Hospital Visitors Behaving Badly

The BBQ Pit
1

I work as a ward secretary here at a Minneapolis hospital. (I value my job, so I won’t mention which one.)

I have seen many episodes of visitors doing some obnoxious, stupid, annoying, and dangerous things. Here’s what to do if you really want to be major pain in the ass: (Note to the cynical and disbelieving: I’ve personally witnessed ALL of these being done.)

** Make long distance calls from the front desk, bill them to the hospital, and tie one of my phone lines up for a long time planning your next barbecue. We’re human beings, too, and we’re more than happy to allow a SHORT phone call to family members in cases of emergency admissions, but for God’s sake, don’t abuse it.

** Force young children to visit Grandpa, who is in a monitored bed with wires and tubes and IVs and shit hanging out of his body and who can barely recognize his OWN name. I’ve seen obviously frightened children forcibly dragged into rooms. Nothin’ says love quite like a scared-shitless child screaming.

** Invade a grieving family’s privacy by inviting your kids to see the dead body before it’s taken to the morgue. (Yes, I know, the door should’ve been closed, but there were doctors and nurses going in and out of the room.) Ya know, death is an important fact of life, but not EVERYTHING is a “teachable moment”.

** DEMAND that the secretary go into a patient’s room with blankets, water, medications (!), call the doctor at 10:30 at night, make appointments at 10:30 at night, pull the nurse out of another patient’s spinal tap to “see how Dad is doing”, etc. Now, before y’all say anything, there are numerous laws and regulations and what-not forbidding me from going into a patient’s room for any reason. These exist for the patient’s protection, as well as my own. Second, I’m not a licensed nurse, and so I can’t even deliver Tylenol. Third, the doctors are VERY busy after hours, and chances are, the one who’s taking care of a particular patient isn’t on call anyway. I can leave a message, but that’s it. And finally, THE FREAKIN CLINICS ARE CLOSED!!! Sorry. I’m sick of answering that question.

** Finally, I’ve seen (but can’t prove) patients ask for narcotic pain medication, then give it to a visitor. That violates every known Federal drug law known to man, not to mention that it deprives you of access to pain relief that you might need. The nurse charts the dose when s/he gives it to you. You can’t have another dose until the order says you can. If you give it away, you have to wait to get it. And if the doctor and nurse find out that you gave it away, you get non-narcotic pain meds. See how that works?

Be nice to me, and I’ll bend over backwards for you. Be an asshole, and I won’t be quite so nice.

Robin

2

Am I reading this right? Someone the grieving family didn’t even know barged in the room so their kids could see a dead body?

If so, I’m speechless.

3

Hey, we do this sorta thing all the time…go cruising around to hospitals, hoping to get “lucky”…

yeah, that’s really fucked up. Royally fucked up.

4

I had surgery a few months ago, and the nurse (or nurse’s aide) stood right over me while I took those pain pills. And BELIEVE me, I wasn’t about to share them, I needed those painkillers!

5

People are just grossly curious about others’ ailments and stuff… Whenever I am in the hospital I find myself having to fight my own impulse to stare at people and wonder what they are there for… it’s the same little girl inside of my that wants to run to the window to watch the firetruck go by.

Anyway, my son spent a little time in the NICU and there, of course, it’s all pretty open with the clear bassinets… the nurses were always having to gently remind people it was NONE OF THEIR DAMN BUSINESS what was up with the other babies in the room. People just want to peer through the plastic and say “What’s wrong with this one?” It took some getting used to, walking through there “eyes front” to respect privacy. And none of our guests ever managed it.

6

I hate it when gang members are in the ICU with critical injuries and all their friends feel the need to visit round the clock in droves. Explain the visiting rules over and over and over: Even hours only between 8am and 8pm, half an hour, only two visitors in the room at a time. Doesn’t matter. There will be twenty people in that room at 3am.
“I’m sorry, but visiting hours are over. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Make me, bitch.” (They all laugh.)

“If you won’t leave, I’m going to call security.”

“If you make me leave, I’m going to go out to my car, get my gun, and blow your fucking head off.”

On a lighter note, we once had a young male patient (late twenties) who was paralyzed in an accident; he happened to be in the room that has a video monitor (so the nurse can watch for seizures, suicide attempts, or whatever). During a visit, his mother gave him a handjob; the nurses were horrified to witness this on the monitor. When Mom came out of the room, she happily announced that her son was still intact that way.

7

One thing that never fails to amaze me is when we tell visitors not to let their babies crawl around on the waiting room floor and they ignore us. While it is partially becuase no one wants to step on an infant, it is also very much because there are germs the likes of which you can’t even imagine on that floor and your kid is going around putting his hands on everything and then putting his hands in his mouth. This is a hospital! There are very sick people here! We have diseases like TB, AIDS, HEPATITIS, MENINGITIS, PNEUMONIA, MEASLES, MUMPS, etc!! If I were to appraoach your kid with a syringe full of hepatitis-tainted blood, you would be hysterical but you’ll let him lick and bite on the chair arms in the ICU waiting room!

8

Please tell me you are all joking. I need to sleep tonight. His mother gave him a handjob?!?! People show their kids random corpses? They let their kids crawl around the ER waiting room? I’m getting the willies just reading this.

Have I told you Med. Professionals lately that I love you? Seriously, I had nothing but good experiences last time I was in the hospital. Everyone was professional and very kind. :slight_smile:

Oh wait, this is the pit. Um…thinking, thinking… Okay, it really hurts when you claim that you are good at giving IVs and you really aren’t. Don’t do that anymore.
(Was that a good insult? I’m new to this sort of thing, can you tell? I was going to write “please don’t” but I was really mad and left that out.)

9

Oh, this is wonderful…I’m having surgery tomorrow, and this is what I’m facing?? I’m giving the nursing staff orders that my MOM isn’t allowed in the room until after I’m awake!

10

On a lighter note??
This is plain disturbing, if you ask me. This guy is paralyzed, and the first thing his mother does is resort to an incestuous act in order to check his libido? Aren’t there more important things to worry about at that stage, such as the ability to move hands, the ability to eat and speak?
Plain sick, if you ask me.

I’ll second AuntiePam as well… if some stranger would walk into a room were a relative of mine had just died just to show his kid a corpse, I would make sure that this idiot would prolongue his stay in the hospital a bit longer than visiting hours.

11

Quote<<<<<<Nothin’ says love quite like a scared-shitless child screaming. >>>>>>>>>
Maybe I’m a sick SOB, but thats a funny line.

12

Wha? {double-take}…hit browser back button, reload…is this for fuckin real?

Oy vey…

-Sam

13

His mother gave him a hand job.
~Not only is this disturbing, but entirely believable. I do DJ for a hospital Radio Station and you should see the things I see. The station is situated at the visitors enterance and I see all kinds of wierd shit, including visitors giving patients whiskey to “keep them going” while they were inside.

14

This is disgusting, but I do feel for the parents, I mean, when a kid is going absolutely apeshit and wants to get down from your arms, you cannot hold the little monster. That said, you can take him outside and let him crawl around out there!! But better yet, try to not have to have your baby accompany you! Ugh!!

When our friends had to go to the emergency room, they called us pronto to go pick up their baby. They couldn’t wait for us to get to their house, so they did take her with them to the ER and I met them there. God, talk about a place you do NOT want a baby! They couldn’t hand her over fast enough!!

15

You don’t need gang members to have this happen, just really inconsiderate people. My mom was hospitalized once for heart-related problems, and her cardiologist emphasized that she was to have REST and QUIET. Unfortunately, her roommate was a teenager that had made a half-hearted suicide attempt (swallowed half a bottle of aspirins or something). That girl had a non-stop stream of high school chums and every frickin’ member of what was apparently a very extended family, from great-grandma down to baby nieces and nephews. When I visited my mom, there were never less than 15-20 people crammed on the girl’s side of the room, laughing and talking and generally having a great time (including the patient herself, btw). Worse, my mom was on the window side of the room, so that if she needed to use the bathroom she had to squeeze through the crowd, because there wasn’t enough room for people to step aside!

16

I had the dubious pleasure of spending most of last Saturday at the hospital with a very sick friend. It took us over 8 hours to get in, get some X-rays and a CAT scan, some lab tests, and a dose of antibiotics. We agreed that it was time well spent since she was likely to die without care.

But from the bed next to us we were treated to a steady stream of complaints from an individual with stomach cramps. She seemed to think that the 2 hours she had been there was totally unacceptable. This in spite of the steady stream of people being unloaded from ambulances right down the hall. She was bitter about the guy who bumped ahead of her in line even though he was beginning to convulse from his exposure to poison.

Using every bit of my will power, I managed to not go over there and slap the silly bitch into a coma.

17

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by AuntiePam *
**

The family was not in the hospital when the patient died, and the kids weren’t taken inside the room. If they had, a doctor or nurse would’ve said something.

Hospitals aren’t playgrounds, children. Rules exist for a reason. Patients are entitled to privacy, dignity and respect, be it from a staff member, a family member or a visitor of another patient. If your grandpa dies, do you really want God-knows-who taking a peek at his body? Do you want the world to know your Cousin Alex is in the hospital for a heroin OD?

Next time you’re in a hospital, be it as a patient or as a visitor, please remember the Golden Rule… and LIVE IT!!!

Robin

18

Robyn,

Thanks for posting this. I’m an RN in a hospital and sometimes I come home wondering where on earth some of these visitors came from…someplace south of Hell? If they really cared about their loved one in the hospital there is no way they’d behave the way they do. It interferes with my and everyone else’s ability to care for them.

Sometimes I think it’s gotten this way because of the breakdown of society. One day we may be like Costa Rica, where nearly everywhere you go, there are men with automatic rifles providing security. It would serve some of these idiots right.

At any rate, with the advent of healthcare reform, a shortage of doctors and nurses, and the aging baby boomers, things will get much worse and there will be much less care available. One day some of these demanding, obnoxious people will have a very rude awakening and find out that no one is available to care for either them or their loved ones AT ALL.

Pissed off in Michigan

19

:confused: Costa…Rica?

I’ve only been there once, but it sure didn’t strike me as a heavily armed Third World hellhole. Maybe I was in a different part of the country?

20

This is a ten year old zombie. Killed it with fire.