i swear, visitors have gotten dumber and nastier over the years! used to be the majority of them were pleasant and grateful to you for helping mom, dad or whoever. now those pleasant folks seem to be vastly outnumbered!
yesterday, i was caring for a very sick man with multiple infected wounds which were getting wet to dry dressings. our practice is to open a bottle of sterile saline, date and time it, and then use it for 24 hours. yesterday afternoon, i happened to be standing outside the room talking to the resident when i noticed the patient's wife take an oral swab out of his mouth, open up the bottle of sterile saline, dip the swab in, and then stick it back in his wife. i stood there with my jaw hanging on the floor, wondering how many times she'd done that, and whether we'd just figured out why every wound was infected and none of them were getting better.
when i went into the room, i explained to her about sterile dressing changes, and how the bottle was sterile saline, the consequences of using contaminated saline for a wet to dry dressing change, etc. her response was to swear up and down she hadn't dipped the oral swab into the bottle. "i poured the water over the swab," she said.
"that's not water," i explained.
"yes it is," she said. "it looks just like water and i don't want to use dirty old faucet water in his mouth."
you'd think people would be more cautious about putting something in their loved one's mouth if they don't even know what it is! you'd think if you explained the consequences of contaminated saline, they'd be quick to admit that it was contaminated rather than risk you using it on their loved one. you'd think they'd believe you when you tell them what's in the bottle.
Another nurse on the floor had a patient whose son is a doctor. The doctor (no connection to the facility other than his mother) wrote 4 prescriptions for his mother, filled them, and brought them back and placed on mother's bedside table without informing anyone.
Woohee- I think I've (finally) found a big aspect of nursing in Germany that is lots and lots better than the states----Patients and their families really have a ton of respect when they are in the hospital. On my unit, what the nurses (and supportive doctors) say, goes. If a family member acts up, then out the door they go. This has been the same for every unit I've ever been on. And no open-end visiting hours. Only if somebody is dying are exceptions made.
Another nurse on the floor had a patient whose son is a doctor. The doctor (no connection to the facility other than his mother) wrote 4 prescriptions for his mother, filled them, and brought them back and placed on mother's bedside table without informing anyone.
Woohee- I think I've (finally) found a big aspect of nursing in Germany that is lots and lots better than the states----Patients and their families really have a ton of respect when they are in the hospital. On my unit, what the nurses (and supportive doctors) say, goes. If a family member acts up, then out the door they go. This has been the same for every unit I've ever been on. And no open-end visiting hours. Only if somebody is dying are exceptions made.
The more of these posts I read, the luckier I feel to be working in the OR. We have little family contact and when we do, it's usually to go out to the waiting room(thank the Lord for waiting rooms!) and give them a heads up. Most of them are pleasant at that point because they're grateful that you kept them in the loop. Hospitals truly need to fix the whole "family knows best" problem because it speeds up burnout. I also hate how they want you to call patients "clients" or even worse, "customers". I refuse to do it because it plays into the whole problem. What's next, a "money back guarantee" if your loved one doesn't pull through?
I thought we left "client" back in nursing school? CPA's have "clients" and you can find "customers" at Wendy's!
The sad thing is that so many of these family members are SO VERY IGNORANT, and even worse, they don't care that they are. Did you ever want to shake a visitor and shout "WAKE UP!!"
We have so many issues with visitors, particularly the "under 14" rule. Amazing how many people totally miss the very LARGE sign on the entrance doors to the unit. I work on OB -- it's mind boggling how many people try to sneak toddlers into the birthing rooms! Or, how families want to throw a freaking party in the recovery room minutes after mom has come from the OR following a c-section. The PACU downstairs does not let families in, why do we? Last time I checked, a c-section was a major surgery. (They've yet to answer this one for me...)
I had a patient that went into HF. She came to us from a surgical ward and was query HF, swollen so bad I thought she was going to float away and trouble breathing. So she comes over from the surgical ward with tons of IVF's running fast. Don't know what they were thinking because she could eat and drink. Smews was there with me and we stopped her IVF,s put her on o2 and explained to her family why. Five minutes later they were down the ward telling a doctor sitting at the desk that we were trying to kill their mother by dehydrating her, and they wanted her fluids back up immediately.
Anyway she was so overloaded it with fluid, that was the problem. She was fine a few days later and went home actually. She was nice but her family was nuts.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i work in a ccu and we have huge visitor problems- well i guess that comes from the fact that we have visitor rules.
the charge nurse told me we don't change nurses on pt and family presence; after talking to the wife she decided it was safer for everyone involved to switch. i know she was just projecting , but really.... i had to share, sorry it is soo long.
i sympathsize. i've been through similar circumstances -- only i've never had a charge nurse stand up for me the way yours did. usually, they just "fire" the nurse the minute the family starts to squawk. no matter how silly the squawking was.
I think it may be a general lack of understanding of what is really the function of a hospital. I saw this first hand with my sister-in-law when her father was in the hospital....sort of just misinterpreted everything. When you are misreading events around you and at the same time are going through a great loss, well, I guess it is just understandable in some ways. If the nurse addresses the issue calmly, and tries to explain the whats and wherefors....it can help. Did not help her much for some reason, she is not much of a listener, but I did feel badly for her.
About the only smart thing my facility has done - put numeric locks on the kitchen, breakroom and medroom doors. You want in? You'll have to ask us; we'll get it for you. (Unless of course you're one of the visitors early on that were told the code by one of the NA's. I reamed that former staff members butt out big time when a MRSA/VRE patient (caught in the process of digging through the kitchen fridge for a snack) ratted out the person who gave her the code number)
Nasty.
I honestly don't think of these people as nasty, so much as floor and rooting through Meemaw's trash can one more time, I'm going to lose it.
My hospital has no age restriction but we have protected meal times restricted visiting 1hr after lunch and 1.5 after tea(evening meal) except if patients critically ill.
We have a strict 2 vistiors to patients no sitting on other patients beds they are not to use the ward toilets and to wash their hands. Still have ignorant visitors demanding to be catered 4.
The worst i saw was a new born visiting his dad on a ENT wars, and dad laid him on his chest while being treated for bleeding post toncillectomy he had several units and IVabx, who bleed the consultant felt was partly due to smoking. This patient was a PITA in general going off the ward to smoke and had no couersty when we where monitoring his obs while the transfusion where up i know its crap being ill but didhe have to look like he considered the nurisng staff beneath him.
Drysolong
512 Posts
Another nurse on the floor had a patient whose son is a doctor. The doctor (no connection to the facility other than his mother) wrote 4 prescriptions for his mother, filled them, and brought them back and placed on mother's bedside table without informing anyone.