Hospital Cares More about HCAHPS than Nurses!

[CardiacRNLA]

I have only been a nurse for a little over a year. Already I think I am tired of it. I knew nursing was going to be tough but I am not sure how tough I thought it would be. I work for a hospital that is OBSESSED with HCAHPS scores (IMO to the detriment of nursing staff). We have to have a script, print information and waste paper on things that patients often throw away. However, I am shocked at the careless regard nursing administrators have towards their staff.

Over the past three weeks, I have been yelled at, screamed at, lunged at by a patient's family member, etc. I was told by a patient that I had an attitude when I dared to explain to her why I diluted her Dilaudid (since she was getting Benadryl and Phenergen at the same time!). Do I want my patients to have quality care and feel safe? Of course, I strive for that EVERY time I go in. However, I do not believe in losing my dignity to please unreasonable expectations. Patients should not feel the have the right verbally abuse nurses, make unreasonable demands and have administration give in to them for a score.

It is no wonder that this hospital has very few veteran nurses. Most are only 2-3 years out of school. Maybe I am whining, but I KNOW I try my best and give my all every shift. I am just tired of being every patient's whipping boy and administration stands by and does nothing.

Sorry for the rant

[Cheyenne RN,BSHS]

You don't work in a VA by any chance, because you described my current employer perfectly!

Seriously though, $%# their scores! As I've told our director here before I didn't go to school as long as I did to be verbally or physically abused. I have literally walked out of the room on patients before and told them to have a nice day. I routinely send people to our disruptive behavioral committee. I routinely call the police on people. I will not tolerate such BS from people. Neither should you.

If someone lunged at you you need to file a complaint against them with the police. Not with your hospital. Most hospital won't do anything to protect you.

Amen to that. If I wanted to be cussed at and beat on I would have stayed in a domestic abuse situation.

LOL! Believe it or not, we HAVE to say what you JUST posted almost literally word for word! Also since the HCAHPS surveys include "always" with every question, we have been told to pepper our rounding with the word ALWAYS with every interaction. "I want to control your pain ALWAYS." "I ALWAYS want to make it a point to visit you hourly." I am NOT lying. I was told this. It took so much to NOT roll my eyes.

The canned text they expect gags me, makes me feel like saying "Polly want a cracker, squawk, yes she does yes she does. Good Polly squawk"

Also, since Medicaid pays so poorly for services rendered and management is only concerned with the almighty dollar, perhaps Medicaid patients should not have their surveys counted?

That is the best idea I have heard in the last 3 decades. Patent that idea before someone takes it to that Shark TV show,

Trust me I know about patient surveys impacting your raise. I can score in upper 90 percentile in patient care surveys, but if 2 or more patients complain about me then I can be denied a raise.

Some people will fuss, cuss, rant and rave no matter what. They are bitter, hate-filled and hateful. They cannot be pleased because they don't want to be pleased.

Oh H to the NO! We've been told here that if a patient attacks us we are either to try and escape or curl up into a fetal position and protect our head and face and hope the police come and not defend ourselves. If we defend ourselves we can be fired.

That does not even seem legal. How can any company or business tell a person "You do not have the same rights as the rest of this country the minute you clock in." It sounds like the hospital could be sued if someone got hurt following that kind of rule. Hospital corporations have gone past crazy!

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

I swear, medicare only does these surveys because they know people are going to give crappy scores, and there for they will have reason to deny payment.

[Libby1987]

I swear, medicare only does these surveys because they know people are going to give crappy scores, and there for they will have reason to deny payment.

We have these in home health now and with the history of fraud in home care, both careless waste and deliberate fraud. I think asking the patients if they actually improved is a fair question, if still an imperfect method.