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?
The hospital that I worked at had the exact "I have the time" mandate taught to us via video back in 2005! I found it fake sounding and so did some of the patients. I actually had one say "no you don't! You've been running around all day!" Hey, my manager was standing in the doorway. I had to be compliant!
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.
We will soon have no secretary on nights so we all have phones. Most of us carry them. I have one being rapid response. When I was in the ICU we had them too especially since we had to go off unit for road trips. Most of the time I hate those phones. Always interrupting us for something.
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?
I think this is common and we were given the same scripting but they have not enforced it like your place has. Right now bedside report is their baby and they asked the patients if they liked bedside report and if the patients didn't know or understand this then they are on the war path. So when I do the meet and greet, pt update etc I take pains to say this is your bedside report since they are blaming the older nurses. I'm not a robot or a stepford nurse and I'm not going to let people script me! How did they do this validation? Did they have spies that watched the nurses. I think we have spies where we work. That said they have daily suggestions where they offer script ideas to say or do for patients, but it is not say these words exactly, more ideas of what to say to improve patient care and satisfaction. I think that is ok and would be more genuine than everybody spouting the same key phrases. Hey we are not McDonalds or Walgreens for goodness sake! And I don't say I have the time, especially when I don't! If I'm going to be busy ie an admission I tell my patients I will be busy, but call if they need someone and another person will help them. Re the phones I agree they are a nuisance, but my pet peeve is the tele alarms that ring nonstop because they added the tele to our phones and there is constant artifact and false alarms. I have had patients get upset about the alarms, especially when I'm trying to clean and turn them while the alarm is blaring! How about have a tele tech to watch the alarms instead of forcing us to listen to false alarms nonstep! Also imagine trying to talk to a Dr when the alarms keep interrupting and you can't even hear! It is just ridiculous!
In America, the focus is on providing a "resort" type experience, with physical wellbeing secondary to the patient "enjoying" their stay. This means that we don't enforce diets, nor do we prevent patients from smoking or other things. We just "strongly advise", etc. but NEVER rudely. Basically, an American nurse is a butler/waiter/maid with an understanding of pharmacology and physiology. The patient is in charge of their stay, and doctors and nurses cater to their demands for drugs (mostly pain meds proscribed upon request, etc. even from known drug-seekers) and things like that in an effort to get reimbursement from the broken system. Personal behavior of any sort is excusable so long as none of the staff have to call in because of the injury, and no rape occurs. Other than that, the patient is allowed to do as they please with staff, physically.
At my place of employment we have hourly rounding slips that we have to initial and time for every hour we were in the patient's room. Supposedly because they can show patients and family as proof that nurses have rounded on them. I always get dinged because I either fill them out honestly or I have no time to fill them out even if I was in the room. Other nurses lie and fill out the damn slips. I don't.[/quote']
We had hourly rounding sheets too, people would just fill them out. In the beginning they were actually auditing them. It was silly and a waste of time and the sheets weren't part of patient charting anyway. Finally, they must have realized this was a waste of time and so it was stopped. I hear some places make healthcare workers wear tracking sensors that track their every move during a shift so they can micromanage the employees more. Luckily I don't expect that to happen as it would cost too much!
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
We will soon have no secretary on nights so we all have phones. Most of us carry them. I have one being rapid response. When I was in the ICU we had them too especially since we had to go off unit for road trips. Most of the time I hate those phones. Always interrupting us for something.
Well I have a rapid response phone but that is very different. If I were an ICU nurse I would not carry the phone. I would "forget" it. If you all do that then maybe nobody will be able to get ahold of you and maybe they will learn the folly of doing away with the secretary.
Yes. This is part of the problem. At least at the hospital I work (it is enormous) the "powers that be" are so out of touch with clinical nursing they have no recent experience in providing care. Most haven't taken care of patient in 10 years or more. They are so desperate to keep their jobs and "look good" to the powers that be that they will sacrifice their employees and not use reason or common sense. They are so wrapped up in the "patient experience" that they forget the people are admitted for medical care not to have a resort vacation. The only "experience" they should have is healing, compassion, and safety.
NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN
1,599 Posts
The hospital that I worked at had the exact "I have the time" mandate taught to us via video back in 2005! I found it fake sounding and so did some of the patients. I actually had one say "no you don't! You've been running around all day!" Hey, my manager was standing in the doorway. I had to be compliant!