Angry Nurse

Nurses Relations

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I am wondering if this has happened to any of you.... I got "talked to" by my Assistant Nurse Manager (charge nurse) because of an incident with a patient. My patient asked for some water, and I went to get it, but on the way to the kitchen, got stopped by another family member stating my one of my other patients had CP. After 30 minutes, I took my patient her water, only to find out her son called community relations saying that his mother was ignored. I apologized, saying that we were short staffed that day, that I had an emergency to attend to. He said there was no excuse for his mother not getting water. Anyway, I got "talked to" because I was not supposed to tell patients and family members that we are short staffed. What am I supposed to tell them, that I a retard? Why do they think that nurses should take all the blame? What do you think?

I do work in long term care & find my work extrememly rewarding but there are times when I am at the peak of my own frustration. When I deal with a crew who isn't as dedicated to the patients as I feel they should be I want to scream! In my facility there are several nurses / nurses aides who will gladly let a patient wait for their water or sit in a soiled bed while they catch up on the latest office gossip Although this doesn't seem to be the situation we're discussing it may be the situation this guy dealt with the night before. [/b]

I worked in long term care for nine years. The staff was pretty good with checking for incontinence/toileting residents every two hours or as necessary. Water pitchers were passed by volunteers.

If you mislead patients into thinking that they are getting their insurance monies worth for their healthcare, nothin' is ever going to change. If they need one-to-one nursing by their choosing, that is another matter and they have to pay for it.

If patients are misled into believing that a hospital has an adquate amount of nurses present at all times, you are misrepresenting the hospitals true staffing conditions.

When transfering patients from unit to unit, you will always hear the term "there's not enough beds" and the patient will have to wait. I always correct them that there are plenty of beds (empty hallways full of em') but there are not enough nurses to handle them.

Little white lies can corrupt a patients present and future decision making process. "Your honor, I had surgery at this hospital because I was under the impression that there was sufficient staff to appropriately recover me to full health. I was unaware that the hospital continued to perform surgeries without relation to having enough available nursing staff to keep me safe."

And ANY nurse KNOWS that this IS AN ISSUE especially during nursing lunch breaks and change of shift. Not to mention "ward clerk breaks" when the NURSES supposedly take over the phones and clerical duties in the intensive care unit.

You morons need to stop sugar-coating. Tell the public there are delays BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH HELP! You really think that all of your hospitals have sufficient staff just because they TELL YOU SO? Even their baseline staffing is by the money-controlled numbers. Don't think so? Try GOING HOME EARLY BECAUSE YOU ARE SICK! Watch the hell break loose while trying to cover or replace you.

Or better yet, make the entire situation more ego-centric. Suddenly, it's YOUR loved one who needs the TLC and pain meds on time. Or maybe it's even yourself. Ya' want your wishy-washy brain-controlled peon staff member to lie to you to hold you over?

A glass of water and this hospital allows the complaint to go to a manager. F-n idiots.

WOW...look at the date on the original posting of this thread!...looks like nothing has changed huh...ok so maybe you have heard this joke before....but guess it is apprapos;

They found a body in the Ohio river yesterday, couldn't identify it but they knew it was a nurse cause the stomach was empty, the bladder was full and the aZZ was chewed.

A few of my best "comebacks" to patients/visitors who are screaming for attention.

Where's my doctor?

Doing another surgery, just like he did YOURS yesterday.

I need help getting out of bed.

I need helping finding a qualified nurse to help me. You're too fat and too much of a risk to move by myself and my co-workers are PREGNANT, and don't want your MRSA, but they'll still come to work and leave me hanging.

Where's my nurse?

Smoking a cigarette outdoors. She wanted me to "cover" for her. Management allows this.

Where's my nurse?

At lunch. I have 4 intensive care unit patients to watch right now, including their famiy members during "open" visiting hours, and any physician visits that happen to occur at the same time.

From Managers:

Why is this patient still in the unit?

Because this "transporter" has another patient to take care of in this-here intensive care unit.

Why is this patient still in the unit?

Because this hospital can't supply a wheelchair (with feet on it) to transfer a patient to another unit.

And don't get me started on those 1800 ER dumpem' trips so that we can "have the number right for night shift."

Very few "managers" have the guts to say no to other departments or to ask for more help.

Specializes in LDRP; Education.

My opinion is this:

While as a customer myself who is not being treated properly or handled correctly, I don't want to hear about the employees problems or that she had no break, or whatever; I find that unprofessional and irrelevant. The point is that I was not served and I don't care why, I just care that I wasn't.

BUT...that being said, I carry that opinion in retail or restaurant situations. In a patient care situation, one that has long been ignored despite our attempts to make this HUGE ISSUE public, I think saying that "we are shortstaffed today" REMINDS the patients of the impact the shortage is actually having. In fact, when I've had patients complain of something d/t lack of staff, I encourage them to file a complaint with administration stating that if we had more nurses, this likely would not happen. I usually paint a picture of "we're helpless and this is best we can do until Administration figures this out."

I honestly believe covering up the problem and LYING or intentionally MISLEADING patients, about ANY aspect of their care (which includes how safe they are with regard to staffing) is unethical. And I also believe if we are vocal about it, only then will it get corrected. If enough patients complain d/t staff shortages, maybe someone will take notice. Lord knows NURSING'S complaints alone haven't done anything.

Specializes in Critical Care.

It just sickens me that management kisses the azzez of PIA's. Instead the manager should have told them they were lucky to get the water in 30 minutes, given the crisis situation you were faced with. When or when will management stick up for it's nurses? I see nothing wrong with telling family that you are short staffed and will tend to the patient as best you can given the circumstances, I would add please feel free to talk to management about hiring more nurses, we could really use the help. To hell with Mgmt. if they don't like it, I don't lie to cover up their inadequate management policies.

There was one poster here on another thread that said the joint commission informed her that telling patients that staffing was short was a form of intimidation.

Nobody has yet mentioned, that the family and nurse should get together and confront administration on why the hospital cannot get itself to organize delivery of water bedside to patients. Maybe family members and nurses together outside the hospital with protest signs is the real solution to administrations that can organize profit making, but little else relatet to work conditions and delivery of health care.

All these comments related to supporting 'professionalism', is precisely the reason there is less and less of real health care being delivered today in the US. 'Professionalism' is just code for the act of pointing the finger at victims, rather than doing any real finger pointing at the causes.

Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Don't get me started on JCAHO and their ideas of correctness. At our hospital, JCAHO came in and said our med carts made the halls too cluttered, never mind the janitor carts and the RT carts and the meal carts and the maintenance carts, THOSE weren't the problem. So now we have to keep our med carts locked and in a locked med room, and go back and forth between each room, even if every patient we have is at the far end of the hall, and back to the LOCKED med room and get the meds and hand carry the meds and the MARS to the pt rooms.

JCAHO is not any more concerned with the actual well being and informed consent of the patient any more than the hospital admin. staff is. It's ALL about what looks good, and keeps people from complaining.

Short staffing is the truth. Shouldn't that be part of the informed consent of the pt. to treatment in a certain facility. Shouldn't they know that the ideal pt/nurse ratio is 4/1 but that we have 6 or 7/1 due to no staff? Doesn't that impact the care they rec. and the possible outcome of their care?

Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by oramar

There was one poster here on another thread that said the joint commission informed her that telling patients that staffing was short was a form of intimidation.

How is that intimidation? Puhleez.

I will NEVER intentionally mislead a patient about anything and safety being one of the major ones.

Let the Joint Commission strip me of my license then. I refuse to cover up a problem like this.

Specializes in ICU-Stepdown.
Originally posted by Jay-Jay

I really don't believe this!! What are we, for heaven's sake -- waitresses?? In most hospitals I've worked in, the ice machine is out in the corridor, and patients/family are encouraged to help themselves! If they need water, there's a bathroom right in the patient's room!! Also, fetching water is NOT a nursing responsibility...usually health care aides or other less skilled staff are expected to do this task.

Uhm, I beg to differ, but this definately also falls within the bounds of nursing care. A good nurse will have good cna skills as well. But if you are too good to fetch water, or clean a patient, then you are way too good to be a nurse at my facility. Under ideal conditions, the CNAs, NTs and such will do these chores, but what happens when they are short, or overloaded? The patient goes without?

When I was in EMS, and became a medic, I had no problem doing bls-level work. When I graduate and become an RN, I expect to follow in the examples of my bosses (the LPNs and RNs I work under) and do the 'menial tasks' as well, when possible. They know their patients, and their CNAs and NTs respect and prefer to work with them.

As for your ice machines, I can only say that on my floor, we require strict I/O monitoring, so the patients do not have access to the ice machine or the 'kitchen'. True, they could use the faucet in their bathroom, but >I

=Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

"I tend to think this son was unreasonable with the fact he called community relations instead of hearing an explanation on the whys the request was not done immediately."

I agree with the above. People are selfish-pigs sometimes. This son probably hasn't done a thing for mom the last 15 years and now thinks he's doing mom a favor. Or he's just one of those selfish pigs who use intimidation to get what they want in the world.

I've have been in a code situation and have had families get beligerent that we weren't available.

Anyway, think of it as you would charting. You wouldn't chart that you couldn't do something do to short staffing because you are setting yourself up.

A judge or the nursing board would ask you "why did you not report to management that your assignement was become unsafe". Agggghhh!

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