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?

[sistrmoon, BSN, RN]

The only time I ever say "I have time" is when my least needy pt acts reluctant to ask for anything & says they don't want to be a bother. That's the only circumstance when I will say "No problem...I'm here now, I have time".

We will also be getting individual phones soon. Most of the staff have said they will not answer if they are in a pt room. Maybe somebody will figure out a way to link the tracking system with the phone & make it so any calls are blocked when the phone/staff are in a pt's room.

Almost without fail, the phone will ring after you are gowned up and in an isolation room!

[noyesno, MSN, APRN, NP]

All this tracking and ensuring we're doing our jobs is just plain stupid.

If we're not hourly rounding or jumping through some other patient experience hoop, it's because we've been shorted staff or other resources.

When we're not hourly rounding, it's not because we're hourly rounding on Facebook or the cafeteria (well maybe some people are). What the F do they think we're doing with our time?

I'm all about efficiency and working hard but when management expects us to squeeze 10 hours of work into a 8 hour shift or gives us more expectations without more staff, they're holding us to impossible expectations.

Sometimes, I wonder if it's all a big joke, like we're on some hidden camera show and the producers are trying to see what happens every time they make the dehydrated, starved, bathroom deprived nurses do more with less. People watching the show laugh when the exhausted nurse tries to meet yet another expectation:

"Can you believe nurse Jane hourly rounded when she hadn't even peed in 12 hours?!"

"Omg, I couldn't believe nurse Paul told his patient he, 'had the time,' when his other patient was coding!"

If only we weren't so afraid to stand up for ourselves...

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

Had a patient in my former hospital who was notoriously demanding for the 30 days she was on our unit. She was so emotionally draining that nurses had to be assigned to her for one shift at a time unless the nurse was masochistic enough to endure more shifts with her. Had this pt one night and after a rough 6 hours of her ranting and multiple demands, she finally goes to bed and requests that her feet be rubbed. I vehemently refused. Other nurses had apparently obliged but I was not going to do it and I flat out told her that. I could not care less about HCAPS or Press Gainey at that point either. I closed the door on her, happy to know I didn't cave in. She's in the hospital, not the Waldorf-freaking-Astoria! I was bold enough to even tell her that if she hated the care there so much, why doesn't she go to another hospital? All she could answer is 'because I'm here.' There was something really wrong with her mentally.

By this time she had already made multiple threats to sue the hospital on different grounds, and anyone who knows my pre-nursing background knows I've been laughing about that all along. Everyone knew she was psychotic, and she had run ins with everyone. So her complaining about me was the least of my worries. I still had a job at the end of the day until I left on my own accord, lol.

After her discharge, I heard she started friend requesting on Facebook every nurse she met on the unit. I ran to my account and blocked her profile. Besides, I don't use my last name on there anyway which is probably why my request was 'delayed' lol.

For the record however, if you're a nice patient and you complain of foot pain, I will consider the massage. Treat me like a slave however, and you'll get backlash.

So boo hoo, rub-my-stank-feet lady ... you didn't get your way with this nurse!

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

YES! :yellclap:

You're in good company!

[Preeps]

Latest update at my hospital. . . we were handed a SCRIPT, a full page of what we are to do/say.

Part of this script includes our "closing words to patient at handoff. The script states, "prior to leaving the room ask the patient the following."

1) thank you for letting me take care of you today"

2) Is there anything you need before we leave ,we have the time now"

To me this is just insulting. Are nurses professional health care workers or scripted robots required to follow the screenplay that the hospital dictates. I think most of us are fully capable of communicating with our patients in a intelligent meaningful way without this dialogue "help."

[BellionRN]

I'm reading this as a Canadian nurse and I just can't believe the BS you guys have to put up with.

Mandatory, audited hourly rounding!? I get angry when a new (useless) flow sheet gets added to my already endless pile of paperwork (yes, paper charting) that says I did the same thing, yet in a different way. Not to mention I'm likely IN the room every hour anyway!

Scripted communication with patients!? As previous posters have already mentioned ... Patients aren't stupid. And I'm sure having their nurse talk "at" them with a script they've used in the last 3 rooms is insulting and condescending.

Don't even get me started on the trackers ... I'm speechless. You guys aren't machines, or robots. You're nurses trying to do the best you can do for your patients. There's clearly no trust. I'm not saying my employer gives a crap about me, but I sure as hell don't have to deal with bring tracked or scripted.

Man.

[MGMR]

I'm a new grad, so I can't say much to real world experience. But I do see that this is the way healthcare is going. During my entire BSN program and in Kaplan courses to study for the NCLEX, the word "patient" is never used, and is now replaced with "client." "The client states ____, The client's last BP was ___," etc.

Definitely not a fan of this at all. The big "H" on the building doesn't stand for Hotel.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I'm a new grad, so I can't say much to real world experience. But I do see that this is the way healthcare is going. During my entire BSN program and in Kaplan courses to study for the NCLEX, the word "patient" is never used, and is now replaced with "client." "The client states ____, The client's last BP was ___," etc.

.

Oh that's been true in nursing academia for a decade or more. Like much of what you learned in nursing school it isn't used or applicable in the real world. The use of incorrect "client" rather than the correct "patient" makes it easy to tell your new nurses from those with some experience.

All of this scripting, assigned scrub colors, forcing nurses to go back to wearing white. It's all a result of the deliberately created glut of nurses. Indeed it's why employers of nurses have gone to such lengths to create the glut. The tool they used was the false "Nursing shortage" propaganda. Prior to the creation of the current nursing glut administration and management had to treat nurses who a modicum of decency and respect for fear their nurses would vote with their feet. Now with dozens of applicants applying to every opening there is no reason for management to be even decent.

[Preeps]

I understand what you are saying because it seems on every corner in Florida there is a new private "nursing school" opening their doors. But if there is a glut of RNs running around they certainly are not helping my hospital's nursing shortage.

We don't have enough. And the only ones that apply are grad nurses. We just had a bunch come through and some are all ready leaving.

Many come to the floor very excited, with high ideals and wanting to make a difference. But oh are they shocked! Stating something like, "I never dreamed nursing was like this. . " Or some variation of same.

And most are planning their escape. Whether through higher education, or yes, marriage. Many want out. And fast~

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I understand what you are saying because it seems on every corner in Florida there is a new private "nursing school" opening their doors. But if there is a glut of RNs running around they certainly are not helping my hospital's nursing shortage.

We don't have enough. And the only ones that apply are grad nurses. We just had a bunch come through and some are all ready leaving.

Many come to the floor very excited, with high ideals and wanting to make a difference. But oh are they shocked! Stating something like, "I never dreamed nursing was like this. . " Or some variation of same.

And most are planning their escape. Whether through higher education, or yes, marriage. Many want out. And fast~

So a hospital that must be really awful (based on all those nurses fleeing), located in the sate KNOWN to be the worst place to work as a nurse, also among the lowest paying states, can't keep nurses. I don't think that situation tells us anything about nursing or nurses and tells us a lot about that hospital and Florida.