Every now and then one of my patients or their family members just make me speechless. I have no idea what to say or even how to respond to something that they do or say. It's quite frustrating at times.
One of the nurses asked me to draw some labs on her patient. I gathered my supplies and entered the room. First I introduced myself and explain what I'm there for. The wife instantly jumps in with all sort of questions, "Why are they doing more lab work now...they just did it four hours ago?" I explained to her I was not their nurse and was just asked to draw the blood. "Did they get the results back yet...have you seen them?" Once again I politely explained to her that I was not her husband's nurse but I would have his nurse come in and talk with them if she would like. She huffed and hawed for a few minutes and then gave her okay to attempt the blood stick.
I told them that I was going to try to get the blood out of his IV so I would not have to stick him. The wife was not happy with this and demanded that I stick his left arm. I shrugged my shoulders and prepared to draw the blood. The wife grabbed his hand and said, "I hold his hand because he jerks anytime he gets stuck by a needle". I assured her this was fine. As I barely stuck the needle into the vein the patient jerked and the needle came out. Instead of re-using the needle that had barely broke the skin, I closed the needle and once again suggested drawing from the IV since the patient was still really dehydrated.
The wife was still not happy with this and lost it. "The nurses today said you can not do that! I think you are incompetent if you think that's a good idea!" I explained to her that we draw blood from IVs all the time and this was an acceptable way to get the blood and it was easier for the patient since he would not need to be poked a second time. I finally convinced her to let me prepare to draw out of the IV.
Of course, as it goes sometimes, the IV was a little sluggish in the beginning and this freaked the wife out. "Why is it not drawing? Does this mean it is not a good IV? Are you sure you know what you are doing?" I explained to her that sometimes the IV starts out drawing slow but improves in a few seconds.
I was able to waste my 4 millimeters of blood and as I switched syringes to draw the lab work, she stopped me with "How long does it take before it clots in the syringe? I think you are taking too long and you don't really know what you are doing." I finished getting the blood and cleaned up my supplies.
As I was walking out of the room, the wife said, "I don't want you to come back in here." I smiled and said okay and left the room.
The patient's nurse went into the room, and spent some time in there. When she came out she was laughing and said "His wife really does not like you. She doesn't want you to have anything to do with the patient or her for the rest of the night". I shrugged it off and went about my way remembering there are just some people you can't please no matter what you do for them (and besides I really did not want to go in there anymore either). I was fine and it was forgotten until, I walked past their room (their door was open) and saw the wife staring straight at me and saying, "Her hair is so unprofessional. I can't believe they let her wear her hair like that! Maybe if her hair was done differently I wouldn't have a problem with her!"
You have no idea how badly I wanted to step into that room and take the wife out with some form of bodily injury, however, I just kept my head high and continued walking on down the hall away from her. I didn't realize that the way I wear my hair determines the type of care that I give to your husband or the way I look make me able to do my job better.
At 0200 AM the patient had some more labs that needed to be drawn. Since I was not allowed to enter the room, the nurse asked another resource nurse to try and explained to him that the wife would rather have the patient stuck. He grabbed his supplies, gowned up (pt was in isolation), and went about his way. After about 10 seconds the nurse exited the room and began to grab the supplies to draw blood from the IV. He told us that the wife did not want him stuck, but wanted him to use the IV. I was a little speechless and upset. REALLY!!!!! I guess this nurse must have had acceptable hair. ;)
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