I just had my Ah Ha! Moment. Bear with me as i try to explain my idea.
Having read the posts on here and attended numerous staff meetings, I can now safely say that hospital nursing is all about perception. And for patients and visitors, their perception equals reality.
Take for example the post discharge survey. A list of vauge and misworded questions all at the aim of constant preformance improvement. "Was your pain needs addressed in a timely manner?"
Now here is the big problem. If a patient is in pain (and I have been one) but they are not due for another dose of pain meds, then we get burnt for not providing good customer service. What people (patients, contract people {press-Gayney}, and some upper managers) often fail to realize is the medical implications and the desperate attempts the nurse has made to make the patient more comfotable. The patient thinks we are being mean and withholding meds.....they dont see us paging the resident, paging anesthesia, paging pain management, arguing with the doctor, looking up vitals, doing assessments, fighting with the pharmacy, and so on. So, in the patients eye of course we are bad because we didnt give them the shot in a timely manner.
Someone said something on here to the likes of walking around and staying physically busy. Many people seem to think that nurses just come into to work, sit on the computer, or read, or gossip and check the patient a few times and give pills.
Those of us who work know its a different story. Sitting at the desk charting is not a pleasure cruise....I HATE charting. But then comes the patients percetion. "Well your just sitting there not DOING anything"
There is no easy solution to this one. If i am constantly running around (as i usually am the first 4 hours), then i am perceived as being either manic or diligent, but if i sit i am being lazy.
Now is my biggest peeve. Attitude and smiling. We all have been told the same line of crap - smile and the patient feels less X, Y, and Z. Your attitude is a direct reflection of the hospital and you must show a positive attitude all the time. I am in agreement that we as healthcare professionals should make a good first impression and be nice, have geneuine empathy and have compassion BUT management and the public takes this to a whole other level. Many people expect us to burst into a patients room with boudless energy, smile, dance and save the world. People also seem to think that if we don't always have a smile or a good "energy" that we must be the worst of the worst. I am not sure where these idea come from but I am sure that I am not going to go room to room with a Miss America phony smile, sing songs and be all sunshine and rainbows. I work in Oncology - the pits of fear, terror and depression. But for some reason, the powers that be (weather patients or management) seems to think that if a nurse does not smile then they are unprofessional. "He was mad at me. he was rude to me beacuse he didnt smile when he woke me up at 4am to give me my meds".
In closing, Perception Is Reality. Just when you think it cant get any worse, it always does. Many times it feels like a double edged sword. Thankfully, my hospital management realizes that I am a nurse. I am NOT an angel of God. As long as i get my job done and people are nice to me, its all fine.
