How do you feel about this?

iluvivt, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2009

Well there is the problem...they got their idea from the hotel industry.......if patients want the hotel experience I say GO TO a HOTEL...if you need advanced nursing care and medical treatment come to a hospital. NO WAY would I be making cookies when I really needed to be starting an IV....they have got to be kidding.........the nurses need to speak up here....if they really want to serve cookies...food service needs to make them...STOP wasting our valuable time

Tait, MSN, RN · Oct 10, 2009

I posted my comment on the article itself.

As an RN I find this concept degrading, unnecessary and a product of a greedy, thoughtless corporation. A hospital should be measured on it's standards of competent care, not on the rank of their cookie baking abilities. I understand that to some this might seem like a minor detail, designed to promote patient satisfaction, but to an RN that is is busy trying to keep their patients alive it is an insult to the very heart and reason for their profession.

As a previous poster mentioned, how tortuous would this be for the high percentage of diabetic/nothing by mouth etc patients, which is greater than those who can indulge in cookies before bed. If you can eat cookies, you are more likely well enough to go home.

"Sorry sir, I can't bring you a Nitro for your chest pain until the cookies are done, I don't want to burn them."

Tait

1TachyRN, RN · Oct 10, 2009

I posted my comment on the article itself.
As an RN I find this concept degrading, unnecessary and a product of a greedy, thoughtless corporation. A hospital should be measured on it's standards of competent care, not on the rank of their cookie baking abilities. I understand that to some this might seem like a minor detail, designed to promote patient satisfaction, but to an RN that is is busy trying to keep their patients alive it is an insult to the very heart and reason for their profession.
As a previous poster mentioned, how tortuous would this be for the high percentage of diabetic/nothing by mouth etc patients, which is greater than those who can indulge in cookies before bed. If you can eat cookies, you are more likely well enough to go home.
"Sorry sir, I can't bring you a Nitro for your chest pain until the cookies are done, I don't want to burn them."
Tait

I couldn't have said it better myself.

caliotter3 · Oct 10, 2009

Well, I thought it was a pleasant idea until I got to the part about the nurses being responsible for making them. Nurses don't have enough time to do their own tasks, much less find time to do something that should be done by the food service department.

MMM,RN · Oct 10, 2009

I wonder if those nurses got a raise this year? I wonder if the nurse-patient ratio is less than 6:1? I wonder if those nurses have aides working on their teams? I wonder if those nurses get a cookie too? If they do, then it sounds like heaven. But if they don't, and their administration thought COOKIES would be the way to boost staff and patient morale, then they're all smoking a bunch of crack. Cookies aren't going to make a patient's experience better. Quality, productive staff will. I'm betting that next year, Community Hospital will be stuck with a bunch of ovens and looking for a new adminstrator.

Katnip, RN · Oct 10, 2009

I think if they want fresh baked cookies, Mr. Clemens needs to put his apron on and get cooking.

No way should this ever be a nursing function. And as said before, what about all those poor people who cannot eat them? I'm sure they'll be mentioning that in their Patient Satisfaction surveys.

allnurses Guide · Oct 10, 2009

If you can't get a lolli-pop at the doctor's office, you shouldn't be able to get cookies in the hospital. It's really just that simple. :)

jschut, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2009

This is exactly why I left my previous job. Nurses were expected to tend to tasks such as this, when we were needed elsewhere... we didn't have to bake cookies per say (but I'm sure admin hadn't read this article yet...) but we were expected (and reprimanded) to leave the floor with client care being undone, medication not passed and treatments having to wait... to take certain clients out to smoke.

Just too much, in my book...

All4Seasons · Oct 10, 2009

here's the line that got me: "nurses bake the cookies each night in otis spunkmeyer ovens." :icon_roll

give me a break. the last thing all the overweight/obese canadians (that's where i'm from) and americans need in a hospital are cookies. get real!

the nurses should stand up for their patients citing preventative health care initiative, and put this cookie of a plan (no doubt cooked up by paper pushers) in the garbage compacter!

locolorenzo22, BSN, RN · Oct 10, 2009

I also felt complled to sign up and comment....I doubt someone in pain or unhappy with their stay magically gets better because they got some chocolate chip cookies....

I am a Registered Nurse, which covers a lot of bases in my job description. I am a patient advocate, striving to keep my patients comfortable and informed about what is going on at each point during their stay. I am a dietician, educating patients on what is appropriate for them to eat to get and stay well. I am a clinician, which means that I administer medications to keep patients well, pain free, and keep adverse conditions at bay.

I am also a highly educated professional with years of healthcare expertise and opinions that are highly respected by physicians that I work with. If there is a developing situation, most doctors will listen to what I have to say and tend to agree with my interpretation of the data.

I work from 5 at night until 5 in the morning. Please inform me when I have time to make cookies. my first 6-8 hours are usually spent giving medications, performing tasks, and checking orders from the previous shift. That's if I don't have an admission. Perhaps the hospital should hire enough food service workers so one can bake the cookies at 7-8 pm.

I did not go through 4 years of school and spending almost half my yearly income on my education to learn how to bake cookies. Perhaps the reporter needs to ask the RNs how they feel about this idea.

JenTheRN · Oct 10, 2009

I agree with the above posters. Also, what about those people who are nauseated and the very thought of food makes them ill? Not very thoughtful in my mind. Give them some stickers or something that doesn't waste the valuable time of someone who is caring for sick patients.