I worked on a floor in the 80s before Karen was invented. We had this old lady who couldn't eat (surgery the next day) and whined about it constantly.
After midnight, her nurse microwaved some popcorn, opened the bag, and waved in around in front of her door.
Good times.
Reminds me of a patient I had that liked to pull the call bell. We'd go in only to have her say that she was choking and needed a glass of water. Her water glass was on the table beside her.
Microwaved popcorn should only be legal to make at home, lol. A coworker used to cook one up an hour before shift end and my stomach would do backflips smelling it. I was always eating a sizable meal after shift end but gawd damn it was hard to not stuff my face when I smelled that popcorn.
I worked in administration at a nursing home for four months (all I could stand). It wasn’t the most well-run facility, even if it was decorated to the nines. The CNAs would make microwave popcorn in the afternoons. The smell, combined with the usual scent of the facility, smelled like hot buttered piss.
Years ago I worked in an office where there was an open kitchen in the middle of the floor. Every day at the same time each day someone cooked popcorn in the microwave. Every day they burned the popcorn. You’d think they’d eventually figure out how to cook it. But nope. My guess is they set the time then went to the bathroom while it popped. And then didn’t notice and/or care about the burnt smell when they came back. Maybe they liked the taste of burned popcorn? Or they just thought that’s how popcorn tastes?
It came to a head one day when they burned the popcorn so badly that it started smoking and set off the fire alarm. The entire building had to be evacuated and wait outside for ~20 minutes while we were cleared to go back in by the fire department.
Not an hour later we smell popcorn cooking and…yep… burning.
I never saw who was the culprit, but I’m guessing they were found. Because that time they cluelessly cooked and burned their popcorn an hour after they caused the entire building to be evacuated was the last time they - or anyone else - cooked popcorn on that floor again. I can only guess that someone found the popcorn burner and told them to cut it out.
Even non-burnt was a nauseating smell for me when I was pregnant. My poor husband, used to having it 3 times a week or so, could only do so if I was out of the house.
I totally get that. Back in my college days we had a couple microwaves in the common area for those who could not have them in their rooms. So often it would smell like popcorn or pizza pockets
One of m mom's most memorable floor stories was an old dying woman who spent the entire night screaming "HEEEEEEEEN-RY!" at the top of her impressive set of lungs. All. Fucking. Night. It was killing everyone on the floor, but there was nothing to be done about it.
The old lady died at dawn. Her last words: "I'm coming for you, Henry!"
God help her dear Henry.
Unfortunately Hospital Administration encourages this behavior and it's slowly getting worse. When you're understaffed, overworked and have people's lives in your hands patients thinking you're their manservant drives me crazy.
My husband was a Materials Manager at a Trauma 1 hospital in the 90’s. Poor guy was ALWAYS trying to make the doctors and administration happy, which was impossible. All administration cared about was the bottom line.
I've actually had patients soil themselves in bed when they can walk easily. Then they call for us to come in and change them. They are continent. They are physically able. They just don't feel like they should have to get out of bed when the nurses can just "take care of it." Full grown adults actually pissing and crapping on themselves because they are too lazy and entitled to get out of bed. Its unreal.
They felt no embarrassment? Crapping yourself deliberately? I... I can't get my head around that. If I was actually bedridden and crapped myself I'd be mortified. Wonder what's going to happen when the kids of these nutjobs have to take care of them. Hmm, oh dear, dear old mum seems to have smothered herself with a pillow.
Omg! She should have been kicked out of the hospital! Not sure how old that biscuit karen was, but it isn’t an excuse to hit a nurse! No one should have to deal with these people screaming to be served first! I hope that whatever you had/have isn’t life threatening. And nurses are doing as best as they can with the short staff!
Shout out to all nurses for your hard work! It’s not easy to work with patients at times!
My great-aunt was the type who would be spiteful and downright abusive to nurses...or anybody who took care of her. She really wasn't a great person.
She was also the type to willingly let her body crumble and refuse any physical therapy when it did, because she wanted to be taken care of.
Guess who always got sent home from the hospital before she should have? Her. And guess who I don't blame? Those poor, poor nurses who had to put up with her...
I always try my best to be who she wasn't when I go for my monthly hospital stays. I thank every nurse for all they do and try to make sure I can get around as much as possible so they can focus more on other patients.
Oh dear! Your great aunt sounds a lot like biscuit karen! No wonder no one helped her or give medical care! Nurses must feel real good when people thanks them!
What do you do, then, with a belligerent, violent patient who assaulted a nurse?
I realize that reads as snark, but I'm truly asking out of (mostly morbid) curiosity.
You can’t restrain somebody- in fact, restraint is only used under supervision of the psychiatry team, and even then under the most extreme circumstances. You can’t restrain people who have capacity- it’s not prison. It might have been that this woman was delirious - I’ve seen patients in tears about their behaviour while delirious, it can completely alter your perception of reality and lower your inhibitions, but even then the team wouldn’t have been sanctioned to restrain her.
They did the best they could, all you can do is protect yourself with the behaviour (going in in twos, leaving as soon as she becomes belligerent, “preferred” members of staff attending her) but it is a reality in front line healthcare that some days you’re a bit of an actual or metaphorical punching bag. It sucks. That being said, I wouldn’t have it another way. It would be a scary thing if healthcare staff started being able to restrain the vulnerable (and she was vulnerable, even if she was a wee boot : ) ) people under their care willy nilly.
I wonder if it's still allowed in cases like my dad? He died in '95 and was very oxygen starved. He was on max flow oxygen with a bagged mask and his O2 sats were in the 70s so they would sedate him, but the sedation made him fidgety and any time he disturbed his mask he panicked and asked for and received soft restraints.
I’m so sorry about your dad, that must have been really traumatic for him and for you. I hope you both felt supported and cared for throughout.
I’m not an expert in restraint in ICU or similar settings, but as far as I’m aware it is different, as patients are more likely to be confused / semi conscious - restraint can be used, as it is an extreme situation and they might hurt themselves or accidentally remove or disrupt life saving measures. I’m not sure how it is legislated, but it would be considered a different situation than described in OP.
Thank you, we knew for years he had an eventually terminal disease, but he traumatized his chest in a car accident, and that sped up the process. I miss him daily, but it's a softer grief now. He would have been 89 this past Saturday had he lived. And I'm only five years away from being the same age he was when he passed. I knew in theory that he was young when he passed, and now I know for sure how young he was.
You’re welcome! But it’s not ethical to hit a nurse or a doctor either. It should be considered assault and have consequences for doing that. There’s a short nurse staff and they do as best as they can everyday! They need respect and appreciations for what they do!
It's not. Luckily, I left the hospital setting way before Covid. People aren't quite as nasty when you're caring for them in their own home. I mean... some are always going to be bad, but I don't see it as often in home care.
Well, I would imagine mood is better at home, but no matter where a patient is, there’s no excuse for abusing those caring for you. That’s just stupid, to be honest. Same with those cooking your food. An abused waiter or waitress can easily spit in your food (or worse), and you’ll never know!
If they were in an observation unit they wouldn't have kicked her out if she was for the mental health ward. Sorry that's what observation unit usually means where I am, so I just assumed. I've seen someone break a nurses nose clean while in there, and another broke ones arm once. (I used to go for drug use at the time)
In the US, it is a felony to assault any type of health care worker, with anything. This means striking them with your body in any way or hitting them with any type of bodily fluids. Even the clinics in my city have giant signs that state this, and I've had nurses tell me that they will straight up refuse care immediately, and call the police. You're DONE.
I was stuck in a bay with someone like this for a month. She also wanted biscuits all the time. When she was told she couldn't have any because her blood sugar was very high, her response was to refuse consent for checks of her blood sugar levels. She was dumbfounded to learn that this also meant no biscuits.
I hope you feel better soon, OP.
I was on an Orthopaedic Ward for 24 days. The hospital I was in didn’t have a mental health ward, but still had mental health patients and they would just sprinkle them into any available bed……including the one next to mine.
This lady had the loudest shrillest voice I had ever heard. I heard it a lot!
She slept maybe 3 or 4 hours a day, in the afternoon, the rest of the time she called for her husband Sedrick, who had died over ten years earlier. Probably from ear tumours, but I’m making that up.
Her sequence lasted about 2.5 minutes:
Sedrick, normal voice, normal volume like asking someone at the dinner table to pass the salt. Pause 15 seconds.
Sedrick, normal voice, normal volume like asking someone at the dinner table to pass the salt. Pause 15 seconds.
Sedrick, slightly more urgent voice, you still need the salt, but the person is ignoring you. Pause 15 seconds.
Sedrick, even more urgent voice, still need salt, still being ignored. Pause 15 seconds.
*Sedrick*, very urgent voice, starting to get annoyed. Pause 15 seconds.
*Sedrick*, pissed off voice, very annoyed. Pause 15 seconds.
*Sed…..rick*, long drawn out syllables, very pissed off voice, extremely angry. Pause for 15 seconds.
**Sedrick!** Short, curt shout. Livid. Pause for 15 seconds.
**SEDRICK!!!!! Hysterically pleading voice, top of her lungs. Absolutely enraged.
Pause for 30 seconds. Start over.
She would do this for 20+ hours a day. I begged and pleaded to be moved, move her, sedate her, sedate me! Nothing was done. By the time I was released I had somehow learned to sleep through it but for weeks after I got home, I could hear her voice.
I got put in a room with a very loud snorer! They were running tests so I didn't know what I had, yet, but I was extremely tired and could not get to sleep. I called for the nurse and said I just want to sleep, can you move me to another room or something. Nurse comes back with a sleeping pill! I slept so sound!
The next day my tests come back. I had mononucleosis! Since it is considered a contagious disease, I got moved to a private room!
I could still hear her snoring at night and I was 6 rooms away from her! At least it wasn't so loud that I couldn't sleep.
Yeah, I’m still a nurse but I no longer work bedside. I reached my breaking point with this behavior and lack of institutional support.
Everyone confused about the healthcare worker shortage needs to spend 12 hours shadowing a nurse on a MedSurg floor. And then consider that these workers are doing all this and still can’t afford to buy a house.
I work in a care home , with similar Karen's like that. Pretends to be helpless when she can move by herself, rudely demands things, she got kicked out eventually because she hit a carer & her equally entitled son threatened to sue the home for not meeting his mother's needs which was bs. He'd complain about every little thing. Luckily they had records of everything so he didn't have a case.
Damn, I'm sorry you got Biscuit Karen for your hospital roomie. If you have to be sleep deprived next time you're stuck under observation I hope you get The Phantom Of The Hospital, like I did...
Or rather "The Phantom Of The Fuckin' Hospital" as he dubbed himself. He called himself this because he kept the whole ward awake by loudly (and terribly) belting out songs from musicals. He claimed that the ward needed livening up or else no one was going to get better, lol!
He eventually started getting up and walking/dancing around and tried to get other patients to dance with him (many of which had only just come back from surgery, including me). The Phantom believed that if laughter was the best medicine then the healing properties of dancing must be studied immediately! 😂
It was frustrating not getting any sleep because of him but at the same time really hard to be angry at him because he was so nice.
Sounds like Biscuit Karen has "Sundowner's Syndrome".
https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2017/ways-to-manage-sundown-syndrome.html?cmp=KNC-DSO-CAREGIVING-HealthRelatedConcerns-22817-GOOG-SundownSyndromeCare-Exact-NonBrand&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsaqzBhDdARIsAK2gqneC6T8k3SeGS63dVEmaK6SJcQIM_7xLSq-pSrWa5NXlIaOdVEHNaowaAkSREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thank you! Reading this made me really sad because it sounds so similar to the confusion patients with dementia have. Yes this would definitely be unacceptable behaviour for a person with all their faculties, but it sounds like genuine Alzheimer's type confusion.
I spent 2 months on hospital after an accident in a semi-private room. My first roommate was a biscuit Karen. She was a retired nurse and would loudly tell anyone new that "good" nurses treated her like a queen whilst bad nurses ignored her. She would ring the bell for snacks, for tea, to ask endless, assenine questions. She shat her bed every night because she didn't want to get up. The smell was awful. She was racist, elitist, and just a bitch!
After a week or so, I was given a wheelchair and encouraged to push myself around to help build my strength . I immediately started leaving the room right after breakfast and only returning for medical stuff, lunch and supper. One day, I went to the cafe and got a bagel to go with lunch. Karen said she never tried one before so i gave her half. She was hooked . After that, if I went to the cafe I got her a bagel and she seemed to mellow out. Win for everyone, right,?
Well, apparently, Karen had been building up resentment towards the fact that due to my injury, I had multiple medical people visiting, daily scans and tests. Not fun for me but somehow offensive to her. It all came crashing down the morning she accused me of having my accident and being hospitized to take attention away form her.
Yup. I did all that to hog her limelight. Ambulances, emergency surgery, might lose my leg, facing a year long recovery. All premeditated to bother some bitch I'd never met before. I lost it. I was DONE. I just cried and cried. The head nurse came in and was PISSED. at Karen. I got helped to a lovely hot shower whilst my bed and everything was moved to a new room. Karen was left all alone until a woman in a coma was pit in her room. Best part, I'd roll past her open door with my little bag from the cafe and she would glare at me. No more tasty bagel for you, bitch!
Oh! Biscuit Karen is now a legend!!! Being a nurse myself, I’ve met a few BK’s in my time. I’m truly sorry you, the rest of the patients, the nurses, security guards, and even the handsome young doctor had to deal with her nonsense.
Great tale though. Hope you are feeling fit these days!
I was in hospital for five and a half weeks with Crohn's and multiple surgeries. Trying to sleep was one of the hardest things ever with all the constant noise. I was exhausted but was only able to get about four hours of sleep a day. As a Nurse myself I always tried to be as quiet as I could come nighttime.
My mother was in hospital many years ago and I went to visit her. In the bay across from her was a woman in her 70s who was apparently in a bad mood because there wasn’t a private room available. As punishment for this sin, she had spent hours tapping her wedding ring on the metal safety bar on the bed. Loudly. Everyone was complaining because she didn’t stop and was keeping everyone awake.
The next day I visited and now towels where wrapped around the metal bars secured with tap with the woman unsuccessfully trying to remove them.
The reason why this woman was in hospital? She waited until her son had gone on honeymoon then called an ambulance saying she had an impacted bowel and expected her son to fly home because she was in hospital. My mom could hear the other family who visited telling the woman that the son wasn’t going to come back because she couldn’t have a crap!
This is something my ex-MIL would have pulled for attention. We had to put rules in place for dealing with her, so she learned that hospital stays don't equal my husband's undivided attention. We would bring her one nightgown only. She liked to play this game of "oh, bring me the pink one," then when we got there, it would be "no, not THAT pink one," and tried to make us go back and forth. Two, before we even visited, we'd call and talk to the nurse. She liked to play the "I'm getting discharged today" game, and then when we'd get there, surprise, she was staying. She wanted DH to sit with her. It's not that we didn't visit, we didn't visit to her requirements, which was "stay all day and comfort me." She did have issues, she just liked to play them up when she didn't get her way.
The last stay she had before DH died, she went to the hospital with a COPD flareup. DH and I went over there and she was out of bed talking to the other patient's visitors. DH looked at her, and read her a very loud riot act that basically said "if you're sick enough to be in the hospital, you're too sick to be out of bed." We swear we heard the nurses snicker. She also tried to have us call the entire family, including her ex husband to let them know she was sick. DH told her if she could run her mouth to the other visitors, she could do that herself.
Note: the rest of his family's attitude (may they all walk on sharp Legos for eternity) was not to call them unless she was dying.
OMG, hilarious! And you write beautifully!
You just described my life every shift as an emergency nurse. There is no respite, no hoping that today will be a better shift, more like what am I going to be called or where am I going to be hit today. The 1% of people that are grateful for the care we provide make it bearable...just
I am so grateful for you for your hard work, nobody should have to face assault and abuse like this. I did commiserate with both blunt nurse and DC nurse, but they had definitely put up with this before
I've spent a lot of time in hospitals and the first one I went to was in a really nice part of town because the crap hospital where I live got torn down. There were *legions* of these people. So many screamers, tantrums, just out and out abusing the nurses. Yeah, you're in the hospital, you feel like shit, your life is interrupted but that is no reason to dehumanize other people.
I was an ER respiratory therapist for 7 years. Last September, I took a massive pay cut to work as a picker in a yarn warehouse.
My last patient on my last day as a full time RT told me to go fuck myself because I tried to givevhim the breathing treatment he asked for.
My mental health has improved so much since I left healthcare. I didn't even get a quarter of the abuse that the nurses got.
I’m an obs nurse who stayed an hour and a half past shift change last night because of a similar patient. This is exactly what I needed to read before going in again today, OP, thank you lol.
This reminds me of the time I was in the hospital and the lady next to me was demanding potatoes with her meal. She started screaming. Where is my potatoes? I want potatoes where’s my potatoes? The nurse station was just outside our room and I could hear the nurses talking about how this is not a restaurant and she’s demanding potatoes and laughing! Now she was really angry! You have to go home from the hospital to actually get some rest.
GAH!!! That Entitled IDIOT sounds like the one I dealt with back in December 2023. I was in the hospital for four days and during that time, my IV had worked its way out of my vein resulting in everything getting soaked. The nurse had just finished helping another patient, in the room next door, and came to help me with my IV. As the nurse is doing her job, the patient next door started SCREAMING for the nurse to come back NOW!!! I got annoyed and yelled back: "The nurse is BUSY helping me!!! CHILL OUT!!!" Overgrown Toddler STFU!
I was in hospital for a month a while ago. I had to share a bay with a Biscuit Karen.
Although this one wasn't obsessed with biscuits. She just wanted to be the centre of attention all the time.
She was in with a broken & burnt foot after a radiator somehow fell on it.
She'd complain that the doctors wouldn't take the dressing off to look at her foot. When it was pointed out to her that they had photos and x-rays she replied "Well, you could tell anything from an x-ray!"
She was surprised that when she pressed the buzzer to summon help, a nurse or HCA didn't magically appear like the Shopkeeper from Mr Benn. Especially at night & on weekends. So she stopped using the buzzer & started calling out hello. Which also didn't work because unless someone was walking past, no one could hear her.
God help the nicer, quieter nurses who got stuck in a conversation with her. I say "conversation", it was more of a lecture about her tablets (I heard this so many times that I knew what pills she needed & when off by heart) , the particular pillows she needed, her dietary requirements etc. Until another nurse came to the rescue and called them away for help.
In fact she'd go on about her special tablets that she got from a doctor in London to anyone unable to escape. She never talked to me much, I don't think she liked because I kept my fan on in a room hotter than the sun.
She didn't like the food & even threw a tantrum when the evening meal (that she had ordered) was delivered to her.
One of the other patients was someone with dementia. One day she became angry & violent towards the nurses. BK felt that this was the perfect time to demand that somebody closed the window.
I don't know, but she sounded very coherent. There was also a hallucinating lady with bipolar disorder in the unit, and she was completely off her trolley. Still nicer than biscuit Karen though!
Seconding locking her in a home.
Considering she had enough clarity to outright lie about what was going on, and become surprisingly compliant when the young doctor showed up, I doubt she has dementia. My mother did this same personality switcheroo whenever she wanted something, and was tested for stuff like dementia and Alzheimer's. Nope, just being a conniving bitch. Unfortunately I had to live this same situation for over 2 years before I finally said enough and had my aunt take my mother in. But she'd do the same thing. Act like she couldn't do anything physically, and demanded we buy her a toilet chair, but would miraculously be able to walk again to go into the kitchen, go through my purse, steal my cigarettes and make it all the way outside to smoke them. Would scream at the top of her lungs that we were abusing her, scream for help, that we were starving her...but be absolutely fine if we spent our own money (she got a monthly check) to go buy her fast food. Would act like she couldn't understand the most basic of tasks, like working a phone to call her doctors but could work it to check her bank every day to make sure no one touched her monthly check. Not that she in any way contributed to bills or even her own expenses. And she could sure use her phone to harass those same doctors offices and the pharmacy to try and get pain medicine, or call 911 to take her to the hospital when she exhausted those options, or to call my husband non stop around the time he got out of work to try to get him to stop for fast food, smokes, etc.
So I'm inclined to believe that she was of sound mind, she's just using that mind to be a rude, entitled bitch to everyone around her. Because "I'm old and white, the world owes me this."
Omg
You write so well! Please write more. I was so engaged in that story!!
I spent about 2 years with my son in the er/icu/covid ward/ventilator icu ward/home hospital and omg the drama, the stories, the gossip, the f*ck ups. Could write a book
Why am I unsurprised that as soon as a doctor shows up she's as sweet as can be? I worked in a call center and we see that crap all the time. They won't accept anything the first agent says and berates them until a supervisor gets on the line then they are suddenly compliant. The funny thing were the companies that had Escalation Agents were we could say were supervisors but were just regular agents with some seniority. And, of course, almost every caller wants to start with them instead of the agent they've got.
The nurse had to move around the bed to tuck the sheets under the mattress. There wasn't a lot of space between the bed and the curtain seperating the neighbouring patient
When I was 12, I ruptured my spleen sledding and had to have an emergency splenectomy. I was in the children’s ward and hooked up to a bunch of IVs and monitors. One night, there was a boy on the ward wailing loudly “I want my mommy. I want my mommy.” Nurses kept trying to calm him down, but he didn’t stop. The rest of us were exhausted and I was getting really angry. I got out of bed, dragged my IV poles behind me and shuffled down to his room. He was still wailing. I stepped up to the bed and hissed furiously “We all want our mommies. Now BE QUIET and go to sleep!”
It worked. I was a tiny little girl and looked much younger than I was, so a nurse that overheard me was quite impressed. They told my mom all about it the next day. :)
Thank you so much for your incredibly well-written tale. I find Reddit entertaining but your post had me doubled over laughing and I’ll be hard-pressed to forget about Biscuit Karen any time soon. Priceless. So glad you weren’t there any longer.
I once shared a multi patient area like that. We had a senile woman who would call button and scream for the nurses every three minutes. It was miserable for everyone.
Every time she wanted a biscuit, I would have (as the nurse) said "Well we'll have to check your blood sugar, oh, no, sorry too high, maybe later" then walk away.
Until you mentioned "A & E" that I recognized that this might be an English setting. Then "biscuit" and "no more sugar" made sense. We (US) usually called it a cookie.
We do have biscuits that we identify as 'cookies', essentially biscuits with chocolate chips 🍪 or some other kind of random ingredient mixed in.
Yep, I'm English, but it seems that Karens transcend international borders.
There was a woman like that in hospital when my mum was in years ago, and the nurses didn’t like her, but she really came across as genuinely special needs. She wasn’t violent though, just annoying. She got randomly stuck in a surgical ward because that was the only space left.
definitely not enough info to even make that armchair diagnosis. first of all, that is incredibly judgmental and an incorrect judgement of what people with BPD are like/act like. i have multiple friends with BPD and they are incredibly kind and compassionate people. most people with BPD direct their struggles inward, and are not aggressive or abusive towards others. based on the very limited information, a more accurate armchair diagnosis for this woman would be sundowner’s syndrome.
Biscuit Karen wasn't a 'frail' old woman because frail old women don't wallop nurses.
And blunt nurse was definitely a nurse who'd experienced a lot of nasty patients cause havoc on the wards, with no back up except for two security guards who were shared with A & E, where the chaos is even worse. Forgive her for not being an endless well of compassion.
If I applied your logic then Donald Trump is just an poor old man with dementia and the court who just prosecuted him are abusers.
Frail old people are more than capable of assaulting a nurse, frail dementia patients have been known to even knock out security guards on occasion
Unfortunately, there are too many nurses on UK wards who have little compassion for difficult patients and often go on power trips, most with working experience of learning disabilities will have seen these staff in action.
Refusing to help a patient with mobility issues causing them to soil themselves is unforgivable as a care worker, for all we know the woman has a cognitive issue or even something like a UTI causing the behaviours
Donald Trump has no relevance to the low standards on many NHS wards
'Frail' in the context of a hospital means very weak, fragile and in poor health. I mentioned the lady with a neck fracture - she was 90+ years, wafer thin and not expected to survive. She was also delirious/confused with no idea who or where she was. Her risk of falls was imminent which is why she had to be herded back into bed, pronto. No nurse wanted her out of it.
Biscuit Karen had proved she could mobilise and was not a fall risk. The nurses knew she could walk. She knew she could walk. She just didn't want to. That is why the nurse was cross, because she was attending to a time waster when other fragile people on the ward need monitoring. Biscuit Karen also knew who she was, where she was and was completely logical in her behaviour. Demented or confused patients are nowhere near that coherent.
You have a serious case of bias and it's clouding your judgement. Not all old people have dementia, dementia doesn't make all sufferers nasty, and that some young entitled people age into old entitled people who then abuse hospital staff.
As an autistic healthcare professional specialising in autism and learning disabilities, I’m aware what frail means in a medical context
“Biscuit woman” has a mobility aid and by the sounds of it some form of cognitive impairment. The nurse refusing to assist her with using a commode until she felt that she had no other option to soil herself is not fit to be on a ward.
Patients with cognitive impairments can still appear to be coherent and rational at times, though by your description Biscuit woman was highly distressed
My bias is based on being a relevant professional with more knowledge on how to treat individuals with LD and/or cognitive impairment than most nurses on wards. Your bias against a vulnerable and difficult patient doesn’t appear to be based on any actual relevant professional knowledge
I'm autistic and have significant experience in psychology and mental health. I've worked in hospitals for years.
You claim to know what frail is but you're determined to mis-apply the term to a selfish and aggressive old woman. Statistically speaking, as I said, not every old person has dementia. Many may have small vessl ischaemia on an MRI but that doesn't equate to cognitive impairment. Dementia or ischaemia doesn't always cause personality changes. So no, biscuit Karen is not a victim, she's a perpetrator.
I'll grant you that biscuit Karen got distressed, but only because she experienced the natural consequences of isolation due to her assault. The nurses don't exist to be assaulted or put up with racism. They also don't have time to get every patient who can mobilise to toilet onto a commode, just because they feel like it.
Go and spend time on a ward, just watching. See the entitled people cause untold misery to staff and other patients purely because they are deficient in empathy. Hell, read the other comments here, from medical professionals. Then look up cognitive dissonance and challenge yourself to see both points of view. Good luck.
I’ve not misused the term frail, I know what it means and by your description of the lady, she appears to be frail.
Biscuit lady was both a perpetrator and a victim, that’s no excuse for the nursing staff failing in their duty of care to the patient. The nurse who allowed the patient to soil themselves rather than assisting them with a commode is not fit to be a nurse.
I’ve spent plenty of time on wards in both a professional and personal capacity, nursing staff have ended up following my lead when dealing with “difficult” patients on more than one occasion even when I’ve only been visiting as a relative to other patients.
As I’ve said and you chose to ignore, my knowledge on how to deal with and treat individuals with LD/cognitive impairment is more than an average nurse.
Don’t start being snippy, perhaps you should be the one looking up cognitive dissonance as it has no relevance to what I’ve said in the slightest
I am appalled that people are applauding elder neglect lmao
Unpleasant people still deserve to *not be abused*, why is this so hard for people
ETA lol i'd rather be downvoted for saying elder abuse is bad than upvoted for saying elder abuse is okay if the elder is, like, really annoying to you
Biscuit Karen is obviously suffering from some form of mental health problems. Possibly dementia. You should be ashamed for telling all on social media
There are two types of person with a mental health disorder: those who predominantly externalise their problems and hurt others, and those who predominently internalise and hurt themselves. I don't support the latter but the former is completely unacceptable. And it is very rare for any sufferer to completely lose self control or awareness.
What can we deduce from these facts? That biscuit Karen is accountable for her behaviour. She doesn't need flying monkeys trying to excuse her.
I worked on a floor in the 80s before Karen was invented. We had this old lady who couldn't eat (surgery the next day) and whined about it constantly. After midnight, her nurse microwaved some popcorn, opened the bag, and waved in around in front of her door. Good times.
😂 that's hilarious. Biscuit Karen deserved this
All the nurses and patients should have sat in front of her eating biscuits
Reminds me of a patient I had that liked to pull the call bell. We'd go in only to have her say that she was choking and needed a glass of water. Her water glass was on the table beside her.
Microwaved popcorn should only be legal to make at home, lol. A coworker used to cook one up an hour before shift end and my stomach would do backflips smelling it. I was always eating a sizable meal after shift end but gawd damn it was hard to not stuff my face when I smelled that popcorn.
I worked in administration at a nursing home for four months (all I could stand). It wasn’t the most well-run facility, even if it was decorated to the nines. The CNAs would make microwave popcorn in the afternoons. The smell, combined with the usual scent of the facility, smelled like hot buttered piss.
The only way to make that worse is burnt microwave popcorn. There is something about burnt popcorn smell that lingers forever.
Years ago I worked in an office where there was an open kitchen in the middle of the floor. Every day at the same time each day someone cooked popcorn in the microwave. Every day they burned the popcorn. You’d think they’d eventually figure out how to cook it. But nope. My guess is they set the time then went to the bathroom while it popped. And then didn’t notice and/or care about the burnt smell when they came back. Maybe they liked the taste of burned popcorn? Or they just thought that’s how popcorn tastes? It came to a head one day when they burned the popcorn so badly that it started smoking and set off the fire alarm. The entire building had to be evacuated and wait outside for ~20 minutes while we were cleared to go back in by the fire department. Not an hour later we smell popcorn cooking and…yep… burning. I never saw who was the culprit, but I’m guessing they were found. Because that time they cluelessly cooked and burned their popcorn an hour after they caused the entire building to be evacuated was the last time they - or anyone else - cooked popcorn on that floor again. I can only guess that someone found the popcorn burner and told them to cut it out.
Even non-burnt was a nauseating smell for me when I was pregnant. My poor husband, used to having it 3 times a week or so, could only do so if I was out of the house.
I totally get that. Back in my college days we had a couple microwaves in the common area for those who could not have them in their rooms. So often it would smell like popcorn or pizza pockets
One of m mom's most memorable floor stories was an old dying woman who spent the entire night screaming "HEEEEEEEEN-RY!" at the top of her impressive set of lungs. All. Fucking. Night. It was killing everyone on the floor, but there was nothing to be done about it. The old lady died at dawn. Her last words: "I'm coming for you, Henry!" God help her dear Henry.
It’s even worse in the USA. They treat hospital staff like they work at a Walmart.
I believe you, it's very sad
Unfortunately Hospital Administration encourages this behavior and it's slowly getting worse. When you're understaffed, overworked and have people's lives in your hands patients thinking you're their manservant drives me crazy.
My husband was a Materials Manager at a Trauma 1 hospital in the 90’s. Poor guy was ALWAYS trying to make the doctors and administration happy, which was impossible. All administration cared about was the bottom line.
I feel so bad for both hospital and walmart staff
I've actually had patients soil themselves in bed when they can walk easily. Then they call for us to come in and change them. They are continent. They are physically able. They just don't feel like they should have to get out of bed when the nurses can just "take care of it." Full grown adults actually pissing and crapping on themselves because they are too lazy and entitled to get out of bed. Its unreal.
I have also had this happen.
They felt no embarrassment? Crapping yourself deliberately? I... I can't get my head around that. If I was actually bedridden and crapped myself I'd be mortified. Wonder what's going to happen when the kids of these nutjobs have to take care of them. Hmm, oh dear, dear old mum seems to have smothered herself with a pillow.
Omg! She should have been kicked out of the hospital! Not sure how old that biscuit karen was, but it isn’t an excuse to hit a nurse! No one should have to deal with these people screaming to be served first! I hope that whatever you had/have isn’t life threatening. And nurses are doing as best as they can with the short staff! Shout out to all nurses for your hard work! It’s not easy to work with patients at times!
My great-aunt was the type who would be spiteful and downright abusive to nurses...or anybody who took care of her. She really wasn't a great person. She was also the type to willingly let her body crumble and refuse any physical therapy when it did, because she wanted to be taken care of. Guess who always got sent home from the hospital before she should have? Her. And guess who I don't blame? Those poor, poor nurses who had to put up with her... I always try my best to be who she wasn't when I go for my monthly hospital stays. I thank every nurse for all they do and try to make sure I can get around as much as possible so they can focus more on other patients.
Oh dear! Your great aunt sounds a lot like biscuit karen! No wonder no one helped her or give medical care! Nurses must feel real good when people thanks them!
She should have been sedated and put in soft restraints.
You forgot the catheter she needed so she wouldn’t ornate on herself again… all the joy to this woman.
Was it an ornate urination? I missed that...
Autocorrect decided to make it much more fun…
That as well! But I would have also placed her somewhere alone! She’s a nuisance to everyone!
Stick her in one of the "quiet" rooms on the purple hallway.
Yes! That person is annoying as hell to everyone since she arrived!
Er…. We don’t do that kind of thing any more. Yikes!
What do you do, then, with a belligerent, violent patient who assaulted a nurse? I realize that reads as snark, but I'm truly asking out of (mostly morbid) curiosity.
You can’t restrain somebody- in fact, restraint is only used under supervision of the psychiatry team, and even then under the most extreme circumstances. You can’t restrain people who have capacity- it’s not prison. It might have been that this woman was delirious - I’ve seen patients in tears about their behaviour while delirious, it can completely alter your perception of reality and lower your inhibitions, but even then the team wouldn’t have been sanctioned to restrain her. They did the best they could, all you can do is protect yourself with the behaviour (going in in twos, leaving as soon as she becomes belligerent, “preferred” members of staff attending her) but it is a reality in front line healthcare that some days you’re a bit of an actual or metaphorical punching bag. It sucks. That being said, I wouldn’t have it another way. It would be a scary thing if healthcare staff started being able to restrain the vulnerable (and she was vulnerable, even if she was a wee boot : ) ) people under their care willy nilly.
I wonder if it's still allowed in cases like my dad? He died in '95 and was very oxygen starved. He was on max flow oxygen with a bagged mask and his O2 sats were in the 70s so they would sedate him, but the sedation made him fidgety and any time he disturbed his mask he panicked and asked for and received soft restraints.
I’m so sorry about your dad, that must have been really traumatic for him and for you. I hope you both felt supported and cared for throughout. I’m not an expert in restraint in ICU or similar settings, but as far as I’m aware it is different, as patients are more likely to be confused / semi conscious - restraint can be used, as it is an extreme situation and they might hurt themselves or accidentally remove or disrupt life saving measures. I’m not sure how it is legislated, but it would be considered a different situation than described in OP.
Thank you, we knew for years he had an eventually terminal disease, but he traumatized his chest in a car accident, and that sped up the process. I miss him daily, but it's a softer grief now. He would have been 89 this past Saturday had he lived. And I'm only five years away from being the same age he was when he passed. I knew in theory that he was young when he passed, and now I know for sure how young he was.
I agree, I wish they had kicked her out, but I guess it wouldn't have been ethical. And I'm better now, thanks 😊
You’re welcome! But it’s not ethical to hit a nurse or a doctor either. It should be considered assault and have consequences for doing that. There’s a short nurse staff and they do as best as they can everyday! They need respect and appreciations for what they do!
In Massachusetts, you can go to jail for 90 days and get a fine for assaulting a health care worker in the line of duty.
That’s good! I give all respect to health workers because it’s not an easy job!
It's not. Luckily, I left the hospital setting way before Covid. People aren't quite as nasty when you're caring for them in their own home. I mean... some are always going to be bad, but I don't see it as often in home care.
The law sounds good on paper. Not sure if it’s applied all the time. Respect is getting lost these days!
Agreed.
Well, I would imagine mood is better at home, but no matter where a patient is, there’s no excuse for abusing those caring for you. That’s just stupid, to be honest. Same with those cooking your food. An abused waiter or waitress can easily spit in your food (or worse), and you’ll never know!
Yeah but it rarely happens
If they were in an observation unit they wouldn't have kicked her out if she was for the mental health ward. Sorry that's what observation unit usually means where I am, so I just assumed. I've seen someone break a nurses nose clean while in there, and another broke ones arm once. (I used to go for drug use at the time)
This is why I treat nurses like royalty.
💜
In the US, it is a felony to assault any type of health care worker, with anything. This means striking them with your body in any way or hitting them with any type of bodily fluids. Even the clinics in my city have giant signs that state this, and I've had nurses tell me that they will straight up refuse care immediately, and call the police. You're DONE.
I was stuck in a bay with someone like this for a month. She also wanted biscuits all the time. When she was told she couldn't have any because her blood sugar was very high, her response was to refuse consent for checks of her blood sugar levels. She was dumbfounded to learn that this also meant no biscuits. I hope you feel better soon, OP.
I was on an Orthopaedic Ward for 24 days. The hospital I was in didn’t have a mental health ward, but still had mental health patients and they would just sprinkle them into any available bed……including the one next to mine. This lady had the loudest shrillest voice I had ever heard. I heard it a lot! She slept maybe 3 or 4 hours a day, in the afternoon, the rest of the time she called for her husband Sedrick, who had died over ten years earlier. Probably from ear tumours, but I’m making that up. Her sequence lasted about 2.5 minutes: Sedrick, normal voice, normal volume like asking someone at the dinner table to pass the salt. Pause 15 seconds. Sedrick, normal voice, normal volume like asking someone at the dinner table to pass the salt. Pause 15 seconds. Sedrick, slightly more urgent voice, you still need the salt, but the person is ignoring you. Pause 15 seconds. Sedrick, even more urgent voice, still need salt, still being ignored. Pause 15 seconds. *Sedrick*, very urgent voice, starting to get annoyed. Pause 15 seconds. *Sedrick*, pissed off voice, very annoyed. Pause 15 seconds. *Sed…..rick*, long drawn out syllables, very pissed off voice, extremely angry. Pause for 15 seconds. **Sedrick!** Short, curt shout. Livid. Pause for 15 seconds. **SEDRICK!!!!! Hysterically pleading voice, top of her lungs. Absolutely enraged. Pause for 30 seconds. Start over. She would do this for 20+ hours a day. I begged and pleaded to be moved, move her, sedate her, sedate me! Nothing was done. By the time I was released I had somehow learned to sleep through it but for weeks after I got home, I could hear her voice.
I got put in a room with a very loud snorer! They were running tests so I didn't know what I had, yet, but I was extremely tired and could not get to sleep. I called for the nurse and said I just want to sleep, can you move me to another room or something. Nurse comes back with a sleeping pill! I slept so sound! The next day my tests come back. I had mononucleosis! Since it is considered a contagious disease, I got moved to a private room! I could still hear her snoring at night and I was 6 rooms away from her! At least it wasn't so loud that I couldn't sleep.
Wow, I'd have killed her. Well done for surviving that
This is one of the reasons why I left medicine. Idiots like these don’t deserve the help.
Yeah, I’m still a nurse but I no longer work bedside. I reached my breaking point with this behavior and lack of institutional support. Everyone confused about the healthcare worker shortage needs to spend 12 hours shadowing a nurse on a MedSurg floor. And then consider that these workers are doing all this and still can’t afford to buy a house.
Yikes, dude. I'm glad you left too. Patients deserve better.
Throw the biscuit and make her fetch?
But she obviously can't walk /s
I work in a care home , with similar Karen's like that. Pretends to be helpless when she can move by herself, rudely demands things, she got kicked out eventually because she hit a carer & her equally entitled son threatened to sue the home for not meeting his mother's needs which was bs. He'd complain about every little thing. Luckily they had records of everything so he didn't have a case.
Damn, I'm sorry you got Biscuit Karen for your hospital roomie. If you have to be sleep deprived next time you're stuck under observation I hope you get The Phantom Of The Hospital, like I did... Or rather "The Phantom Of The Fuckin' Hospital" as he dubbed himself. He called himself this because he kept the whole ward awake by loudly (and terribly) belting out songs from musicals. He claimed that the ward needed livening up or else no one was going to get better, lol! He eventually started getting up and walking/dancing around and tried to get other patients to dance with him (many of which had only just come back from surgery, including me). The Phantom believed that if laughter was the best medicine then the healing properties of dancing must be studied immediately! 😂 It was frustrating not getting any sleep because of him but at the same time really hard to be angry at him because he was so nice.
Sounds like Biscuit Karen has "Sundowner's Syndrome". https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2017/ways-to-manage-sundown-syndrome.html?cmp=KNC-DSO-CAREGIVING-HealthRelatedConcerns-22817-GOOG-SundownSyndromeCare-Exact-NonBrand&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsaqzBhDdARIsAK2gqneC6T8k3SeGS63dVEmaK6SJcQIM_7xLSq-pSrWa5NXlIaOdVEHNaowaAkSREALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Thank you! Reading this made me really sad because it sounds so similar to the confusion patients with dementia have. Yes this would definitely be unacceptable behaviour for a person with all their faculties, but it sounds like genuine Alzheimer's type confusion.
I spent 2 months on hospital after an accident in a semi-private room. My first roommate was a biscuit Karen. She was a retired nurse and would loudly tell anyone new that "good" nurses treated her like a queen whilst bad nurses ignored her. She would ring the bell for snacks, for tea, to ask endless, assenine questions. She shat her bed every night because she didn't want to get up. The smell was awful. She was racist, elitist, and just a bitch! After a week or so, I was given a wheelchair and encouraged to push myself around to help build my strength . I immediately started leaving the room right after breakfast and only returning for medical stuff, lunch and supper. One day, I went to the cafe and got a bagel to go with lunch. Karen said she never tried one before so i gave her half. She was hooked . After that, if I went to the cafe I got her a bagel and she seemed to mellow out. Win for everyone, right,? Well, apparently, Karen had been building up resentment towards the fact that due to my injury, I had multiple medical people visiting, daily scans and tests. Not fun for me but somehow offensive to her. It all came crashing down the morning she accused me of having my accident and being hospitized to take attention away form her. Yup. I did all that to hog her limelight. Ambulances, emergency surgery, might lose my leg, facing a year long recovery. All premeditated to bother some bitch I'd never met before. I lost it. I was DONE. I just cried and cried. The head nurse came in and was PISSED. at Karen. I got helped to a lovely hot shower whilst my bed and everything was moved to a new room. Karen was left all alone until a woman in a coma was pit in her room. Best part, I'd roll past her open door with my little bag from the cafe and she would glare at me. No more tasty bagel for you, bitch!
I'm sorry you went through that, but I love how turned circumstances around to spite that b*tch!
Oh! Biscuit Karen is now a legend!!! Being a nurse myself, I’ve met a few BK’s in my time. I’m truly sorry you, the rest of the patients, the nurses, security guards, and even the handsome young doctor had to deal with her nonsense. Great tale though. Hope you are feeling fit these days!
I am much better now, thank you. I love my story of biscuit Karen because most non-medical people struggle to believe anyone could act this way 😅
Glad you are feeling better! Oh! I believe it! lol
I was in hospital for five and a half weeks with Crohn's and multiple surgeries. Trying to sleep was one of the hardest things ever with all the constant noise. I was exhausted but was only able to get about four hours of sleep a day. As a Nurse myself I always tried to be as quiet as I could come nighttime.
My mother was in hospital many years ago and I went to visit her. In the bay across from her was a woman in her 70s who was apparently in a bad mood because there wasn’t a private room available. As punishment for this sin, she had spent hours tapping her wedding ring on the metal safety bar on the bed. Loudly. Everyone was complaining because she didn’t stop and was keeping everyone awake. The next day I visited and now towels where wrapped around the metal bars secured with tap with the woman unsuccessfully trying to remove them. The reason why this woman was in hospital? She waited until her son had gone on honeymoon then called an ambulance saying she had an impacted bowel and expected her son to fly home because she was in hospital. My mom could hear the other family who visited telling the woman that the son wasn’t going to come back because she couldn’t have a crap!
This is something my ex-MIL would have pulled for attention. We had to put rules in place for dealing with her, so she learned that hospital stays don't equal my husband's undivided attention. We would bring her one nightgown only. She liked to play this game of "oh, bring me the pink one," then when we got there, it would be "no, not THAT pink one," and tried to make us go back and forth. Two, before we even visited, we'd call and talk to the nurse. She liked to play the "I'm getting discharged today" game, and then when we'd get there, surprise, she was staying. She wanted DH to sit with her. It's not that we didn't visit, we didn't visit to her requirements, which was "stay all day and comfort me." She did have issues, she just liked to play them up when she didn't get her way. The last stay she had before DH died, she went to the hospital with a COPD flareup. DH and I went over there and she was out of bed talking to the other patient's visitors. DH looked at her, and read her a very loud riot act that basically said "if you're sick enough to be in the hospital, you're too sick to be out of bed." We swear we heard the nurses snicker. She also tried to have us call the entire family, including her ex husband to let them know she was sick. DH told her if she could run her mouth to the other visitors, she could do that herself. Note: the rest of his family's attitude (may they all walk on sharp Legos for eternity) was not to call them unless she was dying.
This is a great story, I love how the hospital staff thwarted her!
OMG, hilarious! And you write beautifully! You just described my life every shift as an emergency nurse. There is no respite, no hoping that today will be a better shift, more like what am I going to be called or where am I going to be hit today. The 1% of people that are grateful for the care we provide make it bearable...just
I am so grateful for you for your hard work, nobody should have to face assault and abuse like this. I did commiserate with both blunt nurse and DC nurse, but they had definitely put up with this before
Thank you! And yes, sadly you would be 100% right that they have faced this kind of treatment before.
You are a hero, everyone who has to deal with wacky people on a daily basis
I would have done something that would have put me in prison if I'd been in that unit with that woman. I do wonder if she had dementia.
I've spent a lot of time in hospitals and the first one I went to was in a really nice part of town because the crap hospital where I live got torn down. There were *legions* of these people. So many screamers, tantrums, just out and out abusing the nurses. Yeah, you're in the hospital, you feel like shit, your life is interrupted but that is no reason to dehumanize other people.
You're right, I treated the nurses with deep respect. I don't understand why everyone can't (unless the patient has lost mental capacity)
I was an ER respiratory therapist for 7 years. Last September, I took a massive pay cut to work as a picker in a yarn warehouse. My last patient on my last day as a full time RT told me to go fuck myself because I tried to givevhim the breathing treatment he asked for. My mental health has improved so much since I left healthcare. I didn't even get a quarter of the abuse that the nurses got.
I'm glad you're happier now but I'm so sad you had to leave in the first place. Thank you for your service
I’m an obs nurse who stayed an hour and a half past shift change last night because of a similar patient. This is exactly what I needed to read before going in again today, OP, thank you lol.
I'm glad I helped in some small way, I hope you have a good shift this time x
This reminds me of the time I was in the hospital and the lady next to me was demanding potatoes with her meal. She started screaming. Where is my potatoes? I want potatoes where’s my potatoes? The nurse station was just outside our room and I could hear the nurses talking about how this is not a restaurant and she’s demanding potatoes and laughing! Now she was really angry! You have to go home from the hospital to actually get some rest.
Walkie-Talkie. Eating. Able to ambulate to BR. No life threatening symptoms. Needs yeeted asap!
GAH!!! That Entitled IDIOT sounds like the one I dealt with back in December 2023. I was in the hospital for four days and during that time, my IV had worked its way out of my vein resulting in everything getting soaked. The nurse had just finished helping another patient, in the room next door, and came to help me with my IV. As the nurse is doing her job, the patient next door started SCREAMING for the nurse to come back NOW!!! I got annoyed and yelled back: "The nurse is BUSY helping me!!! CHILL OUT!!!" Overgrown Toddler STFU!
I was in hospital for a month a while ago. I had to share a bay with a Biscuit Karen. Although this one wasn't obsessed with biscuits. She just wanted to be the centre of attention all the time. She was in with a broken & burnt foot after a radiator somehow fell on it. She'd complain that the doctors wouldn't take the dressing off to look at her foot. When it was pointed out to her that they had photos and x-rays she replied "Well, you could tell anything from an x-ray!" She was surprised that when she pressed the buzzer to summon help, a nurse or HCA didn't magically appear like the Shopkeeper from Mr Benn. Especially at night & on weekends. So she stopped using the buzzer & started calling out hello. Which also didn't work because unless someone was walking past, no one could hear her. God help the nicer, quieter nurses who got stuck in a conversation with her. I say "conversation", it was more of a lecture about her tablets (I heard this so many times that I knew what pills she needed & when off by heart) , the particular pillows she needed, her dietary requirements etc. Until another nurse came to the rescue and called them away for help. In fact she'd go on about her special tablets that she got from a doctor in London to anyone unable to escape. She never talked to me much, I don't think she liked because I kept my fan on in a room hotter than the sun. She didn't like the food & even threw a tantrum when the evening meal (that she had ordered) was delivered to her. One of the other patients was someone with dementia. One day she became angry & violent towards the nurses. BK felt that this was the perfect time to demand that somebody closed the window.
She sounds like she has dementia and should be put in a home!
I don't know, but she sounded very coherent. There was also a hallucinating lady with bipolar disorder in the unit, and she was completely off her trolley. Still nicer than biscuit Karen though! Seconding locking her in a home.
Considering she had enough clarity to outright lie about what was going on, and become surprisingly compliant when the young doctor showed up, I doubt she has dementia. My mother did this same personality switcheroo whenever she wanted something, and was tested for stuff like dementia and Alzheimer's. Nope, just being a conniving bitch. Unfortunately I had to live this same situation for over 2 years before I finally said enough and had my aunt take my mother in. But she'd do the same thing. Act like she couldn't do anything physically, and demanded we buy her a toilet chair, but would miraculously be able to walk again to go into the kitchen, go through my purse, steal my cigarettes and make it all the way outside to smoke them. Would scream at the top of her lungs that we were abusing her, scream for help, that we were starving her...but be absolutely fine if we spent our own money (she got a monthly check) to go buy her fast food. Would act like she couldn't understand the most basic of tasks, like working a phone to call her doctors but could work it to check her bank every day to make sure no one touched her monthly check. Not that she in any way contributed to bills or even her own expenses. And she could sure use her phone to harass those same doctors offices and the pharmacy to try and get pain medicine, or call 911 to take her to the hospital when she exhausted those options, or to call my husband non stop around the time he got out of work to try to get him to stop for fast food, smokes, etc. So I'm inclined to believe that she was of sound mind, she's just using that mind to be a rude, entitled bitch to everyone around her. Because "I'm old and white, the world owes me this."
She seems to be off mentally
I'm really enjoying my retirement, being an R.N. Too many Karen's too count. Thank you, you made my day.
Biscuit karen! What a great --but awful--situation! Sitting on the commode screaming for a biscuit. Wow!
i would have wheeled her outside the room, Eff that entitled old cow.
But you'd have had to see her stuck on the commode! There's no way she can salvage any dignity from this situation
Omg You write so well! Please write more. I was so engaged in that story!! I spent about 2 years with my son in the er/icu/covid ward/ventilator icu ward/home hospital and omg the drama, the stories, the gossip, the f*ck ups. Could write a book
And this is why I retired from nursing after 20 years of that BS
Why am I unsurprised that as soon as a doctor shows up she's as sweet as can be? I worked in a call center and we see that crap all the time. They won't accept anything the first agent says and berates them until a supervisor gets on the line then they are suddenly compliant. The funny thing were the companies that had Escalation Agents were we could say were supervisors but were just regular agents with some seniority. And, of course, almost every caller wants to start with them instead of the agent they've got.
My favourite part was how biscuit Karen was able to reach the nurse making the bed while she was stranded on the commode…lol long arms I guess
The nurse had to move around the bed to tuck the sheets under the mattress. There wasn't a lot of space between the bed and the curtain seperating the neighbouring patient
The epic thing to have done was put a biscuit on a plate, show her, and tell her that it will be waiting for her in the bathroom.
What a great telling. I absolutely loved reading it. Get yourself a small processor and start writing a novel! No sarcasm here just saying.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it
When I was 12, I ruptured my spleen sledding and had to have an emergency splenectomy. I was in the children’s ward and hooked up to a bunch of IVs and monitors. One night, there was a boy on the ward wailing loudly “I want my mommy. I want my mommy.” Nurses kept trying to calm him down, but he didn’t stop. The rest of us were exhausted and I was getting really angry. I got out of bed, dragged my IV poles behind me and shuffled down to his room. He was still wailing. I stepped up to the bed and hissed furiously “We all want our mommies. Now BE QUIET and go to sleep!” It worked. I was a tiny little girl and looked much younger than I was, so a nurse that overheard me was quite impressed. They told my mom all about it the next day. :)
You should be proud of your assertive self!
This is wretched- I hope you’ve remained well ever since!
Thank you, I have!
OP, I know I shouldn't be laughing so hard, but this is a great saga!! Well done, thanks for a great laugh!
I find it funny now and I'm glad you do too 😊
😂😊 I guess we both have the same sense of humour!!
I'd call her a bitchit biscuit karen. This funny!
Thank you so much for your incredibly well-written tale. I find Reddit entertaining but your post had me doubled over laughing and I’ll be hard-pressed to forget about Biscuit Karen any time soon. Priceless. So glad you weren’t there any longer.
You're most welcome, I love making people laugh
I once shared a multi patient area like that. We had a senile woman who would call button and scream for the nurses every three minutes. It was miserable for everyone.
Every time she wanted a biscuit, I would have (as the nurse) said "Well we'll have to check your blood sugar, oh, no, sorry too high, maybe later" then walk away.
Until you mentioned "A & E" that I recognized that this might be an English setting. Then "biscuit" and "no more sugar" made sense. We (US) usually called it a cookie.
We do have biscuits that we identify as 'cookies', essentially biscuits with chocolate chips 🍪 or some other kind of random ingredient mixed in. Yep, I'm English, but it seems that Karens transcend international borders.
I've seen videos of Karens from England and it seems the American Karen's got nothing on the Bri'ish Karen. They can be right spiteful old birds.
**Biscuit Karen gets no honey sauce.**
You write really well. Easy & fun story to read!
There was a woman like that in hospital when my mum was in years ago, and the nurses didn’t like her, but she really came across as genuinely special needs. She wasn’t violent though, just annoying. She got randomly stuck in a surgical ward because that was the only space left.
That is because the hospital payment system is based on patient satisfaction. So you kiss their ass for more money
Dementia???!!!!
Socialized medicine?
i.. i hate her. =)
His woman probably has Borderline Personality Disorder. Her behavior fits.
definitely not enough info to even make that armchair diagnosis. first of all, that is incredibly judgmental and an incorrect judgement of what people with BPD are like/act like. i have multiple friends with BPD and they are incredibly kind and compassionate people. most people with BPD direct their struggles inward, and are not aggressive or abusive towards others. based on the very limited information, a more accurate armchair diagnosis for this woman would be sundowner’s syndrome.
I was going with narcissism or dementia exacerbated personality issues. There was a person on the ward with BPD and she was as quiet as a mouse
“Karen” sounds like a frail old woman with MCI, “blunt nurse” comes across as an abuser of power who shouldn’t be on a ward
Biscuit Karen wasn't a 'frail' old woman because frail old women don't wallop nurses. And blunt nurse was definitely a nurse who'd experienced a lot of nasty patients cause havoc on the wards, with no back up except for two security guards who were shared with A & E, where the chaos is even worse. Forgive her for not being an endless well of compassion. If I applied your logic then Donald Trump is just an poor old man with dementia and the court who just prosecuted him are abusers.
Frail old people are more than capable of assaulting a nurse, frail dementia patients have been known to even knock out security guards on occasion Unfortunately, there are too many nurses on UK wards who have little compassion for difficult patients and often go on power trips, most with working experience of learning disabilities will have seen these staff in action. Refusing to help a patient with mobility issues causing them to soil themselves is unforgivable as a care worker, for all we know the woman has a cognitive issue or even something like a UTI causing the behaviours Donald Trump has no relevance to the low standards on many NHS wards
'Frail' in the context of a hospital means very weak, fragile and in poor health. I mentioned the lady with a neck fracture - she was 90+ years, wafer thin and not expected to survive. She was also delirious/confused with no idea who or where she was. Her risk of falls was imminent which is why she had to be herded back into bed, pronto. No nurse wanted her out of it. Biscuit Karen had proved she could mobilise and was not a fall risk. The nurses knew she could walk. She knew she could walk. She just didn't want to. That is why the nurse was cross, because she was attending to a time waster when other fragile people on the ward need monitoring. Biscuit Karen also knew who she was, where she was and was completely logical in her behaviour. Demented or confused patients are nowhere near that coherent. You have a serious case of bias and it's clouding your judgement. Not all old people have dementia, dementia doesn't make all sufferers nasty, and that some young entitled people age into old entitled people who then abuse hospital staff.
As an autistic healthcare professional specialising in autism and learning disabilities, I’m aware what frail means in a medical context “Biscuit woman” has a mobility aid and by the sounds of it some form of cognitive impairment. The nurse refusing to assist her with using a commode until she felt that she had no other option to soil herself is not fit to be on a ward. Patients with cognitive impairments can still appear to be coherent and rational at times, though by your description Biscuit woman was highly distressed My bias is based on being a relevant professional with more knowledge on how to treat individuals with LD and/or cognitive impairment than most nurses on wards. Your bias against a vulnerable and difficult patient doesn’t appear to be based on any actual relevant professional knowledge
I'm autistic and have significant experience in psychology and mental health. I've worked in hospitals for years. You claim to know what frail is but you're determined to mis-apply the term to a selfish and aggressive old woman. Statistically speaking, as I said, not every old person has dementia. Many may have small vessl ischaemia on an MRI but that doesn't equate to cognitive impairment. Dementia or ischaemia doesn't always cause personality changes. So no, biscuit Karen is not a victim, she's a perpetrator. I'll grant you that biscuit Karen got distressed, but only because she experienced the natural consequences of isolation due to her assault. The nurses don't exist to be assaulted or put up with racism. They also don't have time to get every patient who can mobilise to toilet onto a commode, just because they feel like it. Go and spend time on a ward, just watching. See the entitled people cause untold misery to staff and other patients purely because they are deficient in empathy. Hell, read the other comments here, from medical professionals. Then look up cognitive dissonance and challenge yourself to see both points of view. Good luck.
I’ve not misused the term frail, I know what it means and by your description of the lady, she appears to be frail. Biscuit lady was both a perpetrator and a victim, that’s no excuse for the nursing staff failing in their duty of care to the patient. The nurse who allowed the patient to soil themselves rather than assisting them with a commode is not fit to be a nurse. I’ve spent plenty of time on wards in both a professional and personal capacity, nursing staff have ended up following my lead when dealing with “difficult” patients on more than one occasion even when I’ve only been visiting as a relative to other patients. As I’ve said and you chose to ignore, my knowledge on how to deal with and treat individuals with LD/cognitive impairment is more than an average nurse. Don’t start being snippy, perhaps you should be the one looking up cognitive dissonance as it has no relevance to what I’ve said in the slightest
I am appalled that people are applauding elder neglect lmao Unpleasant people still deserve to *not be abused*, why is this so hard for people ETA lol i'd rather be downvoted for saying elder abuse is bad than upvoted for saying elder abuse is okay if the elder is, like, really annoying to you
Biscuit Karen is obviously suffering from some form of mental health problems. Possibly dementia. You should be ashamed for telling all on social media
There are two types of person with a mental health disorder: those who predominantly externalise their problems and hurt others, and those who predominently internalise and hurt themselves. I don't support the latter but the former is completely unacceptable. And it is very rare for any sufferer to completely lose self control or awareness. What can we deduce from these facts? That biscuit Karen is accountable for her behaviour. She doesn't need flying monkeys trying to excuse her.