How to stop visitors from using empty bed???

[AJPV]

We have a number of semi-private rooms. It isn't uncommon for us to have one bed occupied with the other bed empty (awaiting a possible second patient). I can't believe how common it is for family/friends of a patient to think the second bed is there for their comfort and convenience! We have tried everything - putting the bed in the highest position, electronically locking it there, unplugging the bed from the wall outlet, placing a little card on the overhead table explaining that the bed must remain unused & clean for other patients. I'll come walking into the room and family/friends have climbed in the bed or set it up as their personal office with their laptop, and they will eat food in the bed showering it with a generous helping of potato chip crumbs. Seriously??? Any creative ideas on how to deter this?

[ktwlpn, LPN]

I will carefully explain the hospital/facility procedure to the patient and relatives on admission.

A notice would be clearly and boldly written to serve as warning and placed strategically.

anyone who contravenes thereafter would be left to blame, cos he may have to pay the standard rate for the day and be treated like a patient.

"be treated like a patient" Start with a triple "H" enema !

[BeenThereDoneThat74, MSN, RN]

I am a nurse now but I will never forget when I was in my early 20 I was a pt in a hospital. I was in a semi-private room, my family had been allowed to stay the night with only one family memeber until I got a roommate and as I remember a elderly lady that was dying and her family which was never there did not want my family there at night .. ok I get it fine withme but I wroke up on morning and her family was sitting on my bed asked what she was doing I was informed that since I was sleeping and was not taking up the full bed that she figured that it was ok for her to sit there since all of the chairs was taken up by her otherfamily memebers, luckly she was transfered the next day. Some people just don,t care

Are you saying that your roommate's family member was sitting in your bed while you were sleeping in it?!?!? (just want to make sure that's what I'm reading here).

[VICEDRN, BSN, RN]

Are you saying that your roommate's family member was sitting in your bed while you were sleeping in it?!?!? (just want to make sure that's what I'm reading here).

I think this nurse is and believe it or not, I have actually observed this phenomena in my very crowded er. Its unreal! Unreal!

[galpn2011]

yes i was a sleep in MY bed and i woke up the roommate's family was sitting on the foot of my bed. my point was that some people don't even care if they are empty beds or not they are going to do what they want and don't care about anyone but themselves

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

yes i was a sleep in MY bed and i woke up the roommate's family was sitting on the foot of my bed. my point was that some people don't even care if they are empty beds or not they are going to do what they want and don't care about anyone but themselves

If I woke up with some stranger sitting on my bed I would have let loose the most blood curling scream as I yanked the call bell out of the wall. Then I'd raise holy heck with administration. Perhaps kicked them in the head (actually that would have more likely happened while I was sleeping as I tend to notice the movement and react in my sleep. (darn sleep movement d/o issues. :) ) I doubt they would have EVER sat in a stranger's bed again but if nothing else they'd have been banned from my room!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

people have no manners, cant even fake them in society, and are really stupid. this becomes more and more evident everyday i go to work. i would NEVER THINK a hospital bed was for me, as a visitor, to lounge around in. are people really that ignorant? no i just think they are rude. i hate going into rooms and having to beg the 23432432 family memebers to please move aside many times until they finally do. i hate being b&^%$#@ at for not carrying 6 chairs in for them when i have other things to do. the only thing that might work is taking the bed out until you get an admission.

[Zombi RN]

Usually "You are not allowed to sit or lie upon this bed" and explanation the first time. Second time, I'm not opposed to having security remove them.

But then again, it's been a long time since I had any patients in a non-private room.

[NocturneNrse]

Put a clean bedpan on it. They won't know it's clean, and they sure as heck won't go anywhere near a bedpan.

[chuckster, ADN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

How about: "Oh, I'm so glad to see someone finally using that bed - I was worried that no one would use it again after the last person who did died from that flesh-eating bacteria!"

[OCNRN63, RN]

I am a nurse now but I will never forget when I was in my early 20 I was a pt in a hospital. I was in a semi-private room, my family had been allowed to stay the night with only one family memeber until I got a roommate and as I remember a elderly lady that was dying and her family which was never there did not want my family there at night .. ok I get it fine withme but I wroke up on morning and her family was sitting on my bed asked what she was doing I was informed that since I was sleeping and was not taking up the full bed that she figured that it was ok for her to sit there since all of the chairs was taken up by her otherfamily memebers, luckly she was transfered the next day. Some people just don,t care

I think I'd have given her a mighty shove, and when she plopped on the floor I'd have said, "Oh, excuse me. I like a good stretch when I first get up."

[DogWmn]

Oh how I've loved reading through this thread. I currently work as a Patient Sitter at a regional hospital in a rural area. Our rooms are all singles, some larger than others. And since I'm in there for 8 hours and a whack with a few quick breaks, I hear/see all sorts of things.

Herds family members coming in for a depressed family member who can't get over her divorce and give her a cell phone (not allowed) and she promptly calls soon to be x setting off a firestorm...grrrr. Mother brings in 8 year old ADHD kid every night as he romps around the room including the floor as she sits on her cell while her hubby who now has end stage Syphilis (mushy brain), HIV, Hep C etc. (he was in prison for years) and can be violent. We also will provide 1 family member with a cot to stay with said patient if they want, I had a sister sit in with a patient who nagged nagged nagged for 8 solid hours - if she were my sister I'd be wanting the peace and quite of a room myself.

I have written several suggestions to my boss to address some of these issues - have yet to be implemented but I think anyone who has to have a Sitter should have a BIG sign outside the door that visitors check in with the nurse prior to entering the room. I can't tell you how often I end up confiscating phones, purses with drugs, alcohol, weapons, inappropriate foods...the list is long. Then the visitors get angry because their family member isn't allowed some of these items...grrrrrrrrrr.

I sometimes still can not believe how clueless and thoughtless people are.

[KeepItRealRN, BSN, RN]

The hospital I worked at had mostly private rooms. I had one patient who's family (mostly teenagers) stayed with her every night. They actually put blow up mattresses all over the floor and around the bed. I know there had to of been at least 4 kids in that room each night. The room looked like it had exploded! What finally threw me over the edge was a friend of the patients came in and brought a crock pot and cooler. She was cooking in the crock pot on the counter by the sink and the cooler had alcohol in it. I about died! I just walked out, got my charge nurse and let her handle the situation. I was over it at that point....I was not mentally stable enough to explain to them WHY you can't do that!! Ugh! lol

I hope the charge nurse not only went in there to explain the innapropriateness of this, but if they had a cooler with alcohol in it, I hope she asked for all of their ID's too. If they were teenagers, that means not one of them was age 21 or older.