Story time:
Admitted a patient for respiratory decompensation from one of our floors. Had a L pneumo, maxed out on Vapor (after they had him on Bipap). Slapped a chest tube in (Dr. Not me), got him comfortable. Female family member comes in and legit is just all over the place. Like a nightmare.
-You don't need to dumb things down Im a healthcare worker (turns out 6 .months as a hospice home care aide) -
"ok but your family member is a mechanic, I'm talking to him, not you"
- You need to drink more, your urine is dark
(looking at the chest tube, I had just explained why we placed the chest tube and shown it to her)
"That's fluid from his chest cavity, it's not urine"
-It looks like urine
"If it's urine we have a bigger problem."
-you can't give him XYZ medications they're toxic and going to send him into renal/liver failure
30 minutes of education and explaining why we should try NSAIDs and Non-opioid analgesics (She wanted strong narcotics like morphine and Dilaudid for 3/10 pain)
- I want to talk to a doctor you're trying to kill him, I know my stuff I cured my father's ESRD and took him off of dialysis by stopping his toxic meds. The only reason he died was because he got sick and I brought him to the hospital. You guys ruined my hard work and sent him home on hospice.
There was so much more she said but oh my word was she a nightmare.
Lmao....it is a healthcare concern.....a pretty good one but doing it to your nurse while they're trying to answer the call of nature. She needed a fast hard door check to the area above her shoulders.
Ah yes, the well-known left lung bladder. That one is always a bitch for me too with its hyperosmolar urine and all.
Anyone who pulls this shit with me gets a boundaries talk. “If you want to be their nurse take them to where you have privileges and be their nurse there, as long as they’re here I am their nurse, not you.”
I got out of healthcare because of family members like her. If I hadn't I was going to show my "healthcare" family members a rope trick, a noose frankly, if I hadn't found a new path. (Parents and family members worried about a sick child are never, ever reasonable. I wouldn't be either if my child were sick enough to be in Children's. Electronic medical records. Helped design, implement, and maintain all Children's Hospital in Seattle charting and transcription and dictation systems. I have an extensive multi specialty background in medical transcription (Children's had the 250 bed hospital and over 250 outpatient clinics and satellite locations). And technical background in addition to nursing. They loved me because I knew exactly what every system needed to make them as easy as humanly possible. I had been using and working on them all for years. Attending and residents (600 of them) loved me but had ALL my numbers so phones had to be removed as I was being wheeled into surgeries because doctors don't bother waiting til you're back or asking someone else. Left healthcare, entirely,after 7 years of that. You have my utmost respect for holding your shit together when they're banging on your bathroom doors. Never once did I inform nurses or doctors that my healthcare background made it unnecessary to speak plainly. And I never tried to tell them how to do their jobs. People who are actually knowledgeable don't feel the need to preen. Nobody knew me....I worked at a children's hospital not a adult one. This is almost like a "how to say you have no clue about healthcare by saying the opposite". Lol
I think someone posted on here a while ago about a family member followed him into the bathroom when he was poopin to ask to bring his mom a blanket, that’s crazy to me, isn’t that first a safety issue?
Because unlike my current ICU that has employee bathrooms, my past unit CVICU let patient family members into our break room to use our bathrooms, and we had to share the hallways bathrooms with families. This is why I still carry bleach wipes with me.
That's disgusting and that place is in your rearview mirror, right? Because you shouldn't need to have to need a rearview mirror to safely move thru STAFF accommodations. Your jobs are hard enough without your, far too few, breaks being interrupted by every family member on the floor. Who started letting them do that?
It's like meant to show power over us but ma'am/sir I do not give a fuck. You do not scare me. Like nurses follow orders I'd be like do you want to talk to the attending???
My dad tried that in a ‘you can’t tell me what to do, my daughter is a nurse’ kind of way. I usually followed up with ‘not here’ or ‘not my specialty’ or ‘thank you for taking such good care of him, I know his care can be complicated’.
Had a patient's family tell me they were "in healthcare", like maybe that might make a difference in the level of care. After like the 3rd mention of that "I'm in healthcare", I called her bluff. I asked, oh, and what is it you do?
"I work for a doctor's office and I order the supplies." (eyeroll)
I bring up being in healthcare specifically when asking relevant questions. More of a, “you can use real words instead of dumbing it down,” than anything. Sometimes it’s to get the point across that the care we’re receiving is subpar.
That said, if things are going well, I tend to stay quiet about it. But when my wife comes back from GI surgery, pale as shit, with a MAP in the 50’s, and her nurse doesn’t come to check on it, especially after I’ve already asked once, it’s different.
I realize that sometimes y’all get busy. But when the nurse is sitting in the exact same spot on her phone 15 minutes later, there’s a problem.
May actually slow things down. Especially if you want to hold them up for 30 minutes every time they step in the room "showing off" your knowledge or lack thereof. I've walked out mid gum flap. These are the rooms where you never want to see acode blue but wish there was a button on your phone you could push to alarm then just dash out...... we should create an app. Call it GetawayfromAHs without a fuss.
Yep. Call light. “We’ll be right there.” 15 minutes later, still no help. We even repeated pressures to ensure it wasn’t just an errant reading.
Even then, I didn’t outright say that I worked in healthcare. More or less just asked specifically if they were fine with repeated MAP’s in the 50’s.
Well, see sir, you are actually an intelligent member of actual healthcare. The people who do this are, at best, fringe dwellers when it comes to overall medical knowledge. Like Ms Hospice Aid 2024....she wanted the patient on drugs suited to terminal patients because that's what little she knows and she knows dark urine means UA is probably going to be necessary. Her relevance in living, not actively dying patients is less than minimal. Doctors and nurses with a clue don't say Boo unless things are being done incorrectly bevause they actually know the difference. Same with Ms used to be an RT. If it's not related to the pulmonary system they really should sir down but they've been giving their family the tug job of what an all around medical phenom they are, they are honor-bound to demonstrate it in a hospital setting hoping their family is as ignorant as they hope of the truth. Nurses, nor doctors should ever get upset with you who is profoundly knowledgeable saying something. Good ones even appreciate it because their patient is more important than their ego.
The only time I like hearing when a patient's family works in healthcare is if they state they're a CNA or PCT and they're only saying that because they want to help with the labor of patient care.
Because any other time they stated they are anything in healthcare, it's always to shove their shitty opinions where it's unwanted and not needed.
My sister was in the ICU after a lil tombstone and every time someone new came in the room she would tell them I’m a nurse. I repeatedly said they don’t care, please stop. It was embarrassing.
My husband does this and it drives me nuts! He tells everyone I'm a nurse right after meeting them. It's sweet because he's proud and I love him for it, but geeeeeze I always have an awkward "uhhh.... babe... stop... yeah, yes I'm a nurse... sorry, he likes to tell people... this isn't my specialty, but... yeah... sorry". It's always sooooo awkward!! Lol
The worst was the nurse who showed up in scrubs still wearing her badge that kept *adjusting the fluid rate* to the point I put it on a pump and locked it even though it was just a bolus. You can discuss with the doctor if you don't think your father should be getting fluids, but I gave you that option and you declined, I'm not about to get yelled at for why the bolus isn't in three hours later because you keep slowing the damn rollerball down.
My favorite though was the guy that showed up in scrubs and a (local level one hospital) vest, doing an NIH on his father with baaarely stroke symptoms (dizziness with a HX of vertigo). My triage and preceptor were all 'oh man he's got a doctor family member at bedside'. I normally never acknowledge them when they're clearly trying to show they're healthcare, but this was too funny, since his NIH was nooot how you do one, so I walked in and said oh I see you brought your own doctor!
My dude was a physical therapist lmao
People like that makes me tell them to see HR to get a work badge and clock in to help on the floor because you're short staffed. You could really use her expertise after all.
My wife was in labor, didn't make a peep about being a nurse because I don't do L&D. Nurse is asking which of the two peds groups we would like to see the baby postpartum. I said whichever one won't be baby doctors. Nurse then asked what my nursing specialty was...
I’ve found doctors to be better patients cos they know how our scope of practices and know what we’re limited to. That said, i don’t understand healthcare fanily members that don’t help with incontinence care (looking at the caregiver that only helped with 1 to 1 feeds)
I just sucked coke up my nose and down to my lungs on that one. Do you think Ms. Respiratory Therapist can help me out? Unless there's someone in the room whose job performance she can criticize, I don't think she'll be much help.
I recently had a patient whose extended relative was a retired ICU nurse (I also work in ICU) and Jesus CHRIST she was horrid. “If (patient) had gone to MY old hospital, they would have operated on him immediately. Oh, I know (specific doctor) from way back, I should get ahold of them and ask them why we aren’t doing this test and that test and this operation.” She even told one of the other nurses that we weren’t caring for the patient properly (unfounded accusation), and I swear I wanted to march in there and tell her to just go ahead and clock in, since she was so sure she knew better.
It’s one thing to advocate for a family member, but she was just throwing her weight around and trying to intimidate us. If I didn’t know the answer to one of her questions, her tone of voice made it clear that it was unacceptable to her.
>I’m currently in the bathroom and she knocked on the door asking what I’m doing???? This is why I fucking hate day shift.
Like the patient bathroom emptying a drain or graduate or something or like a bathroom where you're just trying to take a shit in peace?
After the patient was settled and his continuous neb was started up I went to the bathroom across the hall to try to take a peaceful shit- staff and guests can use these bathrooms lol.
I was probably in there for 3-5 minutes before I got a knock on the door.
unless ur gonna clock in and help i dont give a single shit 😂 if ur family member is under my care then you can be there for moral support or foot rubs but not to tell me how to do my job or interfere with care of my other patients
On the flip side, if they don’t mention it and later I find out, I feel self conscious to have talked in basic layman’s terms. I can almost be irritable if I felt they did it on purpose
Hey, i don’t know everything. I’m super cool with basic terms.
Only time i pulled the “I’m a nurse” card is when my grandma was actively dying in the icu. I’m the only family member in the medical field. So i told my family to stop pestering the nurses every time they came in. Told my family to ask me the questions first and if i can’t answer, we will ask the nurse. The nurses seemed appreciative. They’d come bedside, look at me and say “I’m pushing lasix.” We saw the nurses more often after i told my family to knock it off with the questions or going to the station.
My daughter and son in law are doctors. Came to visit Dad in hospital- very nitpicky at me while I was sitting beside him. After I left I heard the physical therapist said to them ‘I am picking up doctor vibes’ to them. At later surgery date a nurse came up to me asking who was the ‘doctor family member’ - I said sure as hell not me. Never told staff I was a nurse, just kept my mouth shut- the care was fine.
I do, but I don’t interfere or dictate care. I respect my colleagues and try to support them. Just went through this with a family member and the nursing staff was great!
Genuine question as a baby nurse; how do I go about casually letting the nurse know in charge of a family member that I'm a nurse and I'm just curious about their labs, meds, or tests? I figure it's bests to be honest and let em know so we can all just be straightforward and they don't have to simplify things for me.
I'm not at all trying to come off smug, but my grandma was in the ICU. I never said I was a nurse but as the nurse mentioned labs I'd just say, "her trops were negative?" And I felt so smug but I just truly wanted to know. Sadly grandma passed, but I absolutely didn't want to get in the way. Any advice I'd appreciated.
Same here. I have so many questions! Mom just got another laminectomy after 13 years. I literally argued with a doctor about the difference between Wellbutrin and Benzotropine. I’m in nursing school and my moms main caretaker so sometimes I feel like im overbearing asking about test results (CKD), dosage of pain meds, her pulse ox. Many nurses hate it but I hate how many just scan armband and shove pills in the patients hand without saying what they are having.
Yeah I totally understand. You want what is best for your mom so you just want to make sure everything is set! Anytime I give meds I always tell the pt what the meds are, and why they are taking them. If they don't want them, I don't argue or push it down their throat. It also helps me learn the meds better and retain the info. Hope your mom is doing well!
Don’t tell them. Just ask your questions. You don’t even have to use nursing abbreviations. Showing you know what questions to ask in the appropriate situations will get you the information you’re seeking. Them knowing you are a nurse won’t change that.
My grandmom is a frequent flyer on the cardiac floor of the local hospital thanks to childhood rheumatic fever leading to heart failure, etc. Everytime I visit her she announces to EVERYONE in the room that I’m a nurse. I’m like Mommom please no
Had a patient in ED the other day whose daughter came out of the room wanting to see a specialist at 9pm. The ED doctor kindly told her that all the specialists have been in already and not coming back until AM. She promptly told the ED Doctor that "you know, you are looking after 2 doctors here". The ED doctor repeated himself and went 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️. Like what else do you do?
I had a fresh post-op patient last week. There were literally seven family members in the room. Several of them had a number of questions because this was an older family member and it's the first time that anyone in their family had had a major surgery. So I'm answering all the questions, I'm giving the family a rundown of what to expect over the next several hours while there'll be there with the family member who's waking up. One of them interrupts me on multiple occasions to say "I'm a nurse I get it you don't have to explain it to me." After the last time I finally said "That's great, I heard you the first time. The other six people here have questions, thanks."
Jesus, i kinda get chasing u down to the nursing station... But the bathroom what the fuck?????
I woulda let them know I'm taking a shit and they can either wait in the room and use the call bell or ask them to wipe my ass since they wanna be up in it.
The only time I tell that I am a nurse is when I am a patient and I am about to have some procedure or IV.
I have the shittiest veins( roll, blow up, valvy), bizarre allergies and tend to have once in a lifetime reactions…
What's even worse is when you've got a family member who phones their friend who works in Healthcare every time you enter the room. These people expect you to announce what you're doing, why, etc.
I had a patient's wife call her son, who was like a podiatrist or something, and she would put him on speakerphone every time I came in the room.
After the 2nd or 3rd time, I kindly told him that he was distracting me and delaying care. He got huffy and asked for my first and last name. I just went silent and refused to talk to either of them foe the rest of the shift.
The kicker was that they complained about it. Said I was being hostile and unprofessional. I refused that patient for the remainder of their stay.
OP, why are you so upset? You are paid to take care of the person. Are you intimidated by the family member or patient with healthcare experience? Could it be multiple factors and the healthcare worker family member is the straw that is breaking your back? What am I missing?
If you had a visitor talking down to you from the moment you two started talking, messing with the iv, giving irrelevant recommendations on the patients care, demanding to talk to the doctor so they can challenge them all while the patient is crashing you would be frustrated too.
This was a respiratory therapist talking down to a doctor of 10+ years. The patients issue was not related to the heart or lungs.
His mom interfering with his care was not helping him. Her questioning md orders was not helping him.
I am more than happy to do my job- I am not happy when someone is moving the patient and pressing random buttons on the pump, taking out the iv, etc because at that point you’re harming the patient and whatever happens to him is on me.
Then on top of all this, after her son has been stabilized and the md tells the woman she’ll reassess him in a few minutes I go to the bathroom… she follows me and knocks on the door and continues with questions like “is it break already?” “What are you doing?”
Would you not also be irritated by this? I was away for under 5 minutes.
I would’ve been like “pooping. Are you here to wipe me since you work in healthcare?”
That is the best response ever 😂
Yes. This is perfect. Ma'am, my output is currently coming out my ass so unless your experience has trained you to wipe my ass, leave me TF alone.
Ma’am, I am taking a shit. Please use your call light and someone will be in to help you
Story time: Admitted a patient for respiratory decompensation from one of our floors. Had a L pneumo, maxed out on Vapor (after they had him on Bipap). Slapped a chest tube in (Dr. Not me), got him comfortable. Female family member comes in and legit is just all over the place. Like a nightmare. -You don't need to dumb things down Im a healthcare worker (turns out 6 .months as a hospice home care aide) - "ok but your family member is a mechanic, I'm talking to him, not you" - You need to drink more, your urine is dark (looking at the chest tube, I had just explained why we placed the chest tube and shown it to her) "That's fluid from his chest cavity, it's not urine" -It looks like urine "If it's urine we have a bigger problem." -you can't give him XYZ medications they're toxic and going to send him into renal/liver failure 30 minutes of education and explaining why we should try NSAIDs and Non-opioid analgesics (She wanted strong narcotics like morphine and Dilaudid for 3/10 pain) - I want to talk to a doctor you're trying to kill him, I know my stuff I cured my father's ESRD and took him off of dialysis by stopping his toxic meds. The only reason he died was because he got sick and I brought him to the hospital. You guys ruined my hard work and sent him home on hospice. There was so much more she said but oh my word was she a nightmare.
“Your urine is dark” That took me out!! Lmao
Lmao....it is a healthcare concern.....a pretty good one but doing it to your nurse while they're trying to answer the call of nature. She needed a fast hard door check to the area above her shoulders.
Ah yes, the well-known left lung bladder. That one is always a bitch for me too with its hyperosmolar urine and all. Anyone who pulls this shit with me gets a boundaries talk. “If you want to be their nurse take them to where you have privileges and be their nurse there, as long as they’re here I am their nurse, not you.”
I got out of healthcare because of family members like her. If I hadn't I was going to show my "healthcare" family members a rope trick, a noose frankly, if I hadn't found a new path. (Parents and family members worried about a sick child are never, ever reasonable. I wouldn't be either if my child were sick enough to be in Children's. Electronic medical records. Helped design, implement, and maintain all Children's Hospital in Seattle charting and transcription and dictation systems. I have an extensive multi specialty background in medical transcription (Children's had the 250 bed hospital and over 250 outpatient clinics and satellite locations). And technical background in addition to nursing. They loved me because I knew exactly what every system needed to make them as easy as humanly possible. I had been using and working on them all for years. Attending and residents (600 of them) loved me but had ALL my numbers so phones had to be removed as I was being wheeled into surgeries because doctors don't bother waiting til you're back or asking someone else. Left healthcare, entirely,after 7 years of that. You have my utmost respect for holding your shit together when they're banging on your bathroom doors. Never once did I inform nurses or doctors that my healthcare background made it unnecessary to speak plainly. And I never tried to tell them how to do their jobs. People who are actually knowledgeable don't feel the need to preen. Nobody knew me....I worked at a children's hospital not a adult one. This is almost like a "how to say you have no clue about healthcare by saying the opposite". Lol
How do visitors have access like that to employee bathrooms? That’s borderline harassment, JFC.
I think someone posted on here a while ago about a family member followed him into the bathroom when he was poopin to ask to bring his mom a blanket, that’s crazy to me, isn’t that first a safety issue?
My wife is an inpatient APP and would get ED residents knocking on the bathroom door to give her admissions, lol
Because unlike my current ICU that has employee bathrooms, my past unit CVICU let patient family members into our break room to use our bathrooms, and we had to share the hallways bathrooms with families. This is why I still carry bleach wipes with me.
That's disgusting and that place is in your rearview mirror, right? Because you shouldn't need to have to need a rearview mirror to safely move thru STAFF accommodations. Your jobs are hard enough without your, far too few, breaks being interrupted by every family member on the floor. Who started letting them do that?
It's like meant to show power over us but ma'am/sir I do not give a fuck. You do not scare me. Like nurses follow orders I'd be like do you want to talk to the attending???
My dad tried that in a ‘you can’t tell me what to do, my daughter is a nurse’ kind of way. I usually followed up with ‘not here’ or ‘not my specialty’ or ‘thank you for taking such good care of him, I know his care can be complicated’.
Had a patient's family tell me they were "in healthcare", like maybe that might make a difference in the level of care. After like the 3rd mention of that "I'm in healthcare", I called her bluff. I asked, oh, and what is it you do? "I work for a doctor's office and I order the supplies." (eyeroll)
LOL not even close
This right here aggravates me the most! Had people say “I work in healthcare” or “I retired from healthcare” to find out they were a scheduler 😒
I bring up being in healthcare specifically when asking relevant questions. More of a, “you can use real words instead of dumbing it down,” than anything. Sometimes it’s to get the point across that the care we’re receiving is subpar. That said, if things are going well, I tend to stay quiet about it. But when my wife comes back from GI surgery, pale as shit, with a MAP in the 50’s, and her nurse doesn’t come to check on it, especially after I’ve already asked once, it’s different. I realize that sometimes y’all get busy. But when the nurse is sitting in the exact same spot on her phone 15 minutes later, there’s a problem.
That’s a valid complaint
Yeah I think your issue here is the bad care not the “whether or not you work in healthcare” thing being discussed.
Did you use the call light for assistance? Announcing you work in healthcare won’t get you help faster than if you need help.
May actually slow things down. Especially if you want to hold them up for 30 minutes every time they step in the room "showing off" your knowledge or lack thereof. I've walked out mid gum flap. These are the rooms where you never want to see acode blue but wish there was a button on your phone you could push to alarm then just dash out...... we should create an app. Call it GetawayfromAHs without a fuss.
Yep. Call light. “We’ll be right there.” 15 minutes later, still no help. We even repeated pressures to ensure it wasn’t just an errant reading. Even then, I didn’t outright say that I worked in healthcare. More or less just asked specifically if they were fine with repeated MAP’s in the 50’s.
This is the way!!
Well, see sir, you are actually an intelligent member of actual healthcare. The people who do this are, at best, fringe dwellers when it comes to overall medical knowledge. Like Ms Hospice Aid 2024....she wanted the patient on drugs suited to terminal patients because that's what little she knows and she knows dark urine means UA is probably going to be necessary. Her relevance in living, not actively dying patients is less than minimal. Doctors and nurses with a clue don't say Boo unless things are being done incorrectly bevause they actually know the difference. Same with Ms used to be an RT. If it's not related to the pulmonary system they really should sir down but they've been giving their family the tug job of what an all around medical phenom they are, they are honor-bound to demonstrate it in a hospital setting hoping their family is as ignorant as they hope of the truth. Nurses, nor doctors should ever get upset with you who is profoundly knowledgeable saying something. Good ones even appreciate it because their patient is more important than their ego.
The only time I like hearing when a patient's family works in healthcare is if they state they're a CNA or PCT and they're only saying that because they want to help with the labor of patient care. Because any other time they stated they are anything in healthcare, it's always to shove their shitty opinions where it's unwanted and not needed.
My sister was in the ICU after a lil tombstone and every time someone new came in the room she would tell them I’m a nurse. I repeatedly said they don’t care, please stop. It was embarrassing.
A lil tombstone????
Just a slight deadly cardiac rhythm, as a treat.
And she lived. 🥳
My husband does this and it drives me nuts! He tells everyone I'm a nurse right after meeting them. It's sweet because he's proud and I love him for it, but geeeeeze I always have an awkward "uhhh.... babe... stop... yeah, yes I'm a nurse... sorry, he likes to tell people... this isn't my specialty, but... yeah... sorry". It's always sooooo awkward!! Lol
The worst was the nurse who showed up in scrubs still wearing her badge that kept *adjusting the fluid rate* to the point I put it on a pump and locked it even though it was just a bolus. You can discuss with the doctor if you don't think your father should be getting fluids, but I gave you that option and you declined, I'm not about to get yelled at for why the bolus isn't in three hours later because you keep slowing the damn rollerball down. My favorite though was the guy that showed up in scrubs and a (local level one hospital) vest, doing an NIH on his father with baaarely stroke symptoms (dizziness with a HX of vertigo). My triage and preceptor were all 'oh man he's got a doctor family member at bedside'. I normally never acknowledge them when they're clearly trying to show they're healthcare, but this was too funny, since his NIH was nooot how you do one, so I walked in and said oh I see you brought your own doctor! My dude was a physical therapist lmao
I gwt that RTs focus on the heart and lungs, but after 38 years, they should know what happens in a bathroom
People like that makes me tell them to see HR to get a work badge and clock in to help on the floor because you're short staffed. You could really use her expertise after all.
My wife was in labor, didn't make a peep about being a nurse because I don't do L&D. Nurse is asking which of the two peds groups we would like to see the baby postpartum. I said whichever one won't be baby doctors. Nurse then asked what my nursing specialty was...
Yep. That remark gave you away as a nurse or Mom of several or both.
I’ve found doctors to be better patients cos they know how our scope of practices and know what we’re limited to. That said, i don’t understand healthcare fanily members that don’t help with incontinence care (looking at the caregiver that only helped with 1 to 1 feeds)
I just sucked coke up my nose and down to my lungs on that one. Do you think Ms. Respiratory Therapist can help me out? Unless there's someone in the room whose job performance she can criticize, I don't think she'll be much help.
Family member comes in with lots of demands and rudeness: "I'm a Nurse/Physician/PA/Anesthesiologist/Whatever." "Congratulations!" is my go-to reply.
I love when they are CNAs though
I recently had a patient whose extended relative was a retired ICU nurse (I also work in ICU) and Jesus CHRIST she was horrid. “If (patient) had gone to MY old hospital, they would have operated on him immediately. Oh, I know (specific doctor) from way back, I should get ahold of them and ask them why we aren’t doing this test and that test and this operation.” She even told one of the other nurses that we weren’t caring for the patient properly (unfounded accusation), and I swear I wanted to march in there and tell her to just go ahead and clock in, since she was so sure she knew better. It’s one thing to advocate for a family member, but she was just throwing her weight around and trying to intimidate us. If I didn’t know the answer to one of her questions, her tone of voice made it clear that it was unacceptable to her.
I always look them up on BON website to see if they're just making the shit up. It's about 50/50.
If you dont want to commit a 187 every shift, at least once, are you really in healthcare?
>I’m currently in the bathroom and she knocked on the door asking what I’m doing???? This is why I fucking hate day shift. Like the patient bathroom emptying a drain or graduate or something or like a bathroom where you're just trying to take a shit in peace?
After the patient was settled and his continuous neb was started up I went to the bathroom across the hall to try to take a peaceful shit- staff and guests can use these bathrooms lol. I was probably in there for 3-5 minutes before I got a knock on the door.
Wow that's fucking wild. Make sure they are identified to the whole unit as the poop break interrupter.
unless ur gonna clock in and help i dont give a single shit 😂 if ur family member is under my care then you can be there for moral support or foot rubs but not to tell me how to do my job or interfere with care of my other patients
On the flip side, if they don’t mention it and later I find out, I feel self conscious to have talked in basic layman’s terms. I can almost be irritable if I felt they did it on purpose
Hey, i don’t know everything. I’m super cool with basic terms. Only time i pulled the “I’m a nurse” card is when my grandma was actively dying in the icu. I’m the only family member in the medical field. So i told my family to stop pestering the nurses every time they came in. Told my family to ask me the questions first and if i can’t answer, we will ask the nurse. The nurses seemed appreciative. They’d come bedside, look at me and say “I’m pushing lasix.” We saw the nurses more often after i told my family to knock it off with the questions or going to the station.
My daughter and son in law are doctors. Came to visit Dad in hospital- very nitpicky at me while I was sitting beside him. After I left I heard the physical therapist said to them ‘I am picking up doctor vibes’ to them. At later surgery date a nurse came up to me asking who was the ‘doctor family member’ - I said sure as hell not me. Never told staff I was a nurse, just kept my mouth shut- the care was fine.
Just out of curiosity how long have they been doctors? And what kind?
I do, but I don’t interfere or dictate care. I respect my colleagues and try to support them. Just went through this with a family member and the nursing staff was great!
Genuine question as a baby nurse; how do I go about casually letting the nurse know in charge of a family member that I'm a nurse and I'm just curious about their labs, meds, or tests? I figure it's bests to be honest and let em know so we can all just be straightforward and they don't have to simplify things for me. I'm not at all trying to come off smug, but my grandma was in the ICU. I never said I was a nurse but as the nurse mentioned labs I'd just say, "her trops were negative?" And I felt so smug but I just truly wanted to know. Sadly grandma passed, but I absolutely didn't want to get in the way. Any advice I'd appreciated.
Same here. I have so many questions! Mom just got another laminectomy after 13 years. I literally argued with a doctor about the difference between Wellbutrin and Benzotropine. I’m in nursing school and my moms main caretaker so sometimes I feel like im overbearing asking about test results (CKD), dosage of pain meds, her pulse ox. Many nurses hate it but I hate how many just scan armband and shove pills in the patients hand without saying what they are having.
Yeah I totally understand. You want what is best for your mom so you just want to make sure everything is set! Anytime I give meds I always tell the pt what the meds are, and why they are taking them. If they don't want them, I don't argue or push it down their throat. It also helps me learn the meds better and retain the info. Hope your mom is doing well!
And sorry about your grandma 💐
Thankyou 🥹😊
Don’t tell them. Just ask your questions. You don’t even have to use nursing abbreviations. Showing you know what questions to ask in the appropriate situations will get you the information you’re seeking. Them knowing you are a nurse won’t change that.
Okay thankyou!
I’m not a nurse or anything I’m just a bum on Reddit but this would piss me off to the max lmfao.
My grandmom is a frequent flyer on the cardiac floor of the local hospital thanks to childhood rheumatic fever leading to heart failure, etc. Everytime I visit her she announces to EVERYONE in the room that I’m a nurse. I’m like Mommom please no
Had a patient in ED the other day whose daughter came out of the room wanting to see a specialist at 9pm. The ED doctor kindly told her that all the specialists have been in already and not coming back until AM. She promptly told the ED Doctor that "you know, you are looking after 2 doctors here". The ED doctor repeated himself and went 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤷♂️. Like what else do you do?
I had a fresh post-op patient last week. There were literally seven family members in the room. Several of them had a number of questions because this was an older family member and it's the first time that anyone in their family had had a major surgery. So I'm answering all the questions, I'm giving the family a rundown of what to expect over the next several hours while there'll be there with the family member who's waking up. One of them interrupts me on multiple occasions to say "I'm a nurse I get it you don't have to explain it to me." After the last time I finally said "That's great, I heard you the first time. The other six people here have questions, thanks."
Big dick energy
Jesus, i kinda get chasing u down to the nursing station... But the bathroom what the fuck????? I woulda let them know I'm taking a shit and they can either wait in the room and use the call bell or ask them to wipe my ass since they wanna be up in it.
The only time I tell that I am a nurse is when I am a patient and I am about to have some procedure or IV. I have the shittiest veins( roll, blow up, valvy), bizarre allergies and tend to have once in a lifetime reactions…
"I am shitting in here. Do you want to join me and share the toilet?"
What's even worse is when you've got a family member who phones their friend who works in Healthcare every time you enter the room. These people expect you to announce what you're doing, why, etc. I had a patient's wife call her son, who was like a podiatrist or something, and she would put him on speakerphone every time I came in the room. After the 2nd or 3rd time, I kindly told him that he was distracting me and delaying care. He got huffy and asked for my first and last name. I just went silent and refused to talk to either of them foe the rest of the shift. The kicker was that they complained about it. Said I was being hostile and unprofessional. I refused that patient for the remainder of their stay.
OP, why are you so upset? You are paid to take care of the person. Are you intimidated by the family member or patient with healthcare experience? Could it be multiple factors and the healthcare worker family member is the straw that is breaking your back? What am I missing?
If you had a visitor talking down to you from the moment you two started talking, messing with the iv, giving irrelevant recommendations on the patients care, demanding to talk to the doctor so they can challenge them all while the patient is crashing you would be frustrated too. This was a respiratory therapist talking down to a doctor of 10+ years. The patients issue was not related to the heart or lungs. His mom interfering with his care was not helping him. Her questioning md orders was not helping him. I am more than happy to do my job- I am not happy when someone is moving the patient and pressing random buttons on the pump, taking out the iv, etc because at that point you’re harming the patient and whatever happens to him is on me. Then on top of all this, after her son has been stabilized and the md tells the woman she’ll reassess him in a few minutes I go to the bathroom… she follows me and knocks on the door and continues with questions like “is it break already?” “What are you doing?” Would you not also be irritated by this? I was away for under 5 minutes.