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
This focus on Customer Service might have been ok in the 60's, when I started out in health care. The hospital I was at didn't do it, though. We had visitors' hours and the nurses had time to KNIT during their shifts!! Can you imagine that now?
Customer Service, IMHO, is the worst part of nursing these days. The premise is that the American public is reasonable and civil, which is not always true, as the airline industry has learned. Even though I am a nurse in a very good hospital, I have had these experiences:
Adult daughter and boyfriend visit mother just returned from OR. After spending an hour, they decide to go out to eat. Daughter puts baby, a few weeks old, on the other (no sheets) bed in the room and tells the mother, still not over the anesthesia, to call the nurse if the baby needs anything. I find out about it after daughter and boyfriend are gone and have to deal with the situation.
Patient is in for attempting to harm himself. Sister and friends arrive at 1:00 a.m., roust the patient out of his bed so they can rest, and call me to demand some acetaminophen for their headaches.
Wife goes hysterical because she has been refused her demand that I grind up a steak and put it in her husband's IV to increase his nutrition. Wife sees husband's surgeon through the window and runs out on the parking lot to report me for poor nursing. Management states that I should have handled the situation better.
Management tells all staff, including nursing, that if a visitor asks for directions to another area of the hospital, any staff asked should, under most situations, leave their assignment and escort the visitor to the area in question, even if it's ten minutes away.
Management tells nursing that before leaving a room we ARE to say, "Is there anything you need? I have the time." After many protests, I did it one shift. One patient wanted me to cook him up a special snack, one pulled out some cards and wanted to play a few hands of rummy, and one said, "It must be great to have a job like yours. I have to work pretty hard at mine."
And no, I do not spend time in the break room. I have NEVER even sat down in the break room. I don't take breaks or meals, even though I'm a smoker (sorry about that), and still can't finish my work on time. One reason is because I try to take care of pressing medical needs and REASONABLE visitor requests. I can't do the unreasonable; I just don't have the time.
It's understandable how health care has arrived in this mess. After all, everyone is ultimately responsible to the board of directors, who are business people and understand customer service much more than nursing. Thus Press-Ganey. It is our own fault as nurses, and nobody else's, that we don't care enough about ourselves, our profession or our genuinely needy patients to put a stop to this.
The cynical side of me sees this current obsession with customer service as purely a commercial effort to snag health-care dollars. My nicer side wonders if it might also be an effort (well-intentioned, if not always effective) to try to foster caring. I mean, the genuine article.
The best way for administration to promote real caring is to provide it from the top down. It's unrealistic and downright counterproductive to mandate overtime, ignore safe staffing ratios, cut perks and benefits, go cheap on supplies, and then expect the staff that has to take all this in the neck to smile sweetly and ask, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Wouldn't it be nice if someone in the upper ranks ever used that phrase on the rank and file? They'd be well advised to have the crash cart ready.
I work with medical clinics. In our work unit, we call it the "Burger King syndrome" i.e. " I want it my way and I want now!".
I have had patients calling stating that they are on the way to airport and will at the pharmacy in 10 minutes, and want their Vicodin waiting for them. Others call and state they are on the way to the ER, and want the ER staff outside waiting for their arrival. ( I usually explain that is done on TV and not in the real world.) I had a young woman aka Diva , who told me she had too much to do and was going to demand that the ER staff see her right away for her sore hand. ( This is after I offered an appointment in the Urgent Care clinic for later in the evening.)
I had a patient's family call and state they had a family member, who had to be seen right away, but the family was too busy to transport the patient and insisted that the medical clinic provide provide a ride to the clinic.
My favorite demand was a patient, who was scheduled to see a surgeon, but didn't want to take time off of work for the office visit. The patient wanted the surgeon to wait for him in the clinic until after he got off of work at 7pm.
I would have been tempted to tell these people: "People in hell want ice water, but that doesn't mean you'll get it".
Patients want their care, and they want it the way they want it because they PAY.
The insured, pay high premiums. The worker, pays high taxes for medicare/medicaid. The uninsured get billed, and maybe have to declare bankruptcy for the thousands of dollars they owe... The old, the disabled, pay high deductibles, already on a fixed income.
My grandmother gets like 900$/mo in social security, her meds, not covered by medicare, are 850$...........figure that out...
ALL of us, in one way, PAY.
ALL of these costs are from insurance companies, the higher administration making millions, fraudulent spending, fraudulent people.........
Look at a healthcare bill. Tell me why a bulb syringe costs 52.00$. I got a 3 pack at WalMart for 4.00$.
I guess people pay, so they want service for their money. Corporate too.
Hospitals have become businesses. We work, we work for the "customer".
Notice, when I became a nurse, they were PATIENTS.
I guess like another business, we are the waitress/service person, and the client is the customer. And the managers push "customer service"...
Well, this is why I think it is......
But as far as my opinion goes................
I am ALL for getting that patient better. I will change linens (infection control), I will grab that pain med very timely, don't want you to suffer. I will talk, cry at your bedside, call your family, support families...and whatever to make you better. HOLISTIC nursing. Physical, Mental, Everything.......
I will NOT fetch coffee for families, as they have legs, and they expect to care for their loved one when they get home, they can care for themselves now. Sometimes I will not even fetch coffee for patients, wow, it will do a world of good if that patient got up post op and WALKED to the coffee pot in the lounge. Sick people don't need coffee anyway! It has NO nutitritonal value.........I will NOT bathe patients that can do it themselves. I will not heat pizza. Children are only allowed for short visits to visit new baby, old sick grandma, say hi to mom/dad. No spending the night. (also had my share of coding the famly member at the bedside x3 !!!!!!!!!)
DO WHAT IS BEST FOR THE PATIENT.
I know it is hard now. I had a comment that a "customer surveyor" made about me that I actually MADE the patient get up TWO days after her surgery. OHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I remember when the patients were up THAT day, making their own BED.
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!!!!
I say let the managers do the customer service. Then they might have an inkling of what we nurses are doing all day long! managers who do (or know) nothing gripe me!
I've been lurking reading this post for awhile, but had to post this when I ran into it on a volunteer site for a local hospital. It's amazing someone acctually opened up a volunteer position titled "Emergency Room Customer Service"
Greet patients and families in the busy emergency waiting area at Regions Hospital. Assist staff to keep families updated about their patient or spend time with those waiting for treatment. Volunteers may also escort family members into the emergency room to connect with their patient or accompany patients to other departments as needed. Make rounds to each room in the ED to determine whether patients would like reading material or crossword puzzles from the patient visitor cart.
The big problem that any hospital will have is finding enough volunteers to do something like 'emergency room greeter'. Most only work a few hours per week & this one could keep several people busy over a weekly period.
As far as general customer services, it seems some people want way beyond what is reasonable. E.g., if you go to a restaurant you expect to be seated eventually, have your order taken in a reasonable time, the food will be edible, etc. You wouldn't expect the meal to be free or the server to wait on you only. Similarly, a pt should expect someone to answer the call light, see to their pain meds, etc. That's reasonable. However, to act like a nurse has only YOU to care for or to expect the hospital to provide free food for the family reunion you're having in your room is way into UNreasonable!
However, to act like a nurse has only YOU to care for or to expect the hospital to provide free food for the family reunion you're having in your room is way into UNreasonable!
This may seem like a dumb question, but has anyone else seen this? A person in the hospital as an excuse for a REAL family reunion? Geez, I thought it only happened at the hospital my mom worked at. For some reason, even though they may not have seen the pt for 20 years, everyone gathered at the hospital for a good ol' family get together. Never mind that the pt couldn't enjoy it because he's in CCU at the moment, but everyone gets together and has a grand ol' time! Just venting...
My dad had quintuple bypass surgery a number of years ago. I thought that the hospital was doing GREAT by having recliners in the CCU waiting area. That wasn't good enough for one family member. She had her 2 year old who was wreaking havoc in the waiting area. When a nun asked her to take the little girl to the family waiting area, this woman YELLED at the nun, stomping her feet and said that this little girl should be allowed to do what she pleased because grandpa was in there for open heart surgery and may not make it through the night! She screamed that she didn't want to be there. Boy, I was just about ready to go help the nun and say, "Yeah lady, and the rest of us are in here because we read in the Urban Weekly that CCU waiting areas are hip and the place to be seen!!"
I'm not Catholic, but I betcha there's a week or two in purgatory in store for this woman for YELLING and berating a volunteer nun watching over a CCU.
There are times when we need to take extra care. The time when I came up to another floor and a patient was dying and the family was there and no hospital personnel in sight. It didn't seem particularly busy, just seemed like they were avoiding them (some staff don't like death and dying either) I gave them some coffee and they were very grateful for the attention. Sometimes a quick explanation about being very busy is enough for some, but some they think they are the only patient. Being on the patient end with a family member, the anxiety is very high, a smile is very appreciated and a apology that the light was not answered right away, goes a long way. You can also ask the family member to do simple things, so they will have something to do. Let them make the bed when the patient is up or help with their trays. I know that I get frustrated to get my work done and a family member wants a cup of coffee, I will stop and make some because I remember what was nice when I am with my sick family member.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
this may seem like a dumb question, but has anyone else seen this? a person in the hospital as an excuse for a real family reunion?
yup. i've seen it. many times. that's why so many of us are opposed to open visiting in the icu. even though i understand it, kind of. when my father was in the ccu with his heart attack, relatives i hadn't seen in twenty years stopped by to "support" my mother. my mother felt compelled to "entertain" them -- and since she was barely holding it together, the entertaining fell to my sister and me. we hadn't seen these folks in twenty years, and hadn't felt the urgent need to remedy the situation (nor had they) and weren't at our best, either. my mother felt it was some sort of popularity award, that so many folks were willing to drive to the hospital "to come see dad." evidently, it's a part of midwestern culture that i've missed.
i'd much rather see those same relatives at a family picnic in july at some grassy park with a rain shelter.
when my husband was in the hospital, some relatives came from out of state to see my husband (really for my mother-in-law). I told my mother-in-law that it wasn't a good idea but they came anyway and didn't get to see him and they to leave quickly for somewhereelse. They didn't even call me before hand. We hadn't seen them in years.
Riseupandnurse
658 Posts
This focus on Customer Service might have been ok in the 60's, when I started out in health care. The hospital I was at didn't do it, though. We had visitors' hours and the nurses had time to KNIT during their shifts!! Can you imagine that now?
Customer Service, IMHO, is the worst part of nursing these days. The premise is that the American public is reasonable and civil, which is not always true, as the airline industry has learned. Even though I am a nurse in a very good hospital, I have had these experiences:
Adult daughter and boyfriend visit mother just returned from OR. After spending an hour, they decide to go out to eat. Daughter puts baby, a few weeks old, on the other (no sheets) bed in the room and tells the mother, still not over the anesthesia, to call the nurse if the baby needs anything. I find out about it after daughter and boyfriend are gone and have to deal with the situation.
Patient is in for attempting to harm himself. Sister and friends arrive at 1:00 a.m., roust the patient out of his bed so they can rest, and call me to demand some acetaminophen for their headaches.
Wife goes hysterical because she has been refused her demand that I grind up a steak and put it in her husband's IV to increase his nutrition. Wife sees husband's surgeon through the window and runs out on the parking lot to report me for poor nursing. Management states that I should have handled the situation better.
Management tells all staff, including nursing, that if a visitor asks for directions to another area of the hospital, any staff asked should, under most situations, leave their assignment and escort the visitor to the area in question, even if it's ten minutes away.
Management tells nursing that before leaving a room we ARE to say, "Is there anything you need? I have the time." After many protests, I did it one shift. One patient wanted me to cook him up a special snack, one pulled out some cards and wanted to play a few hands of rummy, and one said, "It must be great to have a job like yours. I have to work pretty hard at mine."
And no, I do not spend time in the break room. I have NEVER even sat down in the break room. I don't take breaks or meals, even though I'm a smoker (sorry about that), and still can't finish my work on time. One reason is because I try to take care of pressing medical needs and REASONABLE visitor requests. I can't do the unreasonable; I just don't have the time.
It's understandable how health care has arrived in this mess. After all, everyone is ultimately responsible to the board of directors, who are business people and understand customer service much more than nursing. Thus Press-Ganey. It is our own fault as nurses, and nobody else's, that we don't care enough about ourselves, our profession or our genuinely needy patients to put a stop to this.