My God, these family members!!

Nurses Relations

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They are just killing me. Why is it that so many of them feel so entitled to sit in their aging parents rooms and just boss us nurses to HELL and back, while they sit there, fully able to do much of what we're doing for their parent, but simply do NOT have the time to do when we have other patients and issues to deal with. i MEAN -- can't they get mom up at least perhaps ONCE during the day? Does it have to be a nurse doing it every single time, ten times a day??

I just came off a shift tonight where I literally waitressed all day long, making and fetching coffee and water and 100 millions cups of juice for these patients (because we're always short a tech) -- and a patient's daughter was literally screaming at nurses at change of shift to come in and do something or other for her mother. It was absolutely NOT an emergency. (She was actually screaming -- "Good thing it WASN'T an emergency!!" These people have been on our unit for over 2-3 weeks, running every nurse on the unit ragged. Their mother is far over 80 years old and is only going to head to weeks of rehab after being on our unit. They want a private nurse -- that is what they want and need. But they can't get that on a floor. I think their call light was on for perhaps five minutes, max.

I am just SO tired of family members not understanding what we do -- and our managers from the floor to the corporate headquarters not backing us up to explain it to them. We are simply to treat everyone as our "family members" and go above and beyond 1000 percent of the time. Who goes above and beyond FOR NURSES??? DOES ANYONE???

We have no private space to do our charting, we are like fish in a bowl for these family members. If they see you at the nursing station -- that's it. They are ON YOU like flies. If they don't have a reason to bug you, they will find one. So, you don't get your charting done on time and are left to stay after a shift for an hour.

I am just so tired of it. So burnt out. Is it any wonder why they can't keep nurses for long? I mean -- come on, management -- take a LOOK at what you are doing to nurses nowadays. Put some LIMITS, please, on these family members. It is OUT OF CONTROL. :madface:

Actually, I do say that routinely and I enjoy that opportunity to ask that. It really is a major part of what nursing is today. I say enjoy being nice, it reduces stress all around.

Also I strongly say Never Unionize, Never Unionize. I saw someone disagree with me earlier on that. Its ok to disagree.

WHY?? What other option/suggestion, do you have to unify us, and will bring us the clout. and control that nursing desparetly needs?

The statement, "don't unionize" is a fallacious thinking that has been the downfall of the nursing profession. Every other profession that has unionized, has more control over their profession, better wages and working conditions, and far more respect than nursing ever will, as long as perpetuate the feeling that unionizing is bad. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Linarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

my hospital, the nurses, and techs carry cordless phones so that the front desk can contact you or the tech if I pt. calls them for a need. The hospital made a policy of placing a billboard in pt.'s rooms listing the their nurse's and tech's phone #s with the nurse's # at the top of the list. Guess who gets called directly first for every little thing.

We have the phones, too. I don't know how long the hospital has had them, or how nurses really worked without them. They can make your life easier, but they can also scramble your brains so much from ringing non stop that you are a mentally in pieces at the end of the day. On dayshift, they probably ring about every 3 minutes -- either for a telemetry call, a therapist wanting to see your patient, the manager wanting to discuss something, a patient calling you directly, etc, etc. They ring, literally -- NONSTOP. They autmatically ring as soon as you start a procedure with a patient, or are changing someone or giving a bath -- and always in an isolation room -- always. Oh, and the phone will go dead and lose battery power while you're talking to a doc, or wont' pick up in certain areas. It's totally maddening.

I know it's a safety thing -- but the phones are also so highly interuptive. I just WISH I could get one of these administrators to carry one and follow me w/ it all day long.

I agree that abuses will go on as long as nurses allow them to. I for one and ready to start complaining to SOMEONE. It IS becoming inhumane. Our paperwork demands are also inhumane. We are now required for each chart to not only fill out the paperwork, but to fill out "check lists" that show that we actually DID all the paperwork. I think we're up to 3+ separate checklists now, on every chart with 20 some items to "check off" every single day! It's management treating you like an IDIOT and a monkey, and I'm sick of it.

Our problem family needs to be banned. I'm sorry but getting your brother back into bed right now isn't going to happen for a couple of reasons. We have a patient coding in the next room. Your brother is a two person transfer and we don't have two staff right now because of the patient coding. He's been up in a chair for ten minutes. If it's so easy to put him back to bed, do it yourselves and let us get back to the patient who is coding and stop ringing the damn bell every six minutes (we really did time you)

Specializes in SICU,CVICU,ER,PACU.
there have been documented patient complaints, where pt family members came to the desk and asked for the nurse. they were told the nurse was at lunch. instead of asking for someone else, or further assistance, the family member went back to the room, and the pt then had to wait until the nurse came back from lunch. one time it was for pain meds, the other time it was for difficulty breathing.

don't ask me why the families didn't ask for someone else...but this is the reason given to us why we were told we are no longer allowed to say the nurse is at lunch.

no offense, but i think that this is the most stupid excuse your facility served you!

are you telling me that when you are on brake no one is covering for you?

i regularly answer call lights for patients that aren't mine, including when their nurse isn't on brake.

i have a strong feeling that your facility gave you those (most likely fake) sentinel events to explain their policy, but it doesn't fly one bit!

seriously, have you ever encountered a family or a patient that nicely stays put when they are in pain or having difficulty breathing until someone asks them what is wrong??!!!

i maintain that such policy is a license to mistreat the nurse. i bet you that management and administrators think it gives a great image of their customer service! i can see the billboards from here: "in our hospital we value your wants and needs so much so that our nurses never need to pee or eat, they only breath for the pleasure of serving you!"

pluuease!!! :bugeyes:

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Remember "the patient is the center of all we do"....even if it means nurses not peeing or eating...(insert eyes rolling here)...Apparently, this is acceptable in our line of work.Seriously, I hate these little slogans that hospitals come up with.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

it never ceases to amaze me how many people who swear they don't drink still manage to have dts. tonight's gentleman is definitely having dts, for all that he (and his family) insist he only has "one beer a week." i pity the poor nurse actually taking care of him -- i've fielded 7 (or 8) phone calls from family members in the last 45 minutes, every one of them insisting that "dad shouldn't be on an alcohol drip because he doesn't drink."

meanwhile, dad is hollering for someone to give him some money so he can go have a beer.

Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
Remember "the patient is the center of all we do"....even if it means nurses not peeing or eating...(insert eyes rolling here)...Apparently, this is acceptable in our line of work.Seriously, I hate these little slogans that hospitals come up with.

LOL. I've heard some bad ones too. They are most often repeated by the ones who are in the door at 0705 (their start time being 0700), leave at 1425 (end time being 1430) and refuse to do OT or off shifts of any sort. You know the ones I am talking about, all the people swarming around M-F daylight with nothing to do........the ones with no actual function, just have a title to their name so here they are.

I got in trouble at my first job for answering "And if we all think happy thoughts, we can fly too". That annoyed administration, how dare I mock the slogans they spent years perfecting! Then I got written up when I added onto it "And if we think happy thoughts, we can fly too..........so I'm thinking you are outta my face right now, cause thats the happiest thought I can imagine right now."

Yeah, that one stayed on my record for a LONG time.

i can see the billboards from here: "in our hospital we value your wants and needs so much so that our nurses never need to pee or eat they only breath for the pleasure of serving you!"[/size']

pluuease!!! :bugeyes:

lmao! i love it!

I had a good one yesterday in honor of Mother's Day.

Thank you dear complaining witch of a daughter for wasting our time with your nonsense. You come by basically every other day and whine about how we don't take good care of your mom. You claim to be a CNA but you never touch your mom or do one tiny bit of her care. Instead you refuse to leave the room when the aides are taking care of her and you hound and criticize them w/o mercy. Why did you make a huge stink about wanting to take your mom on an overnight pass for Mother's day? Why did you have to get the S.W and the M.D involved to get this order? Why did you waste my time and have me fill out all of these stupid forms and bag up your mom's meds with detailed explanations on how to administer the meds? Why did you do all of this just tell me when you came to pick her up (late) that you were going to bring her back before six because you don't have all of the "comforts" that we have for your mother. What comforts are those btw? You must have been talking about our backs and our hands because your mom weighs about 112lbs soaking wet and we don't even use a hoyer for her. All we do for this poor confused little old lady is change her incontinence briefs, feed, and medicate her....you mean you the great CNA can't even do that for 5 hours. Oh, you also need a supply of depends and a pack of wipes because you're too cheap to stop at the pharmacy?

I think a lot of family members like to make a big show about how much they care for the benefit of the staff. Please, we know better so stop wasting our time. Fine, you put your mom in a home because you can't take care of her by yourself. We can accept that and that's how we make our living. What burns is the constant criticism and the waste of our time with requesting things just for show.

Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.
Remember "the patient is the center of all we do"....even if it means nurses not peeing or eating...(insert eyes rolling here)...Apparently, this is acceptable in our line of work.Seriously, I hate these little slogans that hospitals come up with.

and dont forget "and it is MY pleasure to not pee or eat just so i can take care of YOUR needs"

Specializes in Utilization Management.
and dont forget "and it is MY pleasure to not pee or eat just so i can take care of YOUR needs"

And don't forget -- we do all this because We Have the Time. :yeah::smokin:;)

Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.
And don't forget -- we do all this because We Have the Time. :yeah::smokin:;)

how could i have forgotten that??? i should be strung up, tarred and feathered :D

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