When Nurses Become Patients

We asked our amazing Facebook community why it is that we keep hearing the phrase “Nurses make the worst patients,” and we received a lot of feedback! If you are as curious as we were, keep reading and see what some of our fellow nurses had to say:

• I think I made a great patient! I kept my I and O, fixed my pump when it occluded, and hardly ever pushed my call light unless my IV went bad. – Teresa Marie Fox 

• A lot of times nurses try to do everything themselves even when their current condition doesn’t allow them to. So the nurse who just had a TKA (total knee arthroplasty) thinks they can handle getting up on their own right after surgery and they end up falling because they didn’t call for help. – Devin Marquise 

• I was a pt on MY unit once (Med/Surg)… I worked nights so when I couldn’t sleep, Id take my IV pole, sit at the nurse station and answer the call lights! Obviously I couldn’t “do” the work, but I took messages! lol This was over 20 yrs ago… I probably couldn’t get away with that these days! I was young and bored. ? – Lynn Murphy

• I’m a great patient, but I admit to being “that” family member. when my loved one is in the hospital I expect their nurse to be taking care of them just like I would their family. Take 30 minutes to get my pain pill? Okay you are busy and I know how that goes. Take 30 minutes to get Grams pain pill after hip fracture surgery? Absolutely not. – Ashley Marie Yard