"Hardened" Healthcare Providers

Nurses Safety

Published

I recently floated to the ER and witnessed such poor ethics in two nurses and paramedics I was astounded! The EMT team brought in an extremely morbidly obese woman in respiratory distress who was “caked” in feces. Their heads were wrapped in towels because of the odor she emitted!

The EMT’s placed her in the bay while I started her vitals and placed her leads. They walked over to the nurse’s station and two RN’s and the EMT’s began talking about how filthy her home was and how disgusting the patient was. Their conversation was loud enough for the patient and the surrounding patients to hear!

I was mortified and embarrassed for the health profession! Sure the patient was disgusting. Sure she was filthy. But aren’t we taught to deliver healthcare in a non-judgmental manner?? Yes, I am new to nursing (and healthcare as a whole), but is this what happens to healthcare providers after years of witnessing these types of incidents? I said nothing, but delivered the type of care I was trained to deliver without judgment of the patient and with the compassion I show other patients.

What should I have done? How do I handle this type of situation in the future? Any input would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Specializes in Tele, Infectious Disease, OHN.

Of course hindsight is 20/20 but I have been known to ask other healthcare professionals to go somewhere else and have that particular conversation. Usually they get the drift and change the subject. I agree it can be a coping mechanism but it does not need to be braodcast over the ER, or floor or whatever.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I'm a new nurse as well, but I saw this type of ethics frequently as a student and now as a nurse. I think what you did was right. Even though others are direspecting the patient and talking loudly, you should just ignore their loud comments and deliver the best care you can to your patient. If this continued, I would definitely maybe contact the manager or director because that type of behavior is purely unprofessional.

I am a CNA and I see and witnessed these things happening everywhere. Sometimes disgruntled, tired and unsatisfied health providers are prone to act this way. Also they could have the feeling that they are above or in much better situation than the patients themselves. Patients are at the mercy of the health care provider literally when they get sick. It's not their fault and no one wants to be in the hospital. Still as a health care provider, one should remain professional and deliver the best care possible for the patient, setting aside any judgmental comments and looks. We are only human being and should be treated with respect and dignity.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

I really resent this statement, not only as a practicing nurse of 12 years but on behalf of my colleagues. Let me clue you into something, having respect and practicing as a professional also includes respecting your colleagues!!!

This isn't probably, it is without doubt the most scathing post I have ever posted on this site. You know what I can't handle? Ideological students who have never practiced but feel perfectly privileged to comment upon the competency of those who are!

Absotively. Aren't we lucky to have all of these students to set us straight? That post should be referenced the next time someone vents about how "nurses eat their young." Sometimes, the young bring bad treatment on themselves by being judgemental and disrespectful.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.
Today- It is hard to find a nurse who is intelligent in the field of nursing and has a reasonable amount of compassion and patience...etc...then the BIG one --having any HUMILITY towards the patients.

I was innocently in a horrible car accident. After being life-flighted and coded 3 times and was bedfast with a Hoff-man device in my crushed pelvis for 3 months.....I ONLY REMEMBER ONE NURSE THAT TOOK CARE OF ME....she cried with me becasue she had so much compassion for my pain. That in itself is pathetic. Of all the nurses, I remember one. All the half-wit nurses practicing this 'profession' need to be the paitent for awhile. Then, we would see alot of change. (OR alot of nurses leaving the profession !!!)

Maybe you don't remember other nurses because you were being coded three times. Kind of hard to remember who was/was not compassionate to you in that situation. And just because a nurse doesn't cry with you does not mean she's devoid of compassion.

You want to know what I'm tired of? Nurses who post about their "half-wit" colleagues and other such derogatory terms. Those kind of comments do nothing to make nursing cohesive.

One other note: Were it not for the care of those uncompassionate, half-wit nurses you had, you wouldn't be here to post about them. Or are you going to say it was only thanks to the doctors that you survived?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I was on way home from a third shift home care job, when I was broadsided by a pickup truck going 50 miles an hour through a red light. My car was totaled and paramedics had to get the jaws of life to extricate me from the car.I broke several ribs and had a heart contusion and severe bruising, went into shock, etc. When I got to the Trauma dept of a very prestigious hospital, the Xray techs, yelled at me to get myself off of the gurney I was on and onto the Xray table, because I was too fat and they were not going to hurt themselves, I had trouble breathing , so I bet they did not hear the expletives I tried to say to them. Aftr the Xrays it was evident how badley broken my ribs were, THEN they appeared all concerned, "oh no dont move yourself, we will do it", I did report them to the head of the ER department.I hope they learned a lesson.:madface:

Up Vote Up Vote ×

In response to such an issue where the client and co-clients can here this unprofessional talk it needs to be addressed individually. As nurses, we play a role in leadership by advocating for our client's and eachother. I would have pulled these people aside and confidentially reminded them that the client's could here them and this is unprofessional behavior. It does not have to be rude, or mean, it just has to be said. Never forget, we are advocates, this is our job. have confidence in yourself. Just because you are a new graduate does not mean that you aren't as much apart of the team as everyone else!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge, ER.

Just tell the involved parties that their actions were inappropriate. I am a firm believer in being honest with each other. Not only will your co-workers develop trust in you, but you will gain respect as well.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Rehab, LTC, Peds, Hospice.

The only reason to become 'hardened' is to protect your feelings from the assault of tough situations health profesionals deal with daily. The trick is to maintain your humanity. Treat everyone how you want to be treated is something we all learned in Kindergarten. All of us need to vent and should. Just be aware and sensitive to your surroundings. That situation was uncalled for. I think you should bring it to their attention as well. I still knock on my patients doors after 15 years of working in the 'real' world of nursing. You can't abandon the basic principals of treating others with dignity and respect just because the things you have seen have made you jaded.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Perioperative; Gyn-Onc.

I also notice nurses label many, many patients as drug seekers when I don't agree with their assessment. Why do so many nurses feel that if a person asks for pain meds, they are a drug seeker?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.
They need some NEW coping methods.

I try to stay out of heated threads like this one, and can already feel the flames that are going to be thrown my way, but I can't help myself ...

How can any of us pretend to understand someone else's coping mechanisms? Who am I and who are you to judge how someone else finds the release they need to sleep at night? This isn't to say that the people in the OP should have been venting at the desk, but if they needed to vent or smile or laugh, they should be allowed to. If an EMT or a paramedic needs to smile about a little kid's bashed in head (as disgusting and awful as that seems), they should be allowed to.

We're all human, and we're all trying daily to deal with some of the most de-humanizing events and circumstances this world can throw at us. So what if I laugh during a code? If it gives me the strength to come back tomorrow and code another kid, I'm sure as heck going to do it.

Please. Don't pretend that you know better than someone who has a different method than you for dealing with his or her demons.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER.
That's for sure true, but the fact that you don't seem ashamed of it shows that at some point you veered off the path of proper patient care and can't find your way back. All that "psychosocial BS" and the "nursing school way" is why nursing is supposedly a profession. MOST nursing care I have seen is substandard and makes nurses look just one step above someone on the line at McDonalds. I say have some self-respect and practice professional nursing.

This is probably the most scathing post I've ever made on this site, but one thing I can't handle is sloppy nurses who use the excuse that they've been around and this is how it's done!

I do not agree with that hogwash, either. Nurses that dont want to care anymore and act professional should leave the field (I think they end up in admin eventually - we know a lot of higher management just doesnt care).

I think this is a bigger problem than most of us realize. How can our nurse managers take us seriously that we are understaffed when half of the staff members manage 12 smoke breaks per night and sit on the internet all night long. It drives me crazy that these people are in the nursing profession giving the rest of us a rotten rep for being calloused and nasty old hags. :angryfire

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Man o man I just have to butt in here ;)

I had terrible digestive trouble post-op and had to go to the ER, I spent a significant amount of time in the bathroom.....in agony and discomfort, mind you. Outside the door I heard someone say in a loud and laughing matter: " We've got one here on the shitter !!!!" Well, after I was done I opened the door and yelled really loud that "the one on the "shitter" is done!!!!!!! Of course I realized that I took the risk of being perceived as nuts for yelling that loud but it got their attention because

a very sympathetic nurse assured me later that those "juveniles" would be straightened out.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment