I guess I'm a florist now too....

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hey all,

The other morning, I was in the hallway at work when I noticed a family member coming down the hall looking puzzled. I right away asked her if I could help her with something and she said "yeah, where's room 210"...I politely told her where the room was and she said "oh, by the way, cut off the ends of these flower stems and then find a vase for the flowers and put them in it and bring it down to 210". She then proceeded to practically hit me with the bundle of flowers. I was actually speechless.... Some people are so rude...I'm so sick of being treated like a servant...geesh. Anywho..just had to vent that...thanks

luv,

snoop'

:uhoh21: gee, I feel like the odd one out on this one. I actually enjoy maintaining my patients' flowers when I have time.

If you are in a room doing some teaching, for instance, all you need to do is pull flowers out of a vase, cut the stems ever so slightly on a diagonal, and replace the water with clean. Of course discard any dead flowers, and make sure no leaves are left below the waters' surface. The whole thing takes less than a minute and a half, can be done while you are looking at your patient and talking to them, and really makes a difference to your patients.

There is no floral arranging skill required.

Of course, I do agree with the OP and others that being asked to drop what you are doing and go find a vase for someone is not cool, and would politely beg off that one.

Im sorry to be different here. I just really enjoy flowers and think they add a lot of cheer...

Don't apologize for having a different opinion.

I don't think anyone would dispute that flowers add a lot of cheer and can make a difference to your patient or that it only takes a minimal amount of time to care for them.

It's the "Here, do something with these, will ya?" kind of attitude while they hand you flowers to care for as if you're the hired help.

That's a big chunk of why I left Med/Surg nursing.

One of my last days on the floor I was told (not asked) by a family member that:

"You'll need to find some more chairs for this room because we're expecting more visitors later."

There were already two in an already crowded patient room. I replied:

"Pardon me? I need to do what? I'll see what I can do when I have some time, but I doubt any more chairs will fit in this room, as you can see, we are already tripping over each other."

To this the family member said "Well then maybe we need to talk about transferring mother a bigger room."

I never did find time that day to hunt around the hospital for more chairs, I'm such a bad nurse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
:uhoh21: gee, I feel like the odd one out on this one. I actually enjoy maintaining my patients' flowers when I have time.

If you are in a room doing some teaching, for instance, all you need to do is pull flowers out of a vase, cut the stems ever so slightly on a diagonal, and replace the water with clean. Of course discard any dead flowers, and make sure no leaves are left below the waters' surface. The whole thing takes less than a minute and a half, can be done while you are looking at your patient and talking to them, and really makes a difference to your patients.

There is no floral arranging skill required.

Of course, I do agree with the OP and others that being asked to drop what you are doing and go find a vase for someone is not cool, and would politely beg off that one.

Im sorry to be different here. I just really enjoy flowers and think they add a lot of cheer...

I agree with you - there are two separate issues here to me - one is finding a vase and putting flowers in it and placing it at bedside for a patient. The other is someone telling you rudely to do something -

I think the rude part is wrong.

If I have time and am asked politely I find a vase.

steph

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am the OP and I guess that's what I'm getting at. I wouldn't have minded preparing the flowers if I would have been asked to do so in a polite manner.... This lady was soooo rude though and had the "here, put these in some water, you servant of mine and of my family member". Someone above was right....it's all in the attitude of the asking person. She had the "do it, and do it NOW" mentality...it was very uncalled for! I think that's where my "shock factor" came in.....I literally could not believe that she would ask something like that so rudely. Anyways...thanks everyone for all your comments.....this has turned into a very interesting thread :)

luv,

snoop;

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, OB, Ortho, ICU, Diabetes, QA/PI.

I have "found" time to do many things over the years such as performing manicures on a dying patient (who stroked my face with her hand after I was done) and so on and so on but when people treat me like this woman did the OP, I can become verrrrrryyy "busy" all of a sudden.................

I'll bet this lady is a pain to waitresses, flight attendants and cashiers - people like her, whether they realize it or not, are usually practicing "rankism" - discrimination of a person based on a perception of superiority by another person - many people have the attitude that the use of a service by them means that they technically pay the salary of the person providing the service so they "pull rank" and act demanding and demeaning - isn't there a thread out there somewhere on this...............

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I have "found" time to do many things over the years such as performing manicures on a dying patient (who stroked my face with her hand after I was done) and so on and so on but when people treat me like this woman did the OP, I can become verrrrrryyy "busy" all of a sudden.................

I'll bet this lady is a pain to waitresses, flight attendants and cashiers - people like her, whether they realize it or not, are usually practicing "rankism" - discrimination of a person based on a perception of superiority by another person - many people have the attitude that the use of a service by them means that they technically pay the salary of the person providing the service so they "pull rank" and act demanding and demeaning - isn't there a thread out there somewhere on this...............

I'm sure she is a pain to other workers such as in the service industry.

She has an attitude to people who can't talk back to her because they are working and she knows it. She'll threaten their jobs.

She wouldn't get away with it if any of these people weren't on the clock and bumped into her at the grocery store.

My co-worker's husband is the same way.

I went to Vegas with them and from flight attendants to waitresses to hotel desk staff he was rude, obnoxious, and expected VIP treatment everywhere. It was embarrassing.

Strangely enough, he only acts like that when someone is waiting on him and he knows they can't say anything back to him.

To his co-workers, boss, wife, anyone else, he's the biggest wimp with no backbone.

But he suddenly becomes a king whenever he thinks he's paying someone their salary and they can't talk back to him.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I agree with you - there are two separate issues here to me - one is finding a vase and putting flowers in it and placing it at bedside for a patient. The other is someone telling you rudely to do something -

I think the rude part is wrong.

If I have time and am asked politely I find a vase.

steph

Actually, I would probably find the vase even if requested in a less than polite manner. The problem I have with the "Hospital=Hotel/Resort" mentality of today's hospital administrations is the implicit assumption that all requests have relatively equal importance.

Unlike other service workers, nurses must consider that some of his/her patients may be experiencing pain which they can relieve, some of their patients are incontinent and need cleaning and comfort, one or more their patient's medical condition has changed even become critical and are in need of immediate intervention and/or transfer etc etc.....

It is ironic the Hospital Administrations often cite limited available resources when denying nursing requests for additional supplies, equipment or staffing yet they selectively can not understand that nurses can only be in one place at one time------that everything can not be done within five minutes of a request if any request is fair game.

Fortunately, the vase request would not be an issue at my facility. Since vases can't be nailed down, they no doubt "disappeared" long ago.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

hi! i am new to this site,i am a nurse and i want to say this burned me up when i read it!!:angryfire this happens to me as well,and it seems like it happens in the most inconvient times,i am always in a fasted paced mode anyway,and it always takes one inconsiderant family member to try to slow you down.i work for an urgent care clinic,and their was a daughter that brought her mother in simply because she was acting "strange" as she put it,the daughter looked to be in her late 40's early 50's, so anywho the daughter insist's that I help her mother into the bathroom and get her cleaned up because she knew she had a bm on the way there! well that did not fly with me at all i looked dead at her and said "the bathroom is the 3rd door on the left,you are more than welcome to use it ,i am very busy and i am the only nurse here at this time. needless to say the hag daughter did not take her own mother to the bathroom,!!!!!!!!! waht does that say about family?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
hi! i am new to this site,i am a nurse and i want to say this burned me up when i read it!!:angryfire this happens to me as well,and it seems like it happens in the most inconvient times,i am always in a fasted paced mode anyway,and it always takes one inconsiderant family member to try to slow you down.i work for an urgent care clinic,and their was a daughter that brought her mother in simply because she was acting "strange" as she put it,the daughter looked to be in her late 40's early 50's, so anywho the daughter insist's that I help her mother into the bathroom and get her cleaned up because she knew she had a bm on the way there! well that did not fly with me at all i looked dead at her and said "the bathroom is the 3rd door on the left,you are more than welcome to use it ,i am very busy and i am the only nurse here at this time. needless to say the hag daughter did not take her own mother to the bathroom,!!!!!!!!! waht does that say about family?

I've never worked in an outpatient/clinic setting so that comment just floored me.

You mean to say that family members actually ask nurses at clinics to help their loved ones to the bathroom and change soiled diapers?

Why does anything that a family tries to pull on nurses still amaze me?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
:uhoh21: gee, I feel like the odd one out on this one. I actually enjoy maintaining my patients' flowers when I have time.

If you are in a room doing some teaching, for instance, all you need to do is pull flowers out of a vase, cut the stems ever so slightly on a diagonal, and replace the water with clean. Of course discard any dead flowers, and make sure no leaves are left below the waters' surface. The whole thing takes less than a minute and a half, can be done while you are looking at your patient and talking to them, and really makes a difference to your patients.

There is no floral arranging skill required.

Of course, I do agree with the OP and others that being asked to drop what you are doing and go find a vase for someone is not cool, and would politely beg off that one.

Im sorry to be different here. I just really enjoy flowers and think they add a lot of cheer...

Aren't flowers and the water full of pseudomonas?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I've never worked in an outpatient/clinic setting so that comment just floored me.

You mean to say that family members actually ask nurses at clinics to help their loved ones to the bathroom and change soiled diapers?

Why does anything that a family tries to pull on nurses still amaze me?

I have worked in an outpatient setting and some patients are brought in from assisted living facilities or NHs by their families. Yes, occasionally they would ask for assistance, I had no problem providing it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The other day, a patient waved, snapped her fingers at me, and shouted,"Oh, Miss?? Get my friend here a cup of coffee!!" Another woman, who had cut the patient's hair in his room, was signaling to me. I went to see how I could help her, she said, "I've been waiting for someone to come and clean up the hair on the floor." I did both tasks with a smile, (patient satisfaction), and went home with a severe headache from gritting my teeth.

And this is the way a nurse is judged... Good nurse, bad nurse... geez...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
The other day, a patient waved, snapped her fingers at me, and shouted,"Oh, Miss?? Get my friend here a cup of coffee!!" Another woman, who had cut the patient's hair in his room, was signaling to me. I went to see how I could help her, she said, "I've been waiting for someone to come and clean up the hair on the floor." I did both tasks with a smile, (patient satisfaction), and went home with a severe headache from gritting my teeth.

And this is the way a nurse is judged... Good nurse, bad nurse... geez...

Sorry, but that crap would not fly with me. The "friend" would have been directed to the cafeteria or the vending area (I'm not running a coffee shop) and the hairdresser would have had to clean up her own mess or wait for housekeeping (I'm not running a beauty salon either). I am SO glad I take care of babies! Their parents might be a pain in the rear end, but MY PATIENTS would never ask me to fetch something for and/or clean up after their visitors. ;)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment