i'll admit to being somewhat cranky today, and this is a vent. this is only a vent. please do not accuse me of being mean to or mistreating anyone i'm venting about! but i swear, people's parents neglected to teach them manners!
the hospital cafeteria has wifi, and i know that you're bored waiting for uncle zeke to get out of surgery. it's great that you can sit in the cafeteria with your laptop and surf the net. however when lunchtime comes and you're not eating, just surfing, please get up and go somewhere else so that all those people standing around with trays full of food and peering around for an empty table can sit down and eat!
didn't your mother teach you that it's rude to sit in front of grandma, who is npo for the or, and eat your tacos or fried chicken? grandma can't eat and she's very hungry. please go somewhere else to eat your bagful of fast food and come visit grandma when you're done.
poppop had surgery, he's getting diuresed, his mouth is dry and all he wants is a big glass of water which he cannot have. it's rude to sit there and slurp on your big gulp in front of him.
i know you're a brand new np and all, and very proud of your degree, your knowledge base and your new prescribing priveledges. you would look every so much more professional, though, if you weren't chewing a big ole wad of gum with your mouth open and snapping, cracking, popping and blowing bubbles!
yes, the intensivist is slow, he's boring and he's old fashioned. it's excrutiating to watch him tackle the keyboard on a cow. but that's no excuse to be on the other cow shopping for stilettos during rounds! nor is it cool to be texting your husband, your best friend, or your husband's best friend instead of paying attention to what the nurse has to say.
i know you graduated from man's best nursing school last month and that therefore you think you know everything. but please, i'd rather have you ask what you think is a really stupid question than try to give blood through a d5w carrier, use ffp as a carrier or push dilantin through tpn. and it's really not cool to give the 20 meq of kcl iv push, either!
i know that you think 15-b's 20 or so relatives who average two teeth and thirty-two tattoos each are immensely entertaining. i might think so, too, if i could get past them to take care of the patient. we have rules that state only two visitors at a time -- please enforce them. if you let all and sundry hang out in the patient room eating their kfc and drinking their big gulps (see above) and then i tell them they need to follow the rules about no food, no drinks and only two visitors at a time, i become the mean nurse. that's not fair!
i appreciate that you're 30 years younger than me and ever so much more good looking than i ever dreamed of being. that does not mean, however, that it's cool to roll your scrub pants down to your hips so that your thong pokes out the top even when you're not bending over. nor is the push-up bra that's spilling the girls out your v neck very professional, either!
please hang up the cell phone so i can assess you. please get off facebook -- you're sitting in my chair and using my computer and that's just not cool. and please, if you work here, come and help me clean up poop even if the packers are winning in the next room!
Beat this for the ultimate example of selfish rudeness.
I was working on a very busy, and terribly understaffed surgical ward, some patients on there really should have been in HDU as they had undergone very major surgeries such as oesophagectomy and colostomy.
One day a patient who had a resection for colon cancer and formation of a stoma came back to the ward and his vitals were awful. Low BP, rising heart rate, confused and hypoxic.
I fast-bleeped the surgical team and we got to work with fluids, oxygen the works.
In the middle of the emergency (this was a six bed bay) an patient in the bed opposite who MUST have been aware of what was happening took it upon himself to open the curtains and whine at me "I need my toe dressing done. I'm diabetic you know"
The Registrar in charge of the crashing patient yelled at him to get out.
We stabilised the patient, transferred him to CCU and I left that shift more than 2 hours late then has 3 days off.
Upon my return to the ward the Sister pulled me up. The toe-dressing patient had made a complaint. Sister asked "Why didn't you ask another nurse to help?" Er well now let's see...perhaps because the only two others were also frantically busy.
I left that hospital not long after and now work in a much better one.
Yes, we have semi private rooms so most people have one roommate. I will never forget the lady who was having a severe asthma attack who I was attending to, along with my aides. Her roommate kept whining the background, "Can't you come here and take care of me? I'm wet and I need to be changed." Her roommate is totally with it, has use of all her senses (including hearing, so she could hear this woman gasping for breath). Yeah. I haven't been reprimanded for something like that though. I probably would have looked at the person reprimanding me blankly and said, "Ok so let me get this. Next time I'll let the person die if another patient wants me for something else? Ok will remember that." Hehe.
I was also chased down the hallway by a resident's husband as I was running toward another resident who had fallen out of her w/c face down and had broken her nose and was bleeding all over the place and had knocked herself out. Hubby wanted me to put down the bleeding, unconscious resident because his wife wanted a drink of water. The woman was in a common area so it wasn't like he couldn't see what was going on. Yeah.....
I am amazed by a lot of things since beginning to work in health care. One of the things I'm astounded by is other people's sense of entitlement and self importance and selfishness.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
maybe you should not have to ask ,but rather or not you are struggling or "gasping" common courtesy toward vistors go a lot further that just stepping on their feet or ignoring them like they are not there especially when the visitors are a member of the patient's family ,now in the case of an emergency maybe not ,but under normal circumstances common courtesy counts.
yep. that was my whole point. common courtesy counts -- and we are often on the receiving end of discourtesy. visitors are become more and more discourteous to the nursing staff, and that's what this thread is about.
It somehow seems the ignorant ones are ALWAYS the most arrogant. IE: the family of obvious stoners/gang members completly ignoring the Contact Isolation rules. 6 family members in the room, not 1 gowned or gloved; and 1 with socked feet in an isolation room of an MRSA pt! Not to mention the 3 month old infant "who just had to see Grandma", and is resting on the floor.
Called them all out, explained the rules and reasons; they all just laughed, said "You can't tell us what to do", and re-entered the room.
And the families that have apparently been to the University of the Internet, who want to argue with the doctors/nurses/anyone about the treatment plan, because that's not the way things are done in Helsinki.
All you can do is restate the facts, document the heck out of it, and call Security when you find public health to be endangered.
It somehow seems the ignorant ones are ALWAYS the most arrogant. IE: the family of obvious stoners/gang members completly ignoring the Contact Isolation rules. 6 family members in the room, not 1 gowned or gloved; and 1 with socked feet in an isolation room of an MRSA pt! Not to mention the 3 month old infant "who just had to see Grandma", and is resting on the floor.
Called them all out, explained the rules and reasons; they all just laughed, said "You can't tell us what to do", and re-entered the room.
And the families that have apparently been to the University of the Internet, who want to argue with the doctors/nurses/anyone about the treatment plan, because that's not the way things are done in Helsinki.
All you can do is restate the facts, document the heck out of it, and call Security when you find public health to be endangered. BOY that is REAL Ignorance ,especially having the baby in the room
Yes, they do that, and worse. I once had to gently explain to a staff member why it was NOT a good idea to wear thin white scrub pants and go Commando. Seriously. NO UNDIES!!!
Ha ha! I worked with a surgeon who didn't wear underpants/jocks when operating in his scrubs, and I said to him one day "You know, those scrubs are really REALLY thin and a bit see-through!" He just laughed and said he didn't mind the nurses perving on him - he was so funny and carefree, he made my day!
I probably would have looked at the person reprimanding me blankly and said, "Ok so let me get this. Next time I'll let the person die if another patient wants me for something else? Ok will remember that." Hehe.
I HAVE said this before and more than once.
Guess what, these ultra-selfish types don't give a flying fling.
True story: I once had an assignment consisting of a dying man and an old selfish bat. Old Bat chewed me out when I came into her room (even after I: gave her a courteous "heads-up" that I could not be in her room at our pre-determined time and that I'd come straight to her, first, after I dealt with "an issue" AND I, politely and sincerely, apologized for her wait and the thanked her for being "patient"!! Hmph!!)
WELL, let me tell you, I wasted my goodwill and breath on this cookie. Usually, this approach diffuses even the worst of moods in people, but not her.
Ooooooooooooooooh noooooooooooooo.
I was chewed up and spit out.
Controlling my temper (no easy feat) I explained to her that her neighbor down the hall was dying and had died.
Her response, "Well, he was dying! I was alive and I wanted to go to bed. You should have been HERE!"
Guess what, these ultra-selfish types don't give a flying fling.
True story: I once had an assignment consisting of a dying man and an old selfish bat. Old Bat chewed me out when I came into her room (even after I: gave her a courteous "heads-up" that I could not be in her room at our pre-determined time and that I'd come straight to her, first, after I dealt with "an issue" AND I, politely and sincerely, apologized for her wait and the thanked her for being "patient"!! Hmph!!)
WELL, let me tell you, I wasted my goodwill and breath on this cookie. Usually, this approach diffuses even the worst of moods in people, but not her.
Ooooooooooooooooh noooooooooooooo.
I was chewed up and spit out.
Controlling my temper (no easy feat) I explained to her that her neighbor down the hall was dying and had died.
Her response, "Well, he was dying! I was alive and I wanted to go to bed. You should have been HERE!"
She was a very lovely woman.
And I'm sure you could be heard muttering something under your breath like "Yeah and if you don't shut up now, I'll have 2 dead pt's! OMG, WHY do we even BOTHER!
OMG, WHY do we even BOTHER!
DizzyLizzyNurse
1,024 Posts
yes, we are now allowed to wear black ones as well.