"I'll Tell The Nurse" (vent)

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

Just a little vent here.

Why is it all the other depts in the healthcare facility immediately notify the nurse of things that are not their job, but really aren't the nurses job either.

For example, we had a new admit whose telephone did not work. On admission I switched out the phones, still didn't work, must be something wrong with the line so I put i a work order for the faulty phone. New admission complained about the phone to everyone who walked into the room.

Got a PT waiting at the nurses station after I had been doing a 15 minute dressing change in a room. She had also been calling my phone while I was in the room.

"Your new admit is mad his phone doesn't work. Why didn't you pick up your phone?"

Me "I was doing a sterile dressing change" She gives clueless look. "Yes I know all about the phone"

Her "Well, did you try to switch out the phone"

Me "Yes, still didn't work so I put in a work order"

Her "Did you call x at x number? He's the one you need to call"

Me "If you knew who to call I wonder why you didn't do it yourself"

Other "I'll Tell the Nurse" issues,

Patient wheeling along the hallway has lost her croc shoe. It's about seven feet behind her. However, rather than giving the patient the shoe, it seems the nurse MUST be notified so she can do it.

People who don't have batteries in their remote controls. Nurses station doesn't have batteries,(we are not to be trusted with batteries, just lives and narcotics) so the reception desk has them. However, these people know this, the nurse MUST be notified so she can go and get a battery. People would rather hang around the nurses station doing nothing waiting for me to come back so I can walk the 40 yards to get it from the receptionist.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I hear you. It seems the nurse, especially the charge nurse has to deal with everything and anything.

[pennyaline]

I know. I know. I've dealt with families who seem to think nurses are valet parking attendants, too.

And Activities Departments who come with myriad items for residents, dump them at the Nurses Station with a cursory verbal "The red one is for Mrs. So-and-so, and either the blue or the green one is for Mr. Such-and-such, a couple of them are for Whosiewhatsits. They need to be marked" over their shoulders while walking away.

A spill on the floor? Get the nurse, of course... especially if it's food or a beverage spilled. That's our specialty!

Want information about something that happened to a resident a while back on my day off and there's nothing in the chart about it and no I don't know if there was ever an incident report done and no I don't know who was involved or if it was someone in Nursing or another department and I've not heard anything about it at all until this very moment when you decided to nail me to the cross because you need to address it and clarify it and get it solved NOW?? I'm your girl... apparently.

Can't find a chart? Get the nurse.

Wrong meal tray served in the dining room? Get the nurse.

Bathroom light burned out? Get the nurse.

Can't open the window? Get the nurse.

Is there a "Caution - Wet Floor!" sign in your way? Is the vending machine in the lounge out of Coke Zero? Did the pencil sharpener break the lead off? Need an envelope? Some clothing items haven't come back from laundry yet, and it's already been all day? By God, you'd better get the nurse!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Unfortunately, the nurse seems to be, by default, the "go-to" person for all things that are wrong. Although these other people are perfectly able-bodied and can do something about the issues that they are reporting, it is easier to turf it off on the nurse.

The reception on your television is poor? Tell the nurse. Oh, there's a spill in the middle of the hallway? Tell the nurse. Your insurance company is only paying for 70 percent of this hospital stay? Tell the nurse. Dietary does not serve sirloin steaks? Tell the nurse.

Anyone can take steps to start cleaning up a spill until housekeeping gets to it. And, of course, maintenance should be dealing with broken televisions while the business office is better equipped to discuss insurance issues. However, the buck always gets passed to the nurse. It gets tiresome at times.

[caliotter3]

One of the advantages of working on night shift is that less of this goes on because there are less people around to deal in this behavior and hopefully the patients are taking a break from complaining except for issues involved with being unable to sleep.

[IHeartPeds87]

I can sort of understand why patients tell the nurse things that aren't even part of a nurse's responsibility (OP's example of the patient asking the nurse why the phone wasn't working). The nurses are the people that the patient/patient's family sees the most...so any concern would go to them. You acted completely appropriately, filled out a work order, that was it.

The PT doing that? Utterly ridiculous!

[southernbeegirl, BSN, RN]

2 true stories:

big SEC football game on TV. everyone in the building watching it. the cable goes out. i'm the weekend NURSING supervisor. i spend the next 30 minutes getting, literally, cussed out by visitors ( "i came here to watch the game with soandso!" ) and calling the cable company...sitting on hold for 15 minits...to find out cable company working on it. i got yelled at by so many people that i made an announcement on the intercom that the cable company was aware of the problem and working on it. did that help? heck no! people STILL yelling "you HAVE to do something! this is unacceptable".

true story # 2:

hot southern, summer evening with big thunderstorm. lightening takes out a transformer. power has been out 3 hours at this point and we are running on back up generators so the A/C units are not working in the rooms. man STORMS into a private meeting I am having with a patient's family, yelling "what are you going to do about this??". i tell him i have called the power company and they are aware and working on it. i tell him i have also called the maintenance man at home and there is nothing else we can do as the power is out. he proceeds to yell at me "i thought you were in charge of this place!". i tell him "i am the NURSING supervisor". he tells me "the a/c units need to be wired in to the generator!". i actually agree with him because it is hot. he says "can you not go outside and do that??". i'm like "excuse me?". he tells me "you need to get your ass outside and hook these airconditioners to the generator! or get something done about this power outtage!". when he stormed off, the family that i was meeting with suddenly started cracking up. one of the daughters said "why are you just standing there?? get your ass outside and climb that pole and fix that transformer now!". i almost peed laffing.

both are examples of "get the nurse". wth are we supposed to do??

you bleeding? i can fix that! can't breathe? i can fix that too! no cable? um...call the cable company, k?

some of my favorites are the family members that wait until 5pm on a saturday night to come in and start demanding to speak to the administrator, admissions dept, social worker, bookeeping office. i love the ones that come in raising hell about a bill they recvd a week ago and it's 9pm at night and they get pist because you cant help them.

i tell them "um...we are the nursing dept. you will have to talk to the bookeeper". then you get "well what time do they get here??"

um....i dunno? BUSINESS HOURS? "what are business hours??". and you wanna say "are you kidding me??".

[paacollins]

"Pass the buck" is popular in every profession it seems. One of the stupidest things I ever had happen was when I was a CNA. I was changing a resident and needed help pulling her in bed. Takes 30 seconds. I asked an LPN who was in the room doing something if she would help me. She replied, "I'll find you another CNA." It took 10 minutes for her to find one and them to come back to the room. The nurse then came back to finish what she was doing. I was like "duh!"

[llg, PhD, RN]

The buck is passed to the "nurse" because the role of the nurse is to coordinate the care of the patient. That is one of the central features on most descriptions of the nursing role. It's the nurse who "puts it all together" and coordinates the care of the patient on a minute-by-minute basis. Unlike the other professions, nursing does not define boundaries as to what types of issues they will deal with and what types of issues we will not deal with. We "run the system" and keep everything on track.

So ... people start looking to the nurse to take care of everything, even when it is a bit silly. We become easy targets as the recipients of things other people don't want to be bothered with.

[Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN]

pretty soon they're going to have to issue us magic wands along with our I'd badges

[questionsforall]

I agree that we are the coordinators of care. The key work here is "care", not coordinator of engineering, houskeeping, plumbing and electric. I am not a chef, nor do I have access to a kitchen at work. If you don't like your meal, I can order you a sandwich, but that is all.

I like how the person said it is not PTs job to fix the phone. Well, it is not the nurses job either, I did not learn how to fix phones in nursing school, so a work order is fine. The patient's medical needs are priority and it is my job to take care of them.

[montinurse, BSN]

You ALL are forgetting something else very important and something I'm sure you're familiar with:

"Blame the nurse"!!!

Thanks for the vents, I've enjoyed them. I think it's funny when my residents joke about "seeing me everywhere" and me "doing everything". The one thing I despise is playing waitress to a roomful of grouches who don't know how to use manners!