I had kidney surgery at the hospital recently and had to spend a few days in the hospital. All was well until my third day the when the she-devil bitch woman moved in next door to me. At two o’clock in the morning she would start screaming “Nurse!” instead of using her call button (Which I know she didn’t used becuase I didn’t hear the beep that signals it). She woke up the entire ward with her screaming about how her *ice chips were to big and were they trying to kill her! * Meanwhile I am next door in extreme pain because I have a tube coming out of my kidney that has been clamped to try to encourage proper drainage, but my kidney is about to explode and I need that clamp off NOW! It only takes two seconds, I would do it myself, but It is a complicated clamp(probably to prevent me taking it off before absolutly necessary) Twenty minutes later the Ho-bitch stops screaming and the nurse comes into my room, in tears, and takes off my clamp. I tried to make her feel better by being really nice and complimenting her on what a good job she did while dealing with the phsyco next door. She didn’t yell once. I probably would have pulled out a shot gun and delt with her on my own if I could have moved. Stupid bitch. I hope you get bed sores and live in severe agony for the rest of your stay. I also hope that you tradgically get your vocal cords pulled out by some pissed-off nurse so you can’t scream. Yeah, that would be good.
Isn’t there anyone you could complain to?
Not really, since it was the patient not the nurse that was the problem. Kind of a costumer is always right sort of situation.
That’s sad… I’m sorry you have such a pain in the ass for a neighbor and I’m sorry that the nurse has to deal with someone like that 
Hmmm, I’d consider sending a pre-emptive complimentary letter. Mention the great care you received personally, and then you might also mention how impressed you were with the nurses’ equanimity in handling a patient whom you judged to be difficult and disruptive.
That way, if the stupid ice-chip-sucking bitch lodges a pointless complaint, the nurses have a counter claim in their personnel files.
God bless nurses. People don’t say that enough.
Oh dear, no one start a pit thread about me being insensitive to the atheists by saying that…
That letter is a really good idea. Even if phsyco-wench doesn’t put in a complaint, it will boost the spirits of the nurse a great deal.
I also happen to think that nurses are wa underated. They work harder then Doctors. They are the ones that deal with everyones complaints, and they have to give people Sponge baths on a regular basis, and empty bed pans, and change beds with people still in them ::shudder:: I don’t care what anyone says, you would have to pay me a lot of money before I would do any of that.
I just wanted to add that I HATE when people do things like that. :mad:
And in addition, I would have felt SO bad when I saw the nurses tears because I can’t stand to see women cry. Especially nice women.
Any way, I hope a nurse comes in who will shove the ice chips up the lady’s ass!:eek:
Bless you, Shera, for your patience and compassion with the other patient and the nursing staff. People like you are the ones who make the job we do worthwhile. People like the ice chip lady are the reason we burn out.
Writing a complimenary letter about your nurse is a great idea. At the hospital where I work, those letters are posted on a bulliten board for everyone to see, and for me, they are a great pick me up when I’m having a rotten day. I also want to add that there probably is someone to whom you can complain – at my hospital they are called “patient representatives” and their job is customer service. The ice chip lady sounds like the type to make complaints about the nursing staff, so it would help the nurses a lot if Administration knew that the patient was the real problem in the situation.
Best wishes on your recovery!
This is the reason, if for no other (and there are plenty of others!), that nursing pay should be increased about 50%, immediately. Nurses handle between 80% and 95%, depending on the hospital and condition, of all patient care. That includes, but is not limited to: General care and comfort; Giving meds; Cleaning bedpans; Adjusting and replacing dressings; Cleaning up messes of all natures; The list is endless.
There is a critical shortage of qualified nursing, and a huge number of life-threatening and/or fatal medical mistakes happening because of short-staffed, over-worked nurses. These poor folk bust their ass, helping all manner people: The good, the bad, the stupid, the unfortunate, and the flat-out vicious nasty Ho-bitches. They do it with a smile when they can, but whatever they’re feeling, they do it.
Sample pay ranges:
LPN (Home Care) (Co): ~ $14.20/hr
RN (Charge Nurse) (Syracuse, NY) ~ $20/hr
RGN (ITU Nurse) (NHS, UK) ~ £11/hr
This nurse support has made my day. Believe, we don’t get nearly enough as we should. Thanks guys!!!
Lorie
What Tranquilis said. As for the patient who cried ‘nurse’, my default assumption would be that she is “sundowning” or getting a bit delerious and disoriented at night, very common, and beyond the patient’s control. It happens a lot, and anger at the individual never helps. Frustrating as all hell, but they’re usually as helpless as a baby who cries all night keeping everyone up.
Qadgop, MD
I have found that sometimes the more work people do, the less they get paid to do it. Some executives do shit while the people who work under them work their asses off. Guess who gets the corporate perks!
Nursing involves a hell of a lot more than cleaning bedpans
and changing dressings. Nurses have to take classes in calculus, chemistry, biology, anatomy, physiology; in short, a nursing degree requires almost as much medical training as an MD. In addition, nurses have to pass a rigorous certification exam, just like MDs do, to get their licenses.
I doubt it, since she bitched all day too. Also, I think the nurse would have known what was up and not taken so much offense t it. Oh, and I mailed my very nicely worded letter today,i hope it gets there soon.
I was thinking that her behavior sounds an awful lot like the residents in the nursing home where I visit my friend’s mom. They carry on a lot during the day, but nighttime is unreal. (from around 5pm on)
I suspect the woman had some sort of dementia.
Zette
Shera;
Hey, you must’ve had the name neighbor that I did two or three surgeries ago (2 years, anyway). She didn’t get the concept of a call button either. One day, the curtain separating us was drawn and I was on the phone with someone. She was, of course, feebly yelling for a nurse - loud enough to annoy the living fuck out of me, yet not loud enough for anyone else to hear. On many other occasions when she’d pulled that stunt, I’d simply called the nurses with my OWN button, just to silence her. This time, I was occupied.
She must have heard me because she said, “Nurse…? Hello…?”.
I replied, “No, it’s just me, I’m on the phone”
Do you know what this crone grumbled back at me??
“You’re ALWAYS on the phone!!!”
She was lucky I was completely incapacitated, lemme tell you. And that the nurses were kind and didn’t perform some sort of involuntary euthanasia.
Even though I have never had to stay in a hospital or deal with anything like this, I just want to put in a bit of support for the nurses too. My aunt is a psychiatric nurse, and deal with all kinds of crazy stuff on a regualr basis. She has a great sense of humour about it, which is great. My best friend is also studying to be a nurse. I think she’s going to be a great one, since she got to experience it all from the other POV when she had leukemia. She tells me stories about her training and clinicals, and some of the things she has to do/deal with is so much more than I could. I’m so very proud of her.
“involuntary euthanasia”???
:scratches head:
Ahhh, but do you know for a fact they weren’t try to murder her with ice chips?
Speaking as someone who works at the Human Resources department at a hospital, the letter was a great idea. Not only does the Nusing supervisor get to see it, but a copy also gets placed in her employee file! wiggles eyebrows suggestively
Thank goodness there are people out there with the patience to grin and bear it.