I work for a staffing company. Through my staffing company I do in home care a few days a week. I get to work (an extra shift for this particular client). The first thing that the wife (I am caring for the husband) says to me is: I need you to take out the trash and the recycle bin." My first thought was...why can't you do it.....NOTE: I did not say this out loud.
I of course took out the garbage and the recycling bin....
I am here to take care of the husband (ALS, vent dependent, requires hoyer lift for transfers), not to take out the trash. I am more than willing to pick up my own messes, but...that is also a part of my job....along with common curtesy.
I am probably just being a bit over sensitive (I worked 3pm-12am last night, work 0730-1730 today, and the past few nights I have not slept more than 4 hours).....but I don't think that it is MY job to take out the garbage when you (the wife) are perfectly capiable to do it yourself.....I AM NOT YOUR HOUSEMAID
OMG-you just made me remember my first time being in a similar situation. I was a nursing student, and was trying to be all caring and helpful...(yeah, those were they days, huh?!) I had a surgical pt that was being discharged and I had to get him cleaned up. I went into his room and asked him if he wanted to do his own bed bath or if he wanted me to do it for him. His eyes lit up and he said, "I want YOU to do it!" (Mentally smacking myself on the head.) Of course he did. He had HERNIA surgery for the love of all that is holy! My husband just laughed and laughed!
Is it your job, hell no, but its probably one of those things if you do not do it, they phone ur agency and complain about you, then ur no longer working for that family! Ur damned if you do, damned if you don't!!
I so did not want to take the trash out, I did however, because she has nearly threatned that I not come back.
My client, the husband, is not able to communicate very well...(he communicates by spelling out words on his hand)...and there were a few things that I was not doing to his satisfaction.
The wife let me know that if I did not change, she would ask that I not come back. I was not aware that I was not doing what I needed to, and with the somewhat constructive critizism that I recieved....I was able to adjust and he has not had any problems with me since.
Every once in a while....she will mention that I need to do something differently...which is fine...as long as it deals with the husband (the client). But this telling me to take out the trash and make her bed....thats just a much
Maximum level of self sufficiency for both patient and family, that's the goal.
I'll never forget in my first year an able bodied patient demanding "Scratch my a**," to which I responded without hesitation, "Scratch your damn a**!"
As a nursing student I had a homeless man who was unable to bring his hands to his face so I shaved him and feed him his meals for the day. As I was leaving clinicals I saw this same man smoking a cigarette outside the hospital entrance...:grn:
As a nursing student I had a homeless man who was unable to bring his hands to his face so I shaved him and feed him his meals for the day. As I was leaving clinicals I saw this same man smoking a cigarette outside the hospital entrance...:grn:
Ay yi yi.
Hey, miracles happen everyday. Your shaving and feeding him cured him
Why can't you just be nice and take out the garbage? Jeez. So you're there to provide your services for the husband...OK...so what do you do on your downtime? Surf the net? Text? Is that part of your job the wife is paying you for? I don't think so either. Sounds like someone has got the good ol' "I'm a nurse and I wasn't sent to school to do that." Well la-dee-da. Just take out the garbage.
Why can't you just be nice and take out the garbage? Jeez. So you're there to provide your services for the husband...OK...so what do you do on your downtime? Surf the net? Text? Is that part of your job the wife is paying you for? I don't think so either. Sounds like someone has got the good ol' "I'm a nurse and I wasn't sent to school to do that." Well la-dee-da. Just take out the garbage.
Nope, it's the principle of the matter... It wasn't what she went to school for and it's not why she works as a nurse. This client has no right to ask that of the NURSE if she is perfectly capable of doing it herself. Frankly, your attitude is what helps perpetuate to the general community that we are in fact there to be their servants with little more training or knowledge than the housekeeper.
Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Why can't you just be nice and take out the garbage? Jeez. So you're there to provide your services for the husband...OK...so what do you do on your downtime? Surf the net? Text? Is that part of your job the wife is paying you for? I don't think so either. Sounds like someone has got the good ol' "I'm a nurse and I wasn't sent to school to do that." Well la-dee-da. Just take out the garbage.
I am hoping that you are kidding with this post. What this nurse does on her downtime is her business, so that should not even be a consideration. She goes to the pt's house, she gives him nursing care and then leaves. She is not there to do anything other than NURSING care. Sounds like someone needs a swift kick.
Why can't you just be nice and take out the garbage? Jeez. So you're there to provide your services for the husband...OK...so what do you do on your downtime? Surf the net? Text? Is that part of your job the wife is paying you for? I don't think so either. Sounds like someone has got the good ol' "I'm a nurse and I wasn't sent to school to do that." Well la-dee-da. Just take out the garbage.
Had you ACTUALLY read my post....you would have noticed that I DID take out the garbage....
In case you were NOT aware....this is a place where nurses can VENT....so...that was me VENTING....
....I haven't made it....I will make his bed....seeing as I am taking care of HIM....but she is MORE than capiable of making hers herself.
caliotter3
38,333 Posts
You brightened his discharge and his day!