Don’t even get me started! We had a patient who was NOT demented, confused, etc, who was trying to grope female staff members when they took his vitals, and saying things like “now you’re finished there, how about a f*!k?” I was soooo close to my first episode of patient abuse!

Thing is though, I reckon even if we had’ve complained about it, the only thing that would’ve happened is we would have been told to suck it up and deal with it. “All part of the job when you’re a nurse.” Gotta keep those “customers” happy, after all!

I had a Spanish-speaking patient as well, and my Spanish isn’t as good as yours! But I, too, was the only nurse who had tried to communicate with him in his language. You’re spot on about going that little bit further to be a great nurse.

And re Reishtein in CCCNAm – so many people who have been or had loved ones in an ICU seem to resent all the noises and interventions so much. Obviously maintaining sleep wake cycles is ideal, but people are in hospital (let alone ICU) because we don’t live in an idea world. I’ve also heard people saying how they wanted to spit at the medical and nursing students who were around (whether a lack of sensitivity was displayed or not). It often seems to be forgotten that noone is “denying” sick people sleep/comfort/freedom (well, unless the health care worker involved is a sociopath). It is very easy to blame the system, the nurse/doctor/lab staff/radiographer and try and get away from the reality – people get sick/injured (and sometimes die), and sometimes interventions (not a minibreak in the Sheraton Noosa) are needed to halt/prevent this.