Horrible hospital experience!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.

My father had a radical prostatectomy yesterday morning. The surgery went great! The doc said there didnt appear to be any mets and he was able to save the 2 nerves. wonderful news!

The surgical experience was a positive one for my dad and us as well. You couldn't have asked for any better.

then daddy was transferred to the floor...

As we walk into his room, we hear a lady talking down to him like he has dementia. When we got in the room, she immediately said in a horribly rude tone "you need to go outside until i am done!".

um okey dokey...so out in the hall we go, with my sister and i (both nurses) looking at each other like "wth?".

The surgery was a traumatic event for us all, as you can imagine. My mom kind of lost it in the hall and cried to me "i just want to see your daddy and know that he's ok. why wont she let me even see him? whats wrong?". (we hadnt seen him since he went in to surgery)

I told her that she was his wife and she could go in the room if she wanted but that my sis and i would stay out in the hall to give the staff space and time to get him admitted. So I walk my mom to the door of the room and the nurse is coming out of the room at the exact same time. She again tells us we "cant" go in there. I tell her that my mom is very upset and needs to see him to know he's ok and that she will sit out of the way but that she needs to be in there with him. At this point, the nurse puts her arm on the door and physically blocks my mother from going in the room!

I'm not saying she just told her not to go in there...she literally blocked the door with her body and arm and told my mother that she would NOT be going in that room. my mom tried to open the door and the nurse grabbed the door telling her "i told you to stay in the hall, you are not going in that room!".

at that point i told her "look, my mother is his wife AND his POA. if she wants to go in the room, she can. she will NOT get in your way but she is going to sit in there".

the nurse literally rolled her eyes, huffed a big sigh and stomped off.

o m g

As she is coming back down the hall, I am standing there looking at her and she stops and says (and i quote) "do you have a problem??". (in a total confrontational way!)

if i didnt before, i darn sure did now!

I told her "yes, i do. I dont appreciate how you spoke to my mother". and she tells me "well thats the way we do things here, get used to it". OMG!

By this time, he'd been on the floor for over half an hour. When the RN brought him up from surgery, she told us that daddy was in a lot of pain and that she'd just told the RN that he would need pain medicine.

So I ask her why he hasn't had pain medicine yet. She tells me "he will have to wait until i get his paperwork finished".

At this point, i'd had it! I asked to see the supervisor. Again, this nurse rolled her eyes, huffed a big sigh and stomped off!

so now she's physically kept my mother from going in the room, told me thats how they do it there and to get used to it and now says daddy cant have pain medicine until she does his admission charting even though the nurse from surgery told her he needed pain meds right away and even though my daddy was laying there crying from the pain.

I waited for 45 minutes before the supervisor came to the floor to speak with me. Another nurse was the one trying to get the supervisor for me because daddy's nurse refused. The supervisor was doing "rounds" where you ask the patient how their food and service is. ok..your nurse is getting physical and you don't think it's important. gotcha! so after 30 minutes of waiting and 3 pages to the supervisor I had had it and asked her to call the House supervisor. The house supervisor refused to come up and told me to wait for the supervisor!

at this point i feel like i'm either in the Twilight Zone or I'm being punked.

She eventually comes and assigns another nurse to daddy. ok great. problem solved. thank you.

Well, the pain meds they were giving daddy were NOT working. Finally, around midnight the 11-7 nurse comes on. by this time my sister was crying (she stayed with him) because daddy was in so much pain. So he tells my sister that he is going to give dad the "whole" dose of morphine. Within one hour, daddy was out of pain, relaxed and his UOP increased to 150cc. (he had only put out 50cc since surgery)

He tells my sis that the order is 4-10mg, titrate as needed.

The other nurses had been giving daddy 4mg but then never came back in to assess pain control!! If they had, they would have known that dose was not working. So my dad suffered for 9 hours until this guy came on shift on nightshift.

Then they had a fire drill at 3:30am. Ok...training is important. but in the middle of the night? but even that I could see. except the fire alarm malfunctioned and went off for 30 minutes.

This afternoon the doc decided to let daddy go home. 4 hours later, not one soul had been in his room except the lady that brought his lunch. My sister finally asked the nurse at the desk if he would be discharged soon.

they didnt even know he'd been discharged! his chart hadnt been touched since the doc put it in the rack!

I absolutely could NOT believe how bad his care was! If it had only been that first, rude nurse then I could have just chalked that up to her being a rude person. Instead, most of his care was horrible!

It's unbelievable that the care was exemplary in the surgical dept and then horrible on the floor.

I am totally disgusted tonight.

Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.

Oh! i forgot to add this!....

On the outside of every patient room door hung a flowsheet that had columns for pain, void, BM and other things i cant remember. they were supposed to mark it every hour.

They hang them on the outside of the door!

It didnt have his name on it...just his room number. But anyone walking by could tell if he was in pain, had made the pee or had a BM or had something to eat or drink! I know because I could tell that about all the other patients!

****!

Specializes in Onco, palliative care, PCU, HH, hospice.

What a nightmare!

Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

If I was you, I'd call the CEO of the hospital about this and/or write to him or her about it. No one should go through this. I'm sad for your (and your family members' experience), but maybe you can keep it from happening to other people. At the very least, all of you deserve a huge apology!

Specializes in Surgery, Tele, OB, Peds,ED-True Float RN.

Southernbeegril, I feel so bad! When I was telling you some tips in your previous post about caring for your dad after his prostate surgery I could never have imagined that he would be treated like that! My father had a great experience, and this is in Canada where he wasn't really a "paying customer". That's just not good enough. Just wondering about the pain control issue. I guess he decided against the PCA or was it even offered to him??? How is he doing?:heartbeat

Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

Your dad went straight from surgery to the floor, bypassing the recovery room?

Wow! That's is just terrible that all of you had to go through such an event. :cry: Some people are obviously in the wrong profession!

I hope you dad is doing better.

Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, Emergency, SAFE.

Oh my God. I am sorry.

Id be horrified AND ****** off.

Hope your dad is ok and recovers well.

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

I'd climb the ladder if you know what I mean. I would write a formal complaint to administration and would call also.

1. The recovery room should have made sure his pain was relieved before bringing him to the floor (which is no excuse for the floor nurse btw).

2. The original floor nurse that admitted him has no business in patient care IMO.

3. Makes me almost wonder if the sup's were even called at first, if so they are contributing to the lack of care on the floor.

4. It sounds like the rest of the care wasn't as bad as that first night yet ALL nurses should check orders on their patients even if the floor is too busy to put them in the computer yet.

I would definitely complain higher up or there will be other patients in similar circumstances!

Specializes in med/surg.
My father had a radical prostatectomy yesterday morning. The surgery went great! The doc said there didnt appear to be any mets and he was able to save the 2 nerves. wonderful news!

The surgical experience was a positive one for my dad and us as well. You couldn't have asked for any better.

then daddy was transferred to the floor...

As we walk into his room, we hear a lady talking down to him like he has dementia. When we got in the room, she immediately said in a horribly rude tone "you need to go outside until i am done!".

um okey dokey...so out in the hall we go, with my sister and i (both nurses) looking at each other like "wth?".

The surgery was a traumatic event for us all, as you can imagine. My mom kind of lost it in the hall and cried to me "i just want to see your daddy and know that he's ok. why wont she let me even see him? whats wrong?". (we hadnt seen him since he went in to surgery)

I told her that she was his wife and she could go in the room if she wanted but that my sis and i would stay out in the hall to give the staff space and time to get him admitted. So I walk my mom to the door of the room and the nurse is coming out of the room at the exact same time. She again tells us we "cant" go in there. I tell her that my mom is very upset and needs to see him to know he's ok and that she will sit out of the way but that she needs to be in there with him. At this point, the nurse puts her arm on the door and physically blocks my mother from going in the room!

I'm not saying she just told her not to go in there...she literally blocked the door with her body and arm and told my mother that she would NOT be going in that room. my mom tried to open the door and the nurse grabbed the door telling her "i told you to stay in the hall, you are not going in that room!".

at that point i told her "look, my mother is his wife AND his POA. if she wants to go in the room, she can. she will NOT get in your way but she is going to sit in there".

the nurse literally rolled her eyes, huffed a big sigh and stomped off.

o m g

As she is coming back down the hall, I am standing there looking at her and she stops and says (and i quote) "do you have a problem??". (in a total confrontational way!)

if i didnt before, i darn sure did now!

I told her "yes, i do. I dont appreciate how you spoke to my mother". and she tells me "well thats the way we do things here, get used to it". OMG!

By this time, he'd been on the floor for over half an hour. When the RN brought him up from surgery, she told us that daddy was in a lot of pain and that she'd just told the RN that he would need pain medicine.

So I ask her why he hasn't had pain medicine yet. She tells me "he will have to wait until i get his paperwork finished".

At this point, i'd had it! I asked to see the supervisor. Again, this nurse rolled her eyes, huffed a big sigh and stomped off!

so now she's physically kept my mother from going in the room, told me thats how they do it there and to get used to it and now says daddy cant have pain medicine until she does his admission charting even though the nurse from surgery told her he needed pain meds right away and even though my daddy was laying there crying from the pain.

I waited for 45 minutes before the supervisor came to the floor to speak with me. Another nurse was the one trying to get the supervisor for me because daddy's nurse refused. The supervisor was doing "rounds" where you ask the patient how their food and service is. ok..your nurse is getting physical and you don't think it's important. gotcha! so after 30 minutes of waiting and 3 pages to the supervisor I had had it and asked her to call the House supervisor. The house supervisor refused to come up and told me to wait for the supervisor!

at this point i feel like i'm either in the Twilight Zone or I'm being punked.

She eventually comes and assigns another nurse to daddy. ok great. problem solved. thank you.

Well, the pain meds they were giving daddy were NOT working. Finally, around midnight the 11-7 nurse comes on. by this time my sister was crying (she stayed with him) because daddy was in so much pain. So he tells my sister that he is going to give dad the "whole" dose of morphine. Within one hour, daddy was out of pain, relaxed and his UOP increased to 150cc. (he had only put out 50cc since surgery)

He tells my sis that the order is 4-10mg, titrate as needed.

The other nurses had been giving daddy 4mg but then never came back in to assess pain control!! If they had, they would have known that dose was not working. So my dad suffered for 9 hours until this guy came on shift on nightshift.

Then they had a fire drill at 3:30am. Ok...training is important. but in the middle of the night? but even that I could see. except the fire alarm malfunctioned and went off for 30 minutes.

This afternoon the doc decided to let daddy go home. 4 hours later, not one soul had been in his room except the lady that brought his lunch. My sister finally asked the nurse at the desk if he would be discharged soon.

they didnt even know he'd been discharged! his chart hadnt been touched since the doc put it in the rack!

I absolutely could NOT believe how bad his care was! If it had only been that first, rude nurse then I could have just chalked that up to her being a rude person. Instead, most of his care was horrible!

It's unbelievable that the care was exemplary in the surgical dept and then horrible on the floor.

I am totally disgusted tonight.

I had a similar experience. Had an arthroscopy of my shoulder. Surgeon absolutely perfect. It was supposed to be an outpatient surgery. My heart rate was high for some reason. So my doctor sent me to the floor to be observed for awhile. I am a small person and when I called for help to go pee, guess what, the cna told me that she could not help me up and offered a bedpan which was not useful. Finally after awhile, a traveler nurse helped me to the BR. My only concern was losing my balance, I had no other limitations. I called a nurse friend and we told the charge nurse "we are gone." After a long wait this same traveler nurse came and started to remove my IV and got another call and left my partially removed IV dressing dangling. I finally had to take it out myself and chase down another cna get me a clean dressing. I had gone to the nurses station about 3 times and each time I was rudely told "I'll tell your nurse."

Know that health care is becoming dangerous. The corporations are getting rid of experienced nurses, bringing foreign staff here. They are also breaking the jobs that nurses were trained for into bits and pieces of "tech jobs" so you really don't know what you are getting.

May your father recover and heal from this nightmare.

If I was you, I'd call the CEO of the hospital about this and/or write to him or her about it. No one should go through this. I'm sad for your (and your family members' experience), but maybe you can keep it from happening to other people. At the very least, all of you deserve a huge apology!

Good plan of action. I would only add that the Pt above all deserves an apology. But I think you probably meant "you" as plural anyway.

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