Posted by Jonathan on January 30, 1998 at 17:15:45:
In Reply to: Topic 3 posted by Joan on January 29, 1998 at 17:21:27:
: Now it's your time to vent. As a health care consumer yourself, were you ever treated unprofessionally by another health care provider (who probably didn't know you were a health care provider)? And what was your worse patient like?
I have been treated worse by health care providers than actually by patients. I wonder sometimes if we decide to "eat our young alive". We can cause more damage to co-workers and I suspect we expect the co-workers to tolerate it. Still, this is not right and certainly doesn't help grow people in the profession.
My worse patient was actually not the patient but the husband of the patient. He stayed with the patient 24 hours a day and looked after her. The problem was that he didn't looked after her. We had to look after him and then as he came out the nurses station and may his demands known on a 15 mins. basis, had to meet here needs as well. He was exasperating and demanding and we couldn't do anything to please him. We were the villians and he constantly berated the staff for the poor care that his wife recieved. I remember one day trying to explain to him that the nurse taking care of his wife also had other responsbilities that she had to attend to. He would here none of this. He said his wife was the only patient that the nurse should be taking care of and demanded to see the supervisor to take care of the matter. Of course, we couldn't allow the nurse only to take care of his wife and the struggle was never resolved. He wrote letters to every power that he could and made life hell. We were so glad when they left us and moved on to another area.