so... i assisted in a code today... BUT

GrumpyRN, NP · Feb 22, 2017

I think I would have said to the family member; "Sorry, but I was busy with another patient." Don't elaborate.

If my manager then complained to me I would be asking if in future I should stop the emergency procedure to deal with minor requests and if that is what they want then can I have it in writing please.

I do not have customers - I have patients.

And yes, we get this kind of c*** in the UK as well.

DeeAngel · Feb 22, 2017

This demonstrates nicely one of the main reason I left nursing forever and no longer work. The families make it absolutely unbearable.

mushyrn, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

Whenever I am dealing with a hospitalized member of MY family, I guarantee you that I am watching everything.... and taking notes and names. I have been known to physically prevent a physician from touching my family member because he had not washed his hands. I even double-check the I&O for accuracy & make them disinfect the call light regularly. Yeah, I know - bonkers

Oh dear. You're that person. The crazy one writing everything down. We would not mesh. Lol. As a nurse, for my family, I could never be that person. I don't want to add additional stress on top of the caregivers. Make sure they are treated safely, sure, but this is ridiculous.

OyWithThePoodles, RN · Feb 22, 2017

I haven't read through all the of the comments but when I worked in the hospital if there was a code, everyone responded at first. If it was your patient, you stayed. Once the "team" arrived, unnecessary staff were asked to leave the room. Not just that, but the manager always responded and helped "watch the floor", not just for the nurse whose patient it was, but for the other staff that may be assisting.

Honestly this may be something that your unit needs to look at. In the event of a code either your manager comes out to help watch your patient or someone takes initiative to watch the floor. I know that is hard to do during emergencies, but definitely something that needs to happen so you don't have families complaining. Some will understand (as they should) that you were trying to save someone's life (for crying out loud) but others wont.

martymoose, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

I had a patient complain that his sandwich took too long to arrive because we were all coding someone. He got told we were all in the middle of a life or death situation and he told us he didn't give a flying f that someone else was dying because he was hungry. People can be truly evil and crazy. There's no fixing those psychos.

EXACTLY.....

martymoose, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

Im sorry OP, I guess next time you should call out for a change of compressors so you could go give the prn. Let's all actually imagine this conversation.

Exactly why nursing has become a BS job

BSN16 · Feb 22, 2017

Just ignore it, you didn't do anything wrong and your director should know that. Similarly, i once had a patient become angry because he was constantly pressing his call light for non-emergent things, which were all answered in a very timely manner. However, later that day i withdrew care on my other patient and was very pre-occupied with the family in that room. Patient was very upset that it took a staff member 5 whole minutes to answer his call light.

hawaiicarl, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

You should know two things here

1. Little old ladies obsess over bowel movements.

2. Nurses make the worst patients.

Cheers

calivianya, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

Just thought I'd throw this out here... several people mentioned that once the "code team" arrives, extra staff leave the room. When your unit is the staff for the code team, and no extra help is coming because you guys are the ones that go to everyone else's codes... most people that are in the room are not leaving. So it's not like lots of people get freed up because of the "code team" or whatever happens on other floors.

The longest code I ever participated in on my unit lasted >1.5 hours, just for the record. It's not like every code only takes half an hour or so. Sometimes a lot of staff are tied up for a long time.

Generally, we are staffed well enough that only nurses from the section the code is in respond to the code, but not always. If we are short staffed, we are pulling staff from all three sections of my unit to run a code. So, it may be perfectly reasonable to assume 2 ICU nurses are watching 10 ICU patients in each section. Maybe just 1 nurse watching 9 patients in the section the code is actually happening in.

I guarantee those 1-2 free staff members are going to be responding to the emergencies of the other 9 or so ICU patients they are sharing responsibility for, not the one stepdown overflow that happens to be awake and able to speak asking for colace. In fact, if anyone suggested the one free person watching many, many people on critical drips stop watching the actually sick patients to give someone a colace, I would probably laugh in that person's face and tell them they need to go work in retail because nursing is clearly a bad fit for them.

BSN16 · Feb 22, 2017

Also-to those responding about staff being freed once the code team arrives...every facility is different. Our ICU is pretty self sufficient, so usually only RT and lab show up....and maybe the house supervisor. I have personally been in a situation where only ONE person of the "code team" has came to our code when our unit was already notoriously short staffed. Just sayin

RealAmericanNurse · Feb 22, 2017

I have never seen so many nasty responses to someone who is "one of us". You all just prove the point of Nurses Eat their Young ....

Irish_Mist, BSN, RN · Feb 22, 2017

I have never seen so many nasty responses to someone who is "one of us". You all just prove the point of Nurses Eat their Young ....

You're joking, right?

Some of the responses have been helpful at best and downright asinine at worst. But no one has been nasty nor has anyone "eaten" the OP.