Title says it all . Second semester baby nurse in clinicals at a major hospital.
Patients = Awesome
Most Nurses = Very sweet and helpful
Some nurses are rude, terse, horrible with patients, horrible with students and horrible with each other.
To those nurses I say this, please retire.
Its only a matter of time before management figures out they can live without you and hire some very hungry and very competent new grads that want to be there to fill your dusty shoes....
word...
sadly the vast majority of the time these happen to also be charge nurses....in charge of what? Misery?
I have a degree in management and tons of management experience, as soon as possible it is my goal to become a nurse manager and guess what, It is going to my mission in life to bring customer service back to nursing care. Remember the customer? Yes, the one in the bed, yes, thats right, the patient.
What do you mean when you say you want to bring customer service back to nursing care?
All I know is that I will do anything in my power to help a patient feel a little less scared, a little less lonely, a little less worried, a little less uncomfortable. Whether this is searching for an extra blanket because they're cold, making them a cuppa in the middle of the night because they're having trouble sleeping, yes even fluffing their pillows, or squeezing five minutes from somewhere to sit and listen to them, I do it to the best of my ability.
If I can't make that cuppa or find that blanket right now because there's a crisis with another patient, I do it as soon as I can because I see it as important to the well being of the patient. I certainly don't do it because of some idea that it's 'good customer service'. I don't think I'm alone in this, I'm pretty sure that 99% of nurses feel the same way. As another poster said earlier in the thread, it's insulting to be told that we need to be more 'customer focused'.
I'd even say that the inability to do these seemingly 'little things' because of increasingly heavy workloads and overwhelming documentation requirements contributes to moral distress and burn out. How can we feel good about what we do when we can hardly get to the patient because of the mountain of paperwork that surrounds them?
And you still haven't said what it was exactly that these nurses did that prompted you to write this post. So often the problem is not what it appears to be on the surface and as someone with 'tons and tons' of management experience, I'm sure you know that. I guess I'm wondering why your first thought is to fire existing staff and bring in new blood - this may well just replace one set of problem staff members with another.
Gheez, I need to read this entire thread but I don't understand the anger. From the OP she is only talking about BITTER nurses. I think all bitter people need to leave the field as well (any field where customers are your target and you don't treat them right), I dont mean older, just the bitter ones. Now let me go read this thread...
As someone else pointed out, we only have the label "bitter" ... no info as to context and no way to decide whether such a characterization is accurate.
The problem is, such labels can be used to invalidate a response that's perfectly appropriate in the circumstances ... we have no way to know. Sometimes anger really is the only rational response.
Thank God for those old nurses. Those old nurses have saved my butt on many occasions. I have been hospitalized once a month for the last 5 years, average stays each time 13.5 days (minimum 8 days to maximum 19 days). That is hundreds of nurses who have taken care of me in the ER, in ICU, in CC and Med-Surg. The majority of these nurses have been 40 and over and I like that and by the way I don't think 40 is old. When I am in the hospital I liken it to being on an airplane, I want the pilot who has flown the plane more than a few times. I want someone who has the experience and the knowledge, someone who knows if X, Y, and Z happens then A, B, and C must be done to keep this baby from crashing. No hesitation, go into auto pilot and get the job done. I may not like what they are doing at the time, I might not like what they are saying at the time, but at the end I thank God they were there doing what they know how to do best.
I am not a customer, I am a patient. I am not in the hospital to be coddled; I am there to get better so I may once again go home. The only thing I ask from my nurses is they tell me what they are doing and tell me the medication I am taking as they give it to me. I know my meds and what they look like, but often the medication in the hospital looks different than mine. If the medication I am taking is something new I will ask them to write it down and tell me what it is for. I always try to keep in mind I am probably not the sickest person on the floor and act accordingly.
Yeah for the older nurses, God don't leave us now. With medical care being turned upside down we need all the knowledge and experience that you have.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Thank God for those old nurses. Those old nurses have saved my butt on many occasions. I have been hospitalized once a month for the last 5 years, average stays each time 13.5 days (minimum 8 days to maximum 19 days). That is hundreds of nurses who have taken care of me in the ER, in ICU, in CC and Med-Surg. The majority of these nurses have been 40 and over and I like that and by the way I don't think 40 is old. When I am in the hospital I liken it to being on an airplane, I want the pilot who has flown the plane more than a few times. I want someone who has the experience and the knowledge, someone who knows if X, Y, and Z happens then A, B, and C must be done to keep this baby from crashing. No hesitation, go into auto pilot and get the job done. I may not like what they are doing at the time, I might not like what they are saying at the time, but at the end I thank God they were there doing what they know how to do best.
I am not a customer, I am a patient. I am not in the hospital to be coddled; I am there to get better so I may once again go home. The only thing I ask from my nurses is they tell me what they are doing and tell me the medication I am taking as they give it to me. I know my meds and what they look like, but often the medication in the hospital looks different than mine. If the medication I am taking is something new I will ask them to write it down and tell me what it is for. I always try to keep in mind I am probably not the sickest person on the floor and act accordingly.
Yeah for the older nurses, God don't leave us now. With medical care being turned upside down we need all the knowledge and experience that you have.
One thing with nursing (not only nursing but that's what we are talking about) age has nothing to do with nursing experience. Majority of my class was late 30's to early 40's. A 25 year old can have 5 years of nursing experience and the 45 year old 0 experience.
"with the pipeline of new nurses entering the workforce the scales are going to change.....and the entitlement attitude that i see is going to fade away...."
that statement just took my breath away.
omg, nurses everywhere are struggling desperately to take lunch breaks. nurse to patient ratios are overwhelming and unsafe in many, many facilities. working conditions are often atrocious and he describes nurses as having "entitlement attitudes(s)."
i think this male nursing student will find a comfy home in hospital management. he certainly exudes the generalized contempt for nurses that is routinely expressed by management in my hospital.
Goodness! This is quite the discussion. Some respondents have thought the OP to be a troll. I disagree. Contrarian is perhaps a closer term. Without knowing the OP personally, the responses thus far reminds me of and individual who likes to go against the grain and make people think about their own position on a subject. There is a catch with this type of behavior, and the OP has demonstrated effectively on this thread, which is the perception of the individual is irritating.
People like to be comfortable in their beliefs, and are usually so when the beliefs go unchallenged. Presenting an opposite viewpoint in a persuasive and informative manner helps carry the message farther, rather than the listeners dismissing the message. Any aggressiveness or condescension will result in what you see here. Mindlor, the world needs contrarians, but perhaps learn a not so, "in-your-face" approach. Consequently, if money doesn't matter to you, why do you bring it up? Peace.
I was studying all day for a nursing theory test and a pharm test, I will go back and read what I have missed and reply accordingly once I get a little sleep...
As someone else pointed out, we only have the label "bitter" ... no info as to context and no way to decide whether such a characterization is accurate.
The problem is, such labels can be used to invalidate a response that's perfectly appropriate in the circumstances ... we have no way to know. Sometimes anger really is the only rational response.
My point of view is that anger, and rational are mutually exclusive terms....
My point of view is that anger, and rational are mutually exclusive terms....
I disagree. It is absolutely possible to be angry, even furious, yet completely rational. Anger can only be cnstructively channeled through rational thought. So, you're saying that when you are angry, you're irrational. Poor managment skill.
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CompleteUnknown
352 Posts
What do you mean when you say you want to bring customer service back to nursing care?
All I know is that I will do anything in my power to help a patient feel a little less scared, a little less lonely, a little less worried, a little less uncomfortable. Whether this is searching for an extra blanket because they're cold, making them a cuppa in the middle of the night because they're having trouble sleeping, yes even fluffing their pillows, or squeezing five minutes from somewhere to sit and listen to them, I do it to the best of my ability.
If I can't make that cuppa or find that blanket right now because there's a crisis with another patient, I do it as soon as I can because I see it as important to the well being of the patient. I certainly don't do it because of some idea that it's 'good customer service'. I don't think I'm alone in this, I'm pretty sure that 99% of nurses feel the same way. As another poster said earlier in the thread, it's insulting to be told that we need to be more 'customer focused'.
I'd even say that the inability to do these seemingly 'little things' because of increasingly heavy workloads and overwhelming documentation requirements contributes to moral distress and burn out. How can we feel good about what we do when we can hardly get to the patient because of the mountain of paperwork that surrounds them?
And you still haven't said what it was exactly that these nurses did that prompted you to write this post. So often the problem is not what it appears to be on the surface and as someone with 'tons and tons' of management experience, I'm sure you know that. I guess I'm wondering why your first thought is to fire existing staff and bring in new blood - this may well just replace one set of problem staff members with another.