Given a warning

In the morning, during the 2 hrs I'm rushing to get done, half of that time is spent making coffee and delivering it. "Do you want cream and sugar with that"?

OMG, that would drive me insane...

I do think it way too much to give you a warning for such a petty thing. It would have been way more constructive to you for some suggestions to be offered on how to deal with difficult patints such as the one you had. May be even a bit of role playing to solidify some concepts! Now doesn't supportive action work and feel better than this punative crap they throw at us!

DO REMEMBER this though and you cannot go wrong too often. It is NOT the patient's problem if you are busy,stressed or overworked. It is yours!. Most patients do not care if you have others to care for..they are aware of it but they still want their needs met no matter how trivial they seem to us. Keep that information to yourself and respond by saying, "I will see what I can do to accomodate your request". Your response was that you just blew her off so of course she was likely to be upset. But again would it not be better to have a supportive manager that can guide you rather than one that just uses a hammer! This is a huge problem in nursing and indicates your manager is just a puppet without a brain of her own to offer real help!

Im not sure that this is the right analogy for the point you want to make. It's not like she said your requests for more food are not as

important as my people who are unstable (honesty). She said she was very busy with a few other

patients and would obtain the food item as soon as she could. Which was an honest and polite way of saying it would have to wait. When hospitals start tacking an automatic 20% gratuity on to the bill I will start caring about providing immediate gratification to peoples unhealthy choices.

DO REMEMBER this though and you cannot go wrong too often. It is NOT the patient's problem if you are busy,stressed or overworked. It is yours!. Most patients do not care if you have others to care for..they are aware of it but they still want their needs met no matter how trivial they seem to us.

THIS.

Even as a patient, I DID NOT want to hear how busy my nurse was OR a script; I didn't like it and said so; I told one nurse "just because I'm a nurse doesn't make it any different, and as a patient with no healthcare experience, I DON'T want to hear it either!"

Our jobs are constantly busy...finding a balance on communication is a juggle as well...I've learned that from both sides of the stethoscope...

Omg, don't you hate those?

If I truly am too busy, I'll apologize and say I was "handling an emergency." Usually patients are very understanding. Often they can hear the people hurrying around outside and the change in pace/sound of the unit when someone is crashing or going downhill. This is only if the request is something extraneous like asking for a food item from a vending machine, of if I forgot to bring that requested glass of ice water (usually because I got called away to an urgent situation).

I gave up the idea of trying to argue with patients very early on. If I have time, and it's not against hospital policy or unsafe, I will do what I can to accommodate requests.

To the people saying it was probably the OP's tone...the OP got in trouble for saying he/she had to take care of other patients, not for being rude about it. Maybe the patient wouldn't have complained if the OP was sugary sweet about it, but the point is a nurse got in trouble for mentioning other patients.

It's no damn wonder people complain so much, they are allowed to have completely unrealistic expectations. Also, going off the floor to get a patient food? No. That patient was ordered a diet by her doctor for a reason.

Your manager is an idiot.

The customer service mentality is going to be the death of me! I probably would have said I wasn't allowed to leave the unit, but if her family wanted to bring her something, the closest place is ________. Of course since all of our patients are on insulin drips and carb controlled diets, she wouldn't have been allowed to have it anyway!

Your manager is an idiot.

Probably one of those MSNs with no bedside experience.

Customer satisfaction is overrated.

I just had a pt who, five minutes after telling me he did not want anything from his untouched dinner tray (which included a cup of coffee), ask for a cup of coffee!?!

I had already taken his tray away but walked back to where I had placed it and removed the coffee from it, heated it and placed cream and sugar per his request and deliverd it to him. He then asks, "Is this hospital coffee or real coffee?". I told him " This is the coffee from your dinner tray." I think he expected me to make him a fresh cup or use the staff's coffee.

He also then told me he would like eggs and bacon (this was at 9pm). I told him he could expect his breakfast tray in the morning and that the kitchen was closed.

I don't mind trying to make my patient comfortable and meet their requests, but I refuse to go on a wild goose chase around the hospital to find them a particular item, especially when they are treating me as a glorified waitress.