Call bells! I am beginning to think call bells are the worst invention in the world.
Ring, ring ,ring.
Today, the call bells were crazy. Our secretary kept track. We had 97 call bells in 2 1/2 hours from 26 pts. Several retreat offenders. You know the ones. They ring, you tell them you will be there shorty, 30 secs later, they ring again, and again and again. Look lady, my kegs are short, I simply cannot get from the nursing station to you in 30 secs.
One pt keeps ringing because he's lonely. One just puts her finger and the button and holds it until her nurse gets there.
One pt rang to have her table cleaned off.
Good thing I wasn't playing the drinking game, one drink for every call bell. I wouldn't sober up until Xmas!
The most pertinent comment I can add here is that when my husband was hospitalized and experiencing chest pains, he hit that call bell hard. His nurse responded quickly and knew just what to do. He was diagnosed with a PE and her quick response may have saved his life!
Yes he used it appropriately what it is meant to be used for.
Personally, I have had family members in the hospital with serious issues. They were not call bell over users and used it when they needed pain medication. That was the only thing besides medication administration that nursing needed because I was doing everything else for my family member. Just want to mention that on average, when my family members rang the call bell it took 30 to 40 minutes for anyone to come and tgat was with a second call bell 35 minutes after the initial call...didn't matter what time of day, etc. Very frustrating, and also to have my family members calling nurses "stupid" or "uncaring" was pretty embarrasing. However, I realize it it such a problem to get all the necessary work done when call bells are going off every two minutes!!
Just wondering if they did anything like advocating for MORE STAFF or going to management asking for MORE STAFF or did they just belittle the nurses. And why is it always the nurses who get crapped on? There are many other kinds of health care workers, eg, the aides, the techs. Your family members sound like they are a real piece of work. You are right to be embarrassed by them. Do they call you stupid and uncaring too. Sounds like a big old dysfunctional family. That is the problem -- the health care system gets all these dysfunctional people in. They probably act like that elsewhere too -- eg restaurants, stores.
Don't worry, I knew what you meant when you said..retreat instead of repeat.....Completely.....omg......I Have worked in LTC since the early 90s..I am tired of it...maybe because I am losing my patience and don't feel well most times myself....the tolerance is wearing thin....especially with excessive call bell ringing...most times I feel like taking the cord and wrapping it around their necks....You get BONKERS....and its not emergencies.....the emergencies YOU always find when you happened to walk into the room at the right moment....I am usually Left with a very sick respiratory patient they didn't give a neb treatment to or left her terribly SOB and did nothing....and these are the people that NEED TO RING....not the pull my curtain, close my window, the soup needs to be warmed up, My blanket needs straightening, etc....THESE ARE JOBS THE AIDES should be doing and MAKING SURE their patients needs are being watched...and are keeping vigilant to cues of illness . I tell my Aides all the time.....and they should know cause they have been there working far long before I got there and should know their patients quirks, wants, and demands...that NO CALL bells should be ringing......But what happens with the elderly is that THEY KNOW THAT YOU have to answer these bells..ITS YOUR JOB.....I had one woman ring every 5 minutes....for little things....Oh...change the channel on the tv....then you stand there for 10 minutes trying to find her channel because she knew what the number of the channel was but forgot...so you flip through the whole channel system. I make no apology...but this system of patients rights has gone too far to the point where the nurse is answering too many call bells for absolute nonsense calls.....I cant run like I used to.....I feel sorry for many of them......but the familys pump the information into their heads too....OH...RING FOR THE NURSE if you want the volume up on the TV....RING FOR THE NURSE if you feel cold.....Ring for the nurse....ring for the nurse.....and then the family stands there and doesn't do a thing for their loved one.......I admired and respected those family members and friends that ACTUALLY did something for the residents...instead of standing there and ringing the callbell for the resident!!!!!! OH it gets me so angry......I thought I had high blood pressure recently....I always ran in the 120s over 80s......and found out my BP was going high at work....till I found out IT WAS WORK.....
I am not making myself sick for these people that think you are a maid or somekind of slave...it really takes away from giving care to those that are really sick and it angers me terribly.......
You must have the patience of Job to work in LTC that long. It really isn't the patients. It is the dipstick management who keep thinking nurses can provide the same level of care with increased acuity but no increased staff. I guess these dipsticks failed basic math. It just doesn't add up. My dream is to get one of the douchebag managers as a patient. That would be a day of reckoning.
Just wondering if they did anything like advocating for MORE STAFF or going to management asking for MORE STAFF or did they just belittle the nurses. And why is it always the nurses who get crapped on? There are many other kinds of health care workers, eg, the aides, the techs. Your family members sound like they are a real piece of work. You are right to be embarrassed by them. Do they call you stupid and uncaring too. Sounds like a big old dysfunctional family. That is the problem -- the health care system gets all these dysfunctional people in. They probably act like that elsewhere too -- eg restaurants, stores.
We have asked for more staff. We were told they had to cut back.
Same- and more demands .
It feels like a no win situation.
The nurse gets crapped on because they dont "make money " for the hospital. We are an expense.
Drs and other "professions( see profession thread ) work for themselves.
The customer service thing came into play because of medicare PAY FOR SERVICES. If the scores aren't high enough, hospital doesnt get their pay. Also they dont get their pay for fx hips, uti,s falls, decubs. etc.
we are nothing but a non value added expense, and it it takes away fro the PTB bonuses.....
If Medicine across the board was not-for-profit, I think things would be much better. The for-profit nursing homes are the worst at cutting and no-staff
I disagree with your comment. Most family members or visitors who go to the nurses' station feel that their sick family member is THE most important and sickest patient in the unit. There is a fine line between being an advocate and a real PITA. They are being rude and selfish. If that patient truly is soo ill, the nurse would be in the room attending to the evolving status of the patient.
I disagree with your comment. Most family members or visitors who go to the nurses' station feel that their sick family member is THE most important and sickest patient in the unit. There is a fine line between being an advocate and a real PITA. They are being rude and selfish. If that patient truly is soo ill, the nurse would be in the room attending to the evolving status of the patient.
Please folks, use the Quote feature! We're clueless as to who/what you're disagreeing with.
ActualNurse
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