I have HAD IT with customer service and press-gayney. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Lately at work , I do the basics and make a nice introduction but anything else I refuse (the backrubs promised in the brochure, the menu seletion, the encouragement of 24 hour visiting). All i want to do is do my job, and go home. This Customer is alway right and Healthy Patients are Happy Patients has burned me out to the point of tears. I snapped at my boss a few weeks ago when she told me of a complaint that I was not Happy enough - I said "Who on EARTH is happy and manic with energy at 4am?"
Patients are PATIENTS! They are not our guests! This is not a hotel. Personally, I would rather the hospital be old school style - that would be encouragement enough for early ambulation post surgery and even quicker d/c.
I have had enough of this customer service mentality - staff deserve better.
once upon a time, we took care of patients, we didn't "serve" "clients." we had decent staffing and the patients weren't as sick as they are now, so there was time for back rubs. families were respectful of the nursing staff and wouldn't dream of assaulting, insulting, abusing or disrespecting us. the customer service mentality has engendered the attitude that the "client is always right," and that is soooo wrong!
ruby, i remember those days well. as a young nurse on busy medical or surgical floors in a major medical center, i worked very hard. while often the outcomes were positive, sometimes people got worse or died. sometimes family members were weary or angry, not at us, but at god for making their loved ones ill and not healing them. sometimes i wasn't always perky or cheerful as i had issues going on in my life that made me worrisome or sad.
but you know, i remember smiling a lot when i was on the job. even when i didn't really feel like it, i was able to buck up and pull myself together, to get out there and take care of my patients for my eight-hour shift. we rarely worked overtime but if we did, our supervisors didn't hassle us. sometimes we were short-staffed but never with ratios like nurses put up with today. our patients weren't as sick. and they stayed long enough so we could get to know them.
i smiled at work, not because i had some spread-the-happiness guru in hr harping on me to smile. no, i sometimes didn't feel like smiling but i did. it wasn't a fake smile. it was one of gratitude that, even though that shift might be rough, in the long run i knew i was actually making a difference for my patients.
in the old days, we gave good nursing care and didn't palm off warm 'n' fuzzy substitutes like hot cookies and "customer service". in the old days, we smiled because we knew we were giving d*mned good care and we could be proud of ourselves as nurses---and of our hospital, too. today---where's the pride? where's the care? oh, who cares, just gimme the cookies.
as a young nurse, i remember thinking the seasoned nurses were nuts for being nostalgic for the "good old days". if i could, i would go back to those good old days and practice as a nurse, not as a glorified customer service technician. i will go so far as to say that i think most young nurses today would be thrilled with the way things were in the 1970s and 1980s.
progress? no. we've taken a fairly decent system and let it be taken over by avarice. now look at the mess we have.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
i would love to know how many of you work at magnet hospitals. just out of curiosity, because we have been magnet for over twelve years and have none of these ridiculous restrictions on us.
knock magnet as a hoop jumping joke, but i would rather sit on committees and fill out extra paperwork than be demoralized with some of the examples you folks have made.
magnet is a hoop-jumping joke. i work at a magnet hospital. i work at a us news and world report top rated hospital!
Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.
As the charge nurse, I try to find time to do the follow up phone calls and I do try to make rounds on all the patients. It does help them feel better. I help answer their questions etc and I think it makes them feel better and it gives me a better idea of what is going on with them and what they need. We, as charge nurses have business cards and I use mine up handing them out and they really seem to respond to that. I wear a starched white lab coat and I fix problems as soon as I find out about them. It is usually small stuff. But I don't think of it as "customer service" I just think of it as good patient care. Medical care is so complicated these days that I find people are more and more confused. Then they see stuff on TV and read the news and they get lots of impressions that are not correct. Plus, most of the physicians are not very good at explaining things. I take the time to print off information for them and explain the diagnosis to them in words they understand. It makes it easier for me and for them. Then they understand what we are doing and why. The only thing that I have repeat complaints about is the food. The food at our hospital is so bad that even the staff won't eat it. Just horrible.
I have HAD IT with customer service and press-gayney. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Lately at work , I do the basics and make a nice introduction but anything else I refuse (the backrubs promised in the brochure, the menu seletion, the encouragement of 24 hour visiting). All i want to do is do my job, and go home. This Customer is alway right and Healthy Patients are Happy Patients has burned me out to the point of tears. I snapped at my boss a few weeks ago when she told me of a complaint that I was not Happy enough - I said "Who on EARTH is happy and manic with energy at 4am?"
Patients are PATIENTS! They are not our guests! This is not a hotel. Personally, I would rather the hospital be old school style - that would be encouragement enough for early ambulation post surgery and even quicker d/c.
I have had enough of this customer service mentality - staff deserve better.
I'm sorry, I totally, 100% disagree with you.
Many people that have ONLY worked nursing as a career, and have never worked another job, don't really understand, nor comprehend, that there is not a job on the planet, where there is no customer service aspect to the job.
This was the second question that was asked of me in my interview...and it is emphasized so much in my hospital, that seasoned nurses are getting fired that refuse to comply....b/c there are two major hospital systems in my area...people can choose to go to either....they want people to CHOOSE to come here.
Picking a healthcare provider is a choice...and just like some of us won't drive a certain brand of car, won't frequent a certain restaurant...won't fly on a certain airline, because of negative experiences we have....people CHOOSE NOT to frequent certain hospitals, physicians, clinics for the same reason.
I have stopped going to more physicians because of front-line staff..the gate-keeping receptionists...that have the "my way or the highway" attitude.
We have nurses in our department that have been asked by families not to take care of their infants anymore...not because of medical care, because they are rude to the families. I have personally witnessed more than one nurse practically snap a family member's head off as if their patient was a piece of property that they owned, rather than a human being.
I have never, ever had a job in my life where I could "just do my job and go home."
Ever.
Some people call it a "pain". I call it "pride in your work".
There is a massive, Pediatrician's practice that is getting ready to go under in my area...because they "prided" themselves in doing things their way, they were completely inflexible...so much so that parents found other places to take their children.
In my lifetime, I saw a hospital get shut down...hundreds of staff members lose their jobs, because they didn't think that "service" mattered.
OMG, I HATE it whenever they use the term 'client'. It really burns my a** and I refuse to ever call my patient that. I absolutely detest that word.
Why do you detest that word?
Personally I think it is because as in a nurse patient relationship , I am there to provide my technical knowledge , and nurse ( support physically and emotionally )the patient till they regain there good health . In a vendor / client relationship , I am simply paid staff who they control because the customer / client is always right .
OMG, I HATE it whenever they use the term 'client'. It really burns my a** and I refuse to ever call my patient that. I absolutely detest that word.
Why do you detest that word?
Personally I think it is because as in a nurse patient relationship , I am there to provide my technical knowledge , and nurse ( support physically and emotionally )the patient till they regain there good health . In a vendor / client relationship , I am simply paid staff who they control because the customer / client is always right .
Gawd, I hope you're being sarcastic.
You've made nursing and all of healthcare sound so commercial/for profit.
Client always makes me think of the "professional ladies" who stand on street corners.
Yes, I provide a service but my patient is NOT always right.
You've made nursing and all of healthcare sound so commercial/for profit.
Client always makes me think of the "professional ladies" who stand on street corners.
Yes, I provide a service but my patient is NOT always right.
That is exactly the point I was trying to make .
When the people we care for are referred to as clients , your description is how I feel .Wheras when I am a nurse caring for a patient , I feel my motivation is caring .
Sorry if not being clear , worked last night and am dog tired , I will look at this again after agood sleep , to see if it even makes sense to me
I think that there are some aspects of trying to improve "customer service" in a hospital that are worth pursuing, and may even improve patient outcomes. To give one example, in the pediatric hospital where I work, our meal service works like room service, with some modifications. Pts can order their 3 meals a day from a menu, any time between 7am and 7pm, and it's supposed to be (and is) brought to their room within 45 minutes. The food service has the pt's diet in the computer, so they won't let pts order foods that aren't in their diet (and we have special menus for some of these diets). There's also a holding area for trays of diabetic pts, so the nurse can check their blood sugar before passing the tray -- other pts' trays are brought directly to them. Pts like this because they can order what they want when they want it, and the food is freshly cooked, not something that was cooked an hour ago and warmed over a couple of times. They're therefore much likely to actually eat their food.
Compare this to another hospital where I did a clinical rotation in NS, where food was always brought up at the same time, cold, and the nurses were expected to microwave it before bringing it to the pt. The food there was DISGUSTING and, surprise surprise, and awful lot of the pts would refuse to eat it. There were frail, undernourished pts losing weight because the food was so disgusting.
Back rubs can relieve pain or stress, which also benefits our pts. If I have time, I'll give a back rub to a pt who wants it, or sometimes our CNAs will do this.
I do agree with the comments that you need enough staff to do all of this! There does seem to be a trend to heap more and more tasks on already overworked nurses, with no recognition of the fact that each of these tasks takes time. I do see that as a problem, but I don't see anything wrong with trying to make a pt's stay more comfortable and enjoyable, as long as there's adequate staffing to perform these services.
OMG, I HATE it whenever they use the term 'client'. It really burns my a** and I refuse to ever call my patient that. I absolutely detest that word.
Why do you detest that word?
Personally I think it is because as in a nurse patient relationship , I am there to provide my technical knowledge , and nurse ( support physically and emotionally )the patient till they regain there good health . In a vendor / client relationship , I am simply paid staff who they control because the customer / client is always right .
You know what...I'll buy that...and it's a different way of looking at it...such as, nurses have patients...and hospitals, are the ones who have the clients.
Moogie
1 Article; 1,796 Posts
ruby, i remember those days well. as a young nurse on busy medical or surgical floors in a major medical center, i worked very hard. while often the outcomes were positive, sometimes people got worse or died. sometimes family members were weary or angry, not at us, but at god for making their loved ones ill and not healing them. sometimes i wasn't always perky or cheerful as i had issues going on in my life that made me worrisome or sad.
but you know, i remember smiling a lot when i was on the job. even when i didn't really feel like it, i was able to buck up and pull myself together, to get out there and take care of my patients for my eight-hour shift. we rarely worked overtime but if we did, our supervisors didn't hassle us. sometimes we were short-staffed but never with ratios like nurses put up with today. our patients weren't as sick. and they stayed long enough so we could get to know them.
i smiled at work, not because i had some spread-the-happiness guru in hr harping on me to smile. no, i sometimes didn't feel like smiling but i did. it wasn't a fake smile. it was one of gratitude that, even though that shift might be rough, in the long run i knew i was actually making a difference for my patients.
in the old days, we gave good nursing care and didn't palm off warm 'n' fuzzy substitutes like hot cookies and "customer service". in the old days, we smiled because we knew we were giving d*mned good care and we could be proud of ourselves as nurses---and of our hospital, too. today---where's the pride? where's the care? oh, who cares, just gimme the cookies.
as a young nurse, i remember thinking the seasoned nurses were nuts for being nostalgic for the "good old days". if i could, i would go back to those good old days and practice as a nurse, not as a glorified customer service technician. i will go so far as to say that i think most young nurses today would be thrilled with the way things were in the 1970s and 1980s.
progress? no. we've taken a fairly decent system and let it be taken over by avarice. now look at the mess we have.