Do nurses make the worse family members or patients ?

[NurseLoveJoy88]

This week two different instructors told us students stories of when their family was in the hospital and how they acted and what they did. One instructor told us that her dad needed to have bone marrow aspiration done in the sternum and the resident did not offer any analgesic. Then she told her father that he really needs to get some an analgesic because the procedure may be painful. Ofcourse her dad listened, and she was just saying how us nurses need to be a pt. advocate. She is a CRNP. She did not mention her title to the MD however she did go to her dad privately and was his advocate.

The other instructor told us a story regarding her neice and how the nurses treated her neice so badly because it was suspected that the child had mennigitis.She said the nurses were frantic and was wearing PPE even though they was no definite dx yet. She said the doctor did not even wear ppe when doing the spinal tap however the nurses did . She said that she don't like for nurses to know she's a RN until the nurse really ****** her off. She says that once she got irritated by the nurses she started writing down their names and told them that if they keep acting like this she was going to their nursing manager Mrs. X. She also told us that the nursing manager is part of the commitee on the BON and the instructor has sat in on many meetings with this nursing manager, so basically she knows her pretty well. The instructor told us that as soon as she threatned the nurses to talk c- their nursing manager all of the nurses changed their attitude and showed a little more respect. They showed respect once they knew my instructor was a RN and when she stated that she knew their nursing manager pretty well.

My question is: Do nurses make the worse patients or family members ? Should nurses who are family members threaten the other nurses ? How do you handle things when you are not satisfied with a nurse taking care of your family member ? My mother is a nurse and she's always been a advocate for any family member in the hospital. But how far is too far to actually threatned other nurses ?

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

There are some that like to throw their rank around like they are so special. As if, I'm suppose to be threatened by the fact that they are a nurse. If they say, "I'm a nurse"....I respond "that's nice. So am I".

I love that answer! I'll have to remember that.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Thing is, I won't ever let you know I am a nursing student, and when I get my license I will not say that I am an RN. Just do your job and I won't be a problem. I am not picky, just want you on your toes and safe with my family. I will pull you off so fast you won't know what hit ya if you are a mess. And I'll go straight to your NM without saying a wor:sfxpld:d to you.

"Be on my toes"? Exactly what do you mean by that?

And I hope you get a family that treats you like this.

[Wise Woman RN]

My doc and nurses knew I was a nurse when I had sinus surgery. They also knew that I wasn't an expert in sinus surgery at all, and to please teach me all I needed to know to care for myself properly, as they would to any patient... and they did, very nicely indeed...

[Batman24]

Wearing appropriate protective gear to prevent the unncessary spread of a life-threatening infectious disease is hardly treaing a patient badly.

Would this nurse also accuse a fellow professional of treating a patient badly for wearing gloves to draw blood? Sheesh.

Agreed. Talk about inappropriate nitpicking. Yeesh.

And I don't like threatening bullies either which is exactly what this instructor was. Wearing protective gear was completely appropriate here and should be encouraged.

[Jolie, BSN]

Thing is, I won't ever let you know I am a nursing student, and when I get my license I will not say that I am an RN. Just do your job and I won't be a problem. I am not picky, just want you on your toes and safe with my family. I will pull you off so fast you won't know what hit ya if you are a mess. And I'll go straight to your NM without saying a word to you. :sfxpld:

Do you believe it is appropriate to report a complaint to a supervisor without speaking to the involved party first?

You mention that you are a student. If a staff nurse questions your actions would you prefer that s/he discuss it with you first, or "go straight to your instructor without saying a word to you?" Why?

I don't understand why anyone would make a report directly to a supervisor without showing the staff nurse the common courtesy of pointing out the problem and allowing him/her the opportunity to explain his/her actions, correct them and learn from the incident.

Of course, if someone is wantonly negligent or harmful, that's a different story. But, in my experience, that's also pretty rare.

[Duckyaryj]

When Grandma was in the hospital early on in her fight with CA, I tried to keep the fact that I was a nurse a secret, but my family outed me :S asking all these questions about what the nurse was doing in front of the nurse, then the nurse treated me like crud, being snyde when I asked about treatments and such.

Then when my Grandmother was in the hospital loosing her fight with CA, the first nurse only knew I was a nurse when she really messed up with her IV fluids and I went to her NM she instantly became a better nurse.

When she was transferred to a more critical floor I was outed again by my family (I also think the nurse gave me up in report too) and my grandmother was completely ignored by the techs because I helped them clean her up once aft r that they only entered her room once a day/night the entire week. And when I asked to have the nurse ask about more pain meds she flat out yelled at me stating that I had no idea what I was talking about because Im working in peds (She didnt know that I had worked on med surg and skilled). I told her that I knew what I was talking about not because I was a nurse but because my grandma was in tears and writhing in pain.

I try to be a "good" family member and be an advocate at the same time.

Ive had a few experiences with nurse even Doctor family members which were good and a few which I was very nervous being the nurse.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

"Be on my toes"? Exactly what do you mean by that?

And I hope you get a family that treats you like this.

I expect to, and everybody knows what I mean, I think. You can't be in this business casually. My first career was uncompromising, and this one will be even more so as it should be.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

i don't ever tell people i'm a nurse unless by chance i have scrubs on and people ask me what i do. i'm just a person when i clock out.

i've had nurse patients/family members that were completely rotten and i've also had them be very wonderful. it depends on the person, i think.

JB was telling me a story about a patient's nurse family member who gave him a hard time bc the patient did not receive her sleeping pill at the time she wanted her to have it (bc the pt was a new admit and they were waiting for it from the pharmacy), so the patient's daughter (the nurse) went ahead and medicated her mother for the night with her home meds including ambien and soma and did not tell anyone and then left. thank god the pt was alert enough to say she already took them. this same family member had then called the doctor's answering service to ask for the orders to be re-faxed to the floor bc they were "not doing their job properly", and then JB said that she proceeded to go through every single fax on the fax machine (and keep in mind she did NOT work at this hospital), until JB told her if she didn't cut it out he was going to ask her to leave.

last time i was in the hospital and the nurse overheard me and my mom talking something medical, so she asked if my mom was a RN and she said "yes", and the nurse proceeded to ask my mom to give me my shot since she was busy. my mom was like "are you kidding me?"

usually when patients or the family members say they are a nurse, i say the same thing as turnleftside... "me too". they aren't there to work, so it doesn't matter much to me that they're a nurse, unless i'm doing teaching and then i know that they will understand on the same level i do.

[Jolie, BSN]

When I had my babies, I deliberately tried to keep my profession from the staff. I didn't want someone assuming that I didn't need help or teaching.

The nursing staff at the hospital learned my profession (NICU nurse), but it didn't seem to effect my care.

When DD came home, she was jaundiced and ultimately needed home phototherapy. The nurse who came out to set it up knew my profession from the admission sheet, and proceeded to spend almost 2 hours blathering on about local employers, jobs and co-workers she didn't like, the nursing profession in general, etc. I tried tactfully to get her back on track numerous times, and finally settled for just getting her out the door. Thank goodness I knew how to manage phototherapy and didn't really need her. I was appalled that she thought of me as an "equal" and thought it OK to engage in health care gossip, rather than carry out the care and teaching she was supposed to be doing.

[ange26s]

I don't think family members/nurse pt. should be nasty, but it becomes personal when they are now the person on the other side.I think when you have a loved one in the hospital you want the best care for them, and sometimes they may get overly protective.Can you blame them? I don't take it "personal." Maybe that nurse family member worked on a unit were some co-workers talked badly about their pt. and now he/she thinks all nurses do that, or maybe he/she treats people badly and fears it will happen to them.I didn't have any problems when my daughter was in the hospital.I let them do their thing and they were awesome. But, if anyone is mean to my kids I will turn into a beast,and thats just the mama bear in me not the nurse!

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I didn't really want to tell the OB nurse at the intake appointment last month that I am a nurse at all. I did because they asked. Then I was asked where and what kind of nurse. I reminded them that I know nothing OB but can tell you all about how to treat a SAH/aneurysm, and all things neuro and so on. Then I was introduced to one of the docs and the first thing out of the nurses mouth was that I was a nurse at X hospital in the neuro ICU.

My family is bad about outing me at times too.

When I go into have my baby I don't plan to tell them that I am a nurse at all unless asked or I accidentally make it totally obvious by questions I ask.

The only time I mentioned to anyone that I was a nursing student was when my grandpa was in the hospital. His nurse as awesome and taught me all about his drips and how they would wean him from the vent, and explained the art line, etc. I was a huge help to them by keeping him from pulling at tubes and lines while I was there.

The only time anyone knew I am a nurse when I visited my SIL a few times in the hospital was when I was in uniform, or they knew me from nursing school, or working with me in the past.

[rn2bnwi, BSN, RN]

The comment "me too' is kind of rude? i would think it would be much easier to make them and ally with saying "that's great your mom has you as an advocate' and moving on ............ empathy is a great thing when people are in stressful situations.