Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Why do you come here when you know I've got trouble enough?

I finally got to say it.

"Are you shitheads gonna do the same thing to me this time that you did last time?" he demanded.

"He told me that nobody would help him with his bath last time. And that the doctor wouldn't come see him. He told me he was in here ten days without a bath." she concurred.

"Ma'am, Sir," I replied, "let me be straight with you. You weren't given bed baths last time because when the aides came in, you would curse and throw things at them.

"Then you'd get up and shower.

"The doctor stopped coming in after you threatened to kill him and his family. You've been fired by every nurse on the floor except me.

"The aides have been instructed, for their own safety, not to enter your room.

"I am the only person here who is willing to take care of you. And if your behavior is anything like it was the last time you were here--any cursing, any throwing things, any threats--I have instructions to discharge you immediately. If you assault anyone, I'm going to call the police."

There was a brief silence.

"Where am I supposed to go if you discharge me?" he asked.

"You may go to any other hospital of your choice. We will assist in your transfer." I said.

"No place else will accept him," his wife said, "They've all got do-not-readmit on his chart."

Another brief silence.

Then I gave him twenty of immediate-release oxycodone, four of dilaudid, and a milligram of Xanax and went away. That was all he really wanted anyhow.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

amen, when i visited australia, signs were posted in the units stating if patients or their families are abusive to the staff they will be dismissed and not readmited. we all have frequent visitors that just seek drugs and attention. they need to make clinics available for these types and staff them with strong souls.

Anonymous said...

I am ... SO.GLAD. that I write for a living.

HypnoKitten said...

Thats kind of a scary part about psych - if a pt is determined to get high, all they have to do is go off/get violent and they'll be given IMs of all sorts of stuff we wouldn't give them if they asked for it calmly...

shrimplate said...

Hey, I know that guy.

All nurses know that guy. He comes in often.

Anonymous said...

How about the recent one I had that tried all of my patience, skills and almost earned a pillow :). So abusive of staff, sexually assultive, ect, mentally retarded (14 yr old level) got soooo many "drugs" to calm him down at the nursing home, he almost coded....so he came to our psych unit...where the out of control, cursing, screaming, and grabbing of nurses caused him to get...you got it sedated again...now the ICU...now respiratory distress....now entubated...now trached...now back to a regular floor...where all the behavior is back in force...except that now he cannot scream obscenities...and to top it all off contact and respiratory iso and on the button every two seconds... hell on earth for everybody (him included) and of course the family who have him a full code never come to see him...or his behavior...last I saw he was trying to pull out the trach...and if he succeeds..the doc says they cannot put it back in (his neck is fused)...yet he persists! After 12 hours of him (oh yes I had 5 other patients too) I came home so exhaused I dropped into the bed and slept for 10 hrs without moving. :) Debby in Texas