I Have The Time and Other Lies

[Preeps]

I will admit that have been remiss on keeping up on what nurses at AllNurses have to say on the hourly rounding mandate. But my hospital seems to be going over the top and literally forcing nurses to script their interaction with patients.

We have hourly rounding quarterly validations and over 75 percent of the RNS failed recently (though we have been doing it for 2 plus years).

The nurses failed to use the works: "hourly visit" but may have phrased it as hourly rounding

Also not stating: "What is the most important thing I can do for you today?"

But the icing on the cake is that they are requiring us to state, "I have the time."

The funniest part is that the patients are continually commenting on how ridiculously busy all the RNS are and the phone rings 5 times the minute we enter a room.

One patient's husband stated to me: "I have never witnessed one of you nurses walking casually or slowly, you are always hurriedly going somewhere with intention."

We obviously do not have the time! We have no time.

One patient recently refused to have a foley placed because the RN kept receiving phone calls. Mind you that she did not answer the phone but the patient became upset and said he thought he deserved at least 5 minutes of uninterrupted time with his caregiver.

Is this common in other facilities or is my place of employment just unique?

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I can't even speak of this in the ER. We have 10 ambulances lined up at the door, an active STEMI in the lobby and we're pushing tPA in CT, but "I have the time" for your 8th Sprite. NO!

Best thing about working in the ER.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Isn't it sad that educated professionals are given a script and told how to interact with people? While I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of it happening during my lifetime, I can't wait until the tide finally turns and the medical/nursing field focuses on providing health care once again.

Are they also giving the physicians scripts? If not then you know why they are sticking this to nurses.

[RNIBCLC]

Sounds like an HCA hospital....👬👜😜

[PMFB-RN, RN]

They tried scripting at my hospital. With the help of the union organizing, every single RN and LPN simply refused to do it. They couldn't fire us all.

Those of you who have scripting have it for only one reason. You tolerate it.

[RNIBCLC]

Sorry about the emoji....

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

And is therefore in violation of the nurse practice act, which mandates that the nurse be honest in all communication. This isn't optional or nice-to-have. Have them put that in their pipes and smoke it.

They tried scripting at my hospital. With the help of the union organizing, every single RN and LPN simply refused to do it. They couldn't fire us all.

Those of you who have scripting have it for only one reason. You tolerate it.

[TriciaJ, RN]

Forcing nurses to say "I have the time" when they clearly don't is demeaning, dishonest, and deceptive. It's bad enough that they stretch nurses thinner and thinner, but to force them to lie and pretend that they are well staffed and have all the time in the world? Despicable. I doubt if many patients are fooled by this either. When I worked on a busy med/surg tele floor, many of the patients and their families felt sorry for us and often commented on how busy we were and how we were kept running the entire shift.

It's called "Service Excellence". At my hospital, we would get herded to the auditorium (leaving our patients un-rounded on) and taught ridiculous scripted lines. When a nurse manager asked us if we were using the scripted responses, she was actually stupid enough to be shocked when I said "no".

[Curious1alwys, BSN, RN]

This is so depressing. All I am is a nurse who would LOVE to "have the time" for her patients.I have only just enough time to keep them alive and medicated. For me, this lack of time is the hardest part about working in the hospital.

[soulRN]

I can relate to that! my patients tell me "wow you are a very popular nurse" because the phone rings non stop while in their rooms..these calls are pharm, dietary, MD's, PT, other pts etc, etc, etc. I find it funny that they expect you to say " i have the time" yeah right!

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I can relate to that! my patients tell me "wow you are a very popular nurse" because the phone rings non stop while in their rooms..these calls are pharm, dietary, MD's, PT, other pts etc, etc, etc. I find it funny that they expect you to say " i have the time" yeah right!

Phones are another thing we put the kibosh on. Management wanted each nurse to carry a phone so that the doc, pharmacy, lab, tele techs, blood bank, and a host of others could reach them at any time.

We just made it a point to "forget" our phones and NEVER answer them. Pretty quickly anyone who wanted to talk tot he nurse learned to call the HUC's desk and she would either page or take a message.

Pretty soon NOBODY was using the stupid nurse phones so it was easy to make a case for getting rid of them.

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

I will never say I have the time because it's a lie. I will thank a person for being patient and say I was tied up in another room. They know when we are understaffed, it's not that hard to see the chaos outside one's door.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Ah the cell phone, another idea that needs to die.

I used to work at a SNF rehab wing that had us carry them, and our HUC was always giving me a talking to about not having answered it. I told her I answer it when it's appropriate; if I am in a room doing pt care, I will not be interrupting that care to answer a cell phone--esp. considering the call is probably not about the pt I am with. Or else I was at lunch and when I came back, she'd say "I transferred a call to your cell phone, but you didn't answer it." Ummm...of course I didn't. It was on my med cart while I was off the clock in the cafeteria.