Healthcare Workers Facing Patient Confusion and Risk
10 posts across 3 communities since Jul 2026; 80% from r/nursing.
“Rn here This is going to sound dramatic but when I get a uti it’s a crisis. The pain is dilaudid level and if I don’t catch it the second I feel off, usually cold chills but no fever nausea is the first symptom.. I will have to go to the Ed bc I never know if it’s a uti or…”
“Im on sick leave for the rest of the week after a patient threw a cup full of water and thickening power at my head. It’s crazy what a UTI does to someone with dementia. My head and my neck are killing me. It’s been 3 days since it happened and I feel worse now than I did…”
“Am I wrong for saying a UTI or AG rupture is not an emergency but more of a GP/Urgent care case?”
Nurses and doctors express frustration with misdiagnosis of UTIs in elderly patients, leading to unnecessary treatment, patient confusion, and potential for serious complications like sepsis. There's a concern that established guidelines are not consistently followed.
SOURCES (11)
“Im on sick leave for the rest of the week after a patient threw a cup full of water and thickening power at my head. It’s crazy what a UTI does to someone with dementia. My head and my neck are killing me. It’s been…”
“Am I wrong for saying a UTI or AG rupture is not an emergency but more of a GP/Urgent care case? submitted by /u/NeighborlyKoala [link] [comments]”
“But can kill you. I've had to do clinicals in a nursing home before. I was a CNA at 17 before I was an EMT.”
“I'm premed and a 911 EMT. I got so many UTI calls during my time on the box, especially from nursing homes or people noncompliant with their antibiotics. Many of the calls I get are due to AMS. It's unfortunate, but I'm curious as to why. His vitals were stable, but he had that "UTI" smell and his GCS was 12. Admittedly, I was a bit upset at the staff that said "we didn't have time to do cath care, please don't report" because it made clear that they care”
“Rn here This is going to sound dramatic but when I get a uti it’s a crisis. The pain is dilaudid level and if I don’t catch it the second I feel off, usually cold chills but no fever nausea is the first symptom.. I will have to go to the Ed bc I never know if it’s a uti or kidney stone that’s how painful it is. It always needs >7 days of keflex to kick. I think there’s something up with the nerves in my bladder. The only relief I get is sitting in the tub bottomless and just peeing constantly”
“Yep. Ive always worked in a big city and have har this happen so many times. What got me was the middle aged woman who would only urinate on clean towels. I kid you not. She sat on the bed with a towel bunched underneath her and that’s the only way she’d pee… if you challenged her, she’d “fire” you. We all got “fired” and admin just wanted to wait her out until discharge…. So many urine soaked towels…”
“Which is very gross. But patients also have piss, shit, and other bodily fluids in their bed. I'm not arguing that this isn't nasty...but we're in healthcare, so that shouldn't be a shock. My only point was that this doesn't necessarily mean that they're bringing things into the hospital that they wouldn't otherwise”
I feel as if a urinalysis is common when somebody goes into the ED
“I work in the ER. We get a lot of EMS bringing in grandma “97 years old, has been more tired lately, hasn’t been eating”. Could it be a UTI, maybe. More likely she is 97 years old.”
“IDSA: please stop getting UA's on people without specific UTI symptoms. We're over treating UTI. Meemaw with confusion doesn't have a UTI you dunce. Fair. Reasonable. Understandable. Prophetic even. And yet, anecdotally this is useless guidance in inpatient practice. Older patients in my experience so often don't have typical symptoms and become just too confused to tell and then just become septic and die within a night. You mash on their belly, slam on those cva's, squeeze”