Ever have a patient complain about you?

Nurses Relations

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I recently had a patient that asked to speak to the manager about me. She also requested a different nurse to take care of her. Don't want to post the details because of privacy issues. I wish I could. Nothing serious at all, which really bothers me. I always try my hardest to do the best for all my patients, I really feel awful about the situation.

How are patient complaints about staff handled at your facility? I hate worrying about whether or not I'll lose my job over it. My facility always thinks the patient is right.

A year or so ago I had a patient's sister call the manager of the GI office , in the building where I worked , not the department. She emailed my own supervisor at the clinic's endoscopy center. Apparently this woman said that I apologized too much while admitting her sister (the patient) for a procedure. I wanted to call her and say "Sorry I said I was Sorry so much!" but tempting as it was, I just tried to let it go.

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how old was the patient?

Yesterday, I had to work on day shift which I'm not familiar with the flow with. But I sucked in and did (management called me for extra help). One of my patients was NPO from previous night and MR forgot to change his diet to xx diet. I made my even hour rounds, and he did not say anything. During lunch time, my PCT told me if his diet has been changed to NPO. I told her his diet is xx diet since this morning, and I asked her what happened. PCT told me that she cannot find his tray in the dietary's cart, and I went straight to the dietary and asked her if she can verify one more time. she said she does not have any record of his diet in her planner, and I checked with my medical receptionist about pt's diet order. Obviously pt's diet was not converted back to the xx diet from NPO since this morning. My patient and pt's mother was ****** off at me because I starved his son (mostly pt mother). I apologized to them, but I was not aware of that pt did not receive his tray. When I gave his 8am meds (tray is giving out at 7:30am). pt did not say anything about his tray or being hungry. I did not get any report about PCT that pt missed his breakfast tray. His mother started to dissing me while I gave his lunch time medicine and kept calling me to see his son regarding-helping him using his urinal or bring him some crackers..ect.

I was mad at them because I had millions more things to do than helping his ADL needs. I told them to call PCT, but PCT would call me back and tell me that they need ME. I went to the room, and asked my PCT to bring the crackers and some soups until the dinner trays to come in. His mother increased her tone of voice even more when the dietary personnel brought the dinner tray WHICH I PERSONALLY DELIVERED TO THEM. She started to point fingers at me about the menu which was the xx diet that had the red meats and green beans on. He flipped out and his mother flipped out because they are on the blood thinner, thus they cannot consume NONE OF THOSE THINGS. I told him that MD ordered you to have the cardiac diet, and I cannot change his tray at this minute. I hurried to call MD about this matter and MD gave me an order to add the vit K diet. MD said that it is okay to consume small serving of the green beans and redmeat (ground beef on the pasta). she rather has him eating something than starving him unless his mother brings something from outside.

The cardiologist came by (or maybe his mother summoned him) and spoke with them, and he came to the nursing station and ask for me. He looked very irritated because pt mother would not stop complaining about the menu and me left her son starving whole day. Even cardiologist told pt and his mother that it is okay to eat WHATEVER he wants, but it did not work. MD left me with some burden of persuading pt mother about feeding him, so I went back to the room with the reference regarding the low vit k. She refused to give his son the tray (even though the pt himself told me that he would eat it), and told PCT to take the tray away. Even though my PCT told me not to worry about her complaining because we did what MD order us to do, and pt and pt's mother refused to take the tray. I still felt bad.

I don't know if she made a complaint towards me after I left that day, but I will be looking forward to hearing from someone pretty soon. So that I know that checking pt's tray and picking pt's tray is in my job description for sure.

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In our unit, I feel no nurse can say NO to patient, no mention encouragement of in dependencies, once patient complained you, you will get trouble from the management, no matter what's the reasons for complaint;

Many many times, I am thinking of this: I'd be patient lying in the hospital, we can abuse the nurses, we get everything for free, the nurses work so hard, I don't think they can get so much money bring home.

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Specializes in OB (with a history of cardiac).

I had a patient recently probably complain about me. Why? Well, see she was nice as could be all shift long but at 11:20pm she put her light on. Where was I? In report, talking to the night nurse who would be taking care of her next. Well...I get out of report and another nurse tells me rather smugly "oh you'd better get into 5, and bring a new cover for the bili bed because her baby had a blowout."

So I did that.

I walk in and what do I see but this mom crying. She right away unloads on me "HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR SOMEONE TO ANSWER MY (BLEEP) LIGHT?! My baby had to LAY THERE in her own (BLEEP) and pee and my (BLEEP) back hurts! (boo hoo hooooo)" Babydaddy is holding said baby in a blanket staring off into space, baby is naked. I am apologizing to her, explaining that I was in report. Patient continues to whimper. "Now my baby needs a bath because I didn't have no wipes or NOTHING!!!"

"I'm so sorry. Lets make it right, ok? I'm cleaning up the bed and we'll get baby all cleaned up ok? I'm so sorry..."

Lets pause now and hear from nurse Peep's inner running dialogue:

"Oh. Your baby pooped? What a rarity. Had a blow out? GET USED TO IT!! My daughter had mega blow outs every stinking time we went out to eat that required complete outfit changes and sometimes a sponge bath right there in the bathroom! Now, you're not post section. You're going home tomorrow. Your legs worked enough to waddle up to the front desk and rant and rave about nobody answering your light after 15 seconds- why couldn't you just change your baby? Was it too icky? You didn't have no wipes or nothin'? Well I'm sorry but just as nobody is going to correct your grammar, nobody outside the hospital is going to remind you to get wipes.

Oi. That was a FANTASTIC way to end the night.

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I had a pt complain that I was too young. So I Webb to take care of a more critical pt. I think when people complain about insignificant things, they are just hurting about something. I apologize for how they feel, ask my coworkers what I could have done better in the situation, and move on. 10/10, my charge nurse and manager know my character and my bedside manager and keep it moving.

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I had a pt complain about me because she said I violated HIPAA by talking to her about her mother. As I was pretty much the HIPAA maven in the office I thought this unlikely, although I did remember the daughter running her mouth about all sorts of things about her mother and my going "Ummmm, hmmmm," a lot.

When my boss called me about it and said they could be liable for a $25,000 fine, I said, "This is nonsense. What does she say I said?" And she wouldn't tell me what the daughter said I said because ....

wait for it

it would be a HIPAA violation to tell me. :::massive eyeroll:::

(nothing ever came of this)

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Specializes in Pedi.

I thought the one I already posted about took the cake but I was wrong. Recently, I had a child's mother complain about me because I reported non-compliance concerns/neglect to the social worker that's in charge of her case with the state (as, you know, I'm obligated by law to do). I'm still in disbelief of this conversation I had with his provider the other day when she called to tell me this. I was kind of like "well, what do you want me to do when I discover that this lady isn't giving her child his meds or his feeds? Pretend it's ok so the Mom will like me better?"

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Hospitalization is a stressful time for patients and families. They are hyper vigilant and can easily snap. Add the fact that there are many " not-so- nice people" out there and problems will happen.

Don't take this personally.

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

I told a patient of mine last week I thought she was a prescription drug addict (after running a BOP and finding out she was cheating on me" with 6 other doctors, lol) and offered to send her to rehab. She tried to complain, but since the office manager works for me and is not my boss, it didn't go very far, lol.

The fact of the matter is, people complain. My rule of thumb is to listen to the complaints and try to hear if there is some vlid criticism in there, somewhere. In my case, was I right? Yes, I was. She'd had 900 opiate/benzo tablets in 100 days. She's either using or selling or both. Either way, she has a problem. Was I as empathetic as I could have been? I think so. I tried to be, but I was firm and let her know when I didn't think she was being truthful. Could I have handled it better somehow. Probably. At the end of the visit she asked me for hydrocodone-homoptine cough tablets, and I burst out "Seriously?" and literally laughed out loud. I should have tried not to do that, but I was caught off guard and literally stunned. I should have kept a better poker face. Does she have a legitimate complaint? Not really. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, but I can still learn something from the encounter.

And that's really all you can do. Avoid the temptation to be defensive. Hear the complaint, try to really hear what they are upset about. Determine if you could have handled it better so you will handle it better the next time, because there is always a next time. then you let it go and move on.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

Yeah I have been fired once the next night for forgetting to empty a bedside commode the previous night. Management pulled me aside over that. Nevermind I had fourteen other patients and tons of admissions. I usually give a mental middle finger to patients who complain or fire staff over trivial nonsense. This isn't a hotel and I'm not your slave

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In our unit, once patient complained nurse, management will never ask you to explain; once you are complained by pt, It's your fault, if you are complained 2 to 3 times, you have to go;

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I had a patient scream at me, throw a phone at my head, and asked my nurse manager if I could be banned from his care because he thought I was too young to know anything...I'm a 23 year old CNA. I think most people know enough to be able to fill up a bucket of water and hand you some towels...Eh. People complain over trivial things all the time, take it in stride and think about how you can use the criticism to improve yourself for future patients.

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