A Little Ticked Off

Not terribly angry, just a little irritated.

Our agency has a "problem child" patient, who has been on service several times. She's ok, I don't have any trouble with her usually. She called the other night with a problem, and I went out to fix the problem, no complaints from her at the time.

I just found out she complained to her doc that I'd put the tape on too tight.

If any RN's out there can explain how it's even possible to put tape on too tight, let me know please.

Funny thing is, I didn't put ANY tape on her.

Her doc was furious with me. I haven't heard any backlash from the office yet, a co-worker told me what happened.

Reminds me of other incidents and other RN's I know. One of which is a former co-worker. I covered her patients while she was on vacation.

I went out to see this patient, and he started complaining about the other nurse whom I've known well for many years. The patient claimed he had missing bags of morphine and he was sure the other nurse took them.

I stared him down and told him that was absolute B.S. and no one in the agency would believe it. I immediately called the other nurse and told her, then the office. There was never a question that the patient was lying. None. We all knew that was pure fabrication.

Things happen, personalities conflict, and almost every home health nurse has been "fired" by a patient at one time or another. It's not considered a big deal, and is expected. What isn't expected is the apparent need for a patient to lie about a situation.

Ah well, a day in the life...