Being a patient, your opinions

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After having a family member hospitalized, I definitely saw things from the other side. Because I am a nurse, I knew how precious time was for my family member's nurse, therefore, I was very careful with my requests. All in all, the care was excellent.

Focus: if you have been hospitalized, or someone else in your family has been, what could the staff have done differently or what made it a positive experience?

wow emmanuel...

my adrenaline shot right up, reading your story about your mom.

i agree w/those who said you handled it well.

these nurses would have truly, first hand, experienced the plight of airway hunger, aeb me strangulating the crap out of them.

thank you God, for having manny present to protect her mom.

leslie

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Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.
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.

Sorry 'bout your Dad and hope he is alright now. However, sounds like the nurse was acting according to HPPA (sp?) standards and both of you were justifiably a little tense and snappy. Around these parts the magic words are "I am ____'s Health Care Proxy; please tell me what he is receiving. (Or if not his HCP, pt or HCP has given permission for you to be given info.) In that situation, FIRST I would get my fresh, post-cath patient settled, then speak with family if unclear that the HCP was present. It's not unheard of for a sibling who is not the HCP to demand info against the wishes of the rest of the family. If the family member wished to question or policy and speak with the supervisor, I would not consider that a threat and would be more than happy to assist them in calling her.

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I was in a hospital for over a week after radical surgery. Have seen many doctors before and after and I can honestly say that 9 out of ten doctors are only in their profession for the big bucks and lucrative kick backs disguised as gifts, trips and investments. Was treated like a thing. Race horses are treated better than most human medical patients. Nurses are grossly under appreciated. Thank you for being there and all your hard work. Most female staff in hospitals are treated like cheap third world slave labor while hospitals are laying down expensive marble floors and walls. How do they afford it and waste it when many hospitals allegedly are nonprofit organizations?(it's all a big mirage). The hospital I was at put a detoxing drug addict in the bed next to me without any security or restraints. The EMT who rolled druggie in had been punched by druggie leaving a large red bruise under his eye. The moment they left the druggie turned into a raging swearing psycho from the movie The Exorcist! I told my spouse not to leave me alone with the druggie since I would not be capable of defending myself in my condition. And this is a nice hospital in a nice town. Only when my spouse threatened staff they jumped into action before spouse could get the courtesy phone off desk. I blame administration for only taking the "business" bottom line into account by piling up patients together on one floor and not the safety of staff and regular patients who never expected to be in what looked like some psych ward at Bellevue or druggie detox center. Keep the detoxing drug addicts and mental patients far away from the physically ill patients! A five year old child coud figure that out. :uhoh3:

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my great grandmother was 92 years old and admitted into the hospital. she needed to use the restroom so the nurse helped her to the restroom AND LEFT. the nurse could have stayed with her. she fell and split her face open requiring stitches. why would the nurse help her to the restroom and leave her? if she needed help TO the restroom shouldnt she have stayed there?

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My mom was hospitalized for heart surgery. We thought it would be for 10 days and complicaitons turned it in to 21 days. I live in a different state, so the plan was for me, the daughter/nurse, to arrive about a week after surgery, in order to be there for d/c teaching and help her when she first got back home. She ended up needing a chest tube about 15 days post-op, so I had to fly back home while she was till hospitalized. This was in a very prominent hospital in Pittsburgh. The nursing care was moderate at best. I wasn't blown away at all. They were busy, and I know that, but that is not a reason to expect the daughter/nurse to do care, althought I did because no one else was. I noticed that she was getting a yeast rash between her legs, because she couldn't wipe herself after voiding because she couldn't reach that far following her surgery (aortic arch reconstruction, aortic aneurysm repair, mitral valve replacement, and pacemaker insertion). So, the first thing I did was get nystatin ordered. Obviously no one was assisting her with toileting and no one was doing any kind of a skin assessment, or that would have been caught. Another duty that became mine was to assist her to and from the bedside commode, whic was frequent, as she was taking lasix. No problem, but it made for 24-7 nursing. I wonder how whe would have been assisted had I not been present in the room for an entire week. Scary. I also kept up with her intake and ooutput, as I was also getting her drinks for her. I've been a nurse for 19 years, so I can calculate I and O. I'd give my tallies to the nurse assistants when they came by to check. However, a few times they fabricated the intake and output totals, as the MD's were reading different values form the chart than I had. I realized that several times the PM nurse assistant didn't bother to ask, she just made up some numbers. Not too wise, especially when mom's lungs were filling up with fluid, and eventually required the chest tube. Unbalanced I/O would have been a clue there. I didn't mind making a bed every day, but I drew the line when they expected me to also bathe her. I figured I was doing most of the nurse assistant's job anyway, the least they could do was bathe her when she was out of bed, and I'd make the bed when she was up in the chair for her bath. I got dirty looks from staff regarding mom's bath. Totally unprofessional. After the PM shift change at 6:30, it was often 3-4 hours until our nurse would appear and introduce herself. Nice. Not sure what kind of breath sounds they were hearing, but one night, I was awakened by mom wheezing so audibly that it woke me up. I asked her how she felt, and she told me her chest was tight. SO I ran to the nurses station to tell them she was in respiratory distress and to get an respiratory therapist down there. I really felt like she was not being given the attention that she deserved by nurses. I also realized that vital signs were not being checked at MN and 4am, as the bp cuff was tied to the bedrail and that my reclining chair was smack up against that rail and the wall, so no one could have used it unless they moved me out of the way. Again, vital signs were fabricated by nurse assistants. When I realized that her hospitalization was a disaster, and that my time in Pittsburgh was coming to an end soon, and that I did not want to leave mom with inattentive nursing staff, I asked her permission to take some of our complaints up the chain of command on the unit. She wasn't initially eager to do so, as she didn't want them to take it out on her when I left, but she eventually changed her mind and let me talk with the patient care associate, then the charge nurse, who saw the nature of our concerns, and got me in with the unit manager. I spoke with him in his office for nearly an hour. He was nice enough to listen and some things changed a bit, and we requested some nurses not to care for mom ever again. He seemed flabbergasted that charting was being fabricated, and I'm not sure that he ever accepted that it occurred on his unit. He gave me his card and promised to follow up with me. I gave him all of my contacts. Guess what? I never heard from him again. It's been two years in January. Nice customer relations.

The medical care that mom got was exceptional. Her MD's rounded twice a day on her, and were attentive to her questions and concerns. Her cardiac surgeon, Dr. Daniel Pelligrini, answered all of my questions thoroughly, and even vividly described each step of her surgery. He was a true gem, and I'm glad that mom was his patient. He seemed to love his job and took it quite seriously, as did the fellow, and his residents. I wish I could be as complementary about her nursing care, but I just can't.

It is difficult for nurses to be on the other side, and I don't'' feel that I had huge expectations. I did pitch in a bit to help, and it never seemed to be appreciated, only expected. I'm not sure that I would ever risk a loved one being in the hospital alone. I think that someone should always be there.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
my great grandmother was 92 years old and admitted into the hospital. she needed to use the restroom so the nurse helped her to the restroom AND LEFT. the nurse could have stayed with her. she fell and split her face open requiring stitches. why would the nurse help her to the restroom and leave her? if she needed help TO the restroom shouldnt she have stayed there?
For 2 years, I worked on a busy rehab unit and cared for about 15 patients (most of them elderly) by myself. With multiple patients wanting to go to the bathroom at the same time, I did what I had to do. I would put them on the toilet, and tell them to pull the call light when they were finished pooping or peeing. Once the call light came on, I would get them off the toilet and back into the wheelchair or bed. This might sound cold, but I did not have the time to sit with them while they used the bathroom.

I'm so sorry that your great-grandmother fell. :(

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.

Having had cancer 8 years before even starting nursing school, I had logged plenty of hours in the hospital already. When it came time for me to reenter the workforce after my children went to school full days, I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather do other than being an ICU nurse. (OK, so I wound up in the ER after 3 years in the unit - and am thrilled, but that's not my point).

I have come across family members and patients who are RNs and MDs, and I usually ask them how much "shop talk" they want, as opposed to me treating them like any other patient/family member. I consider it assessing for "educational needs". And even if a family member is an RN, I would never jeopardize patient safety because there is another RN in the room, (s)he didn't take report on that patient, therefore the responsibility is solely mine. I also appreciate questions from family members - whether it's a change in medication that they are questioning or just "what's going to happen next?" It keeps me on my toes!

I recently had a family member in the hospital. Her illness and treatment were so far outside of my specialty, so I had plenty of questions for the nurses and the docs and they caught on pretty quickly that I had least done some advance reading, and was asked whether I was a "nurse or a doctor?", in a very pleasant way. I honestly don't think that my job impacted her care either way. Since I had travelled cross country, I was interested in how they did things differently and impressed with the state of the art facility and did visit the nurses station and talk with the charge nurse for a few minutes.

For the most part, I stayed out of the way and read my book when my family member was sleeping. Fortunately, there were no complications but knowing that staff for three days, I would have been confident that any issues would have been handled professionally.

Now that reminds me, I have a nice letter to write to that hospital CEO.... :nurse:

Blee

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For 2 years, I worked on a busy rehab unit and cared for about 15 patients (most of them elderly) by myself. With multiple patients wanting to go to the bathroom at the same time, I did what I had to do. I would put them on the toilet, and tell them to pull the call light when they were finished pooping or peeing. Once the call light came on, I would get them off the toilet and back into the wheelchair or bed. This might sound cold, but I did not have the time to sit with them while they used the bathroom.

I'm so sorry that your great-grandmother fell. :(

Same here, shortly after meals the lights on rehab all start going off.(that is when I worked rehab) I would run into one room put patient on commode, run to next and do the same. Usually have about 8 people on the commode at that point, I run back and start putting them back in bed. If I linger in any room to long patients get frustrated and start climbing out of bed by themselves which also guarantees a fall. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't. If there is an aide it helps but just before I left bedside nursing managment decided my unit was not making enough money and started cutting back on aides. A lot of shifts I had aide for half a shift or none at all.
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