U.S. News ranks hospitals with best nurses

Well, the US News ranking of grads schools don't really mean anything, either.

I'm not sure that "polite" and "communicative" = the "best" nursing care ...

Yeah, these were based on surveys. My problem with surveys is this:

Had a pt. recently who was STARVED for attention. Elderly lady, anxiety disorder, a bit obnoxious to be frank about it. Family was done dealing with her constant crisis BS. We had low census at the time. Our nurses had extra time to spend with her, which is what she wanted.

GN made a med error with her.......actually gave someone across the hall her meds and visa versa. So, of course, when this happened, there was a lot of hourly vitals, constant assessments and reassessing. In short, she had a day and a half of almost 1:1 attention..............and LOVED IT.

When she filled out her survey, she gave the facility all 5s!!!!

Now, in the absence of the med error, she would have not gotten so much extra attention. IMO, a little less attention but not getting the meds of someone across the hall is "better nursing care". She doesn't see it that way though. I will guarantee it that if the med incident had not occurred, she would have felt ignored and given something other than 5s on the survery, regardless of how often we went in her room.

And, as I understand it, this is not the "exception" when it comes to surveys. Very few of them are filled out in an objective, non-bias way.

new england baptist hosp is #2, actually tied with mayo, which is #1.

i graduated from new eng baptist son, and will affirm that it was drilled into our heads that "you are a baptist nurse", which meant we were the cream of the crop.
all pts get a single, long-stemmed rose upon discharge.
anyways, the times that i've gone to the baptist, nsg/patient ratios are ideal, and the baptist nurses DO act professional, warm and communicative.
i refused to work there after graduation, mainly because i found the whole baptist reputation, a bit too elite for my taste.

but still, i smiled seeing it tied with mayo.

leslie

I'm thinking it's a pretty strong indicator. If I'm stressed and overloaded, the first thing to go is the big smile and the long explanations, etc. If I've got time to be that way, I've got time to give good care, too.

Unfortunately, I've got less and less to go around. We are taking care of the same overall number of patients with AT LEAST 25% less staff than a year ago.

I'm also not sure how I feel about this survey.

I tried substituting the words "auto mechanic" for nurse to test for sexism. I still wanted my auto mechanic to listen carefully and give clear instructions. Though it wouldn't fool me if he was polite. He could still be putting the old spark plugs back in and charging for new. Less of a concern with nurses.

Nice is important. I'm not a nurse yet, but I recently had a family member very ill in the hospital, and I can tell you, it REALLY helps when people are nice. I know you're so busy you can't even pee, but when someone you love is sick, it's like your whole body is raw, and every tiny brush against you is agony.

But polite does not necessarily equal good. This is basic logic.

This is why I would never make a decision based on rankings like this.

Interesting but awfully subjective, not scientific.

true, i see the FL hospitals being in the bottom parts, but i know them patients arent the nicest either.

Ugggg, I absolutly hate stuff like this. I encourage my family to go to HealthGrades.com or another independent organization that rates hospitals based on OUTCOMES not how wonderful the "service" is at a certain hospital. If you want hotel service GO TO A HOTEL!

THAT'S AN IDEA-what area of the U.S. has the best patients. Hehe... Are we talking, healthiest, nicest, most compliant, least comorbidities, hmmmm??