I am of the belief that no one goes into nursing because they believe it is the "easiest job in the world". Each nurse goes through so much to be in a place to care for others at their worst. And speaking of worst, is a customer care model complete with scripting something good for nurses? Nurses Announcements Archive Article
I beg to differ. When nurses are forced to focus a large amount of time in their day to customer service "Thank you for letting me take care of you" models, can it dumb down nursing practice? Further, are we dumbing down our patients?
Think of it this way. If a model on your unit for continuity of care is that the same nurse have the same patient whenever possible, 2/3 of the "script" that a number of units are using as their customer service tool are well known to the patient in your care. You told them on the first, and perhaps the second day that you are "Nurse Jade" and that you will be taking care of them today. The nurse handing the patient off to you (at bedside, at 7am) introduces you (again) and makes some comment about how you generally rock, that you are an incredible nurse with mad skills. (again). That they will be "in good hands" (Uhm, providing for a theraputic relationship, the patient knows this). You write on the white board. The patient would like to get a little rest before breakfast, but lets discuss goals for the day. (then we all sing a verse of Kumbya, and you get a Press Gainey about how you sing off key).
In all seriousness, scripting out what a nurse is to say, what an off going nurse is to say, assumes that we all are in a place that we are inappropriate, don't have a clue how to communicate, and that all of our patients are clearly demented if they have no sense of who we are and what we are doing for them after caring for them over a period of time.
Even a short term patient can look at one like having 3 heads if we are enthusiastic cheerleaders attempting to convince them we give good care. We do that by showing, not by saying.
Nurses get into nursing due to a desire to help others. Even the most jaded and burnt out nurses on autopilot would not let someone suffer needlessly. With that being said "key words" and phrases that in the end have all to do with reimbursement as opposed to really caring about what a patient is feeling is a huge disconnect.
Further disconnecting is the questions that a patient receives on a survey after they are discharged. "Were the nurses nice to your visitors", in my opinion has not one thing to do with care that a patient receives. And if we are waking patients up to do bedside rounding and make appropriately scripted commentary, there goes the score on if the unit was "quiet".
I am all for patients advocating for their needs. I am all for nurses advocating for their patients. I am further all for patients being an active part of their healthcare process. However, how far away are we from a new nurse script reading for communication, becoming robots who can't anwer a patient's question or completing an assessment without a teleprompter dictating "customer service model" appropriate answers?