There's a time and place for sure!! Personally, I'd rather my nurse quietly slip in my room during the night and just do what needs to be done so I can go back to sleep. None of the smiling, joking, whatever!
And if a patient just received the news that they have cancer, for example, DON'T go into their room acting like Miss Mary Sunshine...
People complain for all kinds of reasons, most of which the hosptial, employer etc has no control over i.e. the wait in the ED. Where I work they are taken with a grain of salt and we have a large salt shaker just for that reason.
Aunt Susie comes in and has had a cold for 3 weeks and Cousin Mary is with her and wants her to be seen "right now" because she has to get back to what she was doing when Aunt Susie called. Someone's Uncle Tom is having severe crushing CP but Aunt Susie has already been waiting for 45 minutes prior to the arrival of the ambulance with Uncle Tom so she should go first. Oh, the man in the next room has CP? It was probably something he ate, he probably smokes and doesn''t take care of himself, or he's obese, he should have expected this, now Aunt Susie on the other hand has always taken good care of herself and she wouldn't come in unless this was a real emergency so the man with the CP can wait the same as we are. You think I'm joking? Work in an ED.
They should take those anonymous surverys and dump them in the garbage. They mean squat. If someone has a valid complaint they will call and be willing to use their name. With the anonymous surveys everything gets lumped together and often blamed on staff that has nothing to do with it...lumpy pillows, bad food, etc. are not the nurses fault. They also don't control how long the doc will be, how long x-ray will take, or control over when the lab results are coming. Things take time. This is entitlement issue is out of hand and hospitals are making it worse.
FireStarterRN, BSN, RN
3,824 Posts
Too much cheeriness can be irritating.