What's the weirdest thing management has said to you?

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  1. This is a discussion on What's the weirdest thing management has said to you? in Nurse Colleague / Patient Relations, part of General Nursing ... Based on the thank you card thread, what's the most bizarre thing said to you by management or...

    by Dec 11, '12
    Based on the thank you card thread, what's the most bizarre thing said to you by management or administration? I can think of a few that will always stand out in my mind.



    When discussing our patient satisfaction surveys, our manager told me in a staff meeting, "Monkeybug, a patient would much rather have a nice nurse than a smart one. They don't care how smart you are, it doesn't matter. The "little things" are what matter! In fact, a family probably wouldn't care if you killed a patient if you were a really sweet nurse." My reply was rather colorful, and culminated with me saying, "give me the smart ***** any day if I'm the patient."

    I had a negative survey once because the patient had rolling veins. The patient's comment was that I should have kept this from happening. I asked manager how I was to do this, for future reference. "Well, of course, you can't control rolling veins. But I'm sure if you just apologized enough, you wouldn't get these negative comments!" (my only negative that quarter, but enough of an issue to get called to the office)
    Last edit by brian on Dec 13, '12 : Reason: added image
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    by monkeybug Dec 11, '12 1:29 pm
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    Pangea Reunited, canoehead, noyesno, and 9 others like this.

  2. 121 Comments so far...

  3. Dec 11, '12 by
    we always get those comments. other gems are along the same lines
    LexRaven likes this.
  4. Guide
    Dec 11, '12 by
    we were told once to not call into the patient's room if their favorite show was on. Really?
    NYCRN16, canoehead, noyesno, and 11 others like this.
  5. Dec 11, '12 by
    Quote from classicdame
    we were told once to not call into the patient's room if their favorite show was on. Really?
    And how are you to know that? Is their favorite show part of the admission assessment?
    NYCRN16, weemsp, SkyeHawk3, and 33 others like this.
  6. Dec 11, '12 by
    You should have been able to answer all of those urology patient's questions about their urologic problems, meds, diagnostic tests, and urologist, even though you don't work on a urology floor. They were very frustrated. (my inner monologue: SO WAS I!!!)
    canoehead, Not_A_Hat_Person, noyesno, and 5 others like this.
  7. Dec 11, '12 by
    Management has encouraged us to go take walks on our lunch breaks, um yea like we have the time to leave the floor and go outside to walk around the track. Plus they didn't understand that our unit phones don't work outside the hospital, so we would be unavailable in the event of an emergency with our pt.
    GerberaDaisy, noyesno, Orca, and 5 others like this.
  8. Dec 11, '12 by
    Our NIH policy is to do a handoff NIH with the on/off going nurse doing it together. THe NIH assessments had been Q4. The first NIH I did I charted the NIH scale. The next day I am in line to pick up my son from school and the hospital calls telling me I didn't complete the stroke charting and need to come back to finish it. I let the mgr know that I had in fact done the stroke scale. She's said she saw that, but I didn't write the note that I completed it. So my response was "So I have to chart that I charted?" Yup.... we now have to chart that we charted.... makes lots of sense to me! I guess they just want it recorded that the 2 nurses did it together??
    salvadordolly, Pangea Reunited, NurseOnAMotorcycle, and 6 others like this.
  9. Dec 11, '12 by
    "The hospital always errs on the employee's side"... A lie told to me by management attempting to explain why I wouldn't be getting paid for the extra hour I worked on the fall back night in 2011.
    canoehead, noyesno, Orca, and 5 others like this.
  10. Dec 11, '12 by
    I remembered another nutty thing the same manager said. At a staff meeting we were discussing the fact that 99% of the time we did not get a lunch break. At best, you might get to gulp down a few bites on the way through the nurses station. A nurse had finally gone to HR about it. HR told us to clock a "no lunch.". Manager said we should just think about a day when we didn't have a patient, or maybe got an entire hour, and "it would all even out." Excuse me, but it does not. I am not allowed to run to Target if I don't happen to have a patient. That time is not my own. I asked her what the Labor Board would say about her theory (it is such a pain when one of the nurses you are trying to screw is a lawyer!). We got an email shortly thereafter stating that we should write out a "no lunch" on the clocking error sheet.
    Last edit by monkeybug on Dec 11, '12 : Reason: Spelling
    C-lion, HyperSaurus, RN, Marisette, and 14 others like this.
  11. Dec 11, '12 by
    Quote from KelRN215
    "The hospital always errs on the employee's side"... A lie told to me by management attempting to explain why I wouldn't be getting paid for the extra hour I worked on the fall back night in 2011.
    We never got paid, either, but it was okay (to management) because those that worked the spring forward got paid 8 hours. Never mind that it was not always the same nurses.
    NurseOnAMotorcycle, DizzyLizzyNurse, reagansm, and 2 others like this.