Do you work at Hilton?

Nurses General Nursing

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Nurses, do you ever feel like you work at the Hilton?

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

I totally agree with the thought that people aren't evaluating their nursing care but whether or not they get what they want! Some of the things peolple write on their Evals for us just show how little they know and how mean we are. Examples:

1. They wouldn't bring the baby to see me when I was on magnesium. Your baby is 23 weeks and on a vent, not like I could plop him in a bassinet and come down the hall.

2. They don't bring us any snacks or drinks. You aren't allowed to eat at the bedside and we don't cater to adults. If you would like a shooter of Formula, I can oblige you!

3. They wouldn't let my kids in. First, we know you don't have other kids and second, they all had green snot coming from their noses. Enough said.

Crazy!

The suits at your place need to get the "tv people" on board. Places would run right and patients would be happier if everyone just made it a point to get the nurses what they need for their patients. Of course you could not fix the tv- but why couldn't there be a hot-line for patients or nursing staff to call and the tv people can high-tail it on up to the unit, fix the tv and make the patient happy? Until the suits understand the need to get everyone else on board to support the patient care staff, they will be fighting a losing battle with satisfaction scores.

Never thought of it that way till now...

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

All of the time!

Specializes in LTC, Acute care.
Our unit just started a policy where the nurses are supposed to sign cards that will be mailed to the patient after discharge.

After I went home from having a baby, I got a card signed by all the nurses that took care of me, it was totally unexpected (by me) and I thought it was a sweet gesture.

ROFL, I'll keep this in mind as I start nursing school! :sarcastic:

@Ntheboat2: Some lady got angry with me because her "Mom has orders (LOL) for coffee at every meal! Where is it?!" And I informed her that our coffee machine was broken. Rude daughter rolls her eyes at me and says, "Yeah, right." and demands to see the RN... because clearly, we CNA's weren't paying attention in class when the teacher instructed us on how to fix coffee makers.

So I went to the kitchen, unplugged the coffee maker, brought some ground coffee, and brought it to the patient's room. I demonstrated to her that it was broken, and she shut up.

It's funny that people think how through sheer assertiveness, the coffee machine will magically get fixed, or that soda would magically appear in the kitchen.

I wonder what she put on the survey. It was probably about me and the RN, and how we suck at fixing coffee makers.

If your employer understood the whole idea of customer service, they would make sure a maintainence person got up to your unit and fixed your coffee maker, or brought you a new one, PRONTO. That means one call and they get up there and take care of the problem so you can do your job.

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I do feel that nurses are sometimes treated as glorified waiters/waitresses and not the true medical professionals that they are, and I find it really sad. Patients complaining about the food, the TV, air-conditioning...last time I checked, that wasn't the nurse's job and he/she shouldn't have to worry about things totally unrelated to his/her job description or, better yet, be yelled for something he/she isn't responsible for.

Why didn't the lady just march her butt down to the cafeteria or vending area and get coffee for her mother?

Better yet, why didn't she call before she came to see if there was anything her mother wanted? If my beloved mother were in the hospital and I knew she loved coffee, I would probably stop somewhere (Starbucks?) and bring her favorite coffee that I know the hospital wouldn't have.

WHERE and HOW did this entitlement mentality at the hospital begin? It's absurd!

Maybe the dtr didn't think that a hospital wouldn't have coffee? How should she have known that your coffeemaker was on the fritz?

Maybe it never occurred to her to call and ask if Mom wanted anything.

Coffee is a pretty small but important request, as I see it. If she was rude to you, that's another story.

But I don't get the impression, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you have a servant's heart. I feel that you think you are entitled to people reading your mind, knowing that you are too busy to care that someone might want a little coffee, and that patients and families should care about and be aware of your busy workload. That's not why you are at work.

You should not be treated rudely, but you should care that your patients wants some coffee and make sure you think smart enough to find a way to solve the problem. Your patients and their visitors will love you for actually caring about them.

Put yourself or your mom or your child or someone else you love in that bed and see how well you will come up with answers to problems like coffee availability.

I do feel that nurses are sometimes treated as glorified waiters/waitresses and not the true medical professionals that they are, and I find it really sad. Patients complaining about the food, the TV, air-conditioning...last time I checked, that wasn't the nurse's job and he/she shouldn't have to worry about things totally unrelated to his/her job description or, better yet, be yelled for something he/she isn't responsible for.

Holistic care.

Get your Manager involved stat if another department is making you look bad.

Just put in the work orders, get a repair guy up to the pt's room quickly, give the pt the phone # to repair services and let him call them.

Understand that patients are dependent upon staff for their smallest and most intimate needs, not just their pills and dressing changes. They're infantalized.

The Hilton smells better and no one poops the beds in the Hilton.

Kooky Korky, are you serious?

It sounded to me from the original post that the family member in question was acting rudely and not accepting that the machine was, in fact, broken. The CNA isn't able or qualified to fix coffee machines, and, at least in my facility, work orders can take a long time to get through. A coffee machine isn't high on the maintenance staff's repair list.

As for finding another source of coffee, perhaps the kitchen was closed for the night. Perhaps the CNA was having a busy night and really did not have the time to go fetch coffee from another floor.

Please don't get me wrong. I do believe in going the extra mile for my patients -- I have hiked to other floors for juice and jello more than once. It's just that nursing, on the RN or CNA level, isn't always about fetching amenities that family members demand. Especially not if they're rude about it.

Specializes in Obstetrics.

I feel like it's getting worse and worse. It's really hard to improve patient satisfaction when the husband of the patient is complaining about the draft from the window... and you've already offered extra blankets etc. I'm sorry but it's -20 degrees outside. It is exhausting and it shouldn't be difficult. :-\

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