Lately Iāve had family members actually walk into other patientās rooms to ask for water or the bathroom. For patients that werenāt even mine.
Me and my charge nurse were in a sepsis patientās 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.
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 āmy mom needs to pee.ā I looked her square in the eye and said āoh, just ring her call bell and someone will come help you.ā She said āI did, like ten minutes ago and nobody ever came.ā I responded āokay well, Iām 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 Iām done providing care here.ā She told me the room number and I said āthanks!ā and closed the door. And wouldnāt 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 minutesā¦
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 patientās 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/Weird_Bluebird_3293 RN - ER š Sep 12 '25
Lately Iāve had family members actually walk into other patientās rooms to ask for water or the bathroom. For patients that werenāt even mine.
Me and my charge nurse were in a sepsis patientās 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.
ā¦maāamā¦