People of reddit who work in the medical field. What is something you have had to explain to your patients that was super ridiculous and should be common knowledge?

I'm an RN in the US...my answer might upset some, but I say no. There's a ridiculous expectation of coddling and hand-holding in healthcare, here. I've seen a clear shift towards lack of personal responsibility and shifting the blame on everyone else. So, patient walks in for surgery. Doc begins to describe risks/benefits/what to expect. Pt closes eyes, nods head, gestures to speed up...or, outright says, "I don't want to hear about that." We confirm with the patient that they didn't eat or drink anything, they respond "yeah yeah yeah, we've heard enough." Proceed to surgery. Pt aspirates. Family moans "How could you have let this happen, why did this happen? You never told us that this was a risk!" When an attempt is made and patients wish to play dumb- what do you do? There will be patients who say, "I don't want to know anything about what's happening. Do whatever you have to, but I dont want to know what or why." Uh, okay. At discharge time, tell me again how I'm confident you'll take your meds correctly, when you won't let me tell you how...oh, and the other self care you should've been learning to do this whole time? You refused then, but now, you're saying no one told you how important it was? Our multiple attempts to tell you weren't a clue?

Funny story, I work with an unlicensed personnel. She has high blood pressure and sleep apnea. Her blood pressure, out of the blue, shoots up. She's symptomatic for a week and panicking, in and out of work for doctors appts...well, turns out, she got a new mask for her cpap and didn't like it, so she stopped wearing it- right before this whole thing started. Tried the mask back on for one night- boom. Blood pressure back to normal. Rather than saying thank you for her pcp figuring out her dumb mistake, she rants on and on and on about it for another week, whining about the negligent doctor who didn't specifically tell her why she shouldn't just randomly stop using a controlled medical device. Because it's not enough to be told why you have a device, how to use the device, and the importance of using the device in order to prevent xyz...in her brain, he didn't specifically say "Don't stop using it or you might have symptoms of the xyz the device prevents."

Patients don't listen, they want hand holding and false reassurances. The important messages are conveyed, they are- just to an audience that's anything but receptive. Someone, somewhere has told these people that their physical comfort is more important than the life sustaining interventions we seek to uphold. So now, we pussy-foot around it, try to put it as meekly as possible so the patient doesn't outright stop listening. We drown em in narcotics and fluff pillows and spoon feed them ice chips, to the detriment of their own care.

Culturally, it stinks. For a system so in shambles, I have to believe we still have the most arrogant and entitled patient population around.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent