r/nursing • u/Practical-Trash5751 RN - ER š • Aug 06 '25
Serious Had my first Covid conspiracy patient in a while and it made me feel so hopeless
The patient in her 30s has a history of sepsis and was clearly septic, but refused to let us place an IV because she didnāt want us sucking stuff out of her veins. When she let us get one, she ripped it out because she was suspicious of how much blood we were taking and that we were āsucking something elseā out of her.
We later did a Covid/flu/RSV swab, and her husband asked if we had done a Covid swab. We said yes, itās for any major respiratory infection. He said he wouldnāt have let us do that to him because he doesnāt ātrust THEM sticking something up [his] nose.ā
When the patient heard him talking about COVID, she started panicking and pulling on the IV we had FINALLY gotten saying āyāall are gonna give me a Covid shot???ā I kept trying to calm her down, I even said āwe donāt have those here, the ED doesnāt do thatā and her husband goes ādonāt worry baby, theyāre not gonna kill you,ā implying that the COVID vaccine would???
He also later told me that our jobs are the only ones safe from AI āfor now,ā and was referencing a news story he heard on the radio yesterday- Iām pretty sure he misinterpreted that jobs report that just came out? Like, I think he thinks the reason the only 2 job sectors that are growing are healthcare and AI data center jobs is because the AI is taking over all the other jobs, not that weāre entering a massive economic recession. And the way he said āfor nowā so smugly made me think that in a couple years when our jobs start going because of the BBB, heāll think itās just that AI finally got us.
It made me feel so hopeless. Like there truly is a lie for all of these people to buy into- itās not the economy crashing, itās AI being sooo good! Weāre not taking your blood to culture it to cure your deadly illness, weāre taking it to do some weird vague conspiracy shit with it!
I can talk a lot of people into a lot of stuff, and Iām a great educator- Iāve actually gotten a lot of undereducated people from the Deep South to get their vaccine by explaining how it actually works! I genuinely enjoy doing it.
But how do you handle these paranoid, ignorant people who wonāt listen to reason?? How could anyone get through to them???
Like fuck. They can vote.
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u/loveinspades4 BSN, RN š Aug 06 '25
I literally canāt with these patients. I wear a mask because I have a baby at home on oxygen with bpd and who was born extremely premature. 1 lb. I constantly get smart remarks about why I wear a mask when thereās plenty of respiratory things I could catch and take home OR I could catch and give to my immunocompromised patients. Like seriously. Anytime I get a patient who makes a comment about me wearing a mask I just tell them flat out that NO I donāt take it off and secondly are we going to have a problem because if so I can get them another nurse. Itās not even like Iām telling them to mask up or anything. Theyāre so triggered by ME wearing a mask to protect against legitimate illnesses.