55 Surprising Patient Habits That Actually Make Care Harder for Doctors and Nurses
PracticalCandy:
I tell my 5 year old if she doesn’t brush her teeth everynight than the toothfairy won’t give her much money for her teeth because she doesn’t like teeth with cavities and decay. So far it’s worked every time.
I’m neither but I do coordinate surgeries.
Please stop making your surgical clearance appointments before we’ve called you and then get upset when we tell you that the appointment was scheduled too soon and has to be rescheduled.
And don’t lie to us. If you say you have an appointment made, we will follow up. If your surgeon requires medical clearance and you don’t do it, you don’t get surgery.
AND STOP EATING THE DAY OF SURGERY
I understand having to be NPO until 1pm sucks but like…they make clear pre op drinks to help.
cicadasinmyears:
I really wish that the medical team explained the rationale behind the NPO pre-surgery more often: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “but she was so hungry!” from the parents of younger children.
Like, ma’am, the reason this is a pre-procedure requirement is so that your beloved child doesn’t aspirate part of their stomach contents during the procedure, not because the medical team wants to make your child uncomfortable. It can result in very serious complications. Do not cave to the whining and complaining, even if it’s difficult.
Deciding not to take your medication, or starve, or not drink before a test “just in case it interferes with the test”. We send out appointment letters with clear instructions. Unless you are specifically told to stop something, you should carry on as normal. If you randomly stop things, it’s much more likely to result in the test not going ahead.
Random vitamins and supplements are probably more likely to give you medical problems than help you. I don’t know what’s in those. You don’t know what’s in those. They aren’t really regulated, and whoever told you to take them is probably just trying to sell you their brand of wellness activities/supplements/ideology.
There are reasons you would need to be prescribed vitamins, but the average person taking multivitamins doesn’t fit that category.
Redditheist:
My sister was looking for a new chiropractor (yeah, I know) because hers was retiring. She asked hers what to look for in a new one, and he said:”if you walk in and there’s a wall of supplements they’re selling, walk out.” He also told her one time, “if I can’t make you feel better in 3 visits, you need to go see a MD.” Her husband was practically disabled and they (his work comp) had him doing chiro for over a year before they investigated further.
“I didn’t take any painkillers so it wouldn’t mask the problem when you saw it”
please just take them. It’s not masking it.
dreadwitch:
Strangely I did take painkillers and the dr said I’m clearly not in that much pain so it’s not a serious issue and sent me away. I was in hospital the next day.
Im an EMT and work on an ambulance but my silly one is hyperextending your arm to take a blood pressure. I tell all my patients that when the cuff is inflating to keep their arm straight but relaxed, itll inflate too far if your elbow is bent but if youre flexing your muscles to keep your arm straight my auto-cuffs wont work.
Follow-up point since I know there have to be people here looking for things to do/not do, *a ride in the ambulance DOES NOT guarantee a room in the ER!* Your route of entrance plays zero part in your triage category. If youre bleeding out and you come in through the waiting room, youre gonna get seen sooner. If you come in on an ambulance complaining of some random pain, you can still end up in the waiting room. I couldnt begin to tell you the amount of patients ive had that got mad at me because ER Triage said they had weren’t critical enough for a room right away. I feel for these patients, but these were days the ER was full and previous ambulances had brought in several people from a nasty car accident.
Calling EMS does not get you a room faster than the waiting room, so *if you feel safe enough* to take yourself to the ER, you wont be getting seen slower. Making the call to take yourself or call for EMS is hugely nuanced, and no ambulance will be rude if you decide to call just in case, so if youre unsure absolutely call.
Edit: rewriting my second point.
Parents who start grabbing their young kids faces and saying don’t look, don’t look when I would need to remove a cannula.
Kids who were totally fine before this and very likely would hardly register it was being removed in the couple seconds it would have taken me, go into panic mode, start crying and go into high alert from their parents.
“Are you having any pain right now?”
Patient: “No, no pain. I’m good.”
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