Laugh When You Want To Cry

Hello Everyone,

The last few years I've worked as a Director of Nursing.  It was snowing here today and I just happened to be sitting at the window.   I was thinking about my old work and I remembered a night last winter.  I received a call around 1:30am from one of my nurses.  She was panicky, stated that a resident had called the police and told them he was being held against his will and that we, the facility, had not let him have any food or water and he was starving.  She proceeded to tell me that police officers were with her at that time and that the building was surrounded by officers and she didn't know what to do. She gave the receiver to an officer and I explained that he was in a memory care ward and that the gentleman in question had severe dementia.  I explained that the patient had repeated the same behavior twice today,  however an officer had called to investigate prior to showing up at the facility.

The officer went to check the patient and came back to the phone and we talked further and the police officers left the facility along with the team of officers that had surrounded the building.  Once that was settled and the nursing staff was also settled down, I went back to sleep thinking this situation was finished and we could move on. Ha!

I woke up at 5am so I called the facility and the phone rang in the memory care unit.  An unfamiliar male voice answered the phone.  You guessed it, it was my little 911 gentleman.  Here however is the best part of the conversation.  I asked him if I could speak to the nurse and his answer was, "there's no nurses here, I'm just answering the phone on my way out" click.

I bolted straight up in my bed and started dialing every extension in the facility till someone answered.  Fortunately the staff got to the gentleman before he could get out of the unit, which was coded, however patients would overhear visitors say the code and would remember and share it. We changed that stupid code 20 times a week sometimes. My nursing staff got a nice, looooong in-service on dealing with the confused patient that calls 911 multiple times.

Sometimes all you can do is laugh.  Life is funny!

Best

Angel