being a nurse is pretty much like being a glorified punching bag. you don't like that you're in the hospital? be rude to your nurse. you're mad that you're in pain? yell at your nurse. you're upset with the doctor or the plan of care? go ahead, take it out on your nurse. after all, i am the source of your troubles, right? the reason you're in the hospital? the cause of your pain? oh wait a minute...i'm the one who cleans up your poop and brings you pain meds and smiles at you when i'd just as soon rip your face off. but go ahead, be mean. i mean it's not like i'm a real person, after all. i'm a nurse.
newsflash: I HAVE FEELINGS TOO!!
honestly, most days this stuff rolls off my back. patients are a little snippy? i can win over most fairly quickly. i'm pretty darn patient, and after almost three and a half years of being a nurse, i've gotten a pretty thick skin. but i have NEVER had a family member talk to me the way that a patient's sister did tonight.
icu transfer. altered mental status and an open abdomen. status quo. the patient was weird but otherwise fine. the patient's sister would have made the devil himself cry. i'm ashamed to say that it was a 75 year old lady with a skirt pulled up to her boobs that finally did me in. i first knew that we were going to have a problem when the sister found me at the nurses station and accused me of not giving my patient pain medications. we had a lovely conversation in which she essentially accused me of neglect and i threatened that if i gave too much narcotic the patient would stop breathing. she had the audacity to yell at me, but i managed to barely hold it together. being the professional that i am, i internally vowed to give her the silent treatment for the rest of the evening as punishment for being so evil.
i actually thought that i was home free, and that was my first mistake. we had made it to the end of the shift and i had been in the patient's room 45 minutes earlier to get her repositioned and settled for nighttime. she was comfortable. so i went to do about 234234 other things with my other patients. i was sitting down to give the night nurse report when the sister came up to the nurse's station. she was once again raising her voice with me and ridiculously rude. she dared to say that her sister was overdue for pain meds. EXCUSE ME. what part of pain medications are not scheduled do you not understand? and if you're in the room with your sister and she needs pain meds, why wouldn't you simply put on the call light and ask for them instead of coming up the the front desk to alienate your sister's nurse? have people no understanding of this simple concept? let me spell it out:
if you make me hate you, i will try to avoid you. simple as that.
so i went down to the patient's room so the sister would stop yelling at me in front of all of my coworkers. and what did i find? a very comfortable looking patient with her eyes closed. resting. and did she ask for pain meds? only after i brought the subject up. of course her sister took this opportunity to continue to berate me and accuse me of not following through. i made one last ditch effort to be civil, then decided to stop wasting my breath.
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE YOU WANT FROM ME!!"
that's right, i said it. and i'd say it again.
people have no boundaries at all. what gave her the right to yell at me for trying to help her sister the best way i know how? the patient is HALLUCINATING ELVIS. the last thing she needs is to be snowed on narcotics. i will give my patient medication to control HER pain, not to make her sister feel better/validated/like she's being a good advocate.
so at this point, i realized that i needed to remove myself from the situation and handed over care of the patient to the night nurse. apparently he wasn't quick enough for the sister, who went on a rampage. she walked into an occupied room to search for linen, then yelled and swore at one of my coworkers who tried to help her. all the while, she cursed my name and demanded to talk to a supervisor.
i don't care that she was old as god and looked like a librarian. lady needed to learn some manners. so i called security and they escorted her out.
even nurses have limits, people.
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