The Customer is always right

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in orthopaedics.

last night we had a group of rude patients and family members. i work on a post op elective joint replacement floor. none of these patients are in critical condition post surgery, if so they go to the icu. i tell you this because it goes along with my story.

we had a woman in her 40s fresh post op knee replacement. complaining the moment she hit the floor. why didn't she have a nurse in her room providing near constant care, why was her room at the end of the hall, etc etc.

we have a policy regarding overnight visitors, unless the pt is critical, terminal, or unable to speak for themselves(mute, mental retardation, etc) no overnight visitors.

the family member of above patient asked if she could stay. it was nicely explained "unfortunetely we are unable to allow visitors unless...." family and patient got upset wanted to speak to someone else. this is where i come in. i again as nicely as i could explained our policy and apoligized. the pt and the family went nuts. started yelling told me i was just feeding them a line, shoving crap down their throat etc. then proceeded to threaten me stating if i knew what was best i would leave the room and shut my mouth. sucker for punishment i am i stayed and tried to reason with the irate people who in turn basically told me i suck and should choose another profession, i was never meant to be a nurse etc. etc.

i took this personally. i calmly left the room and called my supervisor. she said just let them stay.

ok what burns my butt is i am sooo tired of the patients and their families walking all over us:nurse: and we are just supposed to smile and kiss some more butt. why couldn't the supervisor just have some balls and stand behind her nurses and reinforce the rules? its all about damn patient satisfaction and &*#*ing press ganey.

sorry for the vent. i feel much better now.:cool: thanks for listening.:redbeathe

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Nice supervisor. Would have been nice if she had backed you up.

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Specializes in Gerontology.

Hey - I hear you. Just after SARS ended we had someone come in with a 6 month old baby to visit "Granpa' who had just had his knee replaceed - NOT a life threaning illness but any means. Anyway - one of our nurses told the visitor she should leave - siting reasons,etc. Visitor complained to manager about big,old mean nurse who didn't think 6 month old baby should be in hospital just after SARS crisiis ended. End reusult - visitor was allowed to bring in baby to visit Grandpa. Vistor 1 - Staff 0. Guess how much family respected nursing for the rest of the stay - you guessed it- zero respect. If management had only put on there big-girl pants and stood up for nsg staff, stating risks to the baby (which was our concern from the start) things would have been different.

As a Canadian, we don't have Press Ganey but it is still - the pt is right, nsg is wrong. Bring in your 6 month old baby - who cares if 2 weeks ago we were fighting a very scary disease that is still not fully understood! - Sorry - ranting completely about another issue altogether!

To get back to your original issue, I think it is just so much easier to give in than to fight for whats right, that management gives in.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

I think this was a rare situation. I do not believe that patients think they have the right to abuse staff, unless they generally abuse everyone around them already.

I think your supervisor should have dealt with the complaint, and had security remove the family.

I am sorry they berated and abused you. If I were you I would discuss the matter again with my supervisor, so she/he understands that you need support in situations that go against hospital policy. I am pretty sure your sup didn't let this go on because she felt the customer was right, only that she didn't want to deal with the situation, so she blew it off.

Tait

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Uh, no to the above poster. The customer IS always right in most health care facilities in this country, I believe. Certainly the ones I have had dealings with. And the American public is surly, demanding and rude, not just in the hospitals but everywhere. Just look at the news stories about what people try to do on airplanes, a situation where this kind of behavior just CAN'T be tolerated, so on airplanes at least it is opposed and we hear about it.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I agree, manners, in general, have gone down hill. It's not just in healthcare, but everywhere.

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Too many managers don't support their nurses. Nurses are asked to enforce hospital policy but if anyone puts up a stink and the manager is spineless they let them break the rules. Once one gets what they want it opens the floodgates. Who needs a soda, they want 6 visitors at a time, now grandma wants to stay the night too, etc. Once they win one fight it just goes downhill. The nurse looks like they were being difficult when all they were doing is implementing hospital policy. The nurses can't win.

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Specializes in Nurse Manager, Med-Surg, Instructor.

Why didn't the OP just call security? I've done it before and it helped resolve the situation. You have to stand up for yourself.

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Why didn't the OP just call security? I've done it before and it helped resolve the situation. You have to stand up for yourself.

That's exactly what I would do next time around. You were only following hospital policy and enforcing their rules.

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Hey - I hear you. Just after SARS ended we had someone come in with a 6 month old baby to visit "Granpa' .

Infants in hospitals is such a terrible idea followed by toddlers and very young children. Barring an extreme circumstance I truly believe they should be left at home for the sake of their own health and protection.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU.

difficult and unappreciative families and pts come with our territory. i hit a point in my career where i started sticking up for myself in these situations and have told pts to please not speak to me like that or treat me like a human being bc i am only trying to help them. some apologize and some tell you to "go fly a kite". either way i feel better than when i used to just shut my mouth and smile. in my opinion the customer is not always right. we are all people who deserve to be treated with respect.

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Specializes in ICU/CCU/CVICU/ED/HS.

As a night-shift House Supervisor I will have to say that I will "stick-up" for the staff. Even if I personally do not agree with the decision that has been made, I will back them up 100%:bow:, UNLESS it goes against hospital policy or good common sense. Then I will talk with the R.N. in private and see why they chose that route and base my decision on that. I may not get the "rest of the story" from the pt. or family, as we all know, the truth can be stretched.

I have worked for Supervisors with no backbone and had decisions reversed on me...It is humiliating and I will do my best to not do that to anyone I work with.:no:

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