I am always gracious and try to accomodate reasonable patient/family requests, but my name tag yesterday must have read 'Handmaid' instead of RN. I was instructed (not asked) by several different patients/family members the following:
"Go get us about eight or ten chairs so everybody can sit down in here."
"The baby's father hasn't had anything to eat today, can you make him something?" (This was 1930 and FOB who missed the 0915 delivery had just shown up).
"Can't you get the kids sandwiches?" (I was happy to bring graham crackers and juice, but was met with "Well, that's not enough for dinner.")
"I can't use a taxi voucher because that way I have to go right home. Don't you have a petty cash fund? I need to stop at my friend's house and the store first."
"My boyfriend wants a set of the baby's footprints, a copy of the baby's picture, and that test to make sure he's the father."
This, of course, all in addition to the usual "The baby's diaper needs to be changed," "Bring me another Percocet. Somebody here (a visitor, not the patient) has a headache," "Take his (another visitor's) blood pressure," and "He needs some scrubs to wear."
Sorry for the rant. Yesterday was a long 14-hour day and I just needed to get it out. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
Oooooooooooh, fun!!!! We just had a mandatory meeting at our ALF concerning "First Impressions". The new company even has a "30-second commercial" that we're supposed to memorize. In other words, we have to say to every visitor/family member, "Welcome to _________ (name of facility), my name is ____________ and I've been working here for X number of years." (I can't remember the rest. It's a bunch of goobledygook about how we'll help the person in any way we can and stuff like that.) Um, this is the South, where hospitality and politeness are the norm. Friendliness comes naturally. If I wanted to recite a script, I would have chosen a job in telemarketing, where I'd using them all day.[/quote
At the Hospital I work at, we are to respond quickly to patient call lights, then before we leave we are to tell them we have time if they need to talk about or have any other concerns. I don't know about you, but I don't have time, not if I am to answer the next call light immediately. The NM makes rounds on the patients daily to see if there is anything that the nurses are not doing for them or could do better. Give me a break!!, we do the best we can with the limited time we have.But managers have to do something to justify thier existence, except attend meetings. Meetings, I don't even want to go there!!!!
Our famlies and patients' complain we as nurses do not answer lights prompt enough and do not understand priority.
I work in acute longterm care. People think we are a nursing home-and we are not. We do agressive rehab and patients and family or either updet we don't do enough or too much. If a patient is not well enough, we don't do agressive, then there is complaints and vise versa. What I really hate are those pushy famlies that get angry because we don't force or physically force a pt. that is alert to make their own decison, into doing something.
What has healthcare come too these days.
I hope you day is better-think i would remind them this is not a hotel.
Oooooooooooh, fun!!!! We just had a mandatory meeting at our ALF concerning "First Impressions". The new company even has a "30-second commercial" that we're supposed to memorize. In other words, we have to say to every visitor/family member, "Welcome to _________ (name of facility), my name is ____________ and I've been working here for X number of years." (I can't remember the rest. It's a bunch of goobledygook about how we'll help the person in any way we can and stuff like that.) Um, this is the South, where hospitality and politeness are the norm. Friendliness comes naturally. If I wanted to recite a script, I would have chosen a job in telemarketing, where I'd using them all day.[/quote
At the Hospital I work at, we are to respond quickly to patient call lights, then before we leave we are to tell them we have time if they need to talk about or have any other concerns. I don't know about you, but I don't have time, not if I am to answer the next call light immediately. The NM makes rounds on the patients daily to see if there is anything that the nurses are not doing for them or could do better. Give me a break!!, we do the best we can with the limited time we have.But managers have to do something to justify thier existence, except attend meetings. Meetings, I don't even want to go there!!!!
Good grief!!! :smackingf :smackingf :smackingf :smackingf
Providing a script on what to say based on corporate advertisement??????
NMs questioning patients daily about the care their staff are providing??????
What your facilities are doing boulergirl & weigle34 is what I would call "organized harrassment". The priority is to maintain/attain patient stability in regards to their admitting condition.
LOL. These stories are just appalling... so much so that they're almost comical.
I just can't believe people sometimes! They have so much nerve and so little respect anymore.
That said, I've NEVER had a problem saying NO flat out to a family member's or patient's friends requests. I've always been an assertive individual anyway and never had a problem using the word NO even before becomming an RN four years ago. LOL.
For example, I work in a Level II Trauma Center's Adult ICU. Have been there for two years. In that time, I can't quite remember, let alone count, how many times I've had to say NO to these people.
Within the past few months I remember an MVA trauma patient who was post-op the same day from repairing a wrist fracture. He was still on clear liquids. I had just recieved report for my two patients and was currently assessing my other patient. As I was working, I notice about 5-6 family members/friends filing into my trauma/post-op patients' room - WITH about 3 pizza's AND a couple two liters of soda. WTH? Not cool. Especially with a patient on CLEAR LIQUIDS. I could smell the pizza strongly out in the hallway. UGH.
So, as I'm on the way to my other patients' room, I pop my head into the 'pizza party room' and say "We normally don't allow visitors to bring their food into the patient rooms. The waiting area would be a great place for it."... then, I go about my business to assess my other patient.
By the time I got back to my post-op pt's room (about 10 minutes later), visitors, pizza, and two liters of soda were ALL gone.
I guess they got the message. LOL.
The poor patient they were eating pizza in front of wanted to remain on clear liquids the rest of the night because he's had previous bad experiences with nausea post-op. He didn't even WANT any pizza.
Why on earth would you eat something like that in front of someone that's feeling urpy? Some families are SO clueless.
LOL...we get the crazy requests all the time...I am just amazed at how many diabetics don't eat "all day" and suddenly discover it is a problem when their girlfriend steps on a nail at 11:30 PM. Or how many people (visitors) think I should be able to tell by looking at them that their religion forbids them from eating the ham sandwich that I brought or that they don't like turkey. I'm also pretty surprised at how many people don't think to bring their baby's diaper bag when they come to visit grandma in the hospital...yes, we do have diapers available, but they are in Pyxis so we have no way of getting to them...the same people often complain (when we access Pyxis and pull diapers out under floorstock) that their baby is allergic to everything but Pampers or that they don't like the fact that our purchasing department writes the size on the front of the diaper in large black letters. And my very favorite...."What do you mean Medicaid doesn't cover the cost of my baby's FirstFoto pictures? I thought everything in my stay was covered and my baby deserves pictures just as much as every other baby in the hospital!"
This thing happens all the time where I work. I have numerous times done the same as you, to have either another staff member or member of mamagement override me and then the family has someone to complain about.
Hmmm, this has been an interesting thread but, for me, a very disturbing one. I realize that people are venting, and many of the posters complaints have been valid. However, the amount of venom being directed against the idea of providing basic customer service to our patients and their families seems disproportionate. I have been in health care since I was a nurse's aide at 16 years old (I am now almost 49). I have always been willing to do anything I could for my patients and their families. I have been saying "Is there anything else I can do for you" and "Please don't hesitate to call for me if you need ANYTHING, even if it is just to ask a question" for most of those 33 years. Recently our administration asked us to use a hospital-wide "script" similar to the "Welcome to Wal-Mart, do you need a cart?" or "Paper or plastic?" scripts we hear in other businesses. Hospitals ARE businesses and our customers as an organization are many, even the doctors are actually customers of the hospital. Scipting has been found to be extremely successful.
A business that does little to keep it's customers happy is going to fail. If our business fails we get no paycheck. So, to keep our business running we are responsible for our customer's satisfaction. Saying, "I want you to be completely satisfied, is there anything else I can do for you?" can go far to make the patient and their family feel like they are important and will be well cared for.
Of course, that does not mean a nurse should allow herself to be abused or be put in a position where she has to break rules or disregard policies. Several posters have had wonderful suggestions for how to respond to those unrealistic requests. With a little politeness and a smile most unreasonable requests can be deflected. If not, you should be able to look to your charge nurse or manager for support so you can get back to the important work of providing nursing care.
The people that I have worked with who complain the loudest about being required to act as servants instead of as nurses are often the ones who seem to find all kinds of time to sit in the breakroom and "rest their eyes" or to go outside every couple of hours for a 20 minute smoke. It is hard to take their objections seriously.
On a personal note, I was a bit offended by the post that blamed childbirth educators for setting patients up to expect special treatment (not a quote but it was somehting along those lines). I am a childbirth educator and I prefer to think that I am educating women and their families to be more assertive (not aggressive) about asking to be included in the decisions that will be made about themselves and their newborn. It is so easy for nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals to feel that we know what is best for the patient and that they should not question that knowledge but in many cases that just is not true. We (as patients) spend more time researching the refrigerator we are thinking of buying than we do looking into our healthcare options.
Anyway, I think I have gone on long enough. I am grateful for this forum and that I live in a country where we are all allowed to express our opinions freely. Thank you for letting me express mine. :)
I am 60 and I always put my patint first. My priority is to satisfy my patient, not the entire family. I always greeted the family and presented myself as the nurse for the patient. I explained I would be happy to answer any questions about where the cafeteria was, explained that drinks could be obtained in the waiting room and that coffee was available at the nurses station and they were welcome to walk to it and get a cup if staff was not busy. I explained meals could be ordered for them by calling a the number listed in the brochure and needed to be paid for in advance. However, I have fed people who came in with a patient (mother/wife/other relative) obviously poor without money to buy food. If we had an extra tray I gave it to them. I would personally call a patient rep to let them know about the situation since most of these older people would never ask for food. But, to get to the point Nurses are not there to cater to families but to provide the best care for their loved one. If they want to act like a$$e$, let them go elsewhere. I have been on both sides since my DH just had a quadruple bypass. I would like to think I left the nurses with a good impression of myself and my family......Sorry to be so long but I must disagree with you. I smoked for many years. My short cigarette break was usually the only one I got. I very seldom got to sit down for a meal during my shift.
I even get the "this must be a hotel" routine as a volunteer. I have been asked to fetch equipment, including a crash cart, O2 tank, etc. in an emergency. In the middle of all the scurrying around, some dang fool wonders why someone won't call the kitchen for a family member so they can have an extra tray RIGHT NOW!. It usually turns out to be someone on a restricted diet who is a pt due to excessive sucking in the groceries.
The worst are pts. who come to us from the city jail & gripe constantly. I feel lke telling them, "Well, pal, if you aren't happy here, just go back to the jail. I'm sure the guards will be glad to cater to your every request."
I am a corrections nurse in a county jail that does not have a nurse at night but has one on call for an emergency. Inmates act the same way at the jail except that instead of complaining to the hospital administrator, they file multiple grievances because they submitted a medical request at 0300 , filed a grievance at 0330 and one every half hour because the nurse was not called because he felt his toenails should be clipped because they hung on his blanket (this is not medical's responsibility) clippers are allowed weekly under supervision of detention. I have to personally answer each grievance which means the same explanation hand written on each one with a copy returned to the inmate and the original placed in his permanent jail file. Isn't it fun
Hey I can totally relate I had to chuckle at this post cause this was my day yesterday which should have added doormat to my name ,and when you don't take there guff they say what's wrong with her.
I went to help out a lady. that work works for us. I am her Supervisor By letting her leave her shift early . She Wasn't there when I came to releave her , and then all she did was wine and moan and showed up back late to shift and then wanted to dissus the problem at lenght when she had already made me 2 and 1/2 hrs late to the next Pt I saw . I informed her she needed to attend to her PT and I needed to get to mine .She was really mad at me and spoke to my Supervisor Totally Lieing about the whole incendent . Thus goes the saying no good deed goes un-punished . So there comes the whole long docmentation process What really happened and all the abandment of care issues..
God bless you gal we can relate.:)
I am always gracious and try to accomodate reasonable patient/family requests, but my name tag yesterday must have read 'Handmaid' instead of RN. I was instructed (not asked) by several different patients/family members the following:
"Go get us about eight or ten chairs so everybody can sit down in here."
"The baby's father hasn't had anything to eat today, can you make him something?" (This was 1930 and FOB who missed the 0915 delivery had just shown up).
"Can't you get the kids sandwiches?" (I was happy to bring graham crackers and juice, but was met with "Well, that's not enough for dinner.")
"I can't use a taxi voucher because that way I have to go right home. Don't you have a petty cash fund? I need to stop at my friend's house and the store first."
"My boyfriend wants a set of the baby's footprints, a copy of the baby's picture, and that test to make sure he's the father."
This, of course, all in addition to the usual "The baby's diaper needs to be changed," "Bring me another Percocet. Somebody here (a visitor, not the patient) has a headache," "Take his (another visitor's) blood pressure," and "He needs some scrubs to wear."
Sorry for the rant. Yesterday was a long 14-hour day and I just needed to get it out. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
(sigh)I guess with all the focus on client satisfaction, we are supposed to take on the waitrss mode too, I say NOT! This attitude from may customer oriented facilities take us away from real patient care, leading to the complaints that a patient didn't get the pain med or something equally needed at a particular time. i feel that we nurses are in a catch 22 when evry complaint is validated and not prioritized. The last facility I worked at had the client's rights posted but not the client's responsibilities. We had a baby in newborn nursery that was transferred to us in the NICU, she/he was withdrawing from a potent analgesic that neither the mother or her OB thought was appropriate for us to know about! All in the name of client/customer satisfaction! :angryfire
I'm floored. I'm also very happy to be in Finland where most hospitals are state run.
Let's talk about meals. Patients get meals. The meals contain food, there is no choise in what they get they just get what's been prepared for the whole hospital. Of course vegetarians or people on special diets are catered for but they also get what is prepared that day in those cases.
Visitors do not get any snacks nor anything. There is a cafeteria that's open during the day. It really amazes me that some hospitals are feeding visitors. Hell when I was a little girl of 12 years comming to see my mom who was in rehabilitation after having a stroke I never expected anything off the nurses. In that place (which was actually in Iceland, I moved countries) served meals in a dining room and usually if I was there at dinner time the nurses would offer me something. Neither me nor my mom never asked anything of them for me.
NB the food was served cafeteria style, not on trays so they usually did have something left over.
And all the other stories of different ways of kissing ass.
You really have my sympathy- we need to educate patients & visitors about the realities of hospital life! Of course, that means more work for nurses, as other unmentioned staff still think it is not their role to educate anyone at all! At our hospital I have just trialled a variation on the Speak Up campaign to try to educate people on the topic of "hospital as your friend when you're REALLY in need" , rather than "public facility that should cater to my every whim because I've paid my taxes"!! The patients and visitors I have spoken to seemed to take to the idea quite well, but everyone seems to need an individually relevant message. I'm trying to get the ward nurses to make helpful comments regularly, but it seems a bit too much for most of them- already too many responsibilities. I don't suppose hospitals are going to pay for a "Patient Educator" out of their meagre funding! You guys in the private sector might give it a go, though!
From an Aussie Researcher.
I am always gracious and try to accomodate reasonable patient/family requests, but my name tag yesterday must have read 'Handmaid' instead of RN. I was instructed (not asked) by several different patients/family members the following:
"Go get us about eight or ten chairs so everybody can sit down in here."
"The baby's father hasn't had anything to eat today, can you make him something?" (This was 1930 and FOB who missed the 0915 delivery had just shown up).
"Can't you get the kids sandwiches?" (I was happy to bring graham crackers and juice, but was met with "Well, that's not enough for dinner.")
"I can't use a taxi voucher because that way I have to go right home. Don't you have a petty cash fund? I need to stop at my friend's house and the store first."
"My boyfriend wants a set of the baby's footprints, a copy of the baby's picture, and that test to make sure he's the father."
This, of course, all in addition to the usual "The baby's diaper needs to be changed," "Bring me another Percocet. Somebody here (a visitor, not the patient) has a headache," "Take his (another visitor's) blood pressure," and "He needs some scrubs to wear."
Sorry for the rant. Yesterday was a long 14-hour day and I just needed to get it out. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire
, and then all she did was wine and moan and showed up back late to shift and then wanted to dissus the problem at lenght when she had already made me 2 and 1/2 hrs late to the next Pt I saw . I informed her she needed to attend to her PT and I needed to get to mine .She was really mad at me 
and spoke to my Supervisor Totally Lieing about the whole incendent . Thus goes the saying no good deed goes un-punished . So there comes the whole long docmentation process What really happened and all the abandment of care issues.. 
wiegel34
29 Posts