Patient 'complains' about arachnophobic healthcare professional, 'she ran out screaming.' AITA?
"WIBTA if I ‘complain’ about my health care professional for running out of my room screaming over a tattoo?"
A few days ago I had an MRI guided biopsy. While I was inside of the MRI machine, one of my health care professionals came into the room and then ran screaming out of the room because she has arachnophobia and I have an unrealistic tattoo of a tarantula on my arm. To be clear, it’s VERY unrealistic, albeit large.
This caused a delay in my procedure. There was an unrelated second delay that kept me in the machine for almost 90 minutes. I was face down, with both my arms over my head. After the procedure, both of my arms were painfully asleep. After the biopsy I had to turn over to have them dress my incision site.
One nurse held pressure on my incision and the arachnophobia nurse didn’t help me turn over even though she was told to twice. I was able to turn myself but once I was about half way turned, the nurse holding pressure on my incision could no longer reach it and she had to tell the other nurse 3 times to “grab it” so I could finish rolling over.
I was extremely uncomfortable holding the position waiting in the nurse to compose herself enough to grab my bleeding incision. The entire time the one nurse was dressing my incision the other one just stood in the corner. I’m not sure if she was supposed be doing anything else.
I was frustrated the day of the procedure but I didn’t address it, thanked them for their help and went on my way. Today I got an email from the hospital asking how the visit went. I have had jobs in the past that were highly dependent on my customer surveys.
I am generally very happy with my care at this facility. I don’t have any phobias so I don’t know how hard of a struggle this is, and i don’t know how much grace should be offered here. WIBTA if I am honest about what happened and leave an accurate review.
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
Edithasburglar said:
They need the feedback. If the original nurse couldn’t do her job, she should’ve gotten somebody else in there as soon as possible.
oxPsychoticHottie said:
NTA. There is zero reason that they are understaffed enough she couldn't have switched with another assistant, which would have avoided all the conflict after the first instance.
I recognize the place will come down on the employee, but honestly she needs to get some therapy or something anyway and maybe they can help her find the resources for that. She has no business in this career if her hangups are going to cause that much turmoil.
tsiaq said:
NTA, that was entirely unprofessional. Good grief, if it was that bad, why didn't they ask you if they could put some gauze and medical tape over the tat for the duration of the procedure? Not that you should have to cover it, but it would have been more thoughtful than interrupting your care for her phobia. She really should have gotten someone else to help. Giving you substandard medical care was not ok.
KrofftSurvivor said:
NTA. Please leave an accurate review. Instead of a co worker getting told that they're not handling things correctly, a patient pointing out exactly what happened is far more likely to get listened to...patient satisfaction surveys make a difference these days.
Now sometimes this goes the wrong way, and people file complaints over things that make ZERO sense.But this impacted your care in a significant manner and could have actually caused you more serious problems, given how long you had to lay there in that position.
Agoraphobe961 said:
NTA. They need the feedback. If the nurse was unable to provide care for whatever reason, she should have gotten someone else in there to assist you.
Lucky-Guess8786 said:
You should report it. That nurses's unprofessionalism could have dire consequences for a future patient. I wouldn't be surprised if the situation has already been reported by the nurse who was actually doing some work. Your comments would back up her statements. NTA.
Sylvurphlame said:
NTA. As a healthcare professional, I’d be disappointed if you didn’t lodge a complaint. They need that feedback. She either needs counseling (which her employer may even pay for) or she needs to find a new job. You know, one where the public doesn’t depend on her to keep her shit together. She can’t freak out because of a patient tattoo.