One of the things us nursing staff get told a lot by some of  the relatives is that,

‘you have the patience of a Saint, I could never do your job’. It is strange how much our patience varies depending on who we are dealing with and what the situation is…..

On Thursday and Friday I was working in my normal Bay, and one lady in particular was pretty ‘vocal’ . Now she is 97 years old and extremely deaf (the hearing aid she wears has a flat battery I think) so she talks at FULL BLAST. Now she had been a moved to my bay from a side room as she did not like to be on her own.

I was checking that each patient was eating their breakfast when I noticed she hadn’t even got any. So I asked her why not. After repeating the question several times increasing the volume until she could hear me she replied

” I DON’T LIKE ANY OF THAT MUCK YOU SERVE HERE, IT’S ALL A LOAD OF RUBBISH!”

Fair enough , but she had to eat something so I asked if she liked bacon which she did, Great, good start. “Sausage?”

“NO I DON’T BLOODY LIKE SAUSAGES!” Fine. “Eggs?”

“I ONLY LIKE FRIED EGGS, NOT ANY OTHER KIND”.  I assured her that I would get her some bacon and  fried eggs and trotted off to phone the kitchen.

Now there were two of us in the Bay and only five patients at this point as one of the beds was closed and we were not able to take any new ones in. Luckily most of the other ladies were either feeding themselves or being helped by the other nurse.

I placed my order with the kitchen and in due course one of the staff appeared carrying a tray. I was disappointed to see that there was scrambled egg with the bacon that I had ordered even though I had specifically asked for a fried egg. I tried my luck with my patient anyway!

“WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT? I TOLD YOU I DON’T LIKE THAT SORT OF EGG. WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN?”

I tried to explain about the kitchen sending up the wrong egg and I would change it but no, she was not having it. I tried offering a bacon sandwich, Nope. She was not having it and I was severely berated for my incompetence for good measure as well.

Annoyed with the kitchen I phoned the help desk again (yes we can’t phone direct, everything is through the helpdesk). I explained what had happened and they told me that as the meals were pre-prepared it may not have been possible to have a fried egg due to their not being enough staff to make one.

Fuming, I was muttering to myself about how I could go down there myself and cook the bloody egg. How hard is it to cook a fried egg for Christ’s sake?! It’s not as if it takes long.

Anyway, my patient was mad now, and refused to eat anything. I knew this was not going to bode well at wash time – and it didn’t! She had come in with no toiletries so I had put some of our soap in her washbowl and brought some disposable wipes over to wash her with.

“YOU ARE NOT COMING NEAR ME WITH THOSE! WHERE IS MY SOAP AND FLANNEL?”

I explained that they were at home and that I would have to use our stuff for now. She was not happy but did finally agree to let me help her, and also get her dressed in her own clothes that someone had just brought in for her.

“WHERE IS MY VEST”?

“It is just here”

“GET OUT OF MY BLOODY WAY , I WILL DO IT”

“Ok. here it is”

“TIGHTEN MY SHOE”. NO NOT LIKE THAT, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?. THAT STRAP IS NOT LEVEL.”

“Sorry, let me try again”

“NOOOOOO, I SAID TIGHTER!”

This went on for a bit until I got it right. She did have a sandwich an hour after the failed breakfast attempt, but when a visitor came, she told them she had ‘nothing to eat, and her hair wasn’t brushed’ (actually it was because I did that wrong and suffered her wrath for it). She also told the visitor how much worse she felt since coming into hospital because of the appalling way we looked after her!

Now I know that by the end of a very long two days (I have amalgamated them into one so you get the gist) my patience was wearing a bit thin, but it is my job to look after my patients, and actually as gruff and crabby as she was, we did actually get her to laugh, and I got a lovely hug from her!

Now if Miss Hap had tried any of that kind of talk with me, things would have been very different!