do you care about your patients?

[Rhee]

I have noticed on a lot of our lovely press gainey comments that our patients say that they don't feel that we nurses care about them. This got me to wondering what exactly patients expect from a nurse.

I work in postpartum, and I try really hard to make sure that my patients have a good positive experience and receive the best care that I can give. In that sense, I care about them, but on a personal level, I don't really care about them in the way that I care about my friends and family. It just seems like it would suck a person dry to be emotionally invested in every single patient. There have been several patients that have kind of stuck with me who I think about now and then, but this is definitely the exception. I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone, but I feel that way about any person that I come in contact with, be it a work, or the guy who delivers the pizza, or the mailman or whoever.

I just started to wonder if I'm weird or what.

[lucylu 777]

I reread my post and now I think that I sound uncaring. I really do try to treat everyone with kindness and respect and I care about my patients while I am at the hospital. I introduce myself and make small talk and listen to my patient's concerns, but at the end of the day, when I go home, it's my family that I care about. At work, I am there to do a job, not make new friends . . . I feel like I do the best that I can, so it's kind of disappointing when we hear that patients don't feel cared for.

nooo, you don't sound uncaring, you sound normal! Patients can be "funny", you can bust your butt all day long for them, take care of every need, answer every call light and at the end one unanswered call light can place all your efforts in the toilet.And lazy co-workers add to that as well.

[Rexie68]

You can't please everyone all of the time. As long you're doing your best, don't worry about it. You'd burn out quickly if you took everyone's problems to heart.

[Jen{NAR}]

I think it all depends on where you are in your nursing career. For instance, I am currently working at an LTC and I feel that I am a slight extension of some of my residents families...those are the ones that are care for a lot, but I care about all of my residents. But I can see if you are only with your residents for two to three days and then they are discharged...you really don't have the time to connect--let alone invest in them emotionally.

[sunnycalifRN]

I always treat my patients as I would like to be treated should I ever be a patient (so far, never been hospitalized!!!)

If that's "caring" about them, then, yes, I guess I do. But, I always try to leave them behind as I walk out the door at the end of the shift!!

[jerenemarie]

In my last place of employment, an Assisted Living facilty, management had the expectations that staff would sign up & volunteer their own time to sit with residents who were dying & didn't have family around. I sound cruel, but I never signed up as I worked there full time & have enough to handle around my own personal life. I think some staff signed up as they felt pressured. I cared about my residents when I was working, I would do anything I could to follow their wishes, etc but when I left the job at the end of the day that was it, I was off the clock so to speak. Sounds cold I spose...maybe I am burnt out...but that is just how I feel.

Jerenemarie

[Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN]

For the most part I do care about my patients. I just leave my job at the door when I get off shift, and strive to do the best I can.

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Just read over all the posts again. It's an honor to be in good company. You can quantify and define care as pills passed, procedures done, call bells answered. If that were all we did we'd be what I call "nurse bots." When hospital bean counters calculate staffing that's all they see because it CAN be quantified. The other side of caring, that I have found in each posting, is helping a fellow human being. Each posting has struggled to define this, which is why I used the broken down car example. It's hard to quantify or charge for this, so we're not staffed to provide it, but I feel that it's what the patients are responding to in the questionnaire. I hope this makes sense. I've long been intrigued by the the different meanings found in the simple word "care." Thank you all for restoring my faith in the human race.

[Orange Tree]

When I first started orientation, and had 2 or 3 patients, I was frequently told that I was caring and "obviously not just doing it for the money". Now that I have 6 or 7, nobody ever tells me that.

[PatMac10,RN, RN]

As a CNA, I care about my patients. Sometimes I do find myself worrying or wondering about them while not at work or clinical. It can be emotionally draining to care(care in the sense that you are tottally involved with your patient and are mindful of every aspect of their life that you can be aprt of) about patients, but sometimes you can't help it. Sometimes it is best to try not to take the stresses from work home with you.

[Mulan]

I wonder if it's the younger, "entitled" generation who are saying this.

We are not their mother after all.

What do they expect?

[Luv2care0907]

I care. Nobody cares about me, my job, the pay, or anything else. I was told the day I signed up that they could terminate me without giving me a reason why.

[smalltimer]

As nurses we have a duty to care for them,that is what i do every day but sometimes people don't appreciated the things that we do , the response we get are mixed and i try to accept peoples opinion.But at the end of the day it should be done in love.