I will not defend nurses anymore

[lost soul]

My wife has been in the hospital 4 times in the past 2 months. During this time I have seen terrible nursing care. It seems that nurses are just robots who need to stay on a schedule of giving pills. There is no thinking at all. Every thing is by route.

A good example is that my wife is a diet controlled type 2. (diabetic) She was on glucose checks AC and HS. At HS she was 85. That was at 2100. I left to go home at 2300. When I arrived at 0700 I found out that the night nurse treated her low sugar.... This blew me away.. I asked her why she would treat some one with a normal blood sugar and on no hypoglycemics, and asymptomatic........ I honestly think she did not even understand the question.

Her next admission was for only 24 hours. She arrived in the er at 1900. They did blood work. I found out that her glucose was 75. (normal) Remember this was at 1900. She was sent to a room and I met the nurse. It was routine for her. Just fill out the paperwork. I left to go home at midnight. I arrived at 0700 the next morning. I was told that the nurse treated my wife's low sugar. Again, the same idiocy. She did not even due a finger stick, even though it was several hours after the blood work was done.

If they actually thought they were doing the right thing, they would have checked her glucose after they gave her the food and drink, to make sure her bs was normal. I am sure that if they did that, she would have been high and they might have given her insulin....then they could recheck, and she would be low, and round and round they would go......

I am adding this as an edit, as I may have not been clear. What is below has noting to do with her glucose. They gave her juice and crackers to treat the "low sugar"

I was with her for 16 hours a day for 2 weeks while she was in the hospital. What I saw scared the hell out of me. I had to constantly fight with the nurses to get her care that she needed. They would give her pills that made her vomit on an empty stomach. Then they would not learn and try to do it again. I had to fight for them to give meds with food. I had to dig the pills out of the puke to show that she did not ingest them.

I had this one nurse who wanted her to drink salt water to treat hyponatremia. I finally had to call the pharmacy and ask, or beg, for a pill. Who the hell wants to drink salt water? I pill is just as effective.

dont ask about the pain pills.......

I could write a book about all this. I am sick over health care.

When I was at the university, I was told "patients get well in spite of what we do to them" I had no idea how prophetic that was.

[Libby1987]

where I am employed it is policy to treat a diabetic with a Blood sugar of 80 and below. Many of us will err on the side of caution and treat a blood sugar that is a little above 80 because simply put a low blood sugar is much worse than a high blood sugar and can put someone into a coma much much quicker. If her HS blood sugar was 85 I would have treated it too by giving juice just as the nurse you were so rude to did. your wife was going all night without eating or drinking anything and many diabetics blood sugars will severely drop during the night. We as nurses and doctors included would rather a blood sugar be a little high than low because someone will die much quicker from a low blood sugar than a high blood sugar.

But if the patient isn't taking any diabetic meds why would you give her juice? If she's diet controlled the. She has some insulin sensitivity so the juice will only result in lower glucose after it causes a spike in insulin, right?

[Purple_roses]

Why would you be less proud of yourself as a nurse because of what one nurse did?

[Ruas61, BSN, RN]

My husband has had some hospitalizations in recent months.

I have experienced some very poor practices, encounters and monitoring in the ER and hospital floor. The OR pre and post op nurses were stellar though.

If I based my opinions on the nurse's I have encountered at this hospital since February, I would rate the majority at bare minimum at best in skills and presenting their competence.

[amzyRN]

What a passive aggressive post! Sorry you had such a bad experience with the hospital your wife received services, but that has nothing to do with me or nurses in general. Maybe you should call the ombudsman instead of posting this on this forum, it might be more productive.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

I do not know where the OP worked and when he left patient's care, but the whole situation remains me those ubiquitous family members from "I am a nurse" tribe and maybe with considerable experience but with little knowledge and even less understanding of acute care and its realities. I had a nasty lecture from a lady who was "mortified" knowing that her husband did not have a BM for 72 hours and I outright refused to give him prune juice, laxatives of any of many kinds she suggested, massage his belly, put a hot pack over it, do manual clean, etc. For her, constipation was a sure sight of terrible care, unattention, laziness and all other mortal sins of nursing put together. The truth was that the patient had total intestinal paralysis and the question was how to keep him alive in the first place. His wife was, indeed, an LPN who worked long years in a comfly private elderly care community and never set her feet even in SNF because "it was too crazy".

[enuf_already]

Oh god. You dug through her vomit to retrieve pills?? Blegh.

Yes, to show she hadn't "ingested" them. I think the OP meant digested but who knows?

I also find it interesting that OP is angry about no snack with pills. Order something with meals within your calorie count that can be saved for later to be taken with medications or if hungry.

Wife could have refused to take pills without snack and if OP was there, he could have spoken as her advocate.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

This thread has run its course.

Back to the OP, please take your concerns to your wife's caregivers.