So many years ago when I was an ICU nurse,

[TNNurse]

I encountered a patient who tried to turn his current situation into an emergency. I intervened. He had been stabbed several days

before and a slow leak in his pericardium (the sac around your heart) made it life threatening. Through most of the staff in the unit

and his cardiologist we fixed it. He was quite sedated. Fast forward a couple of days and he is awake and stable. However the

patient in the next room has had a cardiac arrest. I walked into his room to answer his call and he hollered about a comfort pad for

his bed.

I assured him that as soon as the crisis next door was settled we would get it. He continued to call out and holler about how his butt

hurt. I gave a rather eloquent but adamant speech on how we had all worked hard to save his life and were now tied up with doing

that for someone else. He continued to holler, so then he got my speech that hollering about something did not make it an actual

emergency. I reminded him that I was an ICU nurse and the comfort pad on his bed was not then and never would be an emergency .
He finally shut up about it. His father was sitting in his room and gave me a sympathetic look. We did not doubt there was a

reason he was stabbed.

I believe I could redo my speech about calling something an emergency to Trump. It would not help, but I would feel better.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. We did not doubt there was a reason he was stabbed.

Great story, I usually dont read anecdotes but glad I read this one.

[TNNurse]

2. He was an epic asshole but he gave me no more grief.

I believe I also said that though he would get the pad that shift, every time he mentioned it would delay it.

[TNNurse]

23. Thanks

[3catwoman3]

3. I remember the frustration, in my first bedside nursing job, of a mom...

...not being able to appreciate that someone who was having post op bleeding was more urgent than the fact that her child in traction with a broken femur had gotten lime jello on his dinner tray instead of the lemon he wanted.

A little off topic, I know. I've been a nurse practitioner now for 42 years, and I am tired of seeing and listening to stupid and not being able to call it out as such. I am quite diplomatic by nature, but it is getting harder.

[TNNurse]

4. I worked for 37 years,

The fact that the end of my tongue is still intact is a mystery to me.

I did have the opportunity to calmly educate people on the error of their thinking about situations. But there were so many in which I just had to walk away.

I understand.

[sfwriter]

6. My mom was a Knoxville nurse.

She trained at UT and worked for Baptist Hospital and then some regional care and Dr. office work closer to home after she got pregnant. She had kids for a few years and went back to that closer care after she got us kids up and somewhat self sufficient. Ithink she missed hospital work from time to time.

She worked from the 1960s through the 1990s.

[MyOwnPeace]

5. I'm gonna' click on that

"Tip of the hat" smilie at the end of this response because you health care warriors are SO deserving of it. Having to deal with "entitled people," crisis situations, arrogant supervisors & medical professionals, as well as anybody and everybody that walks in off of the street - my gosh, its amazing that you are even close to sane (you are, aren't you? ).

And, YES, IQ45 is certainly one of those needy ones that demands and expects it all. Some of your problems you have to put up with - its part of your job. HIM? We do NOT have to put up with him and it is our job to straighten him out - STAT!!!!

Thank you for all that you do - even if some do not appreciate it!

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. I second that. All medical support staff rock, but ICU and NICU staff rock the most!!

[irisblue]

7. Retired XRay Tech to ICU nurse

Y'all rocked it, often.

[TNNurse]

8. Back at ya.

None of us could do our jobs without each other and every department.

How many times did you push that machine down the hall, into an elevator, though a narrow door and find so little space in the room????

[irisblue]

9. Darlin....I can clear a room...Push a machine in..."X RAY!!!" no one in sight

😂

[TNNurse]

10. I do not doubt that at all.

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. ...

[Hermit-The-Prog]

21. save the family jewels!

[mitch96]

16. Retired CT tech here....

And I'm still in awe how you guys keep it together... You keep people alive when the MD's ain't around... I went out with a few and some of the stories are amazing...
m

[irisblue]

17. Mitch !

Take a breath in...

[mitch96]

34. I always wanted to tell a arrogant, irate patient

to take in a deep breath and blow it out your ass...... but I never did...
m

[Stonepounder]

13. When I had my open heart surgery several years ago, and every hospital stay thereafter,

I had the greatest, more wonderful nurses I could conceive of!! They were absolute angels, and I tried very hard to be a good patient.

General Anesthesia tends to depress the appetite, but you need to eat to help your body repair the insult that major surgery causes to the body (that's not a slam, just doctor talk). One morning I just didn't want any breakfast. The nurse asked my whether if she got me some toast fingers I would eat. I agreed. She went into the nurses lounge where, evidently there was a toaster, and made me toast fingers herself.

It was a difficult time as my daughter had just lost her husband. It was pretty traumatic for her and her two young children (they were about 3 or 4 at the time). For them to lose their daddy and suddenly have their grandpa in the hospital really freaked them out. But, no children were allowed in the CICU. My nurse overheard my wife talking to me about it. The nurse arranged for us to have a visiting room just outside the CICU for the kids and their mom could come and visit. It really helped calm the kids down that, yes grandpa was in the hospital but he'll be OK and will be coming home in just a few days.

I swear nurses are the most important people in a hospital!! Thanks for all you do.

[irisblue]

14. Floor nurses are the ones who keep the hospitals running

I will testify to that

[George II]

15. I'm lucky to be married to a wonderful woman, who was a nurse on a medical floor....

....for (don't tell her I'm saying this!) over 40 years. She has great bedside manner, can be quick to take action if needed, but is tough as nails with someone like the guy in the OP.

I've got so many interesting and humorous stories, wish we had time to tell them here.

But one quickie - she once asked a nursing student to give a patient an external catheter. The student went off to do it and came back all upset and embarrassed, "I couldn't do it, the man has an erection." My wife said, "quick, give me that, I'll do it - you have to strike while the iron is hot."

That's my wife!!

[lanlady]

18. great story, George II!

I just thought of a fun shortened version of it:

"but one quickie . . . the man has an erection"

[George II]

19. Nurses do all the grunt work that doctors don't want to do.

[Mr. Quackers]

20. I remember when I was in ICU

and they brought me out of a medically-induced coma after about a month or so.

Actually, I have to rely on my mother's account, because I don't even remember lashing out at staff and my relatives.

I read recently that I probably had ICU psychosis.

My mom assured me that the nurses and staff were aware of this, that's why no one took it personally.

[MuseRider]

29. Happens a lot in the ICU.

We never take that personally. I am an old ICU nurse, been a while but I remember. What happens in the ICU stays in the ICU as far as talking about patients by name. I think I would lose my shit if I was there as a patient. The only reason to talk about it is because it is important for patient care. You must have been very ill. I am glad that has been resolved.

[Mr. Quackers]

30. Evidently

once they switched the thracheostomy thingy "on" and I was able to talk I went off on everyone, demanding my car keys and property.

My sister told me that I couldn't walk or use my arms, I told her I would crawl out.

They asked the doctor to shut the trach thing off.

[MuseRider]

32. I cannot imagine why anyone

would be nice after an experience like the ICU. Most people never remember the experience. We rarely had people come back and thank us because they did not remember us and that is exactly how we liked it, it could never have been an experience to remember.

For those who were there long enough we went through the gamut with them. People are not ever happy there, we understood that. I hope you do not feel badly about this. Without question you were never acting in a way that would need forgiving for, you were being normal.

[Shemp Howard]

22. I'm so disappointed.

I thought for sure that the last line in your story would be "And that patient's name was Dick Cheney."

[George II]

26. ...

Ding, ding, ding!

[Dem2theMax]

24. I bow to all of you, with a great deal of thanks.

When my parents were in their later years, we spent a lot of time in hospitals. The incredible care we always received was not from the doctors. It was from every nurse, every technician, every wonderful and kind and compassionate person who made those hospitals run.

A retired ER nurse lives across the street from me, and she helps everyone in our community. My parents lived as long as they did because she took the time to use all of the knowledge she had, to make their lives easier, and healthier. I don't know what I would have done without her.

I can never say thank you enough to all of the wonderful people who have decided that this is the career, no, the passion they chose to follow. We are all better for your having done the work you do.

[TNNurse]

25. I worked with some wonderful nurses,

one of whom is my husband of oh my almost 40 years. He worked in CCU for 41 years straight.

You generally see people at their worst in a hospital. It takes a good bit of tolerance and patience. But it is incredibly rewarding.

But have been retired for 4 years and do not miss the stress, the fatigue and the 12 hr shifts.

[George II]

27. My wife hemmed and hawed about retiring (mostly because of the finances) but...

...about a month after she retired I asked if she had any regrets. "Not for a second." Same for me.

[tulipsandroses]

28. Fellow nurse here and I feel angry and insulted right now

I would like to give him a speech of my own

I am a psych nurse - I work on a detox unit in my facility

To hear him use the opioid crisis as a prop for his wall makes me so damn angry and insulted. It's just more misdirection from this administration. Yet not talk about US providers over prescribing opioids and Benzos and the vast majority of people becoming addicts that way is disingenuous.

Not to mention, he does not give a damn about the people that are actually battling addiction. The families that are dealing with their loved ones over dosing, numerous trips to the ER, families torn apart, children in DFCS. Children then that end up being addicts themselves, in prison, with psychological problems, etc due to their parents' drug use. Oh, lets not forget what getting rid of Obamacare would do to some of these folks that only get help with their addiction treatment due to Obamacare.

I've worked on my unit for 7 years. Most of my patients are frequent fliers. I've lost a few to overdose. Success rate is low as far people as far Long term sobriety - but that is due to lack of resources. - I can think of a lot of ways we can spend 5.6 billion dollars for a real emergency,

[Meowmee]

31. Wow

A reason he was stabbed? Not get him the pad even when you had time later, as a retribution. Not someone I would want caring for me in an icu. Judgement and revenge should never be a part of someone’s medical care.

[TNNurse]

33. Way to miss the point.

He was trying to make an emergency out of something that was not. He got his pad once the crisis was over with the other patient. I just explained to him that it was not going to become an emergency by his hollering about it.

Pretty sure you want an ICU nurse to be able to identify and actual emergency and act on it.

I never knew or cared why he was stabbed. It just seemed that his personality might have been a factor.

[Meowmee]

35. Ok

I thought you said you made sure not to get him the pad while you were there. The reason he was shot should be irrelevant to his care though. Unfortunately I have learned that more than a few icu nurses have no clue how to identify a real crisis, having been through several myself while there and then being released with a life threatening condition which a nurse told me a symptom of was due to something else- I somehow survived and then returned for the next day. I have been through this type of thing several times with family members as well. So I trust nothing except my own judgement now.