"Thats not my patient"

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Disablednurse

414 Posts

That was a big no no where I worked. During the initial interview after any one was hired and were fixing to start their orientation, they were told that all patients here are your patients, you will be held accountable for whatever for charting on, otherwise, if anyone asks you to do something for a patient or if a patient asks for anything, you should get it for them.

Mithrah

262 Posts

I am a student nurse and I hear "that isn't my patient" already where I do my clinicals. When I am a nurse, I will assists my coworkers to the best of my abilites. I can't stand the nurses who don't even look at me when I ask them a question!

RN4jewels

16 Posts

Worse yet to me is when we have medical students working under the residents. The resident can be sitting 10 feet fron the patients bed and hisname is ON her chart, when I state, so and so is worsening, labored breathing, dropping sats etc..... they will say "What med team is she on???" in other words find the med student....Hello, your her MD too, just go look at her for me. It is one of the most difficult tasks on our floor trying to figure out who to call in the middle of the night. YIKES!!!! HALF THE TIME THE CHART IS EVEN WRONG.

ANSMFA-RN

7 Posts

Originally posted by sanakruz

Tiresome, isnt it?

Tiresome how? Being friendly and helpful? I'm not sure what you mean by your post.

I always strive to show families and visitor the way if lost and help in any way I can. Maybe that's just the way I am.

Ann

liberalrn

103 Posts

To whom is this being said? If to family w/ questions or visitors...no. If to docs or US techs (whatever), direct them to the appropriate nurse--who has time to track down other RN's for other ancillary help? It's on the big board at the station--read! So, I'm saying that this phrase's appropriateness is situation dependent.....

RN4jewels

16 Posts

I AGREE WITH YOU LIBERAL rn ABOUT THAT APPROPRIATENESS, wE HAD A SERVICE EXCELLENCE INSERVICE A FEW MONTHS AGO WHERE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO GO OUT OF OUR WAY FOR EVERYONE, NOW WE ARE TO TELL PEOPLE (ancillary) CALLING FOR INFORMATION, "THIS IS AN INAPPROPRIATE CALL, PLEASE CHECK THE COMPUTER OR CALL THE HUC FOR INFORMATION (the HUC who just transferred the call and I am not making this up)

ERNurse752, RN

1,323 Posts

Hehe...night shift and day shift where I work are (no pun intended!) like night and day. ;)

It's very common to hear, "That's not my patient," or "That's not my area," on days.

On nights we have much less staff and have to pull together as a team...if anyone ever dared to say something like that, they would be very unhappy campers. ;)

Disablednurse

414 Posts

Where I worked, the entire company had the attitude that if you worked in the facility, then all of the patients were your patients. If someone told you that any particular resident needed assistance, then you should go and see if you can help them. Get them situated then go and find their assigned staff.

I worked with a CNA who loved to use this phrase. After about the third time she said it to me I (in my sweetest tone, hehe) replied, "You may not be assigned to her tonight, but every resident in this building is your resident."

She only worked with us for about a month. Definitely NOT a team player.

Specializes in ICU, nutrition.

I'm gonna put on my flame-proof panties before I say this.

"That's not my patient."

However, I use it judiciously, as in Suzy Q (whose patient it is) is taking her third smoke break in the past hour and a half, and her IV pumps are alarming again, her patient is calling for pain med AGAIN that she did not give before she left (WHEN IT WAS DUE), the tube feeding bag has run dry, etc. I'm gonna turn the maintenance fluids down to 10cc/hr or the TPN rate down so that what's left will last for another hour so Suzy has time to call pharmacy to ask them to mix another bottle. I'm not going to be cruel, I'm not going to be indifferent to a patient's needs, but I'm not gonna do someone else's job for them. If her patient develops problems, I'm going to intervene, but I'm not going to run my tail off for her patients and mine, too, especially when her butt never leaves the chair when anyone else's pumps are alarming or patients are calling.

I'm certainly not slamming smokers, a couple of my very favorite people to work with smoke and do not abuse their breaks. And if they have an unstable patient, they don't run out and smoke. And they check on everything first before they leave the floor. The same as I do if I run downstairs to get my Diet Dr. Pepper fix.

Tweety, BSN, RN

34,248 Posts

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Konni, I agree there's a difference between helping someone in the weeds and doing their job for them. I don't mind covering when someone's on break, if they are taking a much needed break after being busy. But if you ain't working, then I ain't doing your job for you.

But I agree "That's not my patient" isn't an appropriate response. They are all our patients.

SmilingBluEyes

20,964 Posts

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

I Have never said that. I always say I will do what I can to help if your nurse is busy. Yes it is OK to tell them we are "busy" as long as we TRY to help out in any way we can. That is what I believe anyhow. On the nightshift where I work, we all answer one another's call lights and do what we can to help out. NO ONE's patient is just "HER" patient. They ALL belong to ALL OF us. WE do what we can to help each other out.,

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