Mean Nurse Experiences

Has anyone had to deal with a mean nurse? I'm talking about one who seems angry and treats you roughly. I have it sure was not fun.

Oh back in my younger days I was in a motorcycle accident (old fart forgot about a stop sign and T-boned me). I was in a hospital ward for a month and the nurse manager did NOT like me at all. There were a number of girls in the nursing school there that I had go to high school with and well them chatting with me didn't go well with her, plus my flirting with some of the nurses.

Well I I needed a transfusion about a week in and as it was finishing, she decided to come over and take it down. She pulled the tape off of the needle and it pulled out of my arm and blood (from the bag) went everywhere. I was laughing (and I could others as well) and she was screaming, "This is NOT funny!" over and over.

The next 3 weeks weren't very pleasant with her either and she was very happy when I got released. Of course, so was i!

Elaine

No, but I have had "Nurse Ratched" fantasies😃

Not really nasty but sometimes strict and short-tempered, especially if I don't comply promptly enough when she tells me to pull down my pants and bend over for injections.

I have had a few cranky nurses, mostly it seems to irritate some (not all) when I ask questions or question what they are doing and why. These have been as an adult.

As a child, in a hospital setting, I had a very mean nurse. I do not go into a ton about it but she was not a nice person and probably is where a lot of my whacked fetishes come from (funny how that works). She did nothing harmful, but she was not gentle handed and was quick to threaten a swat to the bottom, as well as things that were probably inappropriate.

I can´t say I was treated by a mean nurse as such, by someone who liked to treat a patient badly. But I do remember one occasion, right after some serious major surgery, when a nurse, who I´ll charitable conclude, was very bored with everything and not in a good mood, really gave me a good hard yank to get me into the position she wanted me in. It really hurt what with a surgery wound from front to back on my chest and back. I let out yelp, or a groan or a combination of something as it felt like I was being ripped apart.

¨Oh stop being such a baby,¨ she admonished me and just as impatiently continued her work.

The thing about this particular nurse was that she and my wife, who worked in the same hospital, were very good friends at work. And so, every time this comes up, my wife always has some kind of excuse on hand - the nurse didn´t realize it hurt so much, she was preoccupied, had too much work etc etc. But I never buy it. I just say she didn´t give a whit how she treated me ...

@agracier. Stop being such a baby. Yes, after major surgery you have pain and movement make it worse. No one can evaluate a persons degree of pain or sensitiity to motion without moving them. I had open heart and of course my sternum was split. Every cough or chuckle was painful. The day after surgery the staff moved me, quite without my conscent, out of bed into a chair.

Getting a post surgery patient moving is a vital part of the healing process. Just laying in bed invites a declline in strength, decreased breathing and possible pneumonia.

I don't mean to be unsympthetisc to you personally but as a professional I know that nurses have to do things for the good of a patient even if the patient does not like it. If a patient could veto each and every proceedure they don't like nothing would be acomplished and we might as well abandon medical treatment totally.

Not mean but arrogant and ignorant of the rules. I asked to see my chart. This is allowed under the patient bill of rights, posted in each room, distributed in the patient's admission package and codified under state law. I had to fight for my rights while they called my doctor. My doctor basically told them to stop being stupid and give me the information.

I also had to fight them over my daily meds - I brought my own. They didn't like this at all.

Being that I was in a cardiac care monitoring unit after cardiac catheterization, this situation (stress and increased BP) was not in my best medical interest.

@agracier. Stop being such a baby.

I don't mean to be unsympthetisc to you personally but as a professional I know that nurses have to do things for the good of a patient even if the patient does not like it. If a patient could veto each and every proceedure they don't like nothing would be acomplished and we might as well abandon medical treatment totally.

Good grief. Think I don´t know the difference between medical necessity, inadvertent actions and just a plain ordinary bored-with-it-all-have better things-to-do-don´t-give-a-whit attitude?

Jds4med, What I am about to say to you might be offensive, and by all means I don't mean it to be so please read carefully what I am telling you and understand that it isn't personal. Okay, here I go.......

Yes, by law it is your right to be able to see and read your medical records. But most if not all facilities have policies in place for when a patient wants to read their medical records. Usually someone is appointed in any given facility to sit with the patient while they read their medical records. There are many many reasons for policies like this to be in place. Long story short is that it helps prevent a lot of really unnecessary legal issues, confusion, and a bunch of other major issues.

See, and again, I am not saying this is what would have happened in your case, just saying that this happens a lot, but with all the indepth medical shows that throw out somewhat life-like medical issues and toss in sometimes half accurate medical lingo, not to mention things like Web MD and the entire internet itself, people often times think they can practice "back seat" medicine, or they think that they know a whole lot more than they really do because they saw something on TV, read it on the net, or know that the medical word cardiac refers to a heart. The simple fact is, most laypeople just don't have enough education medically speaking to really understand what their medical records really are saying. And what happens when laypeople don't quite understand what they are reading, unnecessary lawsuits often happen, or people see a comment like "patient experienced a drop in blood pressure during initial onset of anesthesia", Then from that more often than not laypeople will over exaggerate and say things like, "My blood pressure dropped so bad during surgery that I almost died!" Or they will assume that they are allergic to the medication that was used on them during that surgery. I know it might seem like I am exaggerating, but these are just two examples that I have personally heard over and over again. Again, not saying that you would do this, but most people would and in fact do.

Now on the next issue, you wanted to bring in your own meds? Seriously, why, to save a few bucks or what? And again, I mean absolutely no disrespect here, but you made the comment that "giving you stress after having cardiac issues isn't in your best medical interest", Well I can honestly tell you that bringing in your own meds from home is absolutely NOT in your best medical interest either, and on so many levels I am not sure where to even start. One reason is because it's a HUGE liability on the hospitals part, or facility. What if the medications in the bottle marked Seroquel are actually coumadin? The nurse follows the directions from the doctor to give you 2 tabs at HS and because the medication is coumadin and not Seroquel, you in a few hours bleed out and die, just for example. Another reason, with all of the drug abuse out there it's amazing what druggies will do to get their fix. We can't ever be sure if the medications that are being brought from outside the facility are in fact what they are labeled. In the laws of medicine if we give it, we are 100 percent responsible, no matter what. Trust me when I tell you standing up in court and saying something like, "the patient told me the medication in the bottle was Seroquel"........you know what that judge is going to tell you? "Guilty of murder in the second degree and you will be serving 15 to life in the state penn." It's just way too much of a liability for any facility to allow a patient to bring in their outside meds Well let me clarify that a bit because I have a few times given medications a patient has brought from home, but never were they "life sustaining" meds, or any narcotics. I'm just not willing to take that risk with my patients lives, or with my nursing license.

So again, I wasn't trying at all to be insensitive or crass, just trying to get others to see it from our point of view a little bit.

Mashie

Mashie, thank you for your well thought out comments. I still agree that a patient should be able to read their medical, (and psychiatric), records. I know that Psychiatrists will take this as a kick in the you know where but too many people have been "branded" by a narrow minded Psychiatrist with a personal axe to grind.

agracier, please understand that medical professional are not robots. We get tired and anxious and pressured and frustrated and irritable and et cetera. We are just human. Just try to wrap your mind around being assigned to eight patients, some with monitors, some needing transfusions, some on the buzzer every ten minutes and some who need some calming talk; then add a head nurse who demands that you never leave a wet towel in a patients room again and who will report you for "poor performance" or "unprofessional actions" which means a black mark in your record forever, then the State Survey team coming through you unit and interrogating you for a half hour, then supervising a nurse in orientation, then you just lost your best friend at work who quit because of the BS, et cetera, et cetera.

It's really unfortunate that you had a bad experience with a nurse, maybe you would like to have to take care of yourself post-op and see how that goes.

Mashie,

On the records issue, I really don't care about hospital policy, especially when it conflicts with hospital policy (yes, I know what I said) and state law. It's exquisitely simple, violating both policy and law without medical justification (the law allows for this - the doctor can restrict access with medical justification but must specify this, mine didn't) opens the facility to different liability, civil and criminal.

On the medication issue, I've had problems before, both with gross medical error and issues involving hospitals not having my not uncommon medication in their formulary.I didn't give my meds to the nurse to distribute - I checked with my doctor about continuing care and continued to self medicate - just like home. I essentially refused that portion of my care.

BTW, I also refused dietary care which allowed me full access to the hospital's menu rather than having them insist on poison like margarine.

All in all, my only real issue was the medical records. Having them distract me with increasing levels of authority denying what the poster on the wall says while they bothered my doc with an unnecessary and stupid phone call was just incompetence. Just because you're in the hospital doesn't make you any less intelligent or responsible than the day before or the day after.

Am I reading these posts correctly???? Did StephenS tell agracier to stop being such a baby about being treated roughly and then go on a whiny tirade, making excuses for a medical professional's lack of empathy??? Who needs to stop being such a baby?? You make a choice to be in the medical field..and if the job gets too rough and stressful..maybe it's time to do something else..No one makes a choice to be sick or have surgery..well.almost no one..but I think you get my point.

It's really unfortunate that you had a bad experience with a nurse, maybe you would like to have to take care of yourself post-op and see how that goes.

If that's directed at me, this situation was simple observation after cardiac catheterization and stent placement. If I had major surgery, my attitude would be different, at least until discharge time was approaching. If my discharge is dependent on the numbers in my chart, damn straight I'm looking.

Grace 1, until you have been in the trenches you may never understand. Nurses are legally responsible for the care they give patients. They work very hard and do their best for their patients. They have to deal with many issues that do not have much to do with the care they give and they are HUMAN, they have feelings and emotions just like the surgeon or the family.

In today's medical environment more is being demanded of all of us every day. And guess what; your hospital administrator is responsible to his corporate masters to maximize profit! The administrator's job is on the line if he or she cannot increase profit to satisfy corporate bean counters so they do everything in their power to cut costs and a major cost in the hospital is nursing salaries. Every nurse they can legally cut saves them money. In the for profit atmosphere of hospitals today administration does not care about nursing issues, only PROFIT.

When you have been on the nursing floor for a few years and see the changes in staffing and the increased patient load and the increase in technology and administrators who stroll along your unit and ask you why you are crying then come back to me and tell me about it.

Blah, blah, blah...NO EXCUSE TO TREAT PATIENTS POORLY!!! and you have no idea what trenches I have or have not been in.

Less animosity guys.

The original post is about 'mean' or insensitive experiences with medical professionals. This is not a thread to discuss various specific issues on patient care. If you want to discuss those, make a new topic. It's ok to share an experience here, but let's keep the discussion on target, and for sure, avoid some of this animosity. Treat all members with respect, whether you agree with their point or not. Discussion and sharing of opinions is ok. Belittling others, their opinions, or their posts is not. Clean it up, ladies and gentlemen.

Not to me personally but I remember one incident when I was about 19 or thereabouts:

A friend I was visiting suddenly needed to b taken to hospital.

His mother asked me to drive since she was too hassled to be at the wheel.

At the hospital - a huge crowded government run one - they took my friend inside for treatment.

I hung around the Emergency area and waited. No one accosted me or asked me to go into the waiting room.

A man came in with his daughter - she was about 14 or 15 years old.

The girl was sobbing bitterly and I saw that her hand had recently been bandaged.

Father and daughter sat down near me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"She jammed her fingers in a door. Luckily no broken bones, but the skin on three of her fingers had burst. The doctors had to stitch them up in places." The father explained.

"Didn't they use anesthesia?"

"Yes, but those injections were even more painful." He said, shaking his head.

"Poor girl." I sympathized and smiled at the girl. She just sobbed louder.

The father leaned towards me and whispered. "It's not over yet..."

He hadn't finished when a fat nurse appeared from behind us. She was pushing a small trolley in front of her.

Seeing the nurse, the girl burst into tears again!

The nurse ignored her and picked up a syringe from the tray.

The needle wasn't very large, or thick, but it was one of those reusable ones.

"NO! NO! Sister, please, now!" The girl screamed.

The nurse shouted rudely at the girl telling her to shut up.

Then, she grabbed her arm and roughly pushed up her short sleeve.

The girl struggled, but the nurse had a firm grip on the arm. She nodded to the girl's father who held the sleeve up.

The girl cried even louder. The nurse lifted the syringe again and stabbed it into the girl's arm.

A loud scream followed as the nurse pushed the plunger in slowly.

She pulled back the syringe roughly and began to rub the injection site.

She then turned to the father and told him to bring the girl back again the next morning.

The girl was crying loudly now and holding her arm. The nurse gave her a whack on her head, pointed a finger at her and said something to the effect that she would tie her up the next time!

At the time, I thought that the nurse was very rough with the patient who was already in pain.

Thank you SomeRandomGuy. We wll have our own opinions and feelings, (I think that we are all humans). I'm not fighting over this, we just don't look at life the same way.

In 1984 after i first broke my spine i was on a ward with a guy who smoked every mourning so when the nurse came in to take everyones vitals she would get pissed off because this guy's mouth would be hotter than normal .

finally she told him if she came again and he had been smoking again she would take his temp rectally. the next day we found she was not kidding.

when i laughed out loud she told me "ok your next mr. ice eater" days later i was being sorta obnoxious so i found out what a "chipped ice enema was!!" after that we tried not to piss her off.

I went to the hospital last summer 2019 or heat exhaustion hoping to get a couple bags of fluid because I'm a diabetic. And she made me keep the curtain open and try to take all my stuff like I was suicidal or something it was fucked up. The doctor came and gave me a couple bags of fluid and she was a b**** the whole time. when I got done I went and seen an administrator and told them about it and they took me right back down there to the ER and she got fired right in front of me.

Never had a bad experience with a nurse. Hospital staff for both mine and wife’s experiences have been positive. Some nurses were more clinical or “matter of fact” but not mean nor overly friendly. Just doing a thorough job. We almost always get a patient satisfaction survey after a hospital or ER visit and never had reason (except below] for a negative response (other than the waiting time which is out of their control}. Sad that some have had bad experiences. Everyone has bad days but no excuse to be abusive to a patient.

I had a neurosurgeon who threatened to sue me when I complained about his quality of care and arrogance by putting down other docs. That would be the only bad experience we’ve had, but not by a nurse.