I came on shift yesterday afternoon, got my paperwork together, and was heading down my assigned hall when an RN stopped me and asked me to check on a patient on the other wing. When I get there, of course, it's a MRSA isolation room. I start with the mask and gown and patient's wife yells at me that I'm not moving fast enough. I asked what the problem was.... problem was there was air in his IV and it was beeping. According to her, it has been beeping for half an hour. I'm sure that wasn't the case, but I told her I would let her nurse know and have the nurse come and fix it. She got all huffy and demanded that I fix it RIGHT NOW and asked for my name. I explained that I could not fix the IV as I am not permitted to touch them and that the nurse would be in to fix it. Got stopped in the hall by another relative who demanded I fix the IV. Again I explained that this is not in the nursing assistant's scope of practice and I could not touch it, and I'd let the nurse know. As I was walking away, I heard her saying "This hospital does nothing but pass the jobs off to someone else, and he's not getting appropriate care."
I found this patient's nurse and told her what was going on. Then I found out that the nursing assistant on daylight was in there at least 6 times to change his bed and do other appropriate nursing assistant care.
I am irked by the comments made to my back because I know that isn't the case. I know my coworkers, and they're not the type to not take care of their patients. My question is should I have been a bit more reinforcing with the explaination that I cannot touch an IV? With my luck, I'll get stuck on this wing tonight and have to deal with this family. I just have a feeling that these are the type of people who are going to complain with a fistfull of hundreds..... But I also don't want to see my coworkers get called on the carpet for this cause they did nothing wrong.
