Are you my waitress today?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

:madface: I work in an oncology clinic and this was the question ask to me. How would you have responded? :nono: My response was "I did not go to school for 10 years to be called a waitress. I am now 4 courses away from my second master's degree in nursing so I can provide you the best care possible. What do you need."

Tell me how you deal with these kind of comments.

To me, I see a difference in the way the public perceives nursing since they have become customers instead of patients. May account for the number of years passed and the increase demand on what nurses do.

To be fair, what most have seen nurses do is from TV shows. Not sure how much people get from even the higher tech shows, and always a dr around like in ER. (some of those shows are so way over the top we know they aren't true)

Also, from the patients point of view, We are both (waitress and nurse) in the field of service.

My response would depend upon how the patient said what he did: smarty or ignorant.

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Specializes in L&D.
Maybe I think oddly, but if someone asked if I was his waitress today, my first reaction would be to assess his mental status!! LOL...I would seriously, honestly and immediately say "did you say waitress? Do you know where you are today, sir? What day is it?"

LOL!

I was reading through this post seeing if anyone else was going to say that. That's exactly what I would've done. Then, if the patient was AAOx3, I would've probed further into the nature of the comment. I probably would've laughed it off. I might even have said, (while laughing) "Depends. Are you going to tip me?"

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Specializes in ER, CCU.

I'm a nursing student and a Tech at a local ED and i was reading through the rules of the ER and i came across this and it reminded me of this thread so here it is....

Physicians and nurses are not waiters. We are not customer service representatives. This is not McDonalds, and you very well may NOT have it your way. Our job is to save your life, or at least make you feel better. If you want a pillow, two blankets, the lights dimmed, and the TV on channel 14, go to the Ramada.

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My sister is a nurse also and once told me the story of a patient who said " this is the worst hotel, I mean hospital I've ever been to "....

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I'm a nursing student and a Tech at a local ED and i was reading through the rules of the ER and i came across this and it reminded me of this thread so here it is....

Physicians and nurses are not waiters. We are not customer service representatives. This is not McDonalds, and you very well may NOT have it your way. Our job is to save your life, or at least make you feel better. If you want a pillow, two blankets, the lights dimmed, and the TV on channel 14, go to the Ramada.

Unfortunately, there are hospitals out there that promote this view. You have the customer satisfaction survey's that come back with a complaint about the "service" they received and the staff are reminded that the patient's are the customers and we must keep them happy.

tvccrn

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
My sister is a nurse also and once told me the story of a patient who said " this is the worst hotel, I mean hospital I've ever been to "....

It's so easy to confused the two nowadays.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

I had TWO examples of this last night!!!

Pt one: "Why the h*ll are people constantly comming in here, and why did my waitress bring this grilled cheese sandwich that looks 100 years old? Don't they care what they feed their customers?" Yep..check mental status and her pulse ox was 74% and she was not oriented to date, location! After I got her O2 bumped up and re-oriented her..she was fine..but still said the sandwich looked 100 years old..LOL!

Pt two. "That waitress, nurse, oh whatever she is came in to take my vital signs and didn't even tell me if I was alive or dead, what my vital signs were, and didn't refill my water bottle! I don't know where you guys get off hiring people off the streets that don't even have the ability to tell me what oxygen is...you should be ashamed of this place! I pay good money in taxes and insurance to be here...I want quality not vagabonds doing my care! Put her back on the street where she belongs...maybe she can prostitute herself and get a dime or two!"

This one was a bad one! Actually I had worked with this pt as a nurse at the facility he lives in for 4 years...and he was always a very happy man and did things to please others..this was horrid to watch and hear for me...starting the dementia phase...it hurt! However...thankfully he remembers and trusts me dearly, and I tried to re-orient him...he knew where he was....and didn't care what the difference in staff is!

No, I didn't go there on the whole medicare paying his hospitalization...wouldn't have made any difference. But I did get on him very sternly about calling the CNA a bad name (which he did to her face..the B word!), and reminding him that I was in the room and heard her address him, state her status, told him his vs, and also had a nice coverstation about the earthquakes in Hawaii (which the pt had family there and actually got through to them and they were fine). He just forgot!

Didn't help, and I told the CNA that she was free of any care of him from this day forward! I would handle it! (and yes...I did the whole deal with documentation, calling the MD, filling out an incident report, and talking to my charge! Then thoughout the shift I talked to him about his inappropriateness, and that yes, you have the right to complain, but do it through the RN on duty so the complaint can be handled according to the facilities policy, and to never treat another human being like that!).

My GOSH, is this what some people think of us staff? Prostitutes who are better off on the streets?

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Specializes in Cardiac Interventions/Surgery/ CCU.

I don't believe there is enough community education about what nurses do. I myself before beginning in nursing school and this profession had no real idea what nurses did everyday. I believed it was someone who administered medications and in all honest reality nurses are in charge of all the care for patients and patients don't realize that. Unfortunately this thought is what turns nurses into the "glorified waitresses" and we end up spending most of our days doing just that.

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"Only if you're planning to tip me 15% of your total hospital bill!"

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I actually know a couple people who left nursing to become wait staff at places like The Outback. GREAT TIPS and very LITTLE liability or liklihood of being sued for making an error in their work performance.
Until a few years ago when there was a nursing crisis at cape cod, nurses would leave this profession and become waitresses for the summer...then go back to nursing after the summer. Does that sum it up?
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Specializes in Pediatrics.
My sister is a nurse also and once told me the story of a patient who said " this is the worst hotel, I mean hospital I've ever been to "....

There is a commercial out for a local hospital now that says "Spacious lobby... comfortable chairs... excellent cuisine... (etc etc)... A five-star hotel? No- XXX Hospital!!" Makes me want to puke every time I see it... and I know I'm not quoting it right, but it's really obnoxious, all about the "amenities" and hardly anything about the care, if anything at all.

As to the original question, I think I'd be sort of taken aback and get a confused look on my face before I could think of an answer... I'm not good at hiding my reactions from my face sometimes. I would just think it odd for someone to ask that question rather than be upset by it I think, esp. if I hadn't introduced myself as the nurse... but still think it weird for ANYONE to think they have a "waitress" in the hospital.

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Specializes in Emergency, Outpatient.

OP here. Little more background.

The lady was in her mid to late 40's not confused. She has commented many times how much nicer the cancer center is in New Jersey. How everyone has private rooms. Our chemo room is large and open with a baby grand piano and a large waterfall built against a glass window (very nice, very swanky, if that is a word). She is hypercritical of everything.

I bit my tongue to keep from asking why she does not go back to the nicer place, but the waitress comment really got me. She came in for fluids, her waitress assessed her, obtained a u/a, started a IV and gave her decadron for nausea. She is not confused. She was trying to be cute in a derogatory way, and I was not in the mood. BTW, even her girlfriend looked horrified at her comment. I don't think I misinterpreted her meaning at all.

Reflecting about this I think it is probably due to her anger at have cancer and she is using everything and everyone to vent her rage.

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