What Do You Do With a Difficult Patient?

What do you do when you get an extremely difficult patient? We all know that there are those people in the world who make people's lives hell. Whether they do it on purpose or not, I'm not too sure. Yesterday I had the oppurtunity (if that's what you can call it), to work with a very difficult pt. whose daughter was just like her, if not worse. When this particular patient saw me walk in, she took her finger and motioned for me to go over to her. Well, of course I did. She commenced on giving out to me, and telling me that when she got her food, I was not to just leave her there to eat it. "Well, of course!", I said, "I will help you set it up and make sure that you're comfortable." She thanked me gratefully. Sometime during the day, this woman's daughter came into the room and decided that there was no phone in the room because she couldn't find it. She looked at me and said, "Nancy, WHY doesn't she have a phone?" because obviously, the fact that she was without a phone was my fault. I smiled politely and looked around the room. I couldn't find it either. I told her that I would go and get her one. I got a bit caught up with something else and saw the daughter of the patient was at the front desk talking with the secretary. She had told the secretary that I had told her to ask the secretary to get the phone (if that makes any sense). Well, of course that wasn't the case. Thankfully the secretary was very kind and went to the room with me and found that in reality, there was a phone. I'm not sure why, but this woman was stressing me out. So much, that I wanted to cry. But, I didn't. The patient then got on my case later because her dinner had come while I was busy (bringing a body down to the morgue). This was after the family had left. She yelled at me, telling me that I had "promised" to come, and that I "never came." Yes, I understand, the hospital is a strange and scary place. But as a Tech, I have at least eight other patients to take care of. I was caring for her roommate and she was yelling my name, telling me that she needed her toothpaste at that MOMENT. No matter how many times I told her I would be there as soon as I was finished caring for her roommate, she would not stop yelling. I got so boiled up that I raised my voice. I showed her that she had a roommate by opening the curtain and told her that I have other people to take care of too. That she needs to wait for a while sometimes. She did calm down and did tell me that she would be nicer, but that was deffinitly the INCORRECT way to handle the situation. What should I have done? I was at a loss yesterday. I had been so patient, I had been calm, but my exhaustion got to the best of me. Being a nurses aid or a Patient Care Tech can help so much in learning how to deal with the everchanging situation of a hospital. What I should have done was to say, "Ok, I'm here now, what can I do for you?" In an ideal world. The patient would say thank you and calmly tell you what they need. But, unfortunately, a hospital's situations are hardly ever ideal. That's the truth. Nurses as well as Tech need to be flexible, need to anticipate, and need to be able to handle sitations. This is a job that is full of surprises. You're lucky if you get an "easy" day.