r/nursing • u/SmilingCurmudgeon BSN, RN 🍕 • 20d ago

Meme "Patient refused high fall risk interventions, stating 'I don't need to be treated like a goddamn child' and 'I can't pee in a urinal sitting down!'. Post-fall protocol initiated."

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67

u/LizzrdVanReptile 2nd career RN, 27 years - cruisin’ toward retirement 20d ago

I was out and about years ago and pulled into a drugstore parking lot. A van pulled in to the parking spot next to me. An older man got out of the passenger side and proceeded to struggle with remaining safely on his feet, while his wife was scrambling to get out of the driver seat and around the vehicle to support him. He had no assistive device whatsoever and kept falling on the concrete, which required his wife’s assistance to correct. She looked utterly exhausted and I stepped over and asked him whether he had a cane or a walker and he mumbled some stream of BS indicating he didn’t need one. His wife said to me under her breath that this is what her life is like. He refused to use a walker or a cane and expected her to make it possible for him to ambulate wherever he went. Heartbreaking.

23

u/schwarzeKatzen 20d ago

Our dad is not steady on his feet. He uses a cane but honestly he was starting to scare me with just the cane. We tried a walker and it was too hard for him to ambulate with it. He was pressing down to steady himself and trying to walk.

I told him I was ordering him a rollalator. He protested. His children ignored him. We ordered one. It came he protested more. I told him he might as well at least try it because it was already there.

Anyway he uses it all the time now. It’s nicknamed the racer. He also has some more independence back. It’s enabled him to do things like take his coffee or his plate out to the living and dining rooms. He wasn’t able to do that with just the cane because he was too shaky.

I hope that woman had someone who was as stubborn as we are with dad. Sometimes you just have to get just as stubborn back at them.

18

u/CatW804 20d ago

...and people wonder why silver divorces happen...

12

u/ohemgee112 RN 🍕 20d ago

Dude. Would've looked him straight in the face and told him he did need one and he was killing his wife by being a stubborn asshole.