Patients as customers????

[MJAJKJ]

I am in block 4/4 of nursing school and one of the themes throughout school has been patients being referred to as customers. Some test questions are written to reflect this, and we are told hospital philosophy is beginning to reflect the same. I work in medical records (boring as s***) and the hospital I'm at has endless patient satisfaction polls. I worry about patients starting to feel like customers and they are always right, which of course is not true. I fear that administration will look down on an RN giving a patient morphine despite the "customer" request for diluadid because 8 mg of morphine "just doesnt work for me." We are also taught to be patient advocates, but advocate for their best interest, not their every request. I really believe this is a dangerous position for hospitals and patients/customers alike.

Customers go to Sears.

I'd be interested to hear RN's point of views and if other hospitals are adopting this philosophy.

[JacknSweetpea]

Patients are not customers. They are patients. They are admitted to a hospital because they are sick, having a baby, or having surgery. They need our expertise in order to get better; they do not need to have every whim/wish catered to. This whole "customer service/service with a smile crap" is another way for management to scapegoat nursing or other staff because patients choose other hospitals for whatever reasons, and/or they don't want to deal with the hassle of patient complaints. As everyone under the sun knows....there isn't pleasing a lot of people out there. They would complain if they were given so-called "5 star" service. It's just the way the world is. People need to realize that if one is at a hospital or other facility....one is going to deal with procedures that make them uncomfortable, not being able to eat/drink whatever they want, or not be able to have a family reunion in the hospital room. Now, as nurses, we should make sure that the experience isn't made more unpleasant by having an attitude with these people, but we cannot, and should not be required to reinforce nonsense behaviors by patients.....er....customers.