I'm sorry but I'm EXTREMELY irritated by this!

time4meRN · Oct 22, 2007

take it all with a grain of salt. i think people who respond to things are people who have an axe to grind. it's pretty much like pres ganey, those who write in are ones with complaints. usually pt's with an everyday, decent experience (good job but nothing really stands out, they know they feel better, but nothing really good or bad stands out in their mind), don't respond to these silly surveys.it's the pt's/families who are mad about something that are more than happy to send something in. and we all know from the studies from- erickson, that any sort of greiving process includes anger. unfortunitley greiving can include the illness of a loved one , doesn't have to be a death. there may be guilt feelings with their loved one in icu, and need to find a reason to vent. it used to be that as nurses we just excepted this as a way of life and could help support people through this process, not take it personally. but !!!! times have changed. now we have to take it personally. it could mean our jobs. wounder what erickson would say about all of this. imagine the meeting between him and the idiot pres ganey excecutives . it's most likley the same for other surveys. numbers don't lie but lyers make numbers.

luvmy3kids · Oct 22, 2007

Thanks all. You all have a lot of great points. I just thought it odd that this is not a nursing site and/or any sort of healthcare related site and almost every response seemed to me that they felt it is a nurses duty to be nice and smile and that is about it.

I just wish more people knew what nurses really did. Especially behind the scenes. Everyone should be required to take What you do as a Nurse 101! LOL

StNeotser, ASN, RN · Oct 22, 2007

1)Respect is not a given,it is earned.

Disagree entirely with that one. How about respecting someone else because they are a fellow human being? After all, it's what we are expected to do day in and day out.

However, all the other points were excellent.

NaomieRN · Oct 22, 2007

Hello everyone. Let me start out by saying that I'm not a nurse. I'm a "pre-nursing" student and I'm just really irritated by something I just read and I'm curious if anyone else feels this way and could possibly comment on it better than I can seeing as how I really have no actual nursing experience.
I like to visit "Ross the Interns" website from NBC's The Tonight Show. He just makes my day and I loyally watch his talky blogs every day. He has a comments section where people who call themselves "blog buddies" can leave comments about his blog and talk back and forth to each other.
Here's where I get pi$$ed. A girl who posts a comment says she is a nursing student who is writing a paper about how patients would like to be treated by nurses. She is asking for suggestions from people (non-nurses) to help her out. The friggin suggestions are incredible! All the responders said they would like their nurse to just smile at them. Many said they don't want to hear about how busy their nurse is and how they don't have time for them. And one poster actually stated that her nurse gave her dad in ICU "something" to help him sleep during the day so the nurse could talk with her fellow co-workers at the nurses station. There was also a post about how nurses sit at the nurses station and whisper "jokes" to each other and how patients probably feel they are talking about them.
Ugg... the whole thing made me so mad. Is this how you are all portrayed??? Is this the profession that I'm so desperately seeking to become a part of?? I have had 3 children and every single experience I had with my 3 kids and the numerous times I've been into the hospital and ER I have admired my nurses and looked up to them thinking to myself that I could never do that job because it required so much out of a person.
How is my perception of nursing so vastly different from the rest of the worlds?? Ever since I've started coming here I've read thread after thread about how the public views nursing and how it is not a "respected" profession. Also how television portrays it as well.
Ok, I'm done ranting. Here is the link... if you scroll down and start reading the thread the students name is Jen something and it's towards the middle of the comments. After that it just snowballs with responses that make me really angry.
http://blog.nbc.com/ross_blog/2007/10/topic_of_the_weekend_2.php#comments

Did you get a chance to read this article?

POLL ANALYSES

Public Rates Nursing as Most Honest and Ethical Profession

Image of the clergy recovers to late 1990s level, is still lower than in 2000 and 2001

by Joseph Carroll

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- Nurses top Gallup's annual survey on the honesty and ethics of various professions, followed by other medical professionals like doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, and dentists. Car salesmen, HMO managers, insurance salesmen, and advertising practitioners are rated as the least honest and ethical. Overall, there has been little change in the public's rating of the honesty and ethics of professions over the past year. The public's image of the clergy has partially recovered from last year's child sexual abuse scandals, while the images of business executives and stockbrokers remain slightly lower than they were before the recent wave of business scandals.

Honesty and Ethics of Professions in 2003

Americans, in the Nov. 14-16 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, were asked to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in 23 different professions as very high, high, average, low, or very low. In addition to the core professions Gallup tests each year, this year's list focused on medical professions (last year's focus was on business, and next year's will be on government).

As has been the case in four out of the five times they have been included in the poll, nurses rank higher than any other profession, with 83% of respondents saying the honesty and ethical standards of nurses are "very high" or "high." The exception came in 2001, when firefighters (in their lone appearance on the honesty and ethics list) outscored nurses in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year, medical doctors (with 68% of Americans saying they have "very high" or "high" honesty and ethical standards), veterinarians (68%), and pharmacists (67%) are the next-highest rated professions after nurses. The 68% rating for medical doctors is the highest Gallup has ever measured for that profession.

The poll also finds that a strong majority of Americans have positive opinions of dentists, college teachers, the police, engineers, and the clergy. The 61% rating of dentists is also the highest Gallup has measured for that profession.

Much lower percentages, between 20% and 38% of respondents, rate the honesty and ethical standards of psychiatrists, bankers, chiropractors, state governors, journalists, and senators favorably. The professions near the bottom of the list include business executives (18% "very high" or "high"), congressmen (17%), lawyers (16%), stockbrokers (15%), advertising practitioners (12%), insurance salesmen (12%), and HMO managers (11%). Car salesmen, with a 7% rating, are last in this year's survey, as they have been in almost every survey in which they have been included since 1977.

luvmy3kids · Oct 22, 2007

I realize this is a small sample of the population. It's just that each one kept answering, "smile, smile, smile"! It made me want to barf.

If someone asked me what I wanted out of my accountant I wouldn't say , "A smile." If someone asked me what I wanted out of my lawyer, doctor, dental hygienist, house cleaner, etc., I think the furthest thing on MY mind would be smile. It would be to do the job that they are trained to do. Being friendly would be great, but it wouldn't be the top priority on my list. At least not for someone who is potentially saving my life at the time.

I guess that's where I was so aggravated. Thanks again all for your wonderful advice and expertise. It's nice to get opinions from you all and to see that it doesn't really bother you as much as it bothered me at the time. (now I'm starting to think no big whoop)

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · Oct 22, 2007

OK, what bothered me is that how many of these patients never realized that they were not talking to the nurse at all, but to the housekeeper, lab tech, PCT, MA, or Unit secretary.

Are they sure they were talking to a licensed nurse? Because it is that hard to tell nowadays.

(Specifically, there's a letter that describes "all the nurses" in a doc's office sitting around gabbing about their personal lives.)

nurseinlimbo · Oct 22, 2007

I don't take offence to most of the responses, and unfortunately there are nurses who will drug a patient to keep them quiet, I've met them in Psych and LTC and I choose NOT to be like them.

If you are responsive, caring, attentive, take the time to listen without acting like you need to be somewhere else, and answer questions/find the answer you will find that your patients will respond in kind and appreciate your care.

Unfortunately, many nurses have either been doing it too long, or enter the profession for reasons other than patient care and are burnt out and let it show. No matter how tired and cranky I am, I try not to take it out on Pts, for it is not their fault that they need me, they would probably rather be somewhere else too. And also with those who lash out (families included) I try to remember where their anger and frustration might be coming from and that it doesn't have anything to do with how they feel about me, but that it comes from fear, pain, loss of control etc.

TrudyRN · Oct 22, 2007

Never mind what anyone else says, just do what is right for you.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

Be nice to everyone, for everyone has their story, even the dull and ignorant. (or something like that)

Those semi quotes are from "The Desiderata".

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Oct 22, 2007

I didn't see anything so terrible. We all have ideas of what our "ideal" interactions would be like.

I didn't see them saying anything so terrible either.

cmo421 · Oct 22, 2007

Disagree entirely with that one. How about respecting someone else because they are a fellow human being? After all, it's what we are expected to do day in and day out.
However, all the other points were excellent.

You r right ,to a point. Professional respect was expected for many years. Nurses and doc were God like, now ,I think we have fallen off that high stool. I am at a loss for the right words to explain really what I meant, but respect is earned, once lost. Thanks for catching that!

Forgive your enemies, it annoys the hell out of them!

RNDreamer · Oct 22, 2007

It's not just nursing.These things were expected of me when I was working in the customer service field as well (call center). Customers would yell if they waited on hold more than 5 minutes (to them it was half an hour). They did not care that there were people ahead of them who we had to service first, since the people before them called first. They did not care how busy we were. All they cared about was getting credit for their wilted lettuce, or broken egg. They didn't care that the person before them had a situation that was worse than theirs and that it needed more attention. It didn't matter if we were tired and had finished working two shifts, we were expected to "smile" with each phone call, as if it were our first call of the day.

The customers swore that we didn't care about their needs and that we just wanted to get them off the phone. They didn't see what was going on in the call center: that every complaint they gave us went to the supervisors, managers, etc. They didn't see that when there was a problem that was constantly happening, we (the Customer Service Reps) annoyed the higher ups until the problem was solved. They never saw that we actually did care.

So this actually doesn't surprise me.

Here's where I get pi$$ed. A girl who posts a comment says she is a nursing student who is writing a paper about how patients would like to be treated by nurses. She is asking for suggestions from people (non-nurses) to help her out. The friggin suggestions are incredible! All the responders said they would like their nurse to just smile at them. Many said they don't want to hear about how busy their nurse is and how they don't have time for them. And one poster actually stated that her nurse gave her dad in ICU "something" to help him sleep during the day so the nurse could talk with her fellow co-workers at the nurses station. There was also a post about how nurses sit at the nurses station and whisper "jokes" to each other and how patients probably feel they are talking about them.

Susan9608 · Oct 22, 2007

I don't really think that there's anything wrong with patients wanting the nurse to smile at them. Most people prefer to be greeted by a smile, rather than by a stern or unhappy looking face. Smiling takes almost no effort and can go a long way to putting people at ease, particularly if they are scared, frustrated, or distrustful to begin with. I don't see wanting the nurse to smile at you as something excessive or unreasonable.

I also don't think it's unreasonable for people to *not* want to hear about how busy their nurse is or about how their nurse doesn't have time for them. How is it the patient's fault/problem that the nurse is overly burdened? I know I personally was very offended when I was in the hospital and requested pain medicine, only to be told by the nurse, "I have 5 other patients, so you're going to have to wait." Telling the patient how busy you are only, in my opinion, serves to make them feel like they are not a priority and are some how less deserving of care than your other patients.