P***ed right off

[raidym]

A stupid new nurse that doesn't listen to me or any of the other tech's just messeid up with my fistula. I told her before she started go deep with the venious it feels shallow but its realy deep. She said no why do the tell you that its really shalllow and went ahead anyway. Then there's too high  of pressure and starts to hurt. So another tech comes and replaces it. So sitting here in agony 'cause he had to go on u somewhere completely different. Now she keeps looking over as if she's taking me off. I'm sick of her she's really unprofessional she constantly argues with other staff in front of the patients and iti
 scares me that she never  listens. I want to refuse treatment from her but can I do that. Can I refuse treatment from a certain member of staff. Has anyone ever done it and what was the outcome 

[Grumpy-1]

Right off the bat I would say YES you can refuse to have her take care of you.  Also file a complaint to the clinic.  I'm sure the other staff would appreciate that.  Grumpy

[Rerun]

Yes, you have the right to say "i'm not comfortable with you taking me off or putting me on".  You absolutely have that right.  It is your body.  Now, you may have to wait until someone else has time but it is worth the wait. 

You can get down right rude and say "I never want you touching me again". 

I have one nurse who if she is working I refuse any medication in my lines because I don't trust her.  It makes them look bad, not you.

[iketchum]

I told my units head nurse I did not want her touching me again. She only filled in when someone was out and seemed to not be good at sticking me. I had no problems with them after that.

[willowtreewren]

Your fistula is your life line. ABSOLUTELY stand up for yourself and refuse to have that tech work on you again. As Rerun says, you may have to wait a bit longer, but that is far better than having someone ruin your fistula.

I am not on dialysis, but I have a PICC line for daily IV treatments. I have to get the dressing changed every week. One week a nurse removed the dressing BEFORE putting on the mask. I know those masks are uncomfortable, but I spoke up. The next week when she came to do my dressing, I just told her that I wanted her to put on the mask before removing the old dressing so there was less chance of contaminating the opening. I could tell she was annoyed, but I really don't care. Since then other nurses have taken care of me and that suits me just fine!

Aleta

[lola]

Yes you do have, Otto won't let anybody "new" touch him and there is a "floater" tech that also is not allowed to stick him..............

[tiredandthirsty]

YES!  you can say YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH ME.

there are a couple of people in my clinic i will not allow their hands on me.  and there is only one person that sticks me.  i do have a couple of baick ups in case she is out.  but as long as my primary is available, i will not allow anyone else to stick me.  and they ALL know that.  so no one even bothers coming into my isolation room.

hey, our life is already crappy to begin with.  any sort of relief that is available, i am willing to take it.  whether it is a comfortable treatment session or a glass of water. 

[AnnieB]

You absolutely DO have that right. If she's as incompetent as she sounds, I doubt it would come as a surprise to anyone there that you don't want her working on you.

Just give her the 

Anne

[sullidog]

I just simply say, "I'd prefer to be stuck by so and so, also if I am told well this tech is at lunch/break, do you want me to try it? I just say no I will wait.

[MommyChick]

I agree with you all! Its your life line & you have the right to tell them NO if you don't like how there handling things.
I'm not so picky with the techs anymore,  but when I first started I was picky. Now my fistula is so big, that if you miss.. you really must suck at what you do 
Also... 7 yrs later I am still on my first fistula because I was so protective of it! 

Good Luck & God Bless!

[kit78]

YES!!!   Refuse treatment from her.  It's your right to let them know if something is not right.   I had a similar problem at the hospital with a "know it all" nurse I had never seen before.  I told the other D tech to not let her come near me because she was not listening.  Unfortunately, a lot of these nurses are just in it for the money, not because they care! 

I asked to be moved to a different chair across the room where I no longer have to listen to the "Gum Popper"...  LOL  So YES, refuse treatment! 

Good luck to you!

[Riki]

I don't think we're allowed to refuse.. I have my favorites, and I only have one that I really don't like, and that's the head nurse.. she's just too rough, and she doesn't realize it.. she only fills in once in a while, and that's good

[justjen321]

Oh Riki,

You ARE allowed to refuse. I don't give a rats ass what any doc or nurse tells you, your body belongs to you, and you get to choose who touches it, period.

[Riki]

I told them a story of an incident I saw when I was in New York.  A man, who didn't speak English, wouldn't let any of the female nurses or techs touch him.  They ended up calling in a male tech to put this man's needles in.  The nurse I told this story to told me that anyone who did that there wouldn't have a choice.  Technically, they wouldn't because there are no male nurses employed there.

I don't have any problems with any of the nurses, except for the head nurse.  They all listen to what I say, and ask me where they should go with the needles.  There is one who keeps wanting to go down with the needles, but I keep saying no.  I have an upper arm fistula.  I'm not sure how she's supposed to get the angle going down, unless she's going to jump up into the chair behind me

[raidym]

Thank you all for the response I really apreciate it. when I was coming off I asked a different nurse to take me off and explained how I felt. She's here today but didn't come near me thank god. I don't lnow wether there was anything mentioned about how I feel but I really do't care since I read all your comments thanks for the confidence guys. I've calmed down so not sure about a complaint but not totally ruling it out either. I'll just see how things go.

[raidym]

Well I'm deffinately going down the complaint route. She messed up again. When the other nurses went on there break the alarm kept going off on the machine. So she came over and started trying to fix it. What ever happened the needle slipped out. So she tried another one It was agony and I can't believe I let her near me I feel like an idiot. When the other nurse got back one of them fixed me up but there was only so much she could do and I had to come off early. So today I'm going around with an arm like a balloon with pin holes in it. So I've written a letter of complaint and will bring it with me tomorrow. I'm gonna refuse treatment if she comes near me.

[ryosaki]

I use to have that problem when i started using my fistulas, it happend so often by different nurses, I just decided to learn to do it myself. Its really not that hard to do, and has many advantages. You now you arm better than anyone, and for me, doing it for so long now, it doesn't feel like a big deal at all. Oh an you cant blame anyone else except yourself. Is this what this feed is about? lol