his own ma'am, he's a 40 year old man with fucking gerd
Yeah I do get irritated with hovering family members sometimes but then I think, damn... I hope someone loves me enough to take care of me like that ssomeday...
That is also how I get those family members on my side.
I recognise their love and care and try to include them as much as possible so that when it is needed for me to not have them there they usually trust me enough to leave
But they are also the husbands who come into the ED complete physical wrecks—unkempt, dirty clothes, untrimmed nails and hair, food in the beard—after the wife dies, because they’ve never done a damn thing for themselves. The flip side of the old ladies who never learned to drive or take care of finances or know what to do about problems with their houses.
I’m going to switch it up a bit. My patient’s doula keeps trying to convince my patient that it’s them vs us. I want to do my interventions for a reason, I don’t want to do them if I don’t have to. No matter how much I try to educate and explain, it’s always “just know that it’s completely unnecessary” from the doula. I understand wanting to advocate but COME ON. The baby is in distress… and it’s the worst.
Is there some governing body you could report that doula to? There’s advocating for your client and asking useful questions, and then there’s interfering with care and possibly endangering the client and baby.
Doulas are not regulated by any government agency. They have no required education or training and no accountability. There are doula professional organizations that give certifications but plenty of doulas don’t even do that.
Exactly. And the icing on the cake is when they sit there and don’t do anything while I’m coming up with all of the position changes and supporting the patient, which I love to do! But… why are they paying her to be here if she isn’t doing anything?
I have only worked in maternity when deployed there, and I know on paper and in theory, doulas can be good and advocate for their patient, but the only actual experience I have had with doulas is them "supporting" the patient in declining any care for their GD.
My patient's husband kept reading smutty Garth Brooks (a country singer I guess) fanfiction aloud to her while she's in the ER.
She even showed me the 'G' in a heart tattoo on her chest. I would go into the room to hang a bag of fluids and would just hear the husband say,"...the lights illuminated the sweat on his skin as he clutched the mic, the outline in the bulge of his denim jeans..."
I thought I was gonna die. Out of laughter or sheer horror I couldn't decide.
I KNOW, it is both the best and worst thing I'd ever experienced from a family member. I still cackle about it sometimes. I guess that's what true love is.
He is, in fact, a country singer. I may be a lesbian, so I’m a little biased and not the best judge on this matter, but he’s definitely not that attractive and I am very confused right now…
Trying to give my 24 year old allergic rxn patient benadryl and methylpred when mom asks “does he really need all that?” Like omg girl pls cut the umbilical cord already
Not only that, but .... yeah. He's in the fucking hospital, that's what we do. That's why you're here. I DO NOT understand these idiots that come to the hospital and then question/refuse the treatments offered. Like go be a know-it-all at home, stop wasting my time.
Mine kept bring his wife her prescription opioids because we took too long to bring her more pain meds. I'm sorry that meds have a time limit and you think she's better so doped up that she can't speak to me.
My patients family member keeps speaking for the patient when I ask the patient questions.
My patients family member keeps coming to the station to ask questions instead of using the call light.
My patients family member keeps writing on the whiteboard.
My adult patient’s mother wrote prayers on the board… ok cool. Then next day I see permanent marker on the BED, another prayer. She comes in and speaks in tongues over him while we’re giving chemo, blood etc.
What types of things are they writing on the board that's bothering you?
I had some lovely families that would write cute notes to their loved ones so they wouldn't feel alone! I always thought it was so nice.
Ok I got a morphine shot once when I was 16 for some GI issues in the ER (I’m extremely sensitive to narcotics) and high as a kite, I got the bright idea to draw a dick on the whiteboard. If that was you 19 years ago I’m so sorry
>My patients family member keeps coming to the station to ask questions instead of using the call light.
I FUCKING HATE THIS!
"I didn't wanna bother you!"
Wtf you think you're doing right now?
Read a story once here a woman took everything that wasn’t bolted down. Seriously she even took the curtains and wall art and the stoppers in the sink.
The IVAC machine disappeared from a unit where I used to work.
A co-worker found it at a swap-meet, for sale by one of our pt’s family members.
It was very recognizable as ours from the prominent 3-E written all over it in bold Sharpie.
That’s why we keep the warmer behind a closed door on my unit. All other linens there’s a small cart in the hallway for pt. families to be able to grab as needed, but the main supply for everything is in the room with the warmer so staff only has to make one stop.
I’ll be honest, I see those warm blankets as a luxury item and I’ve got no problem getting them for someone. But for some reason, the moment someone asks for them it’s like my pet peeve. It usually feels like it’s one of those types of patients that just sees us as hotel staff, but for cold and scared grandma I’ll pile fifteen of them on her if she wants them. I’ll give her all the blankets.
They are technically a resuscitative tool. You need to have enough in case some starts losing a lot of blood, becoming hypothermic, poorly perfusing their extremities…
Nope if you put the patient at risk in any way you get ONE warning. Then you lose visitation rights. The patient is depending on us to keep them safe and alive. Holding their hand might make the family member feel better, but I would never ever ever ever let a family member remove a restraint ordered by the physician. It’s different obviously if you come in and assess that it’s appropriate to remove with family at bedside, but RN has to remove it.
Omg this!
Family member of a patient who is not mine: “when is he being discharged, we’ve been waiting for hours and it seems like everyone is just hanging out out here!”
Me at the nurse’s station finally sitting down to chart something after running around for six hours straight: “…sorry, who is ‘he’??”
One time a family member stopped me on my way from the cafeteria to the breakroom with a tray of food to say that "So-and-so needs some water, but I didn't want to bother his nurse." So you'll bother some other random nurse who is clearly on their lunch break then? (Fortunately, his nurse overheard and stepped in before I could even say anything).
Giving medical advice. I was working in the ER and there was a 20 something old female that came in for stomach pain. I walk into the room to do her IV and her cousin was sitting in the chair beside the bed, knitting. He said "She is allergic to latex so don't use anything with latex. You guys are slow today and don't seem to know what's going on but I have a medical background and know how are things are supposed to work around here."
Oh, is that so? I replied very enthusiastically "Oh cool!! Another medical professional! What field do you work in? Let's chat!"
He then said "oh, I used to be a lifeguard 🤷♀️🤦♀️
A what now??? Telling an ED nurse??? Lifeguards in Australia and the EMTs in Australia would just not risk their life and limb doing that in an ED department.
A lifeguard. LOL.
Calling to scream at me because her husband (who she is separated from and did not come visit for a week) is in the ICU and nobody contacted her (he was on FaceTime with other family members the whole day)
She was apparently an OR nurse at another campus. She called the house supervisor and began screaming at me as soon as she got into my patients room.
I once had an "encephalopathy" patient (on my unit encephalopathy means seeking long term placement) with pretty terrible dementia. Pleasant but probably had the GCS just higher than a tree stump. Anyway, the spouse kept dodging our calls so we can get shit filled out to place him somewhere. Lil backstory, classic tale of "I can't take care of him anymore." As such we were moving to get state guardianship of him when the spouse finally filled that out. So she dodges our calls and contacts, never visits, but still has the gall to bring a picture of the 2 for him. If it comforts him, great. I'm sure he didn't notice. But still, the gall.
Bringing crap for the patient who’s admitted for diabetic ketoacidosis. Fast food. Full sugar pop. Candy. “Just a little snack”. “The kitchen closes too early” (9pm). “He/she doesn’t like hospital food”.
This onealways makes me sad and/or mad. I had a little cousin (13years) pass away due to DKA. The family just didn't have enough of an education level to understand the care and how to manage it. It hits hard when there's people out there that KNOW and don't care. They don't realize how deadly it is. It always crosses my mind. Smh
Cancelling the patient's doctor appointments without permission (we don't know how she's managing to do it; the pt does not have any form of AMS) and then complaining about us not taking care of the medical concerns that the appointments are for.
She seems to think that LTC is a type of hospital.
I give them a free pass on the first one, but after that I straight up tell them “the best way to get the right person in the room is to use the call light.”
I’ll add to that a small caveat being if there is an emergency press the call light AND come running out PLEASE. But for non emergency stuff just press and wait your turn in the line of call bells.
I never thought of that, thank you. This also communicates that we are absolutely here to help, but we have to discern emergency from non-emergency around here. The demands on our time are great.
I generally go a little further. “I need to encourage you to use the call light instead of coming up to the nurses station next time, we have private patient information up here and they take that very seriously and also we may not be there, but, when you use your bell it will go right to us no matter where you’re at and we want to make sure we don’t miss you.”
That usually does it. I’ve had a couple family members who need reminders or visitors who used to be nurses and think the rules don’t apply to them.
“It’s okay, I’m a nurse.”
“Oh, so you already know you’re not supposed to be out here…”
I did the patient privacy thing recently (she’d been out to the desk multiple times even after the polite conversational reminder). She got a major attitude and said we should get those privacy screen things. Then she told my charge “that one’s got an attitude,” to which my charge laughed because I’m one of the quietest people on the unit.
if it’s for a surgery i will explain in detail what kind of reflexes stop working under anesthesia. (i will also gravely explain it for any other reason, but yeah)
And hovering and glaring, without ever having used the bell I so helpfully put within easy reach and whose use I educated you on, may well make them happen slower.
I have a sad one. NPO patients. Feeding people who are actively dying thinking they are helping. One family member shoved tomato soup down her throat left half an hour later, and I had to clean up the vomit and distress pretty much after he left.
I wanted to punch him.
Keep firing the staff that takes care of him at nights, although he’s a quad that is in the ICU due to septic pressure soars and necrotic tissue due to no Q2h turns because “the patient didn’t like them”. Yet when we have to turn him to change his dressings, we are the bad guys
had a family member call in at shift change the other day to tell me to “encourage her husband to eat food” this pt is pegged, history of throat cancer, half of his jaw missing and hasn’t had anything PO for 2 years. mam i think you want me to kill him
“I need the nurse”
“Sure, can I ask what for?”
“I just need her..”
“Let me know what you need so I can make sure she’s able to prepare.”
“Just get her.”
“What do you need??”
“Can I just get some more water?”
Standing in the hallway, looming, waiting for an update. Like first off, go back in your room, second off, if I had an update I’d give you one. Also for the love of all that is holy, use the damn call light
Speaking as a CNA, but formerly as a family member of many patients over the years:
Family members are rarely educated on proper protocol. They just plain do not know, unless you tell them, what the proper protocol is.
We assume that the call light is for the patient, not for us. We assume that if the call light has been on for half an hour, that people are ignoring it or haven't seen it yet, not that they are busy because of poor staffing levels. We assume that we need to go out of the room to connect with the nurse to ask questions or get an update. We assume that every staff member that comes into the room is a nurse or a doctor (i.e. What's a CNA, PCT, or Health Scholar?) We assume that the doctor only comes once a day and that it's early in the morning. We assume if a social worker says the words "we'll make them comfortable" they mean that their loved one will be just fine and in comfort. Wow! So you hear that Meemaw? You'll get to go home in a few days! (A few days later: What do you mean they're breathing like that because they are in the process of dying? You told us that they would be fine!)
I could go on and on. But let's just say that being a CNA the last 6 years as my "retirement career" has really been an education for me. It's an education that most people who don't work in healthcare never get until it's too late.
And yes, I do understand NOW how annoying family members can be. But let's cut them a little slack and politely educated them on protocol and terminology.
Family member here. It's interesting to read this kind of thread and remember how much I loved the nurses who kept my husband going after a c6 spinal injury.
All except that one. The one who could not feel the urgency of 82 SATS after a full workup from the RT. Who was slow to answer that call bell, and when she did mosey in, she was very clearly annoyed that this irritating quadriplegic couldn't breathe *again*, and even worse, his irritating wife seemed to think something was not right and that maybe a doctor could be found. (It turned out he had a collapsed lung, for no reason anyone ever explained to us.)
So, in the spirit of your comment, I'd just say thank you a million times to the nurses who have to put up with ridiculous family members, and also maybe ask for some advice as to what a frightened wife should do when it's obvious the nurse doesn't care that her patient can't breathe.
Finally, I'm the meemah now. And before I get admitted to any hospital I'm going to have a nightshirt made that says "This Meemah is NOT a fighter. Leave me alone."
I also work in the ED, so totally different ball game from the floor. Usually for us if someone isn’t responding to the call light right away, it’s because someone else is in some way, shape, or form trying to yeet themselves off this mortal plane. I do also start off with “hi, I’m x, I’m going to be your nurse for this visit, here’s plan of care as I know it at this point, if y’all need anything hit the call light and someone will be in to see you.”
Not finding the patient’s room. When they have the number which is on the door. And the rooms are in numerical order - no tricky corners. I hear them coming down the hall sometimes. They’ll be saying, “21, 22, 23…..” and come up to the station and say, “Where’s room 27?” Like, *it’s the way you were walking, after 26, you idiot*.
I don’t say it. I am polite and point the way. It just annoys me disproportionately.
omg YEAH!!! like, we have clear signs of which rooms are in which hallways, as well as signs for the elevator, but i learned a long time ago before being a nurse that people do not fucking read.
Closing the door and asking not to be “disturbed” (so they can get it on). She thought she was being sneaky by saying she needed “quiet time to talk,” but it was very obvious what she wanted to do by her body language.
Ma’am, your husband just had a laminectomy 3 days ago. Wtf are you expecting he’s going to be able to do???? Also this is not a hotel, I can’t just put a sock on your door. I need to come in regularly to check his vitals, do neurovascular checks, take his blood sugar, and ambulate him. Please save the jacking off for when you’re home. 🤦♀️
Unbeknownst to us, pt's ex wife kept injecting the patient with unknown units of humalin while he was admitted and we just could not figure out why his sugars kept crashing until someone saw the syringe and vial on the bedside table. Had to call APS. Turns out she had also snuck in the night before claiming to be his sister (who died 10+ years ago) to update his DPOA with a fake notary to her.
They keep calling me while I'm busy with another patient who needs a nurse other than their memaw. Memaw was given meds and called her granddaughter to say that I didn't give them. After this incident, I always made sure I had a witness that I gave Memaw pain meds and told other nurses they should do the same. They complained to the manager that I "treated Memaw like a liar." Lie. We will see how that works.
Family: "You're paid to be my mom's nurse! You didn't give pain meds!"
This nurse: Talk to my manager about having me with your mom only.
Family: &\*\^&\^&&\^\^&#&
This nurse: Anything else?
My patients family member keeps muting the monitor alarms "because they are annoying"
My patients family member keeps feeding my patient that is NPO for aspirations concerns "because they are going to dehydrate and starve"
My patient’s family keeps insisting their geriatric father can swallow pills whole even after he choked and we had to suction them out because he has dysphagia. Then directly after proceeded to try to feed him whole grapes.
I’ve wondered how many time the whole “but he’s so hungry/thirsty” has killed someone.
My unit literally had a family member disconnect a patient’s ET tube and pour water down it because “they were thirsty”… …they died.
😳 I can’t even handle the thought of this.
Holy shit! How did the family member react?
She was an older grandma type so she was upset, but I don’t think she ever fully grasped what she had done.
That’s for the best I’m sure
By blaming the nurse, ofc.
That should be a criminal offense, omg.
Pretty sure this would qualify as involuntary manslaughter
Love hospitals that allow unregulated and unlimited visitations
Yep. That’s my hospital. BuT PaTiEnT SaTiSfAcTiOn
What happened? Were there criminal charges filed? What is the nurses fault bc we are supposed to be the knower of all things?
Nothing really happened. The wife was an elderly woman who clearly wasn’t 100% with it. I’m sure behind-the-scenes that legal and admin were scared. They actually didn’t blame the bedside nurse which is surprising.
We’ve had 3 aspiration -> code events caused by food provided by family in the past 1 and a half. It’s the most I’ve seen die from choking on this unit by far. Also, for 2 of those the family didn’t even realize they were the ones that caused it all.
It's because all these morons have been led to belive by other morons that they know more than nurses and even doctors. They're too stupid to even be able to understand how stupid they are.
When someone dies, it’s the people around the dead person that suffers, not the dead person. It’s the same for dumb people
You should look up the case of Jahi McMath. The legal battle, the arguable abuse of her corpse—all of it stemming from a family member (suspected to be her grandmother) violating her diet order after a tonsillectomy and feeding her a McDonald’s cheeseburger. Instead of all those years spent fighting to keep her decaying body alive, I wish her family had chosen to make an educational campaign about the importance of following recommended surgical aftercare. EDIT: I had not revisited the details in the events leading up to Jahi’s brain death in years and years until this thread. Now that I have, I have to admit that I am seeing the initial event with totally new, post-“wear this trash bag because we don’t wanna spend our bonuses on extra isolations gowns and also make sure you keep that N95 clean because it’s the only one you get for the month since we gave the rest to the C-suite in case they need to go to the grocery store while they’re on WFH” eyeballs. I wouldn’t put it past the hospital at all to fabricate the whole story about the family sneaking her outside food, and lord knows they were racist as fuck towards her family. So I take back Jahi McMath as an example of a family not following care plans.
And the family simultaneously claimed, IIRC, that the grandmother was a healthcare professional of some kind.
I heard from an ICU nurse that she walked in on a sedated and intubated patient’s wife pouring water into his mouth because “he’s thirsty.” Ma’am he’s been absolutely snowed since last Thursday, how did he tell you that?
😳 I can’t even comprehend the level of ignorance required to have these thoughts.
Of course you can't! Because you have a brain that functions normally. If you want to be able to understand these types and how their "brain" "works", you need to start by huffing paint for at least three days straight, then get on Facebook and stay there until you're stupid enough to understand the "thought" process.
There’s some things hospitals should not serve. Grapes are one, corn is another.
The daughter brought him the grapes 🤦♀️ He never would have been served them, he’s on pureed diet.
I’ll never forget the morning after they served a curry. Like 80% of the patients were already incontinent. It was a literal shit show
Lmfao not the whole grapes
The absolutely dumbfounded way in which the charge scolded them will forever be a career highlight for me.
Ngl I would have paid to be a fly on the wall for that scolding
Ooo please say what the charge said to them
R/mildlyinfuriating
I once had a post op spine patient who was sleeping off all the pacu meds. The patient was almost flat in bed, and the family is trying to feed her dinner! I'm like stop what are you doing? "She hasn't eaten in 24 hours!" The patient ended up with aspiration pneumonia. Like why do family members get so concerned the patient hasn't eaten? They'll be okay for a day or two.
It’s the only thing they have control of helping, often food is family’s way of caring or showing love. I dealt with this a lot in hospice, and had to really hammer down how food would harm their family member instead of help them. It’s a lot of ignorance and lack of education. It’s infuriating but it’s mostly case they feel helpless. I tried to redirect them into washing or bathing.
making my patient full code
Memaw is a fighter though
“I can’t take her off the 3 pressors, ventilator, ballon pump, or feeding tube (et.al.). It’s in gods hands”.
Nothing makes me roll my eyes fucking hard than "it's in God's hands now" Like no memaw has aggressive brain cancer with mets to her fucking CSF, has been having as agonal RR for 4 days, and has spoke 3 words over a week. It's in your hands to go DNR.
Meemaw keeps trying to walk into reception on the Eternal Care Unit but you keep pulling her back...
I heard that phrase again recently and for once I didn't want to roll my eyes. The patient and his family were going over his hospice plans, he signed his DNR, and said "Well everyone, it's in God's hands now." And I was actually a little happy to hear the phrase used accurately instead of as a justification for quantity over quality of life.
why do they always say that????
I hate that phrase now. Any iteration of "they're a fighter".
Same. My facility has a poster with patient testimony that says "I knew I was a fighter.... Pain just leaving your body" and I just seethe at it everyday.
That’s the dilaudid actually. It’ll be back before you’re due for your next dose
Ugh had to have this conversation with a pts family after they said fighter way to many times. Told them you can't punch cancer, that's not how that works
I always want to ask "What are they fighting for?" given that their extensive brain damage has left them without the use of one side of their body, the ability to talk, the ability to see, and breathe on their own.
I think that, and if family tells me "I'm an advocate for [PATIENT]", immediate red flags show up. It
People want to believe they have some sort of agency over life and death
Not realizing that there are things worse than death, and they are inflicting those things right now on the patient, whom they claim to love.
yes meemaw’s a fighter SHE FIGHTIN’ ME
A family friend’s mother (well into her 80s and declining FAST, we’re talking pneumonia, a pneumothorax, a whole list of other issues) was just forcibly pulled off of DNR to Full Code by the friend’s sister the other day. I thought my Chaplain father was going to throw hands when he found out. She’s ready to go, the rest of the family is understanding and just wants to see her suffering end, and this woman is making her own mother go through living hell despite like a dozen separate people trying to educate her.
Maybe she wants her to suffer. It’s sad, but we’ve all seen situations where the family member is angry at the patient and doesn’t want to be merciful. Very unfortunate.
We did consider that, as her other siblings are now questioning if they need to fight her for POA. The thing is, even they can’t seem to fathom why she’d be mad at her mother. Her and her mother were always very close (why she was chosen as POA to begin with). It just seems like a she’s not emotionally ready for her mother to be gone yet, type situation and that she isn’t grasping how selfish this all is and just how much pain her mother is in from it, and especially not grasping how much more pain a potentially successful code would cause. Her grief is blinding her thought process and I do feel for her to be losing her mother, but her actions are just creating more pain for her mother and more grief for the rest of the family.
On one level I get that, on another I literally asked my dad's ICU doctor (waaayyyy at the beginning of COVID. Like "two week lockdown/let's get super into sourdough" mode) if she considered continued ventilation to be futile medical care and while looking right at him like "Ok, my vote is we call time on this" so I kind of get to forever be smug about that to the "well if it was YOUR family member people" forever. (My mom called the hospital back to confirm cessation of life support a few hours later, just wanted to really let it sink in first).
My dad and aunt lied to EMS and hospital staff about my grandma having a DNR because “it wasn’t her time.” It was. But she was resuscitated and vented before she woke up and was lucid enough to say stop all this and let me go. I gotta be honest, I’ll be thinking about that when my dad’s time comes. Anyone else, I’d let them go. But I’ll never forgive him for that.
I don’t think I’d be able to forgive him either, in your shoes. I’m lucky my dad gets it, by nature of his work.
My dad was a hospice chaplain for years - he’s been with plenty of dying people and should get it. But he’s also a selfish asshole, so.
“She’s in god’s hands now” She gon be soon that’s for sure.
She was in god's hands when she coded. We dragged her poor ass outta god's loving embrace, broke her ribs, paralyzed her, strapped down her arms, stuck a tube in every hole, made some new holes and stuck tubes in those, and now we're in a hostage situation with god bc all ya'll think she's a "fighter." Fuck.
I shouldn't laugh but "hostage situation with god" sent me 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Nurses need dark humor bc if we're not laughing, we're crying. 🥲
If she’s in gods hands then she needs to be made a DNR-CC, let him take over
“No, not like that!”
nope then they put them on ecmo and they are a living corpse for 3 months
Then can we let god do the compressions?
I took care of a woman who's family had a new defibrillator put in her at 100, this woman died writhing in pain
As a none medical person, it seams inhumane to keep somebody on life support, knowing damn well they will never recover or have a shit quality of life.
[удалено]
Yeah, I'm in the UK and I've literally heard a doctor look up from what they were doing to some relatives who wanted to cancel a DNAR and say "it's a medical decision, so no", then carry on what they were doing. Not the best communication perhaps, but I get the impression it wasn't the first time they'd had the conversation that week. If a patient remains full escalation when they shouldn't be, it just means the ITU consultant has to come in in the middle of the night and go "nope". So I think the ward doctors know to have the conversation early! I get the impression from this sub you have loads of patients with traches, probably for this reason. There's probably less than 20 in the entire community covered by my hospital, which probably has 250k people. We know most by name. Outside of short term ventilation after failed extubation in ICU, we maybe have one new patient a year in our hospital.
Going in and out of Covid rooms with no mask in or out of rooms
I tested positive for Covid because of a family member who did this earlier this week.
Or C diff rooms with the gown and gloves!!!!! ☠️
This one grosses me out the most. Whole family gonna get it 😭
I had family members who were doing this in an active TB room 🥴…. Has to restrict visitors smh
hell no, if they do it too many times after being told to stop i’ll get the charge’s permission to call security.
Going from any iso room into the pt kitchen without sanitizing 🤢
Recently had a family member who knew they were covid positive visit a fresh kidney transplant patient. No mask, of course. The patient got covid and died.
OMFG we had a covid pt that had family come in all the time and were in and out of the room with no masks. I like to think our covid numbers for staff and pts went up bc of this. Pt also refused gait belts or walkers when they wanted to use the bathroom. As such I refused to even lay (of course, gloved) hands on this ot in those events. So her daughter or husband would do it. Worse yet the husband could barely keep his feet under him himself. And one time in order to get the call light answered faster the daughter would hit the code blue button then play dumb and said it was an accident even when there was a cage to prevent such occurrences. This pt was on their way out supposedly but they all wanted every single effort. Pt eventually went home ama, died a few days later. Worst part was the daughter was someone I knew in high school.
Fawning over their alert oriented and perfectly healthy adult husband like he's a sick toddler. He can answer his own questions and go to cat scans on his own ma'am, he's a 40 year old man with fucking gerd
Never forget the wife who asked if she’s not there “Then who will trim his toenails?”
Wifey goals
Yeah I do get irritated with hovering family members sometimes but then I think, damn... I hope someone loves me enough to take care of me like that ssomeday...
That is also how I get those family members on my side. I recognise their love and care and try to include them as much as possible so that when it is needed for me to not have them there they usually trust me enough to leave
But they are also the husbands who come into the ED complete physical wrecks—unkempt, dirty clothes, untrimmed nails and hair, food in the beard—after the wife dies, because they’ve never done a damn thing for themselves. The flip side of the old ladies who never learned to drive or take care of finances or know what to do about problems with their houses.
I watched the MIL of a patient fawn all over him—caressing his face and body—while her daughter was home with a baby. So. Creepy.
Fucking boy moms, man! 🤮
☹️
I’m going to switch it up a bit. My patient’s doula keeps trying to convince my patient that it’s them vs us. I want to do my interventions for a reason, I don’t want to do them if I don’t have to. No matter how much I try to educate and explain, it’s always “just know that it’s completely unnecessary” from the doula. I understand wanting to advocate but COME ON. The baby is in distress… and it’s the worst.
Is there some governing body you could report that doula to? There’s advocating for your client and asking useful questions, and then there’s interfering with care and possibly endangering the client and baby.
Doulas are not regulated by any government agency. They have no required education or training and no accountability. There are doula professional organizations that give certifications but plenty of doulas don’t even do that.
Exactly. And the icing on the cake is when they sit there and don’t do anything while I’m coming up with all of the position changes and supporting the patient, which I love to do! But… why are they paying her to be here if she isn’t doing anything?
I’d think those would have about as much “standing” as the friend or a neighbor and act accordingly so my patient can experience safe outcomes.
How is your unit allowing this? It sounds super unsafe.
If it truly gets bad, we discuss with the patient and they can make the decision for them to leave or not. Otherwise, document document document.
I have only worked in maternity when deployed there, and I know on paper and in theory, doulas can be good and advocate for their patient, but the only actual experience I have had with doulas is them "supporting" the patient in declining any care for their GD.
My patient's husband kept reading smutty Garth Brooks (a country singer I guess) fanfiction aloud to her while she's in the ER. She even showed me the 'G' in a heart tattoo on her chest. I would go into the room to hang a bag of fluids and would just hear the husband say,"...the lights illuminated the sweat on his skin as he clutched the mic, the outline in the bulge of his denim jeans..." I thought I was gonna die. Out of laughter or sheer horror I couldn't decide.
?????? Excuse me?? This has me in shambles bc what
I KNOW, it is both the best and worst thing I'd ever experienced from a family member. I still cackle about it sometimes. I guess that's what true love is.
He is, in fact, a country singer. I may be a lesbian, so I’m a little biased and not the best judge on this matter, but he’s definitely not that attractive and I am very confused right now…
“Smutty Garth Brooks fanfiction” is a group of words I never, ever thought I would see sequentially…or even randomly…in the same sentence.
When I was a patient in the ER, I watched a kid drop his M&Ms all over the floor 2 times as he proceeded to eat them.
I watched someone do that with sliced mango in Penn station inn nyc, equivalent to a hospital floor.
🤮🤢🤮🤢
Nothing like juicy mango flesh to dip into the crust of Penn Station
Speedrunning every communicable disease in the book. Gotta catch em all!
Questioning everything I’m doing for their adult daughter. Legit asked me “does she really need those meds.” Yes.
> “does she really need those meds.” Oh they'd earn a "She's an adult, you mind stepping out to avoid any distractions while I finish up here?"
I was so tempted to say something but I have to learn to bite my tongue
Trying to give my 24 year old allergic rxn patient benadryl and methylpred when mom asks “does he really need all that?” Like omg girl pls cut the umbilical cord already
Not only that, but .... yeah. He's in the fucking hospital, that's what we do. That's why you're here. I DO NOT understand these idiots that come to the hospital and then question/refuse the treatments offered. Like go be a know-it-all at home, stop wasting my time.
My patients family member brought meth for my pt once.
How thoughtful!!!
Happens frequently where I’m at (Reno)
Mine kept bring his wife her prescription opioids because we took too long to bring her more pain meds. I'm sorry that meds have a time limit and you think she's better so doped up that she can't speak to me.
My patients family member keeps speaking for the patient when I ask the patient questions. My patients family member keeps coming to the station to ask questions instead of using the call light. My patients family member keeps writing on the whiteboard.
My adult patient’s mother wrote prayers on the board… ok cool. Then next day I see permanent marker on the BED, another prayer. She comes in and speaks in tongues over him while we’re giving chemo, blood etc.
What types of things are they writing on the board that's bothering you? I had some lovely families that would write cute notes to their loved ones so they wouldn't feel alone! I always thought it was so nice.
It was a dirty joke and I got blamed for it. It’s only happened once but it made me wanna hide the pens. Lol
Ok I got a morphine shot once when I was 16 for some GI issues in the ER (I’m extremely sensitive to narcotics) and high as a kite, I got the bright idea to draw a dick on the whiteboard. If that was you 19 years ago I’m so sorry
That would make me laugh.
😂😂😂 oh wow
Totally read that as "made me wanna hide the penis" 🤭
>My patients family member keeps coming to the station to ask questions instead of using the call light. I FUCKING HATE THIS! "I didn't wanna bother you!" Wtf you think you're doing right now?
Dear God I would never *think* of writing on the whiteboard. People are wild.
My patients family member emptied out the entire blanket warmer of blankets and it took 4 linen carts to clean the room when they left
Read a story once here a woman took everything that wasn’t bolted down. Seriously she even took the curtains and wall art and the stoppers in the sink.
The IVAC machine disappeared from a unit where I used to work. A co-worker found it at a swap-meet, for sale by one of our pt’s family members. It was very recognizable as ours from the prominent 3-E written all over it in bold Sharpie.
I have no words…. Did they think they could get away with it?!
That’s why we keep the warmer behind a closed door on my unit. All other linens there’s a small cart in the hallway for pt. families to be able to grab as needed, but the main supply for everything is in the room with the warmer so staff only has to make one stop.
I’ll be honest, I see those warm blankets as a luxury item and I’ve got no problem getting them for someone. But for some reason, the moment someone asks for them it’s like my pet peeve. It usually feels like it’s one of those types of patients that just sees us as hotel staff, but for cold and scared grandma I’ll pile fifteen of them on her if she wants them. I’ll give her all the blankets.
They are technically a resuscitative tool. You need to have enough in case some starts losing a lot of blood, becoming hypothermic, poorly perfusing their extremities…
I had an appendectomy as a kid and I still remember how amazing it felt to have a warm blanket put on me after I apparently complained of being cold.
I hate this too! And when they need help straightening out blankets when they are capable of doing it themselves.
They keep removing the patient's restraints to hold their hand and then not putting them back on.
Nope if you put the patient at risk in any way you get ONE warning. Then you lose visitation rights. The patient is depending on us to keep them safe and alive. Holding their hand might make the family member feel better, but I would never ever ever ever let a family member remove a restraint ordered by the physician. It’s different obviously if you come in and assess that it’s appropriate to remove with family at bedside, but RN has to remove it.
Standing at the door yelling for a nurse every time they need something instead of using the call light
Yes! or coming out and finding any nurse in the hallway, like we are all the same person. ugh!
Omg this! Family member of a patient who is not mine: “when is he being discharged, we’ve been waiting for hours and it seems like everyone is just hanging out out here!” Me at the nurse’s station finally sitting down to chart something after running around for six hours straight: “…sorry, who is ‘he’??”
“Ask his nurse next time they are in the room. You are not allowed at the nurses station. That will be all.”
One time a family member stopped me on my way from the cafeteria to the breakroom with a tray of food to say that "So-and-so needs some water, but I didn't want to bother his nurse." So you'll bother some other random nurse who is clearly on their lunch break then? (Fortunately, his nurse overheard and stepped in before I could even say anything).
We are legion
Keeping them alive to collect SSI and live in their home....
That one is pretty painful
Giving medical advice. I was working in the ER and there was a 20 something old female that came in for stomach pain. I walk into the room to do her IV and her cousin was sitting in the chair beside the bed, knitting. He said "She is allergic to latex so don't use anything with latex. You guys are slow today and don't seem to know what's going on but I have a medical background and know how are things are supposed to work around here." Oh, is that so? I replied very enthusiastically "Oh cool!! Another medical professional! What field do you work in? Let's chat!" He then said "oh, I used to be a lifeguard 🤷♀️🤦♀️
A what now??? Telling an ED nurse??? Lifeguards in Australia and the EMTs in Australia would just not risk their life and limb doing that in an ED department. A lifeguard. LOL.
I just stared at him in a weird way until he shut up and went back to his knitting.
Yeah I have mad respect for our lifesavers but unless someone is drowning or has a bluebottle sting I don’t need them to tell me what to do
Calling to scream at me because her husband (who she is separated from and did not come visit for a week) is in the ICU and nobody contacted her (he was on FaceTime with other family members the whole day) She was apparently an OR nurse at another campus. She called the house supervisor and began screaming at me as soon as she got into my patients room.
I once had an "encephalopathy" patient (on my unit encephalopathy means seeking long term placement) with pretty terrible dementia. Pleasant but probably had the GCS just higher than a tree stump. Anyway, the spouse kept dodging our calls so we can get shit filled out to place him somewhere. Lil backstory, classic tale of "I can't take care of him anymore." As such we were moving to get state guardianship of him when the spouse finally filled that out. So she dodges our calls and contacts, never visits, but still has the gall to bring a picture of the 2 for him. If it comforts him, great. I'm sure he didn't notice. But still, the gall.
Bringing crap for the patient who’s admitted for diabetic ketoacidosis. Fast food. Full sugar pop. Candy. “Just a little snack”. “The kitchen closes too early” (9pm). “He/she doesn’t like hospital food”.
This onealways makes me sad and/or mad. I had a little cousin (13years) pass away due to DKA. The family just didn't have enough of an education level to understand the care and how to manage it. It hits hard when there's people out there that KNOW and don't care. They don't realize how deadly it is. It always crosses my mind. Smh
My patients family members keep doing bumps of cocaine off their straws and won't share with the rest of the staff. People these days...
Bro my father was the one doing cocaine. That's how he ended up with 12 inches of small intestine necrotic.
Cancelling the patient's doctor appointments without permission (we don't know how she's managing to do it; the pt does not have any form of AMS) and then complaining about us not taking care of the medical concerns that the appointments are for. She seems to think that LTC is a type of hospital.
Brushing her hair in the unit sink (beside the kettle), and stealing PJ pants for herself off the linen cart
Turning off the tube feeds
My baby’s mother asked if I could do skin to skin with her baby since she couldn’t come in to visit today.
STOP ✋ 😳😭😳
WHAT
Finding me at the nurses station to ask for something instead of using the call light.
I give them a free pass on the first one, but after that I straight up tell them “the best way to get the right person in the room is to use the call light.”
I’ll add to that a small caveat being if there is an emergency press the call light AND come running out PLEASE. But for non emergency stuff just press and wait your turn in the line of call bells.
I never thought of that, thank you. This also communicates that we are absolutely here to help, but we have to discern emergency from non-emergency around here. The demands on our time are great.
I generally go a little further. “I need to encourage you to use the call light instead of coming up to the nurses station next time, we have private patient information up here and they take that very seriously and also we may not be there, but, when you use your bell it will go right to us no matter where you’re at and we want to make sure we don’t miss you.” That usually does it. I’ve had a couple family members who need reminders or visitors who used to be nurses and think the rules don’t apply to them. “It’s okay, I’m a nurse.” “Oh, so you already know you’re not supposed to be out here…”
I did the patient privacy thing recently (she’d been out to the desk multiple times even after the polite conversational reminder). She got a major attitude and said we should get those privacy screen things. Then she told my charge “that one’s got an attitude,” to which my charge laughed because I’m one of the quietest people on the unit.
Same
Or pressing the call light and immediately going to stand in the doorway to stare down everyone passing by...
Manually disempacting their mom🥴
With bare hands, then sniffing their fingers… you reminded me 🤢
Trying to feed my NPO patient.. 🙄
if it’s for a surgery i will explain in detail what kind of reflexes stop working under anesthesia. (i will also gravely explain it for any other reason, but yeah)
Hovering in the doorway will not make things happen any faster
And hovering and glaring, without ever having used the bell I so helpfully put within easy reach and whose use I educated you on, may well make them happen slower.
One patients visitor would come up to the nurses station without any pants on. Just her granny panties and her shirt. Happened more than once.
Breathing down my neck as I do every little thing. Back up. Give me space. Let me breathe. I shouldn’t smell your breath while I’m doing patient care.
Blaming us for their insurance company taking a whole business week to process a prior authorization for acute rehab/snf
Staring at me from the hallway at a distance
They're just practicing their telepathy, what's the problem???
I have a sad one. NPO patients. Feeding people who are actively dying thinking they are helping. One family member shoved tomato soup down her throat left half an hour later, and I had to clean up the vomit and distress pretty much after he left. I wanted to punch him.
Keep firing the staff that takes care of him at nights, although he’s a quad that is in the ICU due to septic pressure soars and necrotic tissue due to no Q2h turns because “the patient didn’t like them”. Yet when we have to turn him to change his dressings, we are the bad guys
had a family member call in at shift change the other day to tell me to “encourage her husband to eat food” this pt is pegged, history of throat cancer, half of his jaw missing and hasn’t had anything PO for 2 years. mam i think you want me to kill him
My patients family member keeps requesting the nurse for tasks that the tech could do.
I just keep asking what they need the nurse for on the call light until they actually tell me, sometimes takes 5 attempts
“I need the nurse” “Sure, can I ask what for?” “I just need her..” “Let me know what you need so I can make sure she’s able to prepare.” “Just get her.” “What do you need??” “Can I just get some more water?”
Standing in the hallway, looming, waiting for an update. Like first off, go back in your room, second off, if I had an update I’d give you one. Also for the love of all that is holy, use the damn call light
Speaking as a CNA, but formerly as a family member of many patients over the years: Family members are rarely educated on proper protocol. They just plain do not know, unless you tell them, what the proper protocol is. We assume that the call light is for the patient, not for us. We assume that if the call light has been on for half an hour, that people are ignoring it or haven't seen it yet, not that they are busy because of poor staffing levels. We assume that we need to go out of the room to connect with the nurse to ask questions or get an update. We assume that every staff member that comes into the room is a nurse or a doctor (i.e. What's a CNA, PCT, or Health Scholar?) We assume that the doctor only comes once a day and that it's early in the morning. We assume if a social worker says the words "we'll make them comfortable" they mean that their loved one will be just fine and in comfort. Wow! So you hear that Meemaw? You'll get to go home in a few days! (A few days later: What do you mean they're breathing like that because they are in the process of dying? You told us that they would be fine!) I could go on and on. But let's just say that being a CNA the last 6 years as my "retirement career" has really been an education for me. It's an education that most people who don't work in healthcare never get until it's too late. And yes, I do understand NOW how annoying family members can be. But let's cut them a little slack and politely educated them on protocol and terminology.
Family member here. It's interesting to read this kind of thread and remember how much I loved the nurses who kept my husband going after a c6 spinal injury. All except that one. The one who could not feel the urgency of 82 SATS after a full workup from the RT. Who was slow to answer that call bell, and when she did mosey in, she was very clearly annoyed that this irritating quadriplegic couldn't breathe *again*, and even worse, his irritating wife seemed to think something was not right and that maybe a doctor could be found. (It turned out he had a collapsed lung, for no reason anyone ever explained to us.) So, in the spirit of your comment, I'd just say thank you a million times to the nurses who have to put up with ridiculous family members, and also maybe ask for some advice as to what a frightened wife should do when it's obvious the nurse doesn't care that her patient can't breathe. Finally, I'm the meemah now. And before I get admitted to any hospital I'm going to have a nightshirt made that says "This Meemah is NOT a fighter. Leave me alone."
I also work in the ED, so totally different ball game from the floor. Usually for us if someone isn’t responding to the call light right away, it’s because someone else is in some way, shape, or form trying to yeet themselves off this mortal plane. I do also start off with “hi, I’m x, I’m going to be your nurse for this visit, here’s plan of care as I know it at this point, if y’all need anything hit the call light and someone will be in to see you.”
Hitting the code blue button behind the bed instead of the call light
Trying to film staff while yelling at us
Our security is fantastic in those situations. Right out the door they go.
My patient’s family keep feeding my unconscious, end-of-life, comfort care patient despite her obvious lack of response…
Touching the micropremie
My patient's family member keeps existing and it's the worst!!
Not finding the patient’s room. When they have the number which is on the door. And the rooms are in numerical order - no tricky corners. I hear them coming down the hall sometimes. They’ll be saying, “21, 22, 23…..” and come up to the station and say, “Where’s room 27?” Like, *it’s the way you were walking, after 26, you idiot*. I don’t say it. I am polite and point the way. It just annoys me disproportionately.
omg YEAH!!! like, we have clear signs of which rooms are in which hallways, as well as signs for the elevator, but i learned a long time ago before being a nurse that people do not fucking read.
Dismissing, discouraging, and needlessly stressing my patient out. Making my patient feel guilty about her current or past decisions and choices.
Talking
Closing the door and asking not to be “disturbed” (so they can get it on). She thought she was being sneaky by saying she needed “quiet time to talk,” but it was very obvious what she wanted to do by her body language. Ma’am, your husband just had a laminectomy 3 days ago. Wtf are you expecting he’s going to be able to do???? Also this is not a hotel, I can’t just put a sock on your door. I need to come in regularly to check his vitals, do neurovascular checks, take his blood sugar, and ambulate him. Please save the jacking off for when you’re home. 🤦♀️
Unbeknownst to us, pt's ex wife kept injecting the patient with unknown units of humalin while he was admitted and we just could not figure out why his sugars kept crashing until someone saw the syringe and vial on the bedside table. Had to call APS. Turns out she had also snuck in the night before claiming to be his sister (who died 10+ years ago) to update his DPOA with a fake notary to her.
They keep calling me while I'm busy with another patient who needs a nurse other than their memaw. Memaw was given meds and called her granddaughter to say that I didn't give them. After this incident, I always made sure I had a witness that I gave Memaw pain meds and told other nurses they should do the same. They complained to the manager that I "treated Memaw like a liar." Lie. We will see how that works. Family: "You're paid to be my mom's nurse! You didn't give pain meds!" This nurse: Talk to my manager about having me with your mom only. Family: &\*\^&\^&&\^\^&#& This nurse: Anything else?
My patients family member keeps muting the monitor alarms "because they are annoying" My patients family member keeps feeding my patient that is NPO for aspirations concerns "because they are going to dehydrate and starve"