Being a patient, your opinions

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2008

Back in 2002, my mother experienced a very lengthy hospitalization at two different acute care hospitals as the result of end stage liver disease. She eventually underwent a life-saving liver transplantation surgery.

Her hospital stay occurred 4 years prior to me becoming a nurse. Overall, my father and I were overly pleased with the wonderful care she received from the nursing staff, physicians, therapists, specialists, dietary staff, and so on. I cannot think of anything that these healthcare workers could have done differently, because they truly were the cream of the crop. Without them, my mother's outcome would have been very poor. I still fondly remember many of the first names of these persons.

I shall mention another point. My father and I never made 'customer service' demands of the nursing staff for coffee, courtesy phone service, newspapers, snacks, etc. We never bothered the hospital staff unnecessarily, or made petty complaints about the food service. We never screamed at, sweared, or threatened any nurses.

I might be overly biased, but I think that some of today's 'entitled' family members and visitors really need to back off and allow us to do our jobs.

nrsang97, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2008

When I was hospitalized for 4 days a few years ago, I wish the docs, and RN's would have actrually been more proactive in giving me meds for the chest pain I had from bronchitis.

The pain was so bad I couldn't deep breathe and ended up with BLL atelectsis. I only had a few RN's and doctors actually medicated me.

I guess the above is harsh, but I really wasn't given anything. I am not saying I needed some morphine, but having a standing order for some adequate pain control (didn't have to be a narc either toradol would have been nice, and I would have been a much nicer pt) would have been nice.

When I am the family member I always try to keep requests to a minimum. I try to do as much my family member as possible so the staff dosen't have to.

I do have to say that when my grandpa had his CABG in 2000, he had wonderful care on all units he was in. He was in the SICU immeidately after and the care was awesome. The nurses found out I was a student and explained all his drips to me and his vent. The floor nurses were really good too. When he was on the floor and able to walk we walked him to the bathroom and back to the chair, we helped him with his meals.

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Feb 12, 2008

Some nurses and other medical personnel don't give out enough information. Also, they act as if you are inconveniencing them. Medical care is often the most expensive financial outlay a person will make during a certain month or year for many, and some staff seem to ignore that fact. They never give out information as to a more cost effective way of doing something but act as if they have a carte blanche. I also don't like it when I'm made to feel less than human for exercising my patient right to refuse any aspect of the services offered.

EmmaG, RN · Feb 12, 2008

Some nurses and other medical personnel don't give out enough information.

I found this particularly frustrating. I often heard, "oh, you're a nurse, you know ___".

Well, while I appreciate their faith in my abilities, and I don't necessarily need them to explain the rudimentary fundamentals or want to be 'talked down to'... I do expect to be informed and provided resources/information as they would for any other patient.

TazziRN, RN · Feb 12, 2008

i can only recall one negative experience. i have told this story here before: several years ago my mom went to ucsf for a coil attempt. she developed a mallory-weis tear and because of all the pre-and intraprocedure anticoags she couldn't clot. she was in pacu with blood literally gushing out of her mouth every few minutes, and the pacu nurse left me there by myself to hold mom up, hold her basin when she puked, and suction her mouth out. she knew i was a nurse and left me because of that, basically using me as free labor and not thinking that a) i don't work there and b) this is my mom!!!

my entire family has utilized ucsf at one time or another for different specialty problems and we've always been pleased. this is the only negative experience i've ever had anywhere.

BlueRidgeHomeRN · Feb 12, 2008

i found this particularly frustrating. i often heard, "oh, you're a nurse, you know ___".
well, while i appreciate their faith in my abilities, and i don't necessarily need them to explain the rudimentary fundamentals or want to be 'talked down to'... i do expect to be informed and provided resources/information as they would for any other patient.

i agree--my care was great, and my hospital "flagged" all employees and families as vip's (nice, huh? didn't matter if housekeeping or md..). :up:

i'm a preety good nurse, but not when i'm on pca morphine and sleep deprived. my nurses did a great job of gatekeeping, though..every single person i worked with was certain the:no: "no visitors" sign couldn't possibly apply to them!! post-op, i didn't want to see anyone i hadn't married or given birth to!!:scrm:

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Feb 12, 2008

When my father had a cardiac cath and a stent placement, I arrived at the hospital right as he was being wheeled back to his room. I'm in grad school and had come straight from all day on campus, blue jeans and all, so I looked like a haint. The nurse was one that I did not know, and, being unfamiliar with the protocol for Daddy's cardiologist, I asked her why he was on an Integrilin drip, concerned that there were complications. She gave me this snooty look and said "Because that's what the doctor WANTS him to have." You want to talk about seeing red.

After I grabbed my Aunt (she was headed to do Lord knows what) I said, very calmly, "Maybe I did not make myself clear. I am his daughter. I am also an RN. I asked you why he is on a medication that he is not normally on. I did not ask for a smart-mouth answer. Now, would you like to rephrase that, or would you like for me to speak with your supervisor?" She backed down and explained that this was protocol for Daddy's cardiologist, and then gave me the package insert that came with the drug. All she had to do was say that in the first place.

I usually am not so vocal, but I had been up all night, first taking Daddy to the hospital with chest pain (Papaw died at Daddy's age with an MI), then squalling through an admission ( I'm an only child and a HUGE Daddy's girl), the coming home, typing 2 papers, sitting through school the next day on tenterhooks, and flying home to see him. Had the situation been different, I would have been a bit less anxious.

EmmaG, RN · Feb 12, 2008

She knew I was a nurse and left me because of that, basically using me as free labor and not thinking that a) I don't work there and b) THIS IS MY MOM!!!

During the time my mom was ill, I made it a point NOT to advertise the fact I was a nurse. During one of her admissions for head and neck surgery, my father called me frantic because Mom was having severe respiratory distress and the nurses refused to act on it and in fact had not even come into the room to assess her.

I could hear the braying sound of her breathing in the hall as I arrived to find her bent over working frantically to take a breath, holding a pan under her chin as her saliva poured from her mouth. She couldn't swallow and she was unable to speak. She was cold, diaphorectic and blue.

I ran to the nurses station and told the nurse standing there to get the doc in to see Mom right away. She said, and I quote: "Your mother's problem is your father. He needs to leave immediately."

:angryfire

I nearly came over the desk at her. I told her that my mother was in respiratory distress with audible stridor, that she was cyanotic and diaphoretic and she had near-total airway obstruction AND if she did not get a doctor to her bedside immediately, I would find one myself.

They were in there almost before I made it back to the room. Her sats were in the 40's, and as they worked on her one of the residents looked over his shoulder and asked if I was a nurse. I just stared at him and said, "That's my mother."

Turns out she had a huge hematoma in her throat which had all but occluded her airway. Emergency surgery to drain and repair and everything came out ok.

But damn, was I ******.

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Feb 12, 2008

Had this nurse NOT made me so mad, I would not have told her that I was a nurse. However, this was the hospital I worked at, so she would have found out eventually, anyway. I can not BELIEVE that heifer said that about your Daddy. I would have unloaded on her. I think it must be a Southern thing. We just don't sit still for that. Kudos to you for keeping your cool. I'd have been in jail.

RNSC · Feb 12, 2008

found this particularly frustrating. I often heard, "oh, you're a nurse, you know ___".
Well, while I appreciate their faith in my abilities, and I don't necessarily need them to explain the rudimentary fundamentals or want to be 'talked down to'... I do expect to be informed and provided resources/information as they would for any other patient.

I too try not to tell medical professionals I'm a nurse. I'm a NICU nurse. I don't necessarily keep up with adult or even peds medicine so don't expect me to know everything about my adult dx.

I've had a couple bad expericences but the most recent involve getting test results. I had a lump in my breast removed and test for CA. I kept calling the radiologist office for the results but "she hadn't read them yet." Of course my doc was out of town for the week, I went a week and a half trying to get results. Finally my doc called me and said "Didn't you want to know the results?" I was floored. I said tried calling almost everyday.

I heard an uncomfortable pause and she said something about the way her partner runs her office. The results were fine but the waiting did nothing for my over anxious husband or me.

Susan9608 · Feb 12, 2008

I had terrible pain control both before and after an appendectomy at the hospital i worked for. They also put me in a semi-private room with a patient who had MRSA immediately after my surgery. And before my surgery, when I was in the pre-op holding area, 2 OR nurses, an anesthesiologist, and a tech all approached me and said, "Hi, I'm so-and-so and I'll be helping Dr. Lane with your gall bladder removal." Well, that was a problem because my doctor was Dr. Bell and I was having my appendix out. They didn't bother to find out who I was or what I was having done before coming to talk to me.

I had to have an argument with my nurse about pain control because she claimed my doctor had only ordered demerol IV every 6 hours. When it didn't last more than 45 minutes, I told her I needed something else and she said, "well, that's too bad because that's all you can have," So I said that she could call the doctor or I could, but one of us was calling in order to get better pain control for me. Then she miraculously found an order for vicodin to be given in between demerol doses.

When I complained about this (and many other problems) to the supervisor in the morning, the supervisor walked out of my room to the nurses station, then came back to me about 10 minutes later. She then told me she had called my night nurse at home and stated, "Well she said what you said isn't true." The supervisor then turned and walked out of my room.

I was livid. So I wrote a letter to the nurse manager of the ER, OR, floor that I was on, and the president of my particular facility, and I never got a reply. I resent the complaint about 3 months later, certified mail, and I never got a reply.

This is the hospital I work for. I seriously considered quitting to work some where else. I still consider it, when I think about what happened. And we definitely don't come here for care anymore.