Nurse sees worst, best of profession during daughter's ER visit

Sorry fellow nurses - I realized one word in my post was used to spur on a ton of frustration. I didn't mean that we need to be more "happy" while doing our jobs, just not rude. We need to keep our displeasure to ourselves and our co-workers, management, etc . . . and not let it be displayed to our patients or families. I mean that in 'smiling' while doing our job - we don't get ****** off at patients for being "difficult." We do our job, and do it as well as we can. Of course it's hard. We have a really hard job, no doubt. And yes working 12 hours is stressful and tiring. Then again, we all signed up for this type of work, and if we don't like it, there are other jobs out there. We as nurses need to help ourselves by portraying our public persona in a professional manner and helping to educate those we come in contact with. It is our job to help our own cause in this way. I love my job, and I know many great nurses. Let's keep up the great work.

I can see it now,,\\\

"If Disney ran your ER."

“…the worst was they didn't care about my daughter. They didn't care about the young woman across the room, also crying in pain, also waiting for hours. They didn't care about the young man who came in bleeding profusely.”

-WOW! What an incredibly singular line of perspective the author is using. Does she actually think that no one cared??? It sounds to me that she was in a busy ER on a (typically) busy day. What are the nurses supposed to do? By law, they cannot diagnose and they can’t treat without a physicians order. Every place has different protocols about abdominal pain in triage. Some places hire a doctor and the back up staff to be in triage to at least start the medical process of basic diagnosis and pain management. Some places don’t. But I guess in the eyes of the author, the fact that the facility that she visited does not is the fault of the triage nurse.
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“The initial nursing triage staff did the bare minimum required of them; they did it without a smile or a touch of concern. They did it quickly and efficiently and soullessly.”

-It sounds to me like they did their job exactly as expected of them. I would challenge the author to work for a significant period of time in a busy triage area. Then measure how much of her soul she keeps to herself when faced with the unrelenting pressure of having to stay sharp at all times to recognize, in her 5 minutes of allotted time, someone who is legitimately soon going to be at death’s door. Plus the pressure of having of having 2 and 3 patients register for every 1 she can triage, plus keeping an eye on the 10% of the patients in the waiting room that she is actually worried about, plus get blankets and pillows immediately, like the good Waffle House waitresses that Press-Gainey has sold to typical hospital administration we need to be. Also couple that with having to explain for the 4th time that “no, I can’t get you any water until the doctor sees you”, “No, I can’t tell you how much longer it will be.” (Actually I can give you a pretty good idea but I am not allowed too. My fault as well I am sure.) Lets see how many times the author can get beat down on a daily basis by angry and irrational patients for things like wait time, lack of beds, inability to administer immediate and effective care, things utterly and completely beyond her control.
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“They sat at their desk and ordered food…”

-Oh my God the horror! I wonder if the author, by chance, happened to notice, with her astute, learned and keen observation, how many times the nurses were offered breaks from their supervisors? If she was at any place I have ever worked at during the busy period, (which can last an entire 12 hour period I might add), the answer would be none. I am with a previous poster on this. I will make no excuses and no apologies. I am there 12 hours and if I need to eat or go to the bathroom, I WILL! If that means eating in front of the patients or getting up for 5 minutes, too bad and I don’t care how it looks. My feeling is that if a hospital administration does not wish to provide the time and the staff to provide for very basic and fundamental needs, I will do what I must to keep myself sharp.
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“…talked on their cells…”

-I know that using cell phones in that setting looks terrible. But where I work, we are not allowed to take incoming calls nor make outgoing calls for non business purposes from hospital phones. We are there for 12 hours and yet it seems that it is completely unreasonable that we be able to call our loved ones and wish them a good night, check up on them or whatever. The same types of conversations I am sure the author would be having with her precious “GEM” were she to be in a similar situation. Oh but wait, we are “Soulless” aren’t we? Why should we have any reason to care about our own precious “GEMs”?
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“…and told jokes within feet of my daughter who was in agony…”

-I know it may be rough for you and your daughter, but we are not the sick ones. Does it look appropriate from your perspective? Certainly not and I respect that observation. But it does not mean that we have to grind through a 12 hour shift with furrowed brow and a scowl either. Personally, as far as I am concerned, my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane in the insane world of ER nursing.
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“How could anyone, let alone a health professional, be so insensitive?”

-To say that the nurses were “insensitive” is base ignorance. The author may interpret her observations of the nurses as being insensitive, but that is how she chose to interpret it. I suspect the reality of the attitudes of the nurses she observed that night were far from it.
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“As a healthcare consumer, I was bewildered and angry.”

-So I guess that her expectation, at the interpersonal, nursing level, forgetting for a moment the medical-legal/administrative/physical space constraints already alluded to, were that the nurses that she observed were supposed to cry on bended knee in sympathy in front of her and her daughter? That they were supposed to go 12 hours without eating? Without breaks? Without checking in with their loved ones? That they were supposed to leave their own humanity in their cars?

One wonders if the author, as well as being a member of the faculty branch of nursing, also sits in her high and white tower and wonders why nurses burn out after such a short period of time.
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“As a nursing instructor, I was horrified. And as a member of the nursing profession, I was embarrassed and ashamed.”

-As a member of the very same nursing profession, I too find myself embarrassed and ashamed on occasion about the conflicts that I continually face in my practice about the service I desperately want to provide and the constraints handed down to me from above with which I am able to provide them. But I am one very small wheel in the very huge health care machine. I have also learned, bitterly I might add, that the squeaky wheel does not get the grease, the squeaky wheel gets replaced for a more “team work orientated” wheel.
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“These were my colleagues.”

-I would hardly include the author of this one sided, unsympathetic and subjective rant a “colleague”. I can think of many other names to refer to her as. But I won’t write them here.

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“This was America in 2008. No one should be treated like we were that night, no one.”

-To the author: Guess what dear? What you experienced IS the reality of health care in 2008. The “Care” in Health Care” is being slowly squeezed out of this industry in favor of efficiently and earnings per share. The nurses are merely on the front lines of this mess. Personally, I am appalled that someone in your position does not see how the public perception of the nursing profession as a whole is being whored out, en mass, for the short term gains of the corporate culture we are all finding ourselves more and more embroidered in.

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“Fifty-eight minutes and 45 seconds later, her surgeon met us in the waiting room. Grace had a perforated appendix and I had missed it. All those signs and symptoms and I had missed it. Her belly was full of pus, she was septic, and I had missed it. Some mother, some nursing professor, and some advanced practice nurse I was! Her dad tried to make me feel better, the staff on the floor tried to make me feel better. Finally, her surgeon told me "to just stop it. You're not helping anyone." I joked that "I run for mother of the year all the time." But I was appalled: How could I have passed off appendicitis for the flu? How could I have discounted her pain for just being dramatic?”

-Funny, after reading the entire article, the daughter could have very well switched the words ‘nurse’ with ‘mommy’ in describing her experience with her mom prior to going and seeking help. I wonder how the author would have felt if her daughter had done that?
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“So, yes, I was one of "those" mothers. I tried hard not to be but about 24 hours into our stay, I gave up. While I tried to be nice about some things, I wanted what I wanted and I wanted it right now. Bless their hearts, her nurses never yelled at me.”

-I always find it interesting how one can place the most precious thing in their life, their child, into the hands of a complete stranger and then be so utterly demanding and downright mean to them. It never ceases to amaze me
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“If they talked about me behind my back, they were very discrete.”

-I am sure the author is very correct about this particular assumption.
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“I have a new passion for making sure none of "my" nurses ever act like the ones I observed in the ER.”

-I also hope that for the sake of the nursing profession, the author and those in her profession also put more time and emphasis in teaching professional stewardship as some of those very same nurses she is teaching will undoubtedly be replacing the head-bobbing-yes-man, corporate minions that currently occupy nursing administrative positions today.

I didn't mean that we need to be more "happy" while doing our jobs, just not rude. We need to keep our displeasure to ourselves and our co-workers, management, etc . . . and not let it be displayed to our patients or families.

Ruby - what I was trying to get across is that you focused on the smile part, which wasn't what I meant. If you read into my reply. I was saying that we need to keep our own personal frustrations from affecting our patient care. Patient care is what you should be focused on first and foremost - not your own frustrations with the job. I am saying that as nurses, we are in the service industry and being rude to our patients in inappropriate. Not just saying that we need to be "smiling." You can be polite without a "pasted on simle." I was upset that many posters thought that the original writer was totally off base in her perceptions. But sadly, that is what the public has - perceptions of our job. If we don't like cleaning bodily fluids, then we shouldn't be in this profession. Unfortunately it comes with the territory. We all have tough days. We should just try not to let that affect our patient care. That was the main point of my message. Sorry if it upsets you. I really don't mean to offend. Thanks.

I don't think I've ever advocated being rude to a patient -- although the alert and oriented man who grabbed my boob and squeezed because he "wanted to see if they were real" deserved it! And for you to tell me that if we don't like cleaning up bodily fluids, we shouldn't be in the profession is even more offensive than telling me what expression I should be wearing as I do it. Clearly, I've been doing it for a long time. Just as clearly, there are some aspects one likes about one's job or profession and other aspects one would rather skip if possible. Not loving every single part of your job is no reason to get out of the profession.

The original poster wasn't "the public." She was a nurse. Therefore, she WAS off base in her perceptions. She had more knowledge than the general public, and she still didn't "get it." I don't think you do, either.