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Nurses General Nursing

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:( I AM SO MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dear friend is in the hopsital with pneumonia. She is a 78 y/o who is caring for her husband of 56 years, in hospice care with terminal Ca, her only son and child, 52 years old, also in hopsice care is living with Lou Gehrig"s Disease (ALS). She under an incredible amount of stress and fragile.

She called me this morning to tell me of a "situation" she experienced in the middle of the noc.

She told me that about 3 a.m. she was having a difficult time sleeping due to the " goings on" outside her window. She pressed her call light, yet no one came to check. She believed the noise to be related to "teenagers" "because of the vulgarity they were using honey" She also concluded that they were unwelcome guests to the hospital. She called 911, the police responded and told her "well, we didn't find any teenagers, but we did find some nurses". in attendance was a nurse who proceeded to scold and yell at her, telling her things like, "don't you know what a call light is?, I can't believe you don't have enough sense and called the police, we handle our own business here, we heard you on the scanner!" My friend in defense and in her right said, " I am a patient of this hospital, I am a paying customer, I am NOT stupid, besides I figured the people who answered call lights, did not have ears. My friend was very intimidated and upset.

:crying2: What she said next, broke my heart. she said "I am going to be a widow soon, and maybe even sooner than that, I am going to be alone, what am I going to do if I get sick, where will I go."

My understanding is that an "incident report" was written, but only that the incident occured.

My poor friend, she did not need this.:crying2:

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She sure didn't need that kind of treatment! That poor woman has enough on her plate. She should write a letter to the hospital president and demand action be taken. I wish her the best! She is going to hell and back with her husband and son right now.

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Specializes in MS Home Health.

Wow do I feel bad for your friend. She has way to much sadness going on in her life................................that was a very good thing to happen to her either. Is she going to be able to go home?

renerian

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Renerian,

My concern this morning was that she was going to be asked to be discharged, and she said "I'm going home today, one way or another, even if I have to yank this thing out of my arm myself"

I pray, she is not d/c'd too early for one reason or another.

She sounds and looks much better, she is such a sweetie!!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

What about YOU calling public relations in that hospital. This poor little lady needs an advocate!!! That is just horrid how she was treated. Please, please call.

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Originally posted by traumaRUs

What about YOU calling public relations in that hospital. This poor little lady needs an advocate!!! That is just horrid how she was treated. Please, please call.

YES! Walk up in there with a big ass purse, too.

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Renerian,

Could you go, on her behalf and speak to the director of this particular department???

Once when a family friend was in the hospital, her IV became infiltrated and an ignorant nurse told her it couldn't possible hurt, "unless she was picking at it!"

After hearing this, my mom went straight to the directors office and reported this nurse. The director was very nice, but acted like she couldn't care less, but I know that the shite hit the fan because I heard about it when I was at work the following weekend! They never knew that I knew this patient.

It is worth a try!! I would also write a letter to the hospital president and contact the patient advocate.

Good Luck and may God bless your friend! She is lucky to have you on her side caring for her!

Gator

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Originally posted by traumaRUs

What about YOU calling public relations in that hospital.

Done that!, that's when I was told, and incident report was filed, well, I wanted more, I wanted a guarantee that no one else would have to experience such a thing. That would be the ideal, I want an apology from the nurse to my friend, and I want her to feel like she can go there, if she needs to.

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You have every right to be mad and file a complaint. Why is it that some nurses act so unprofessional? My gran is in the hosp right now and I was shocked at the things I saw and heard just on her floor. Hearing the "F" word more than once, definitely was shocking. I could write even more about the nursing care she received, but thats another story. It is very sad.

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I would go right to the top dog, the administrator. That is how I get things accomplished. (Like when maintenance doesn't want to come fix a TV in a pt.'s room because it 4:15pm). One call to the top dog, and the TV was fixed by 5pm. Our hospital is small so our administrator knows about everyone in the facility from the laundry department to the DON. Is this facility JCAHO accredited? You could go that route also. We just had an incident a couple of weekends ago with our night shift and pt care. I left a note for our nurse manager and the poop hasn't stopped hitting the fan yet. :chair: Someone needs to be an advocate for this lady. You go girl!!!

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If administration isn't helpful then try the Quality Management/Risk Dept. Good luck!

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Why not let her go home? Medicare will pay for everything she needs at home, if she can possibly get along without an IV (medicare, last I heard, wouldn't pay for home IVs.) She can have nurses in there everyday, she can get respiratory and occupational and physical therapies at home, she can get meals on wheels, she can get her meds delivered, and someone to hand them to her if needed. She can get a personal aide to come in and help her with her ADLs, or just be with her 24-hours a day if needed. Someone to do her shopping and laundry, all Medicare billable. All that she needs is the DOC to write the orders for home health care and the orders for all the above. Not a perfect solution, but I'll bet you that she'd get better care. She'd feel more comfortable and not have to worry about the IDIOTS on the night shift!

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