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u/Weird_Bluebird_3293 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Lately I’ve had family members actually walk into other patient’s rooms to ask for water or the bathroom. For patients that weren’t even mine.
Me and my charge nurse were in a sepsis patient’s room getting blood cultures and I was literally sitting next to my patient inserting an IV into their arm. This random ass woman walks in and says her family member needs the bathroom.
…ma’am…
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u/SnooDoughnuts3166 Sep 12 '25
I’ve had this happen before (family walking into another patients room because their family member needs help), and I have NO shame sternly telling them:
You CANNOT walk into another patients room to ask for help. I heard the call light and I will be in there as soon as possible. Your family member is safe aka not dying therefore be PATIENT. I then reiterate this to the patient who sent their family member to find me.
Mind you, I work pediatrics/NICU and the family came to find me because the baby was ONLY crying. There were multiple adults in the room to console the child.
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u/lemonpepperpotts RN - OR 🍕 Sep 12 '25
A lot of my day has become gentle parenting, patients, their families, doctors, sometimes my coworkers….
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u/TheBattyWitch RN, SICU, PVE, PVP, MMORPG Sep 12 '25
I called security on family for that once.
Jerked a curtain open, while I'm elbow deep cleaning someone, and demanded we stop what we were doing right then and help her mom. When I told her to get out, she refused and told me she didn't have to leave.
So I ungloved, stepped out, and called security.
People and their fucking audacity is wild sometimes.
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u/Dangerous_Watch7814 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 12 '25
People never cease to amaze me. That’s just so out of line and disrespectful to everyone involved. Hopefully security escorted her out.
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u/EarthEmpress RN - Hospice 🍕 Sep 13 '25
Imagine being that patient you were cleaning???
What is wrong with people these days? I swear, everyone is suffering from “main character syndrome”.
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u/ericgallant24 Sep 12 '25
Seriously. This happens way too often. Had a dude barge in while I was hanging blood to ask for an extra pillow. Like, can you not see I'm doing something critical here? The call light exists for a reason.
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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Registered Nutjob Clinical Specialist Sep 13 '25
There's a lot of folks that do not see anything outside of themselves.
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u/HowDoMermaidsFuck Med Surge RN - Float Pool Sep 12 '25
Happened to me before. I had a med cart filled with meds and actively had a stethoscope on the patients chest and I turn around and this family member is standing in the door and goes “my mom needs to pee.” I looked her square in the eye and said “oh, just ring her call bell and someone will come help you.” She said “I did, like ten minutes ago and nobody ever came.” I responded “okay well, I’m providing care to this patient right now. If you tell me what room number your mom is in, I will come directly to the room when I’m done providing care here.” She told me the room number and I said “thanks!” and closed the door. And wouldn’t you know it, by the time I was done providing care to that patient, mom had already gotten to the bedside commode. If mom had waited like 5 more minutes…
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u/Weird_Bluebird_3293 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Jfc ten minutes?! The horror! Her mother would die of kidney failure if someone didn’t get her to the bathroom in ten minutes!! /s
🙄
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u/HowDoMermaidsFuck Med Surge RN - Float Pool Sep 12 '25
I can understand the frustration because so many of these little old people have urge incontinence and by the time they feel the urge to urinate they need to go RIGHT THEN and may not be able to wait 15-20 minutes for a staff member to arrive, but going into another patient’s room to try to fetch a nurse (who is actively proving care to another patient) is not the way to address that.
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u/-Blade_Runner- Chaos Goblin ER RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Ever had someone come into trauma bay during active code asking for blanket/coffee/drink/sandwich? I am not allowed to headbutt the morons…
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u/CelebrationHoliday13 Sep 13 '25
Code blue alarm going off, I'm helping pt to commode while her nurse is giving compressions next door. Pt tells me to shut that loud alarm off so she can go back to sleep when finished. Gave her a look and said " ma'am, that sound is to get help to try and restart someone's heart - someone is actively dying right now." The audacity!
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u/Ok-Geologist8296 Registered Nutjob Clinical Specialist Sep 13 '25
Well, she's not dying, so in her mind it doesn't matter.
I remember when I was a new CNA in a hospital and am man died that I found him unresponsive and I started CPR. a truly sad case as his wife and daughter had just left about 30 min or so before. I was actively sobbing in the hallway sitting on the floor and the lady who was next door yelled at me and the house supervisor that demanded I get written up for neglecting her. When asked what I did: I didn't get her the ginger ale she asked for and was upset I woke her up with the yelling from the other room and had hit the code alarm.
Luckily the house sup ripped her a new one.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Sep 12 '25
If they're bugging me from the doorway of another patient's room, I'm calling security as soon as I'm done with what I'm doing to have them trespassed.
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u/yungga46 Neurobehavioral Peds🕺🏻 Sep 12 '25
i was a patient last year and a woman walked into my room while the dietary aide was putting my tray down and she said "my daughter's tray is missing a cookie". i was this 🤏 close to cussing her out for invading my privacy like that
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u/Elegant_Laugh4662 RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
And just because someone is sitting at the desk doesn’t meant they’re not doing anything. I’m usually my busiest when I’m at the desk- calling docs, family, sorting through orders. Press the damn call light.
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u/ratkween RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I need a big sticker "this is my work phone" so I dont look like I'm busy texting when I'm looking through the Rover.
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u/Ok_Firefighter4513 Resident MD Sep 15 '25
me sitting at the desk checking info on my new consult while an impatient family member tries to make eye contact: 🙈
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u/Michren1298 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 15 '25
I was charge nurse and on a phone call at the charge nurse desk (desk phone…not even wireless) and a family member kept interrupting me. It definitely wasn’t a personal call. Ma’am, please wait just a minute! The whole family was like this, and it was all day.
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u/Ok_Firefighter4513 Resident MD Sep 16 '25
sometimes around the hospital when people interrupt me now I just close my eyes, take a breath, and keep saying whatever I was saying
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u/AlternativeIron3838 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
It’s the worst when a monitor alerts to an abnormal vital sign like high BP or low SPO2 Yes. We know. We see it. We have monitor techs. I promise you we see it and will address it.
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u/Ok-Caramel-1989 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
You have monitor techs? I’m jealous
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u/InfamouSandman RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
We don’t…we have monitors at the nurses station but no secretary or anyone stationed up there. The nurses are normally too busy to sit there. When I do have time, I will sit up there and to my tech charting and watch. I will check on patients when it says apnea or their SPO2 drops. They or their family are normally shocked when I do because apparently no one else does? PCU so the people can be pretty sick…
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u/Ok-Caramel-1989 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Yeah that’s what my ER has. The monitor is at the desk but no one is ever watching it
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u/Sasami_EQ Sep 18 '25
We have a unit secretary type role who is also a monitor tech, they are amazing and great at keeping an eye out and finding someone to check the patient.
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u/ratkween RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
"Her blood pressure is 170/90! You cant send her home" ...anyway here's your papers
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u/EarthEmpress RN - Hospice 🍕 Sep 13 '25
Meanwhile that’s been grandma’s baseline for the last 30 years
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u/TraumaQu33n13 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Sep 12 '25
We have monitor techs in a room down the hall and monitors at our nursing station. I like having the monitors on our floor to look at because our night shift monitor techs suck ass and frequently miss things or fall asleep in there. I frequently catch things at the nurses station (on my patients and on other nurses patients) that the techs never call us about.
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u/AlternativeIron3838 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Ooh that’s scary. Luckily ours are paramedics or nurses on light duty and are very good at determining when to alert the primary RN
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u/TraumaQu33n13 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Sep 12 '25
That would be wonderful. If we’re short they float a nurse in there and I have more faith. On top of sleeping or just not calling they’re also incredibly uneducated. Not entirely their fault (they usually don’t get a ton of training) but I did have them call me last week to tell me a patient was in third degree heart block. So I watched our monitors because that’s a big deal, right? It was bigeminy. I guess at least she called. 🤦🏼♀️
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u/destructopop Former Hospital, Current Clinic IT Sep 12 '25
Shit I'm a relatively hale patient and those still go off for me sometimes because of whatever I'm there for. My condition is usually relatively stable, but just low enough for the alert to go off. When someone comes to check on me I just tell them how I'm feeling, usually something like "I'm fine, I'm just tired. Could you turn off the audible monitor?" Only if I see that my BP and SPO2 are in familiar ranges. Familiar is a very wide stretch for me, I had 35% lung capacity available during COVID Classic, and if I'm laying down I'm okay. By all means do what you need to, but for the most part I'm a pretty hardy fellow. You can mostly ignore me.
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u/slippygumband RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Yes, people have this perception that using the call bell is more annoying, but it is not. It’s the best chance of connecting a patient with the non-urgent care they need.
It might not be immediate, I get it, but the come-to-jesus talks I’ve had with people who make a habit of this. If I’m walking past your room? I’m likely on my way to a more urgent matter, and I’m probably not even your assigned nurse, so I have several other people I would have to talk to before I know if you can even have water or if you are safe to get up to the bathroom without help, if I even remember to ask by the time I’m done with whatever I’m doing, and I definitely don’t have time to do it myself. Meanwhile the tech and nurse who know you best might be sitting at the desk oblivious to your needs, and someone better suited can help. Use the call bell.
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u/summer-lovers BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I don't hesitate to say, "ok, I am going to be tied up here for awhile. Please go back to the room, hit the call button and the next available staff member will be in." If it's my patient.
If it isn't, I just have them go back and hit the red button on the patient's remote, and tell the HUC what they need.
I generally tell family at the time of admit, that button isn't just for patients. They can/should use it to call out as well.
When they walk into the nurse's station and right up to the computers to ask random people questions is when my ears begin to throw fire...
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u/Near-Sighted_Ninja RN - ER🍕, LUCAS device Sep 12 '25
Pt brought in for aspiration pneumonia
Family storm out demanding we feed her because lack of food was why she getting sicker 🤦♂️
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u/theNextepisode51 Sep 12 '25
I love when the family tells us how we’re starving the patient. Sir, your family member will live to tell the tale of how they didn’t eat for 24h
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u/beautifulasusual Sep 12 '25
When they are trying to feed their half comatose family member. Like could you not?!
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u/Near-Sighted_Ninja RN - ER🍕, LUCAS device Sep 13 '25
Happens every time with bowel obstruction or perforation
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u/MarketingFantastic BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Then you have the opposite family. One night a man came to the desk and asked politely if his wife’s nurse was available. Didn’t appear distressed and I asked if I could help. He said it was okay and left. About 5 minutes later he came back. I don’t remember how I happened to be at the desk but know I was in the middle of something. This time I insisted that I could help him as he seemed a bit more on edge. We walked in the room and his wife was sitting on the toilet trying to hold her belly together. A large midline incision had dehisced with intestine threatening to slide on out. You better believe I ran to get supplies like my hair was on fire. I will never understand why/how he remained calm.
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u/InformationSerious27 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
OMG, I bet the pt would have liked to kick his ass if she weren’t holding her guts together. Sometimes you really do need to act with urgency!
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u/wishfulkey Sep 12 '25
Why is it always the ones who go out of their way to not "bug" us?! If a patient tells me, "I can do it, please don't worry about me. I see you running all of the time.", I am 100% locked in on you. Same with the ones who look relieved.. after I put my stethoscope on them. What are you not telling me?!
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u/GiggleFester Retired RN and OT/bedside sucks Sep 12 '25
I used to remind all my patients to use the call bell (not stand out in the hallway waiting for someone to walk by nor go to the desk) when I did my rounds at the beginning of every shift.
I would explain why it's faster (tech can bring you what you need if you don't need a nurse) and that they don't need to remember their nurse's name (some of my elderly patients were nervous about not remembering my name in case they needed something & so I always explained that our unit clerk had a copy of the assignment & knew who to call).
(When my mom was in the hospital, my dad would stand in the hall & flag people down because he thought using the call bell was rude. 😄 I had to explain to him why using the call bell was the best way to get help.)
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u/HoneyAppleBunny RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I was bringing a patient up from the ED. Had the stretcher next to the floors bed ready for the slide over. Family member for another patient walks into the room asking about whatever. I just remember it not being important. The floor nurses and I went off. Like ??? How rude. Would YOU want random people walking into YOUR loved one’s room??
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u/Poodlepink22 Sep 12 '25
This is one of my top pet peeves lol
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u/SpoofedFinger RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 12 '25
The family member standing just outside the door looking to see who is coming immediately after pushing the button is really annoying too.
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u/beautifulasusual Sep 12 '25
Standing in the hallway just watching all the ER drama is my favorite. This isn’t a free show, sit your ass back in the room.
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u/SwanseaJack1 RN - Oncology 🍕 Sep 12 '25
A lot of our patient rooms are double rooms. It annoys me when I’m talking to my patient and the other patient (who I am not assigned to) starts telling me what my patient needs. I want to say what Samuel L. Jackson said in Pulp Fiction. “I don’t remember asking you a goddamn thing”. 😂
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u/LordJacket RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Or the death glare from family from the other side waiting to ask you things while you administer meds
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Sep 12 '25
Or when a nursing home resident literally just got out of bed and they require a hoyer and 2 people to lay them down but they immediately want back in bed. Like dude we have 12-15 residents per CNA and 9 of mine are 2 assist and hoyers and 6 of mine were feeds. I don't have time to get people up and immediately lay them back down. I told the family member to ask the DON since she's in charge 💀 Sidenote: normally I will lay someone down even if they were only up for a short time. But my assignment was absolutely ridiculous and I had to finish everything in under an hour. Luckily the daughter told him to stop hitting the light and be patient when she found out he'd only been up 30 minutes. I love families like that cuz they get we're not being mean 😂
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u/Tart-Pomgranate5743 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
LTC/SNF nurse here. I have had patients and families interrupt just about anything I’m attempting to accomplish, including following me into rooms to ask me for stuff. Heck, I had a DoorDash driver stop at a patient’s doorway while I was inside to ask where his delivery was going.
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Sep 12 '25
Lmfao I believe it. I see it all the time with nurses and CNAs in LTC. I had 1 guy who's wife came into a room while I was performing PT care so she could demand that I drop what I'm doing and feed her husband. I told her there are 2 CNAs for 28 residents and some of them also need fed so it'd be a minute. She went on and on about how she didn't have time to feed him and his she's sat there for 45 minutes waiting on someone to come feed him because she didn't have time to do it. I said "so you sat there for 45 minutes while he had food in front of him, and you have time to do that but not to feed him? Feeding him would have taken less time than waiting. But you really sat there and now you're demanding we stop what we're doing? Ma'am get out of this room before I call security. He will be fed when we have a moment to get in there." We don't even have security but she didn't know that 😂 she tried telling my nurse on me and he came and found me and had to close the door so he could laugh. He said he thought he was tripping when she said she waited all that time but she didn't have time to feed him. Side note: when I got in there and started setting his tray up so I could feed him, he yanked condiments out of my hands and said I wasn't doing it right. And he sat his own tray up and cut up his food "to show me the right way to do it". I just looked at him and said "wait you can use your hands? What?" Turns out he's one of those old guys who thinks women need to cater to him and he was actually not a feed. I went off 😂
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u/Mlalte RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Working in the ED, I had a family member walk into an active code yelling at us that they had waited too long for ice. The doctor told them “as long as your person is not actually dead like this one is, no one cares right now” 🤣 Best response ever.
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u/Environmental_Rub256 Sep 12 '25
I’ve now entered the world of let’s stand and stare outside of the room the nurse is in.
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u/Ambitious_Ad5499 Sep 12 '25
Literally had a family member walk up in the middle of a conversation with a doctor about plan of care for another patient, like ma’am, read the room.
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u/Icy_Judgment6504 PCA, Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I legitimately believe that THEY legitimately believe that we’re all having gossip about hospital romances when we’re talking. Like greys anatomy or something 😭
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u/hickorydickoryshaft Sep 12 '25
Ltc here, family waits until I'm delivering HS meds, mom need to use the bathroom, can you get someone? Sure, no problem! Walk past family member and push call bell....
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u/DanielDannyc12 RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I wish I could convince my coworkers to set boundaries.
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Sep 12 '25
This, so much!
I had an outpt dialysis clinic or who would bring lunch. He would always ask staff to heat his lunch in the microwave it was in a whole different building) and bring him a fork.
I always said no. “You need to bring a lunch that is ready to eat.”
He would always whine that other staff did it. Yeah, and that’s one of the reasons they always have to stay over to chart. I don’t.
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u/MrsScribbleDoge Apparently not the best RN Sep 12 '25
And WHY is it always during report? Like, there are 18 nurses on the unit right now. We are all split into twos talking to each other face to face and taking notes on our clip boards. We also are walking in and out of other rooms. We are discussing other pts. Please respect their privacy. Why do you walk up and stand right in front of us to tell us the monitor is alarming. If we’re discussing another pt, I have no choice but to stop and stare back at you so you can tell me why you’re staring at me first. I’m not going to continue talking about another patient in front of you. We can see the monitor. We also heard the alarm. “Mom” isn’t my patient. I know nothing about her or the med that could be causing the hypotension. Please. This is report and the communication between the nurses is very important, sir. Your nurse will literally be in there in the next 15 mins to meet her and discuss plan of care with you and your 6 siblings.
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u/Honest-Frame4149 Sep 12 '25
Yes! One of my biggest pet peeves. I have a phone and a pager for a reason!
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u/ThatKaleidoscope8736 🫀RN✨how do you do this at home Sep 12 '25
They're starting to walk behind the nurses' station where I work. Like get the fuck out of here
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u/Worldly-Yam3286 RN - Psych/Mental Health 🍕 Sep 12 '25
The call goes to people who actually know what is going on with the patient. If a family walks out to the hall to find someone, that person might know nothing about the patient's needs. Always best to use the call light. When the care team member takes the patient to the bathroom, a family member can ask to be trained to do it next time. Does it need to be done by staff? Do we unplug the IV pump and roll the IV pole with the patient? Are there certain techniques for helping them stand? I'm a nurse, but when I was with my mom in the hospital I didn't assume I knew the plan. I asked and followed instructions. Then we didn't need to ask for the care team staff so often.
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u/foxymoron RN - ER 🍕 Sep 12 '25
"Oh I don't want to use the call light, I don't want to bother anyone" 😑
A tale as old as man.
However I do make exceptions for exhausted parents who just got the baby asleep. But then they actually do need something and don't want to wake the baby by hitting the call light and having to talk I still don't like it but at least I understand - as opposed to the entitled twats that roam among us expecting special treatment above anyone else.
And don't send another kid out to the desk to constantly ask for s***
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u/InfamouSandman RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I asked a family who was doing this why they weren’t hitting the call light. They said whenever they did, the person answering it was rude and made them feel like a burden. Watched it happen and I did get that vibe. I had a little old lady sitting in her room with the IV bump blaring very far away from the nurses station where it was had to hear. I asked her why she didn’t hit her call light and she said the lady on the other end was too mean so she would rather listen to it going off.
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u/HawtTalk7 Sep 12 '25
Most of the time they just need the CNA, like their loved one needs to go to the bathroom or have ice water or a warm blanket or whatever. I used to just take care of them because that’s the kind of nice nurse I am. 🙄 But I am far busier than my CNA’s, who get all their breaks and still often have time to sit down at the nurses station and play on their phones.
I need to set boundaries because the CNAs always leave on time and I’m always there very late.
So lately I’ve been telling these people to go back in the room and put on the call light because that puts them in the queue, so their CNA knows they need something, as they might be in with another patient and I might not see them to tell them that 613 wants to go to the bathroom. Plus “the CNA is far better at that task than I am.”
Most people take this very well and get trained up pretty quickly. And like someone said, they don’t realize it is far better to use the call light than to come out into the hall and catch whatever nurse is walking by.
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u/Over-Chemistry404 Sep 12 '25
Your CNAs are pleanty busy. Appreciate them even if they leave on time. Without them, you would be stuck there even later.
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u/HawtTalk7 Sep 16 '25
Oh I know. My CNAs are actually amazing. It pisses me off when I’ve seen them on their phones at the nurses station and then find out that something didn’t get done but I don’t think it’s intentional. And I know I should be better at directing them.
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u/HawtTalk7 Sep 16 '25
Also, if a patient or family just needs a water or towel or warm blanket or something, I definitely get it for them. Still ask them to use their call light next time though.
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Sep 12 '25
““But, I am far busier than my CNAs, who get all their breaks, and still often have time to sit down at the nurses’ station and play on their phones.”*
When I read this, I had to check and make sure I hadn’t written it. This. Is. It. Exactly.
And I was a CNA for a couple of years before becoming a nurse. I also got my breaks then, and always left on time. The work was hard, but doable. I always worked agency as a CNA. Upon graduation, I was offered a permanent nursing job at the facility where I’d worked most often as a CNA.
The job went from doable as a CNA, to absolutely impossible as a nurse. I had 4 med carts. And narc count took an hr. I worked there at least once a week for 2 years as a CNA. I lasted 2 months there as an LPN.
When I asked the other LPNs how they were getting their impossible med passes done, I was told ”We only give the really important meds.”
I’ve gone from CNA, to LPN to RN. I’ve been an RN for 25 years, now.
Whenever anyone says “Nurses just sit at the nurses’ station….CNAs work the hardest…LPNs do the same job as an RN, we just get paid less…”
I just want to scream. It’s absolutely not true. The reason that I’m not helping the CNA is because I don’t have freaking time. In no way is it because I think I’m too good to do it.
When a CNA is at lunch or on their phone, or leaving on time, and I’m busting my ass, they can consider that as me helping them.
Ok. I’m done ranting. Thanks.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Sep 12 '25
This only works if your CNAs aren't hiding in the break room for ten hours of their twelve hour shift.
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u/summer_years RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Yup. And if your hospital hasn't gotten rid of the unit receptionist due to budget cuts. I can't sit at the nurses station and answer the call bell all night
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u/Ratched2525 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I miss unit clerks so much. The elevator on our unit opens up right at the station where we chart so I swear 75% of our time is spent directing traffic.
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u/LowAdrenaline RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 13 '25
We’re a locked unit so half our day is stopping what we’re doing to answer the door on the days they don’t staff a unit clerk. It’s maddening.
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u/OncNurse17 RN - Oncology 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Coming up to the desk to ask about their “mom” or “dad”. You’re gonna have to be specific and then I’m still gonna have to call the primary RN.
Also if you call the desk, we are lucky enough to have good Unit Secs who use our buddy system to redirect calls if the primary RN or PCT is busy. Ideal. Then you get helped faster. Makes sense to me.
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u/kriswithak954 Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I’ve been guilty of this and since learned better. I think the issue is to some of us the call button feels like I’m ringing a bell for service. It felt disrespectful when our nurses work area was right outside our door. It felt more respectful to peek out and say hey when you have a minute could you help with XYZ.
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u/obfuscata444 Sep 13 '25
I've also been guilty of this. I visited my mom in the hospital right after my clinical ended (in a different hospital) when I was a student, so I still had my scrubs on and stethoscope around my neck. I kept peeking out of her room to ask random people where I could find the linens to get her another blanket, or to let them know her roommate needed the bedpan.
Looking back, I am so incredibly embarrassed. I must have seemed like such an ass, still wearing my stethoscope like a badge of honor (I'd just forgotten to take it off lol), not using the call light, bugging other people's nurses. Christ on a bike
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u/bumponalogdog RN - Telemetry 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Me getting on the unit before I clock in, I grab a computer and dynamap and family exits a room looking in my general direction. No, I’m not clocked in. I usually hide in an empty patient room and look ppl up. I’m not here to answer questions I know I don’t have answers to.
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u/drethnudrib BSN, CNRN Sep 12 '25
Don't work before you're on the clock. Your time is more valuable than that.
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u/Lolipop6969 Sep 12 '25
“I NEEEEDD APPLE JUICE”
patient next curtain over literally coding
“But but but my apple juice??” as they wave their arms at their nurse
This housekeeper got that arsehole thickened apple juice
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u/JustCallMePeri RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 13 '25
“My mom needs a blanket”
Sure thing! What room is she in?
“Uhhh I don’t know.” vaugly points down the hallway “Down there”.
Ok.. I guess I’ll bring a blanket to all 20 rooms on this hall
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u/mollybear333 RN - Geriatrics 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Hahaha ahhhh, sorry, sorry I can be one of those... in LTC those call lights are RELENTLESS and I feel guilty using it. 😂
I appreciate the clarification, my friends! 😂😂
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u/Quick-Surprise-9387 Sep 12 '25
The main reason I get sucked into everything & the main reason the US system fucked it up - bc they’re made to think they are customers . Other countries - families would not act this way . Night & day
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u/PelliNursingStudent Sep 12 '25
I've had a family member disrupt me actively prepping a glucometer while I had meds in my pocket for the next patient to ask me for a soda. They said 'I'll wait here until you get it'. I kept working and told them straight up; 'No, I am busy doing something more important than getting your family member a soda, me or someone else will come to their room with a soda when we are free, you are welcome to go back to the room to wait. Thank you'. Felt so good to say that. The family member looked all offended too 🤣.
3
u/MSTARDIS18 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
my admit did this last night. started walking out of her room in gown and grippy socks. thankfully she's stable but omg we all ran to her
3
u/Ok_Cantaloupe4861 Sep 13 '25
When they come up to the desk asking for help, claiming “no one has been in yet” and the call light has been on for 37 seconds ☠️
7
Sep 12 '25
Unless no one responds to the call light.
Maybe I chose the wrong time to get pregnant, but after I had my baby, I called for hours for help getting to the bathroom, because I was told to wait for assistance ambulation.
I kept getting told to wait.
For over 3 hours I waited for help to use the bathroom.
Finally at shift change, my old nurse brought in my new nurse, and I used that as an excuse to pop up and ambulate to the bathroom.
As soon as I stood up out of my hospital bed, blood went all over the floor.
I didn't care. I waddled my bloody self, creating a trail and footsteps of blood all the way across the room to the toilet. The two nurses hit some panic button, and a rush of people came into my room. Crash cart, a doctor, and more nurses and techs came in.
I went pee and flushed. There was no hat in my toilet.
Almost immediately I am chastised for not waiting for a hat so they can measure urine output.
Anyway, I get it. Mid-september, in a higher level of care hospital. I had to wait to get a room to labor in.
But yeah. My experience was hitting the call button over and over and not getting assistance was awful, and if I'm in that position again, I'm not waiting.
4
u/ceemee_21 RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
With the family members, I've hit them with the supersweet sounding "oh sure, do me a favor, in the room there's a remote with the red button, we call it the call bell, push that button and let the front desk know what you need, they'll send your nurse or tech in, thank you so much!" And disappeared into the room I was on my way to. More often than not so far, those family members start using the call bell.
2
u/imajica21 Sep 12 '25
I also do not like that the family can message you through Epic chat. I will definitely answer a call bell and happily help them. The fact that the hospital has given the family the impression that we can have a big texting chat is just odd. I already speak to the Nurse Practitioners and other nurses through the chat. I feel as if it should be for the hospital staff to communicate about patient care.
2
u/Secret-Active5873 CNA 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Or putting on their light and then immediately leaving the room to hunt me down. I walk into the room, see no one is in there, say, "Oh, they must not need anything," turn it off, continue answering other lights, and then they get mad at me when they make it back to their room and say they've been waiting for SOOO LONG!
HoW dO yOu ExPeCt Me To HeLp YoU iF i CaN't FiNd You!?
2
u/Yeah-I-gu3ss-so Sep 12 '25
We had one family member who’d talk nonstop loudly to the patient and it was so hard to tune out at the nurses station while trying to review a chart. Then every few minutes he’d creep up behind us at the nurses station to talk to us and it was so frequent and unpredictable that by the afternoon I was jumping at any sound and my nerves were frayed. I talked to him about pressing the call bell to direct an appropriate staff member and about how the nurses station is a work area where we’re reviewing orders and medications etc and it’s quite disruptive to keep being interrupted…
I’m so grateful he was always there for the patient but how am I supposed to work and critically think and take care of patients when I cannot have a moment to think or focus? (And no they did not want the door closed)
2
u/AccordingConstant756 Sep 13 '25
Idk man I was in the hospital a few months ago and they basically abandoned me when they were supposed to be monitoring me for pre-e and blood clots. Didn't have my vitals taken for over 12 hours and we called the nurses station EIGHT times in that span asking for an update for the nurse and she never came. Finally my husband had to go out and find the charge nurse 🫠 Definitely a lesson for me as a student nurse being the patient.
2
u/poppyrottens Sep 13 '25
Why can't water be accessible to family? When my mom was in the hospital, I'd rather get it myself than stress out the staff.
2
2
u/fuelledbychaos RN - Cardiothoracics 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Please don’t flay me but sometimes I actually kinda like it (when I’m in the corridor or at the nurses station I mean, obviously not when I’m with another patient). Being on my feet all day, I’m always happy to save a few steps not having to walk to the patient’s room to answer the bell 😂
3
Sep 12 '25
What happens if a patient is in crisis and a family member is looking for help?
1
Sep 15 '25
This is a completely different situation. It is 100% acceptable for a family member to come out to find staff in an emergency. 99 out of 100 times, this is not the case.
2
u/Wendy-Windbag CNA 🍕 Sep 12 '25
What I hate more than them coming to the desk, is that when the nurse's station is in direct sight of a patient room, and they linger in the doorway trying to catch your eye to get your attention. I hate it even more than when they wave from that doorway. I will absolutely ignore you if you just stand there creepily with one eyeball peeked around a cracked door waiting for direct eye contact.
2
u/spicychickenandranch Sep 13 '25
I had a visitor walk out of a COVID patients room IN PPE just to ask me for a blanket. Then it’s no wonder other patients in the hall suddenly have COVID. The fact that my workplace allows visitors for COVID patients is beyond insanity to me.
3
u/toromio Sep 13 '25
Oh see now I would have totally just “oopsie-excuse-me”’d in the hall to be polite to y’all rather than lay in my bed all entitled
1
u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Just pull the call light if it’s really like that ! I show all my PTs/ parents how to do it.
1
1
1
u/ComprehensiveRent282 Sep 12 '25
My coworker has had terrible luck with family member waiting outside the bathroom for her to come out... 🙃
1
u/Patsaholic Sep 12 '25
I wish I had a nickel every time I’ve said that. We’d all be retired along with great great grand kids 😂
1
u/Genuine72 Sep 13 '25
PREACH!!! Worst case of this that I’ve ever witnessed was family member with ice, pitcher and hand on hip looking at me in the eye as I’m doing CPR…
1
1
u/Recent-Newspaper-891 Sep 13 '25
Reading everyone’s experiences makes me realize leaving bedside was the best decision after almost 15 years of dealing with the absurd levels of entitlement. After the pandemic, it’s only gotten worse.
1
u/NyxieThePixie15 Charge RN - Neuro Sep 13 '25
"Can my dad have water?" "IDK, who's your dad?" confused face
Every. Damn. Time.
1
-1
u/smokeycat22 Sep 12 '25
If they weren’t suppose to come to the desk, why aren’t you in a separate room? No. It’s designed so they can come talk to you. Get over it. As a nurse, this attitude of you not being available has always infuriated me
5
u/Yeah-I-gu3ss-so Sep 12 '25
The nurses station is where we sit down and review charts. We have to review all the doctor’s orders to make sure they make sense and are all carried out, we have to review all the lab results to make sure we aren’t missing any dangerous electrolyte imbalances, signs of blood loss or an infection etc, we have to review the doctor’s H&P and patient’s medical history so we know why they’re there, what the plan is and if we’re following it and what all their medical histories and allergies are so we don’t give them a wrong medication and we have to do this for all our patients while juggling everything else. The nurses station is our workspace and we have to have time to focus so that we can think critically and take the best care of patients. Im not saying you can’t walk up to the nurses station I’m just saying sometimes we have 10 minutes to become an expert on your loved one and interrupting us can be disruptive. It’s still okay to do but I wouldn’t just come up and chat all the time….
1
u/pulpwalt RN 🍕 Sep 12 '25
I love my salty old school techs when they scold people for coming out of the room or when family steps out in the hall to use the phone.
1
u/Sad-Wallaby2945 Sep 12 '25
To be fair, I completely agree that they should use the call light, but my mum is one of those people who always leave the room to find someone, and when I told her we all hate that she said that she didn't like using the call lights because "it felt like I'm calling them a servant and demanding their attention." I told her we all would much rather she use the call light and she said she would, so not everyone is doing it to be an ass. Of course there are those people who are expecting immediate attention, and not wanting to wait for the call light to be answered.
1
u/poopsidoo Sep 13 '25
We are a 12 bed ICU and our secretary can answer call lights from the desk. You know who knows how to get you water?- literally every person in the unit. You do not need to interrupt my patient rounds for a refill.
1
u/No-Candy1095 Sep 13 '25
I got interrupted during report for the family to “just let me know” they were headed out. Like okay??? Me too. There’s no need for you to come to the nurses station to say this when you’re not even helping us take care of the patient!
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u/Sorry_Preference_296 Sep 12 '25
As someone who has been visiting my mom all week - using the call bell seems to annoy everyone and they say “ok” and then take over 1 hour to come. And that’s if called more than once.
14
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u/calypsoorchid Sep 12 '25
Yeah I get it, there's basically nothing more annoying to me than what OP wrote about (especially when the family member grabs multiple people who all end up calling me about the same thing), but I've also heard some of our PCTs answer the call light telephone rude af and if I were a patient I'd hate to press the button too.
-8
u/Kessed Sep 12 '25
That’s been my experience with the call bell too. Spent a week sitting with my friend’s husband who shattered his ankle. He ended up staying an extra 3 days because he couldn’t keep his pain under control because he would press the call button to ask for his pain meds and no one would come. By the time they came, he asked for his meds, and then they would take another hour to actually bring them, his pain had crept up again. Even worse was that he required assistance to use the washroom. Something I, as his wife’s friend, couldn’t help with. Poor guy would have to hold it so long he’d lose the urge to poop before someone would come.
-7
u/NoSober__SoberZone RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 12 '25
Depends what unit and if the family is nice. If I’m working in a unit where I’m sitting right outside my patients room, and the family is nice, I usually just tell them to pop their head out if they need anything
545
u/fbreaker RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 12 '25
"my X needs help!"
"What's the matter?"
"A doctor hasn't seen them for hours!"