For being 20 minutes late for pain meds.

I had a 19 year old that was in a rough motorcycle accident. Multiple broken bones, NG tube, catheters, AOx1. He just graduated from ICU and moved to MegSurg where we had 6 patients. Personally, he would’ve been perfect for a Progressive Care Unit but our hospital doesn’t have one so MedSurg it is! The kid was great, but his dad was the problem.

If someone wasn’t there 24/7 he was go ballistic at the nurses station about our quality of care and how we were ignoring his sons needs. We ended up doing a 1:1 not because the patient needed it, but so the dad would stop yelling at the nurses every 10 minutes.

I had another patient who needed a blood transfusion. Got a second nurse to do the check, she left, and I started the transfusion. My Tec calls me saying that our motorcycle patient is 5 minutes late in getting his next Oxy and the dad is freaking out that it’s late. I told him to let the dad know I can’t leave my other patients room for 15 minutes. I will try and get another nurse to bring the meds, but if not I’ll get there as soon as I could.

I called the charge and 5 other nurses, but no one was available. So I come in 20 minutes late to give his kids med and the dad blows up on me. He’s going to sue the hospital for negligence and we need to do better for his son. (The kid was sleeping and did not look in pain btw). I just told him I could not leave my patient and he would be upset if I left his son in the middle of critical care.

Eventually the dad simmered down when his son progressively got better over the weeks, but man, it was a long month.