How was your service today?

Diary/Dairy, RN · Feb 3, 2008

Thank you Elk!!!

I really should have minored in Customer Service - It seems like it would have come in really handy over the last 5 years of my career!

VivaRN · Feb 3, 2008

Florence Nightingale, in her Feb. report 1853:

A Hospital is good for the seriously ill alone, otherwise it becomes a lodging house where the nervous become more nervous, the foolish more foolish, the idle & selfish more selfish & idle.

For two of the elements essential to a Hospital are want of occupation and directing the attention to bodily health (italics in original text).

There is not a trick in the whole legerdemain of Hysteria which has not been played in this house...

Conclusion--that, if the Medical certificate be not strictly enforced, this will become, not a Hospital for the Sick, but a Hospital for incompatible tempers and hysterical fancies.

~ taken from the book Nightingales, by Gillian Gill

Sound familiar?

oldiebutgoodie, RN · Feb 3, 2008

I am feeling like a waitress lately. Management is not helping. I understand we are capital driven industry just as any other- but lately its getting ridiculous.
Our supervisors are now doing "rounds" that include questions to every pt. like- "how have the nurses been treating you?".....sorry that comment just took me back to my spaghetti slinging days when my over zealous manager would ask every table-how's your service today-did your server meet and greet you within 30 seconds of your arrival with a smile?
These rounds are a precursor to the follow up-(how did you feel about your service and stay in the ICU) calls our sups make when we actually d/c pts from the ICU (happens quite a bit).
Just irritates me that I work so hard, went to school for quite a long time and i am judged not by my skills and work ethic but more...how fast did i answer your call light-or did I stop doing chest compressions on your dying neighbor to get you some ice water with extra ice and two straws?!?!?! My bad, you deserve a discount off your bill! Oh, and make sure you notify every Dr you see that I didnt answer you call light fast enough. That way he can scold me on the way out:) LOL.
Ah just a vent. Thanks for listening.

One of the reasons I left floor nursing! No matter what we do, we haven't done it good enough. It's like taking a test with 3000 questions, and if you miss one, you flunk. I think the treatment of floor nurses by management is insulting to our intelligence and our training.

Oldiebutgoodie

GrnHonu99, RN · Feb 3, 2008

Florence Nightingale, in her Feb. report 1853:
A Hospital is good for the seriously ill alone, otherwise it becomes a lodging house where the nervous become more nervous, the foolish more foolish, the idle & selfish more selfish & idle.
For two of the elements essential to a Hospital are want of occupation and directing the attention to bodily health (italics in original text).
There is not a trick in the whole legerdemain of Hysteria which has not been played in this house...
Conclusion--that, if the Medical certificate be not strictly enforced, this will become, not a Hospital for the Sick, but a Hospital for incompatible tempers and hysterical fancies.
~ taken from the book Nightingales, by Gillian Gill
Sound familiar?

oddly, yes...or not so oddly. Nice to know good ol Florence saw it, even back then..sad to think nothing has really changed...lol.

EmmaG, RN · Feb 3, 2008

I am feeling like a waitress lately. Management is not helping. I understand we are capital driven industry just as any other- but lately its getting ridiculous.
Our supervisors are now doing "rounds" that include questions to every pt. like- "how have the nurses been treating you?".....sorry that comment just took me back to my spaghetti slinging days when my over zealous manager would ask every table-how's your service today-did your server meet and greet you within 30 seconds of your arrival with a smile?
These rounds are a precursor to the follow up-(how did you feel about your service and stay in the ICU) calls our sups make when we actually d/c pts from the ICU (happens quite a bit).
Just irritates me that I work so hard, went to school for quite a long time and i am judged not by my skills and work ethic but more...how fast did i answer your call light-or did I stop doing chest compressions on your dying neighbor to get you some ice water with extra ice and two straws?!?!?! My bad, you deserve a discount off your bill! Oh, and make sure you notify every Dr you see that I didnt answer you call light fast enough. That way he can scold me on the way out:) LOL.
Ah just a vent. Thanks for listening.

How insulting.

As far as follow-up calls, they should be calling the patients to inform them that, thanks to the nursing care they received in ICU, they are damned lucky to be alive.

GrnHonu99, RN · Feb 3, 2008

How insulting.
As far as follow-up calls, they should be calling the patients to inform them that, thanks to the nursing care they received in ICU, they are damned lucky to be alive.

no kidding. they sure dont remember that i drug their heavy bed to CT 5 times over 2 days because they were moody and had "neuro changes". Or..how every time i sat down to eat lunch they were on the call light bc the pillow behind their right shoulder needs to be brought down just a tad...but the pillows are MORE important, if not THE most important issues at this given time..not the fact that you are moving all around dumping CSF out your brain drain..(nearly giving me a heart attack) but that can wait..the pillows and ice chips are first and foremost. Oh- and nevermind the fact that your swallow is impaired and you could more than likely aspirate anything you eat or drink...definetly blame me for that fact that you havent gotten a dinner tray...but make sure that when the clueless resident comes by you ask him and then proceed to tell me i HAVE to do this or that bc the Dr. said so...lol News flash...i dont HAVE to do anything...I love how pts. think all we do is follow orders.!?!?!

imenid37 · Feb 3, 2008

They never take into account the rudeness and impatience of some patients, and the expectation to not wait at all for anything ever. We actually have some people like that who complain about ALMOST EVERYTHING. The admin. wants to use the computer for everything, but the patients hate it. They also want us to account for every pimple that has ever appeared on a patient's buttocks in our admission history that is so long, no well or ill person has the endurance not to be irritated by it. So when you feel lousy and you're one of those folks who are willing to be free with their complaints..How the heck do you think the service was? Ridiculous to waste $ on this cr*p. If they used it to finace better staffing, the service would be much better.

BeachBayNurse · Feb 3, 2008

It is common sense, you ask enough sick, hurting, grumpy, scared people if everything was exactly perfect, to their liking, of course some are going to say they had a bad experience! I cannot wrap my mind around it that the "suits" with all the degrees cannot figure that out.

GrnHonu99, RN · Feb 3, 2008

They never take into account the rudeness and impatience of some patients, and the expectation to not wait at all for anything ever. We actually have some people like that who complain about ALMOST EVERYTHING. The admin. wants to use the computer for everything, but the patients hate it. They also want us to account for every pimple that has ever appeared on a patient's buttocks in our admission history that is so long, no well or ill person has the endurance not to be irritated by it. So when you feel lousy and you're one of those folks who are willing to be free with their complaints..How the heck do you think the service was? Ridiculous to waste $ on this cr*p. If they used it to finace better staffing, the service would be much better.

Agreed. I get to spend less time with my pt. bc for every admission I get I am buried under a gigantic pile of paperwork that the pt. has filled out three times now in the duration of his stay...After filling out a lengthy admin profile (the second one mind you...of course we cant use the one they did in the ER)....a med rec sheet that the MDs NEVER look at (instead they ask the pt. and just order the drugs)...blah blah, you get the point....OR the fact that we have to practice family cenetered care so make sure all 10 of your relatives are stuffed in our tiny ICU room and make sure every single one of them asks me the same ******* question so i have to repeat myself 10 times thus making me even later answering your loved ones call light...ha!

santhony44, MSN, RN, NP · Feb 3, 2008

Florence Nightingale, in her Feb. report 1853:
A Hospital is good for the seriously ill alone, otherwise it becomes a lodging house where the nervous become more nervous, the foolish more foolish, the idle & selfish more selfish & idle.
For two of the elements essential to a Hospital are want of occupation and directing the attention to bodily health (italics in original text).
There is not a trick in the whole legerdemain of Hysteria which has not been played in this house...
Conclusion--that, if the Medical certificate be not strictly enforced, this will become, not a Hospital for the Sick, but a Hospital for incompatible tempers and hysterical fancies.
~ taken from the book Nightingales, by Gillian Gill
Sound familiar?

She really did have it exactly right, didn't she?

nialloh, RN · Feb 3, 2008

One of the reasons I left floor nursing! No matter what we do, we haven't done it good enough. It's like taking a test with 3000 questions, and if you miss one, you flunk. I think the treatment of floor nurses by management is insulting to our intelligence and our training.
Oldiebutgoodie

If I may restate this a little bit. It's like taking a test with 3000 questions, and if you don't answer question 3001, you flunk. Some of the requests are unreasionable, outside our scope of practice, or the pt just plain old lies. Sometimes they forget to ask you, and then blame you for not doing it anyway. You can never win. Management nearly always sides with the pt.