Re: Glen Beck's hospital experience
SShannon81, good to meet you!
Don't personalize this. He was incoherent, frightened, and overwhelmed by his experience. There is no insult, no injury in his rant, especially considering what he went through. He didn't nail himself to the cross..we did!! Angry because some of us decided to take his statements and charges and complaints personally. He has been attacked personally and vilified unjustly by many of our brothers and sisters in Nursing.
Many I suspect took this opportunity to trash this man because of who he is, not what actually happened to him. Some posts were understanding, sympathetic even, some acknowledged that these things do happen. Glenn Beck simply stated his own truth, his own impression of the care he received. And he is correct..there are professionals in the health care field who simply do not care. No one at any level can deny this truth.
I strongly advise Mr. Beck to pursue this with the hospital administrators since he has seemed to recover emotionally (somewhat) and he needs to reevaluate what actually happened vs. his medication and pain influenced perceptions. Have his close friends and family who supported him during this time to review their perceptions of these events and compare them to his recollections and feelings. If they can do this and still feel that there is something at some level that needs to be brought to the attention of the hospital where he was treated, then for the benefit of all patients they should do so. It would be better to write a letter detailing the problems and concerns that they as a patient and family felt happened. No one can deny their right to do so.
Being one of the "old ones" I am familiar with events of this nature. I have personally witnessed nurses who are cold, unfeeling and speak out of turn in front of patients and their families. A new nurse may do this one time in front of me and that is the last time it happens..I have ways to re-educate stupid,cruel and unfeeling "professionals" I have no qualms about utilizing my "skills" to do so. I have heard nurses state that the patient should be allowed to die because of the age, diagnoses, and prior medical condition and/or history. I have heard and witnessed many forms of cruelty committed by members of our profession as well as by other health care workers. Physicians are not excluded in this group. I witnessed nurses ******** about a family not agreeing to organ donation, about some of the families wanting to learn the personal care of their family member or friend and being referred to as a pain in the ass.
PERSONAL EXAMPLES
As my older brother lay dying in a local hospital..not mine...Blood was being hung as my brother kept vomiting blood, projectile, which he began doing at home then was rushed to the hospital. A man..who displayed inappropriate body language and comments, in front of my entire family, stated real clear... "I can't believe I'm doing this, he's going to die anyway and I'm supposed to be on my break" He then turned to us, now gaping at him as if he were insane, and told us forcefully to accept that my brother was essentially dead and we should "get over it". He left the room without a backward glance. By the way, he didn't check the blood, no second RN was present to do so anyway. He never looked at my brother's wrist band, never acknowledged us, his patient's family. My brother, though weak, dying, was alert. When the jerk RN left, my brother opened his eyes and told us to tell that RN that he need not return, that he had already accepted he was dying, and asked us to leave him alone.
Yeah..compassionate.
At another hospital where I was visiting I witnessed something similar. And in yet another local hospital, a very large and well known facility no, not my place of employment, I saw a patient lying on the floor with the door to his room open. Curious I stepped into the room, saw the patient lying essentially on his face, slightly turned to one side..clearly dead, easily ascertained by the color of the skin, frozen facial features and stiff appearing body. You think it was a while since anyone bothered to check on him?? I went out to the nursing station and told them that the patient in room xxxx was on the floor and dead, "just thought I'd let you know so you won't be surprised when you go to his room" I received blank stares, then a question from one of the nurses said it all.."How do you know he's dead? who do you think you are?" I told her to get off her ass and check the patient and that I was an RN and thank G-d I didn't work here.
My sister-in-law, critically ill, nearly eight years after diagnosis of bowel cancer, the effects of radiation and chemotherapy to this day remain. At one point during her hospitalization I informed my brother she was incompetent to make her health care decisions..she was septic from her port o cath that should have been removed several years earlier, but feared more surgery, no matter how minor it may be. Prior to this being removed, after cultures came back positive for MRSA, STREP , E COLI ( home health nurse, real friendly, my family liked him, even let his daughter ride one of our horses, had questionable hand washing techniques) she colonized yeast...name it. She had fevers of 106 F and was skeletal. She waited to die, my family waited for her to die. I pitched a major fit, called the surgeon, who I still to this day adore..got the implanted port out of her without any interference from my brother or his wife. She survived all of this, then one day I walked into her room and found amphotericin lipid form, zosyn and vancomycin hanging and infusing simultaneously through a single 22 gauge piv. I gently, in a conversational tone asked the nurse why all of these medications were infusing at the same time and via this iv route. She told me that it was easier and faster to get them in all at once and what was it to me anyway she knew what she was doing, then in front of my brother's wife she said that it was clear that she was going to die anyway. I stepped out of the room, had a psychotic break that strangely enough left me calm & collected. I left the hospital, called the floor via cell and asked to speak to their clinical educator. When she came on the telephone, I introduced myself, stated my concerns, all very calm, rational. The educator admitted that this was a new nurse, still learning and she said my concerns were justified and she would take care of it. Then I WENT NEUTRON BOMB..me, the calm, rational professional lost it. The issue was dealt with and surprisingly to everyone, except me, she lived, recovered after several other set backs. She works full time now and is neurologically intact.
Again, an uncaring nurse, no matter how new compassion does not come with a degree.
I had an external fixator on my left thigh after removal of a bone tumor, .leg swelled around the fixator, in intense agony. Returned to hospital (not mine as the ortho oncology service worked out of this other facility and it was easier to get OR time). Went by ambulance, told at door they were closed to emergency admissions. when I told the ambulance crew to bring me to JMH, suddenly the staff did not want me to leave. I was told that I was not special and I would have to wait with the rest of the patients in the ER. I was wearing a t-shirt and underwear only lying on a wooden back board, uncovered, no pillow and no support for my swollen thigh. I heard the triage nurse tell the ambulance crew to just put me on the floor in the waiting room and I'll be seen to later. I asked them to straight cath me because I couldn't pee. After some bickering amongst the staff I was taken to a small room by two men, I clung to the uniform of one of the ambulance guys who brought me and begged him not to leave me alone. My advocate, my best friend, and a female was not permitted to go with me, her husband later came to f/u with us. He went into the room with me. Two men and me. The RN removed by underwear and waved it at me, smiling he said, "Oh Victoria Secret underwear, I guess we could have some fun" The ambulance guy, I think he was in his twenties, just gaped at this nurse. After the cath, I was told that my insurance would not pay for this admission..What??? I asked I begged to be taken to JMH and was refused by the staff to allow this. Eventually I was taken to a stretcher with an actual soft mattress. three hours after all of this drama I received my first pain medication. I was spilled onto the stretcher directly on my external fixator with my thigh pressed into the bar. I cried., I sobbed and was frightened that this could happen to anyone. This nurse who seemed to take undue pleasure in hurting me said with a smile, again in front of the ambulance crew and a couple of other staff members, portable x-ray techs..He said "I'll bet that hurt!.
I did report this to hospital administration, but was horribly traumatized and at one point was suicidal from the pain. This experience can be verified by those who witnessed this and my friend and her husband, later her son who also witnessed this example of fine, professional ER triage nursing. I am experienced to know this again was an isolated incident with one sadistic individual..
The real story here was the staff who witnessed this and lowered their heads when I looked at them for help, did not interfere in this man's treatment of me, they did not step in to stop what happened to me. That ultimately was a crime. The floor nurses where I was finally sent were truly outstanding individuals and exemplified nursing at its best. The only good thing that came out of this experience is that I became "Super Nurse" when I returned to work. I was very good before, but became obsessive about patient care.. there was nothing I would not do for my patients and families, I still hold myself to a higher standard and sometimes it kills me.
I am not ranting..I know to some degree what happened to Glenn Beck does happen in health care facilities everywhere.
Prison nurses who allow a child to be beaten to death, a young man who became a quadriplegic while being arrested for some dumb ass crime. He was placed on a chair in jail and kept falling to the floor. He was labeled uncooperative. jail nurses had no clue. He was eventually admitted to us, he eventually died. Oh yes, **** happens.
Despite all of the experiences I've had, I experienced, I witnessed good, bad, indifferent, cruel...these things actually occur very rarely, but when they do...Oh brother, look out, we are all painted with the same brush in the media.
Have a heart, deal with the fact that some of us don't represent our profession well in the community, our families and friends, the media. Some of our people are monsters, but this is exception, not the rule. It is our responsibility to weed these people out before they can do harm, or any more harm.
We are a great profession and have so much to be proud of!! But we need to keep an open mind when interacting with our clients and really take the time to listen to them...
Now you know some of my secrets and my pain and to some degree my guilt in feeling that I don't always perform to my own standards.
Bye
End Game RN
Re: Glen Beck's hospital experience
) with the nurse, she would not have understood his context and probably would have thought he was referring to the patient chart of somebody named Smith. So it goes both ways.
a drama queen, a wuss, a whinner and that his radio and television programs are crap. Thanks for the update.
since no one is allowed to dictate personal behaviors.
(as Stephen King calls him). He is only a man, and like the rest of us he is imperfect, but he comes across as a decent person.
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