Waitressing as a pre-req?

Nurses General Nursing

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sueall

151 Posts

All the more reason for jumping ship to correctional care. If the inmate patients start making demands, I'm not going to lose my job for saying "no."

Now, of course, if the hospitals institute a policy allowing tipping for waitressing services provided by all those four-year degree BSN nurses, then heck yeah, count me back in!

JMBnurse

82 Posts

Specializes in Oncology, Med/Surg, Hospice, Case Mgmt..

I always tried to make my patients and their family members as happy and comfortable as I could and usually, this would not bother me. If we were really busy, most of the patients could tell and they would leave us alone. Every now and then, I would have an obnoxious family member who would be really demanding and take advantage of the nurses and aides, treating us like serving wenches and I would handle that by telling them that I would get to it when I was done with my important task at hand. I would make them wait so long that they would just forget or go and get whatever they wanted for themselves.

I worked in small town community hospitals and the good side of this was the many times that really awesome family members would bring us food! We had a LOL that was admitted all the time and her son owned a diner. On Saturday and Sunday mornings he would bring in huge bags of homemade "cat head biscuits" with egg and cheese/sausage/bacon and fresh tomatoes for the staff. (obviously, Southern state, lol) Not good to eat every day, of course, but we enjoyed it when she was admitted.

I guess it was the kind things family members did for us, like this, that made dealing with the few overly entitled people worth it for me.

MotherRN

192 Posts

I feel better after reading this thread. I thought maybe I had missed something. I'm new on the job and after the shift Monday, the one where the family members of the new admits ran me ragged, I seriously thought about not going back! I had so many interruptions between the phone, front door bell, and call bells that I popped two of the same pill out. When I realized it, I took the bubble card up to the secretaries desk to tape the pill back into place. The family member interrupted me AGAIN. At the end of the night, I realized I had taped shut an empty bubble...and lost the pill somewhere on the way back to the cart! On the next shift, I layed down the boundaries more firmly. I told our most demanding resident that I would be unable to respond for X amount of time while I did X procedures, attended to new admits, called pharmacy etc etc so she at least had notice that I would not be available for beck and call service. Some residents like this one are so demanding I have little time for other patients. The last time she called me to her room, it was to get her fresh ice and water (something that had already been done) and required me to back track to the other end of the building to the kitchen area then back again. And, she didn't even need or drink the water right then. And she interrupted me while I was getting something for another patient. I had a CNA demand I get a resident her nightly cup of wine while I was in the middle of dealing with setting up oxygen for a new admit. Really? I had to tell her it was not a priority at that time. The CNA just wanted it then and there so that the resident would quit bothering her. But, I would prefer that my residents were all able to breath first. Then the CNA tried to get me to stop eating (the whole 10 minutes I took to gobble down some dinner at my nurses station) to get the wine later- which I had already taken care of! Some on the interruptions come from staff as well as residents at our facility. In general I think people need to consider the timing and relevance of their request before they make it or phrase it with "when you have time". This part of the job is extremely frustrating.

joanna73, BSN, RN

4,767 Posts

Specializes in geriatrics.

Agreed. Did you know that the first flight attendants were RNs back in the day? The airlines required that all flight attendants were also registered nurses? I learned this through a documentary. It's no surprise nurses feel like waitresses.

Jmiami

134 Posts

I don't understand why the families of patients are entitled to snacks or food anyway. Of course, aside from the one attending the critically ill. Doesn't that drive costs up? Are these people being charged for all the strawberry ice cream they snack on while they visit the patient (ie: the cost added to the patient's bill)? Is it all just free to them? I understand feeding the patient what they need to regain their health. Ice cream and sugary popsicles hardly would make you heal, so I don't even know why they would be offered to the patient, let alone the family. In my opinion, the family should be directed towards the water fountain, vending machine or cafeteria if they are hungry. RNs have too many important things to do to get snacks. Couldn't you delegate the task to a CNA or volunteer for when they get around to it? It just doesn't seem to be a priority with short staffing and already too much to do.

When I was in the hospital, it was sugar sugar sugar on my meal tray. I had to have my hubs bring me in something healthy from home so I could even start recovering on track. I can understand the food not being the best, but for it to be so unhealthy that it is detrimental to the healing process? come on. If I would have eaten what was deemed "healthy" for my recovery, I would have become a diabetic !

Also, it was like pulling teeth to even get some sort of towel/cloth/bathing kit for proper hygine. After the 4th day of no help bathing and no one (from volunteer to cna to rn to charge nurse) even responding to my requests to just drop a pitcher of water off with a wash cloth so I could half assed scrub myself down for christ sakes I just had to talk to administration. An hour later I had everything I needed and a CNA helping me out. I had just come out of surgery and had tubes sticking out of me everywhere and couldn't leave my bed, which is why I couldn't find a damn supply closet to jack it from myself. I hated not being self sufficient, I hated that I had no one to advocate for me since my hubs was out of town, but I hated even more that I was asking for something basic to wash myself with after surgery to get all the muck off and I had to sit for 4 days in my filth. My point is, if staff is too busy to offer basic care to patients (I know it's not for lack of trying, we just don't have enough time or people), what the hell are we doing getting damn sodas for the visitors?

SaoirseRN

650 Posts

Families of actively dying patients (in general, as there are exceptions) get offered whatever they want -- however, the groups I offer this to are the ones who aren't going to abuse it. Other visitors/families -- no. I direct them to the cafeteria. I will provide my patients with snacks/drinks, etc, but often they have to wait until I've done more urgent tasks and I make them aware of that. I can get you a b and c, but I have a few things I need to do first.

For more demanding personalities, I will still get them their items (within reason), but they will always have to wait. Not long, but just long enough to show that I do not jump at their snapped Fingers.

I am a big fan of setting boundaries, and I won't be ordered around! But a sweet elderly person who asks nicely for a cup of tea will most certainly receive it!

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