These are the ramblings and rantings of a nurse. The disclaimer: The emotions are real but the people's names and circumstances are fictionalized and changed to protect their identity. Any resemblance to real life people and circumstances is purely coincidental. This blog was born out of my need to vent my personal feelings and share my professional experiences with death and dying, caring for and saving lives.
;
i found ur site in Rose' (sistersalvation) friends list & i got interested with the "Nurse" thingy bcoz my hubby and bro are both nurses too.
i'll be back here for updates. bye for now
. Have a good one!
I just got done with taking report on my fourth patient when the pm shift nurse gave me the info on my fifth, Mr. Tower*. He was a male patient in his late 60s and was admitted in the afternoon after a diagnostic procedure was postponed due to acute renal failure. His service wanted him to stay in the hospital to resolve the problem and to monitor him before he gets rescheduled for the same test in a few days. Upon checking his chart in the computer, he didn't have much of any doctor's orders put in yet.
I was about to do my rounds for my assignment when Mr. Tower's call light
came on so I decided to check in on him first. I knocked on his door, " May I come in, Mr. Tower? What can I do for you?"
Mr: Tower: "I'd like to know where my medications are. I'm supposed to take them a long time ago." No time for pleasantries, I see. He was definitely looking very irate and agitated
. He was breathing hard and was waving his arms around. Oh, dear 
Me: "Mr. Tower, my name is PRNurse
and I will be your nurse till tomorrow morning. I understand you had been waiting for some medications?" I took a few more tentative steps into the room like entering a lion's den
.
Mr. Tower: "Yes, I take my medications at 6 pm and that was two hours ago. This is going to mess up my routine. I refuse to take my pills according to the hospital's schedule. I've been lying here for hours and nothing's been done. I don't know what's going on here. Nobody seems to know what they're doing." Oh, great! I have a ticking bomb on my hands and he's ready to blow up.
Me: " Mr.Tower, I just got started with my shift but I will be checking up on the issue right away. I will get hold of your doctor and let you know what's going on." I took a few steps back.
Mr. Tower: "Well, two doctors had been here already and I told one of them about my medications. He should have the information already. I just want my f
ing medications NOW!!!" 
Me: "Mr. Tower, I'll be working on it as soon as possible." I was just about losing my cool at this point but I bit my lip to keep a retort from coming out of my mouth.
Mr. Tower: "You better get hold of that doctor and he'd better be here in less than 15 minutes or else..." As much as he left a threatening tone with the last word, I seriously doubt I can make a doctor come up ASAP just because Mr. Tower said so. 
Me: "I'll try my best, Mr. Tower." I walked out of that room like the devil was after me.
What a foul, stinking attitude! I pity the doctor that will have to deal with him. Well, I pity myself more since I'm stuck with him for 12 hours! 
I was able to contact
Dr. Wise* and notified him of the problem. He was busy with another patient on crisis in another unit but managed to come up to see the patient in less than half an hour later. I told him more about the patien't verbalizations (use of the F word particularly) to emphasize the mood he was in. Minutes later, Dr. Wise came back to the station and said, "I don't think he likes me either.
I told him that it was wrong of him to curse at the nurse, that it was an inappropriate and unacceptable behavior. He denied cursing and being rude. We had a bit of an exchange of words. He wants another nurse but I told him it's not necessary or possible. Just be prepared when you go in there, okay?" A-huh?
...
Yikes!!! Boy, do I have my night in hell cut out for me
. Braving for the worst, I went in to the patient's room to inform him that the doctor was in the process of entering his medication orders and I will bring in the meds as soon as they are dispensed from the system or sent from the pharmacy. The patient looked like he had calmed down and was surprisingly pleasant this time around
. I thought he was going to throw me out of the room but he seemed like a different person than the one I initially met. Wow!
I think what the doctor said probably homed in on him and made him think twice about his unfair behavior. Sometimes, patients can become so anxious and it gets manifested in other types of behavior. It's still no excuse to be abusive to the staff but it's understandable and expected at times. 
The rest of the night still had some bumps and hitches but it went better than I anticipated. Mr. Tower had all his pills ( more or less 10 of them) and went to sleep
. I thanked the doctor who made that possible. It is so rare that an MD would stand up for the nurses so it was a very refreshing experience
. Most of them couldn't really be bothered to go an extra mile to make it easy for the nursing staff so kudos to those who respect our profession as much as we respect theirs. ![]()

* not his real name