Annoyed that public doesn't know what nurses do?

[UM Review RN]

I've read here in many, many threads that we're dismayed, annoyed, and bewildered that the general public doesn't understand what we do.

So I have a question for all of you--

are you telling them?

and for our collective benefit, HOW are you telling them? Please share so that we may all teach our patients about who we are as nurses and what we really do.

My patients get detailed admission teachings on medications, labs (what certain ones are targeted to do and when they can expect to get them), and treatments. They're encouraged to call me for changes in symptoms and for pain control.

Here's something I learned to tell them from some of these threads and thoughts from other nurses:

At a certain point in the admission, I point to my badge and show them where to look for our name and license designation, and explain that nurses are LPNs and RNs, and that we or their doctor are best able to answer questions about medications, tests, or treatments, and it was important to identify who their nurse was as opposed to say, the housekeeper or the unit secretary since we all wear scrubs.

Almost without exception, these patients will pretend that they already knew that, but I can tell that they did not.

I make it a point to explain that the tech will be assigned to help with getting to the bathroom, taking vital signs, and things like that, while I'll be giving medications and consulting with their doctor about changes in symptoms.

My goal is to teach all of my patients some functions of nurses today and how to identify the nurse in the hospital setting as being part of an informed healthcare consumer.

I need to thank those of you at Allnurses who shared in the threads about public perception of nursing. They've really been a springboard for changing the way I talk to my patients and how I educate them throughout their stay in the hospital. But there are always more ways to do this, and I would appreciate your thoughts. So don't be shy....

Please share how you are teaching your patients what nurses do as you care for them throughout their stay.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

This is one of the best ideas I have heard yet, thank you, I will implement it.

Thank you. That's just one of the ways you can let your hospital's scripting program work for the profession.

[lindarn]

You seem determined to be argumentative on a thread that hasn't called for it. Once again, this thread does not ask if nurses have been disempowered or deskilled or are invisible. The question presumes those facts and moves on to effect a solution.

Still, I will answer your question in the hopes that at some point, you will answer mine.

At my hospital, techs do not give medications. Yes, they are allowed to insert Foleys and D/C IV lines. However, that's purely the nurse's prerogative. If I don't feel that the tech is up to the skill, or if I feel that the skill is beyond any tech's expertise, I do it.

It was not my intent to be argumentative. I was merely questioning how a nurses aide could perform a professional skill, that I have always felt was only allowed to be done by a professional nurse. I personally have never worked in a LTC Facility, and never will, as long as other nurses seem to think that it is OK to hand over professional responsibilities to un- licensed personnel. No wonder the public is confused as to the role of the Registered Nurse. The way you see it, "we' can delegate just about any aspect of our professional practice to a nurses aide. We wonder why it is such a hard sell to administrative that we are truly professionals, and we are worth the higher pay, etc., and it is wrong to de- skill nursing. We wonder why they laugh in our face. We hand over our jobs to whoever we want, as long as "we" trained them and think that it is acceptable. And makes our jobs and lives easier.

I, for one, do not apologize for sounding annoyed at professional, licensed, nurses handing over our jobs to others. This includes the nurses who work in LTC and ALF who co- sign the med sheets for these "med aides", and take the responsibility for them. They allow the institutions to do this to us, and become "enablers". If this keeps up, they will find no reason to continue to hire RN's for jobs, and will continue to cut up our practice. How exactly do you propose to "educate" and "validate" to the the public about what we do, that care by an RN is special, and worthy of the cost. That we are worth what the pubic pays for our services, when it seems that ANYONE CAN DO OUR JOB, REGARDLESS OF THEIR QUALIFICATIONS. Just see what a Physical Therapists allows the PT Assistants to do, or what would happen to a PT Assistant if they tried to perform the professional skills of a Physical Therapist. Or if the school districts tried to allow Teachers aides to teach classes. I do not apologize for upholdng the standards of the profession. I have been a nurse for 30 years, and have seen it all. I started as a Diploma grad, as well. I do know what I am talking about.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

The way you see it, "we' can delegate just about any aspect of our professional practice to a nurses aide.

Actually, we used to be able to delegate quite a bit more to the aides. It's tightened up over the years, IMO.

But to get back to the original question, which I've re-posted here so that we can remember what it was, in thirty years, I'm sure you have had some experience that you can share with us:

I've read here in many, many threads that we're dismayed, annoyed, and bewildered that the general public doesn't understand what we do.

So I have a question for all of you--

are you telling them?

and for our collective benefit, HOW are you telling them? Please share so that we may all teach our patients about who we are as nurses and what we really do.

[tommycher]

I did not know "what nurses do" until I was almost out of nursing school, and was "doing it" without even thinking about it! I get frustrated at times on the floor and think to myself that a patient's family just does not "know what nurses do" when they get mad that I did not arrive in a family member's room within 15 seconds of an overhead page. I, of course, was tending to another patient who needed me, and knew I had very recently medicated that pt to whose room I was being called, had already spent entirely too much time talking to different family members regarding this patient who was stable with no immediate problems. Then, to my dismay, family member goes room to room to hunt me down while I was charting the just completed procedure on the patient who needed me, and this family member wants to know why I was not coming when called!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO THEY THINK THIS IS THE HILTON AND I AM A WAITRESS?

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

If i have the time i MIGHT tell them.

The typical response is a bored look.

[mattsmom81]

If i have the time i MIGHT tell them.

The typical response is a bored look.

Yup...sad isn't it....all they care about is that we do what makes them happy and gets them 'their way'.:stone

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Actually, we used to be able to delegate quite a bit more to the aides. It's tightened up over the years, IMO.

But to get back to the original question, which I've re-posted here so that we can remember what it was, in thirty years, I'm sure you have had some experience that you can share with us:

Although it is good to redirect us to the original intent of this thread, I still find myself amazed that someone besides the RN or LVN put a foley cath in or takes a blood sugar or D/C's an IV.

That would never happen where I work.

Maybe another thread on this issue . . . giving away our nursing duties to unlicensed staff. Like the medication aides - although I realize there are many such threads.

Still, I'm amazed . . .and glad to read lindarn's posts.

steph

[z's playa]

Although it is good to redirect us to the original intent of this thread, I still find myself amazed that someone besides the RN or LVN put a foley cath in or takes a blood sugar or D/C's an IV.

That would never happen where I work.

Maybe another thread on this issue . . . giving away our nursing duties to unlicensed staff. Like the medication aides - although I realize there are many such threads.

Still, I'm amazed . . .and glad to read lindarn's posts.

steph

What kind of hospital lets that happen? Yikes !

Hey ! I wanna fly a plane !

License? NAAW!!! Don't need one.

Z

[kadokin, ASN, RN]

I did not know "what nurses do" until I was almost out of nursing school, and was "doing it" without even thinking about it! I get frustrated at times on the floor and think to myself that a patient's family just does not "know what nurses do" when they get mad that I did not arrive in a family member's room within 15 seconds of an overhead page. I, of course, was tending to another patient who needed me, and knew I had very recently medicated that pt to whose room I was being called, had already spent entirely too much time talking to different family members regarding this patient who was stable with no immediate problems. Then, to my dismay, family member goes room to room to hunt me down while I was charting the just completed procedure on the patient who needed me, and this family member wants to know why I was not coming when called!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO THEY THINK THIS IS THE HILTON AND I AM A WAITRESS?

why yes, yes they do! But seriously . . . they are in distress and wanting to know just how far from death their loved one is (as if we could make that prediction!). If you're able, cut them some slack and try to be as informative and reassuring as you can, if not . . . chalk it up to doing the best you can w/the limited resources that you have and pat yourself on the back for being as creative and resourceful as you can under the circumstances. Best of luck to you and yours. And don't forget to tell them what exactly a nurse does in the course of the day, while you're at it. Or, if nothing else, what you are doing for their loved one, i.e.-monitoring labs, ivs, output, vital signs, heart and lung performance, appetite, anything that will impress them. Just a suggestion

[rach_nc_03]

Our CNA's don't do any of that . . .it is all nursing. Can't imagine a CNA putting in a foley as I've never heard of it except on allnurses.

Funny how different everyone's experiences are.

steph

in NC, a CNA II can insert and remove foley catheters, d/c IV's (but can't insert them), do bedside blood glucose testing, and all the other tasks the previous poster mentioned. it varies from unit to unit even in the same facility. i was a CNA II in an adult ICU while i was in nursing school, and I did all of the above tasks regularly. i'm in a PICU now as an RN, and our CNA II only stocks our bedside carts and covers the phones when the unit secretary is away from her desk.

[rach_nc_03]

What kind of hospital lets that happen? Yikes !

Hey ! I wanna fly a plane !

License? NAAW!!! Don't need one.

Z

sorry- not to hijack the thread, but my current unit is the *only* place i've seen where the bedside blood glucose testing was done by the RN and *not* the CNA- don't know if it's unit policy, or that the unit CNA's we currently have aren't capable of doing them safely.

to answer z's question, i work in a university hospital that's a level-1 trauma center where this is standard policy. the other level-1 trauma center in the area, where i had most of my clinicals during school, had this policy as well.

to dovetail back into the current thread....

yes, most people have no clue what nurses do. in my CNA job, during my morning rounds i'd empty foleys, do urine dips, blood sugars, and whatever vitals weren't being pulled off the monitor. 99% of the time, if a family member was present, they'd ask, 'are you the nurse for dad?' I'd always say, 'no; I'm the nursing assistant for this unit; missy is your dad's nurse today. you'll probably see me in and out of the room a lot, as i assist missy with x, y and z.'

i will say, though, that it seems the families of our pediatric ICU patients are the exception to this rule. since we're in the room with their child through 99% of the shift, they pretty much get to watch live-action nursing. When they have questions, they ask their child's nurse the majority of the time, the exception being specifics of upcoming surgeries, etc., when the attending md for that service steps in. i think icu patients and their families are probably the best-informed laypeople about what nurses actually do, since they see us first-hand, but even then, they may not realize the nurse might have 2 patients, so the same problems can occur.

[kadokin, ASN, RN]

Please understand that this thread's purpose is not to debate whether or not nurses are powerless victims or whether or not it is possible to educate patients about the role of nurses in the healthcare environment. It is.

The question is how you are personally trying to meet that goal in your practice.

Thanks for keeping on track and just answering the question, folks.

This might not meet other's standard's, but here is what I do..I don't sit idle. If there is not something demanding my attention at the nurse's station. . .Phone calls to and from drs, family, ancillary dep'ts; charting; med pass, staffing, etc. (you know what I'm talking about), I am w/the pt/family. Teaching them about their illness, how to cope w/it, their medication, their diagnotic procedures, their disch planning, meeting their comfort needs, etc. I have found that the best way to educate anyone is TO SHOW THEM. Talk is cheap and easily forgotten if it is ever learned at all.