No more visitors EVER!

Nurses General Nursing

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Well I had a hell of a night in OB, a sullen rude labor patient even after the epidural, and whining about keeping the moniter belts on- yes they HAVE to be there. Her SO pissed and moaned about it taking so long ("when do you think this will be over?") I offered to get him the stuff for a shower and some slippers so her could get more comfortable. So I do all that and he leaves soggy towels on the floor and asks for a pillow- wjich I get- and no thank you or kiss my ass.

So meanwhile she's stopped dilating, ctx are irregular, FHR baseling is up 20 from what it was, no accels, intermittent decels of all types, and variability sometimes not so hot...hmmm. And I'm keeping track of all this, plus her whining, plus the 6-7 people going in and out, and WAKING her, after complainging that she's been up for days. And the OB says "just 2 people in the room" as we've been saying all day. So a couple of them come in and quiz me up about just HOW LONG will this take, as they have been here all day.

Well I say, if we could start pushing now, 1h pushing, and possibly as long as 1h stitching and clean up before the whole clan will be OK to come in. WHY she asks, arguing the pt doesn't care if we see her splayed out to the world (well I do!) And I don't need 6-7 visitors to trip over while I resuscitate this kid, and it's for mom's safety etc. Well sh'e not buying it- "Can't I just peek in???"

All OB nurses know where that road leads, esp with 5 others in the hall just wanting a "quick peek" too. Get the cameras and videotape...

So I explain we just need that time to get everything settled, and then the free for all will be open. (not good enough for her) She goes down the hall and I hear her mimicking me, esp the part where I say she's welcome to spend as much time as she wants now supporting mom. (They want to see the good stuff)

So anyway, mom delivers by Csection, bleeds out and the HCT is 10 points lower than baseline, baby has Apgars of 2,3,5 and 8. And the family follows us like puppys staring in windows, craning their necks past drawn blinds, and FOB jumps in the bed bedside mom's and goes to sleep, without coming in to see babe, or waiting for the transport team. Oh yeah- when I go in to get a consent to transport he requests...a pillow. And there they are, three pillows, right on the chair at the foot of the bed.

And we have NO security, I am the labor, and NICU nurse and my fellow RN is OR gofer, 2nd baby resuscitator and postpartum nurse. Supervisor comes to help but has to cover the house in addition so we have to move fairly fast.

IAM NOT YOUR MAID! I AM ACTUALLY MAKING DECISIONS THAT WILL AFFECT THE LIFE AND HEALTH OF THIS MOM AND BABY!

And if we need less than a posse in the labor room to allow us to think straight for just an hour-jeez is that too much to ask? I am ready to put huge deadbolts on all the labor room doors- once you go out- that's it baby.

Sorry about the rant, and thanks for listening.

Canoe

Not to mention the doc who wants to put in a UV- has never done it before in the 7 years I've worked at this hospital. Arghhh.

have been a nurse for twelve years but a patient only once (nephrectomy-- and the nurses wouldn't bring the morphine and I was so swollen I couldn't wipe my own ass)-- had my kids at home with a nurse midwife. You guys are forgetting that these patients aren't sick--and remember your Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs--these people are well enough to want extra pillows and a manicure, for cryin' out loud. That's the part of nursing so many of us have trouble with--I call it waitressing. Pretend you're working for tips. It feels different when YOU'RE lying in bed

This is why I like ICU's...with set visiting hours, and patients ARE sick (preferably intubated and Diprivan'd). I just LOVE tossing unruly visitors out!!!

We still get the icewater and pillow fluff routine occasionally, but it's more controlled in ICU Thank God!! MedSurg or OB today would drive me TOTALLY NUTS with today's 'entitled' population. :(

Wanted to write of a recent satanical visitor event in our ICU but thought better of the specifics. This psycho might see herself and implode. There is nothing like a NURSE who knows some ropes to make your and administrations life HELL. Yes she was a "Registered Professional Nurse" and she wanted "Professional Courtesy" much to the obvious detriment of the patient and his care. Thank God everyone, docs, adm, and staff banded together in the patients best interest and stood their ground (and catered a bit too). In any other profession security would have taken her out back my the nape of the neck , but in Nursing, we had to remain polite, not get angry (not supposed to be human I guess) and listen to her rant and rave and cause confusion, commotion and stir everything and everyone up for days first! Just why is that?

I always love it when we get the family member of accusing the staff, " He hasn't been washed all day," Meanwhile this pt is is incontinent of urine and stool and had probably been washed 50 times already. Or the ones who come in and check under the sheets for god only knows what. We used to have a guy who would come in and take pictures of his mothers g-tube site. Or the family members who come to the nurses station in the middle of a code and say, " My mother never got any fresh water today," Also, what about the hospital employees who have relatives as impatients? I noticed they feel an entitlement to do as they please as well. I remember once there was a dying cancer pt who had the entire WORLD in his room. His wife was crying because he was in pain, yet the nurse couldn't get to the bedside to give him his morphine because there was a crowd there gawking and leering at this poor man. Also, there were about 10 small children running around buck wild, raiding the pantry, eating other pt's food. You should see what they did to the visitor's lounge. Not to mention that every 5 minutes a different family member would appoach the nurse and ask the same question that another family member just asked. This poor nurse had 10 patients that day. I think I would have had an aneurysm, had I had to deal with that.

Our codes were called overhead (stupid though, cause in the ICU we ran our own) but anyway, a visitor in the waiting room came into the ICU, saw what room the code was in tried to walk in saying, "what's going on in here?". Then, after I told her to go jump off a bridge, she waltzed out to the waiting area, and said "anyone here for bed #11? That's where they have the code blue." Needless to say, that family freaked cause this dipcrap shot her mouth off before someone could speak to the family in a matter-of-fact manner. I swear some people were raised in a barn.

Specializes in ER.

Yep, all these things and more happen at our hospital. How about the HR decreasing to the 20's, ask the family to step out sowe can have room to work. Immediate family leaves, and becomes tearful outside which causes the girlfriend and neighbor to press noses up against the window to see through the crack in the curtains.

And admin will not spring for curtains that close off the trauma rooms to prying eyes, not enough room to even transfer from stretcher to EMS gurney without flashing the hallway.

Originally posted by Flo1216

Also, what about the hospital employees who have relatives as impatients?

impatients

What a great typo! :roll

Ummmm, it was a typo wasn't it? :wink2:

I LOVE the 'I have time'. we even have a notice 'Remember, the doctors are our clients, too'. I want to tear that down every day I work!

THE DOCTORS ARE NOT OUR CLIENTS, we make their job POSSIBLE. And I choose to remind them of this in a ever-so polite way at appropriate points in time.

Bless you all. I thought it was just me. Yesterday I was Float Nurse and happened upon a wife that was in the hall and looking harried. May I help You I say ? Yes my husband's IV "came out. ' This is the same one I just started 45min ago. Lovely 20 in the only vein he had. I enter the room look for another vein she says he itches I say he has an epidural and I will get his nurse and get him something for it. She is not happy she says he only itches at his nose from the tape from the ng tube. I explain that he was itching when I put his IV in. He was itching at the neck and chest and I had brought that to the attention of his nurse.

Next thing I know I have found a new vein and she is irate with me. She does not appreciate her husband being medicated for itching since he is not itching. How dare I come in and take over. She is a nurse with 45years experience and a BSN. She is sorrry later if she "upset me. Perhaps she had had too much experience for me to deal with. "

I just looked at her smiled slightly and left. I say "SHOOT MOST FAMILIES AND PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY."

yes we have the doctors are our clients motto here

For awhile a place I worked had the clever motto, on a pin we were all supposed to wear, of course, "satisfaction guaranteed." Can't you tell someone in marketing came up with that one. Gee, you Dad died, hope you're satisfied. There are something I just won't do or say. One of the places I work also has that "I have the time" tag line. Dang fool thing to say to anyone for any reason. I just stop at "is there anything else I can do for you/ you need." No point in opening up something you can't close.

When all else fails turf it to the house mouse, they have the time to deal with the fools who think the nurse is there for their convenience.

I once had a dog guard offer to sic the [attack] dog on someone who was being a PIA. Turned him down, occ. wish he was around with that dog to take care of some people. I bet that doesn't qualify me for a mission spirit award in compassion.

Most of the time it's not the patients, we have ways of dealing with them, it's the visitors. And heaven save you from the local celebs/politicos, there's entitlement and then there's, "well, do you know who I am?" I always want to say, whatever makes you think I care?

Oops, my bad attitude is showing, better go back to work.

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