It's bad enuf we only hav 1 x-ray room in the whole hospital, but 90% of the pts are non-english speaking, try explaining when body language doesnt workk, frustrating indeed! I had been x-raying a pt for a half an hour(pt had 3 page exam & couldn't speak english). On top of that, we are horribly short staffed and I was the only x-ray tech, running the whole radiology dept by myself from start to finish, including accessioning the pts. As I am performing the exam, a pt knocks on the door, interupting me & the pt. in the room, to ask how long it will be. My blood started to boil, how incredibly rude & inconsiderate! Here I am, running the whole Radiology Dept. by myself, trying to do everything as quickly as possible, w/ this stupid distraction!! When I got her in the room, I told her, "this is not Burger King, you can't have it your way! This is a hospital, you should expect to wait."
well i had the wife of the husband calling me up , and then the daughter called me up asking me why i have no idea what was going on in cath lab.. ugh.. well , i just think people don't understand.. i was kind to them and explained the best i could , that emergencies need to go first,, well i have been at this job for 9 years and you think i would get use to people freaking out.. but i don't .. i guess it was just one of those days..i called the charge nurse .. she gets paid 94 cents more than i do .. so i let her work for her money..lol..it worked out allright .. and they cool off after they found out she will need a CABG and the wait was worth it..lol... just another boring day... i kinda like my coworkers so it's worth the heck once in awhile.. lol
I think that was a mistake and very unprofessional.
...I would be asking how long it was going to be as well.
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After it was her turn, I told her what she did was wrong, she preceded to argue w/ me.
Please tell me that you didn't do this?
I think a more professional approach to the issue would be to explain to the patient (which I thought deserved an apology FROM YOU), that you didn't mean to snap at them, but there are privacy laws regarding patients in the rooms, that you must take patients in order of seriousness of illness or injury, emergencies come first, blah blah blah...that is EDUCATING the patient that may or may not be familiar with how things are done and how formal the process is.
Saying, "And she proceeded to argue with me", implies that you feel like you had some kind of authority over the patient....which you don't have...even physicians don't have that.
Do you get tired of explaining that to people? Of course you do...all jobs have certain aspects of things people get tired of explaining. I went to traffic court yesterday for a ticket and heard, no less than 20 times, the judge explain the traffic school process. I was one of the last people to be heard, but what if the judge said, "I'm not going to explain it to you....you've been sitting here in court for two hours and should have been paying attention." He did it because it's his job to explain it.
I'm not saying that you didn't have a right to be upset...you are human, and it sounds like you were having a very, very frustrating day.
However, I am also a huge proponent on self-control and accountability...I have never worked in a profession where no matter how much I was screamed at, cursed at, yelled at...could I EVER make a statement such as that and expect to keep my job the next day....no matter HOW far you were pushed, and it doensn't sound like this fellow pushed you at all...they just had a question, no matter how ill-timed.
You are not really mad at the patient. You are stressed out beyond you ability to cope by short staffing and the patients are suffering for it. Who is responsible for a hospital having only one xray room and why is it so understaffed. The people that are giving you a hard time for giving patient a hard time are not looking at the big picture. What are the members of these two communities doing to address the problem? They should demand to meet with the people that run this hospital and find out what is going on. Could it be that since the hospital serves only non English speaking minorities the managment thinks it can understaff and neglect?
While I do deeply sympathize with how frustrating it is to be short staffed ... I have to say that I find this statement:
I told her, "this is not Burger King, you can't have it your way! This is a hospital, you should expect to wait."
horrifically rude, uncalled for, and unprofessional.
If *anyone* in a hospital/medical care setting dared to say such a thing to me or any of my loved ones, you can bet I'd complain to anyone and everyone who would listen, particularly if the staff then had the audacity to scold me and tell me what I did was wrong.
Everyone's time is important, not just yours. Perhaps what that patient was there for wasn't medically urgent or "stat", but I'm sure it was important to her. She was probably scared and frustrated, and she probably had other places she needed or wanted to be.
If I had to wait for half an hour to get an x-ray, I know I'd go up and try to find out what the delay was and how much longer it would take. Perhaps this patient didn't know who to ask or was not getting a firm response from the receptionist, which is why she felt she needed to ask you.
I understand the big picture. I think almost everyone here knows what it's like to work in an understaffed environment and to work with people who don't speak the same language. I don't think those factors make it appropriate to be rude to people, though. If the situation were reversed - if the original poster had been the patient and had a staff member say something flippant to him/her - I bet the original poster would be pretty pissed.
Honestly - and I'm not trying to be ugly - but since you're getting so much sympathy here and seem to still feel entirely justified in speaking to a patient the way you did - I hope the patient complained to your superiors and that action will be taken. It's *never* okay to treat people that way, no matter how tired and frustrated you are.
Honestly - and I'm not trying to be ugly - but since you're getting so much sympathy here and seem to still feel entirely justified in speaking to a patient the way you did - I hope the patient complained to your superiors and that action will be taken. It's *never* okay to treat people that way, no matter how tired and frustrated you are.
I agree, fatigue, short-staffing, stress, rude and bligerant family members and patients, are no excuse for being rude in returrn. We must always maintain a profesional demeanor in words and deed.
I've worked in the ER. . .I understand how you feel. For those who have never worked in ER or in departments where patients have to get trumped for critical patients, they will not understand. Even if it was staffed properly, one has to deal with the issues you had to deal with. I don't think anyone. . .a patient or otherwise has the right to be rude to you. Should you have been rude back? Maybe not, but if there were other patients waiting quietly and this one patient felt that he/she was more important than sobeit . . . you just let them know in not the most polite of ways that he/she had to wait like everyone else. A hospital IS NOT Burger King! If the hospital admin cared if patients were being treated properly they should have the staffing and translators or translating service on hand.
ohmeowzer RN, RN
2,306 Posts
well i had the wife of the husband calling me up , and then the daughter called me up asking me why i have no idea what was going on in cath lab.. ugh.. well , i just think people don't understand.. i was kind to them and explained the best i could , that emergencies need to go first,, well i have been at this job for 9 years and you think i would get use to people freaking out.. but i don't .. i guess it was just one of those days..i called the charge nurse .. she gets paid 94 cents more than i do .. so i let her work for her money..lol..it worked out allright .. and they cool off after they found out she will need a CABG and the wait was worth it..lol... just another boring day... i kinda like my coworkers so it's worth the heck once in awhile.. lol