Do patients know a "good nurse"?

[NursesRmofun]

This is a subjective question with poll. I am not sure if patients, in general (the average patient), really knows who a good nurse is. I once worked with a very charming woman who was slow and couldn't seem to do much more than get her meds out. She did have a gift for gab and the patients seemed to love it. Plus she knew many from living in the surrounding area much of her life, church, her children, etc. I got all of my meds done, all my assessments, all my bed baths, lotioned and massaged my patients and held their hands...but didn't really gab. Somehow, I think a lot of our recurrent patients and "regulars" would prefer her. I just wonder how many patients would understand that you might be better with the nurse that really did a good assessment and got all the more important things done.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

The flight attendants are assessing the people getting on board. Who is obviously intoxicated? Who would have trouble evacuating in an emergency? Who looks like a good able-bodied passenger to recruit if needed? More than tasks is what is going on here, and nursing is similar.

VERY good analogy!

[Angeljho, MSN, NP]

This is a good topic. I believe some patients do while other don't. There's a nurse who takes pride in preparing and administering her medications fast because she feels administering medication fast is a skill . All the patients (psych population) love her because she administers medication quickly which means the patients can go back to watching television, talking on the phone, reading, or whatever it was they were doing before medication administration. Long story short, this nurse has made some major med errors but the patients don't know that. They only see, "The good nurse who obviously knows what she's doing because she doesn't waste our time when giving meds."

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

The problem is that the pulic perception of what makes a good nurse (someone who gives comprehensive, compassionate, patient centered care) and Hospital managements idea of a good nurse (reliable, quick, accurate and cost effective) leaves nurses caught in the middle. You can do both and many do find a way to be fully present in both roles. Nurses have to be good stewards of what being a nurse means.

When I talk about giving holistic acre to my patient, care that includes tending to the mind, body and spirit of my patient, my colleagues sometimes look at me as if I am speaking a foriegn language.

Like it or not healthcare in general and nursing in particular are consumer driven industries. If the consumer is not happy they will say so and ultimately take their business elsware. It takes no effort to smile, lay a hand on a forehead, speak softly and respectfully to patients and families and understand the psychsocial aspects of being a patient. This is just my take on things but as more and more people enter nursing for financial reasons we are losing the caring aspect of nursing. The day I stop showing my patients I care is the day I stop nursing.

Hppy

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

The problem is that the pulic perception of what makes a good nurse (someone who gives comprehensive, compassionate, patient centered care) and Hospital managements idea of a good nurse (reliable, quick, accurate and cost effective) leaves nurses caught in the middle. You can do both and many do find a way to be fully present in both roles. Nurses have to be good stewards of what being a nurse means.

When I talk about giving holistic care to my patient, care that includes tending to the mind, body and spirit of my patient, my colleagues sometimes look at me as if I am speaking a foriegn language.

Like it or not healthcare in general and nursing in particular are consumer driven industries. If the consumer is not happy they will say so and ultimately take their business elseware. It takes no effort to smile, lay a hand on a forehead, speak softly and respectfully to patients and families and understand the psychsocial aspects of being a patient. This is just my take on things but as more and more people enter nursing for financial reasons we are losing the caring aspect of nursing. The day I stop showing my patients I care is the day I stop nursing.

Hppy

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Here's an example when I thought the nurse WAS good: . . .

Here's the conversation I had with a nurse that made me think she was NOT a good . . .

Actually I think these two examples are incredibly perceptive. The first one gives credit to the nurse that most might direct to the physician, because he/she ordered the XR & meds.

The second is illustrative of very poor communication skills. Initially, the nurse's "mis-speaking" of a drug name led the patient to lose confidence and feel vulnerable. The rest of the interaction neglected the patient's input on their care and demonstrates the opposite of collaboration with the patient, the most vital member of the healthcare team. Busy or not, that is poor practice.

Now if the second nurse had instead chatted with the patient for 20 minutes about the vagaries of the pharmacy, her struggles with finding meds that worked for her BP, or how hard it is to find a pharmacy that won't fight you, but in the end, she just marked the med "refused", she would also have been a "bad nurse". It just would have been less likely that a patient would have picked up on it.

Interpersonal skill and technical skills are vital to the concept of holistic nursing.

[OCNRN63, RN]

I've had this discussion with many folks over the years. Most patients believe that the nurse who does the most pillow fluffing and hand holding is the better nurse. Usually -- and I don't say always -- this is not the case.

Don't forget turkey sandwich fetching.

[Susie2310]

Some patients do, of course, and some don't. Variables such as a patient's interest in and knowledge of health care/medicine/nursing, attentiveness to the care they are receiving, prior experiences of medical/nursing care, intelligence, intuition, and so forth, are all contributing factors. Of course, when one is very ill (as is often the case when one is hospitalized or receiving urgent/emergent medical/nursing care), even if one wishes to and ordinarily has the ability to, one is often far less able to muster the energy and attention necessary to discern the quality of care given by one's nurse/medical provider.

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

The problem is that the pulic perception of what makes a good nurse (someone who gives comprehensive, compassionate, patient centered care) and Hospital managements idea of a good nurse (reliable, quick, accurate and cost effective) leaves nurses caught in the middle. You can do both and many do find a way to be fully present in both roles. Nurses have to be good stewards of what being a nurse means.....

Hppy

Unfortunately, the definition of what a good nurse is even varies nurse to nurse, in some ways. Some nurses seem to think nursing is too difficult and their minimum effort is all they are going to put forward. That said, there are actually nurses that are not capable of doing more. I think that nurses are just on a scale like all other professions...good waitress, good stylist, good doctor, good plumber or bad waitress, bad stylist, bad doctor, bad plumber...etc. And I am sure that, as a patient, we nurses are much more able to figure out who the bad nurses are. I have to stop the negative thoughts going through my mind sometimes...when I start to hope the bad nurses GET bad nurses when they are hospitalized! I take it back...

[mathboy]

OP,Yes, of course. Being polite yet professional is what I call good. While patients should certainly not expect hotel like service in a hospital, they can expect to be treated kindly and with respect. Yes, as patients we're worried about our health and so we may have questions to ask(just a few), it could be the case that you just dealt with an unpleasant patient, and hence were angry and as a result the next patient gets it and this is unfair. Again, its not all, but some.

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

Some patients do, of course, and some don't. Variables such as a patient's interest in and knowledge of health care/medicine/nursing, attentiveness to the care they are receiving, prior experiences of medical/nursing care, intelligence, intuition, and so forth, are all contributing factors. Of course, when one is very ill (as is often the case when one is hospitalized or receiving urgent/emergent medical/nursing care), even if one wishes to and ordinarily has the ability to, one is often far less able to muster the energy and attention necessary to discern the quality of care given by one's nurse/medical provider.

Interesting. If one is very ill, I agree...one might not be able to tell. On the other hand, maybe some of those seriously ill can tell more than someone far less ill. It depends again, on the situation. On a hospital stay I had, I was not all that ill, essentially. But I sure can tell you I had some pretty bad nurses. Not one I would rate higher than a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1-10. Pretty scary.

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

OP,Yes, of course. Being polite yet professional is what I call good. While patients should certainly not expect hotel like service in a hospital, they can expect to be treated kindly and with respect. Yes, as patients we're worried about our health and so we may have questions to ask(just a few), it could be the case that you just dealt with an unpleasant patient, and hence were angry and as a result the next patient gets it and this is unfair. Again, its not all, but some.

Not sure what you mean. If you mean a nurse might get angry with a patient (any nurse) and then take it out on another patient...I am not sure what this has to do with whether patients can tell a good nurse from a bad nurse. Maybe you mean that the nurse would lose politeness points for this bad attitude. Well that seems a given. Nurses need to be polite and professional, of course.

[Susie2310]

Interesting. If one is very ill, I agree...one might not be able to tell. On the other hand, maybe some of those seriously ill can tell more than someone far less ill. It depends again, on the situation. On a hospital stay I had, I was not all that ill, essentially. But I sure can tell you I had some pretty bad nurses. Not one I would rate higher than a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1-10. Pretty scary.

I agree with you.