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
I was actually being facetious with the 'family reunion' bit. I don't really think people mail out invitations to their hospital room. However, that's often what it looks like when the room is crowded with visitors.
I can understand that pts. who are near the end draw visitors, often as much to console the family as visit the pt. Visitors then are generally quiet & more cooperative. It's the ones who show up for routine surgery pts. & proceed to have a loud, noisy gathering, that can be a real pain. It has gotten to the point sometimes that security has come & told them to take a hike. Usually, the pt. is still groggy from surgery & would probably do better without the noise anyway. There are just people in the world who must have turned off their brains sometime back & never restarted them.
One of my personal favorites is when your patient tells you that she wants NO VISITORS!!!!!
You post a note on the door to see the nurse before entering room.
Grand Aunt Ethel, twice removed, shows up with her "precious", screaming triplets. You tell her that patient is declining visitors at this time. She leaves the desk, but sneaks back into the room anyway, with a, "but I just know that she wants to see me, she ALWAYS has time for me", with triplets in tow.
One of my personal favorites is when your patient tells you that she wants NO VISITORS!!!!!
You post a note on the door to see the nurse before entering room.
Grand Aunt Ethel, twice removed, shows up with her "precious", screaming triplets. You tell her that patient is declining visitors at this time. She leaves the desk, but sneaks back into the room anyway, with a, "but I just know that she wants to see me, she ALWAYS has time for me", with triplets in tow.
For Real!!! And those darling little angels proceed to spend the next two hours running up and down the hall!
How in heaven's name are you going to get huffy with a nun????
Well, this lady sure went off on this poor nun. BTW, I didn't state it clearly, this lady who went off on the nun wasn't from our family. In fact, no one from our family came to see my dad. We are spread out all over the country. We did receive a lot of calls though.
The family reunion idea is not just for those in CCU or other ICU who feel that this is truly the last time that they will see someone. I'm talking about someone in for minor ortho surgery (who is usually discharged within a day or two) who has every last relative and church member in to see them. It's really crazy. I'm with Ruby Vee, I'd much rather meet at a park under a rain shelter than a hospital for our family reunions.
One of my personal favorites is when your patient tells you that she wants NO VISITORS!!!!!
You post a note on the door to see the nurse before entering room.
Grand Aunt Ethel, twice removed, shows up with her "precious", screaming triplets. You tell her that patient is declining visitors at this time. She leaves the desk, but sneaks back into the room anyway, with a, "but I just know that she wants to see me, she ALWAYS has time for me", with triplets in tow.
I took care of a person I had worked with in the facility. After a very rough first post-op night, N & V most of the night after abdominal surgery, I knew alot of people employed there would probably want to visit her, I asked if she would like visitation limited. She looked at me and said "Would you". I posted a sign to have visitors check at the desk first before entering.
At break I overheard some of her co-workers scoffing about the sign,with comments about "Who do the nurses think they are" type thing, and "Well I just went in anyway". I spoke up and said that signs limiting visitors are not posted because the nurses want to be b!^(%es, they are posted for a reason, and with the patient's permission, and as a matter of fact I posted that sign. And then these people wanted to discuss her condition and why visitation had been limited. Good grief!!!
I don't know why, but when a fellow employee becomes a patient, everyone else who works there thinks they are ENTITLED to info about the patient's condition.
I think the trouble is, most of us are scared to not give in to ridiculous demands. They all have that "how was your stay at Hotel Medical" card to fill out on their way out.
I have been named as being unhelpful and surly on one of them because a family member caught me whilst I was going into someones room to hang an IV. His mother needed the bathroom and he didn't want the aide who happened to be black to do it. Same aide had been taking his mother to the bathroom for two days but suddenly it wasn't OK once he showed up. The patient quite liked the aide. I told him I was busy but could do it in about 15 minutes.
Patients that want to strictly breastfeed, no bottles, no pacifiers but tell you to take the baby out at ten pm and not bring it back until 7 am, when you ask how she would like her baby fed during those hours, she says not to feed the baby "just hold her if she cries". Yeah, that will work!!!!!
Another favorite, 38 weeks patient scheduled for elective induction (because the doctor is sick of her whining and she has been in to L&D 17 times for "labor checks"), her husband calls in at 0600 as instructed, is told by charge RN that there are no rooms avaliable right now for induction, all rooms are full with laboring patients. He gets upset and says "well we had an appointment". How is it that people cannot understand the concept of every room already has a patient in it that is in labor!!!
We recently had a patient that would come in about once or twice a week and when asked what her complaint was she would say "I just want to be checked" when asked why she felt that she needed to be checked she would say "I just want to know if I am dilated" But never had any contractions, but of course since she presented to the hospital we would have to admit her as an outpatient and do a big work up on her. I finally solved the problem by admitting her, putting her on the monitor and after twenty min when she had a reactive strip told her the doctor had ordered for her to be discharged, when she said that she hadn't been checked yet, I told her that there was no indication to check her cervix so the doctor had not ordered it and I couldn't check without an order!! She was finally induced at 38 1/2 weeks!!!!!
Patients that want to strictly breastfeed, no bottles, no pacifiers but tell you to take the baby out at ten pm and not bring it back until 7 am, when you ask how she would like her baby fed during those hours, she says not to feed the baby "just hold her if she cries". Yeah, that will work!!!!!
Another favorite, 38 weeks patient scheduled for elective induction (because the doctor is sick of her whining and she has been in to L&D 17 times for "labor checks"), her husband calls in at 0600 as instructed, is told by charge RN that there are no rooms avaliable right now for induction, all rooms are full with laboring patients. He gets upset and says "well we had an appointment". How is it that people cannot understand the concept of every room already has a patient in it that is in labor!!!
We recently had a patient that would come in about once or twice a week and when asked what her complaint was she would say "I just want to be checked" when asked why she felt that she needed to be checked she would say "I just want to know if I am dilated" But never had any contractions, but of course since she presented to the hospital we would have to admit her as an outpatient and do a big work up on her. I finally solved the problem by admitting her, putting her on the monitor and after twenty min when she had a reactive strip told her the doctor had ordered for her to be discharged, when she said that she hadn't been checked yet, I told her that there was no indication to check her cervix so the doctor had not ordered it and I couldn't check without an order!! She was finally induced at 38 1/2 weeks!!!!!
Hope she had a splendid long labor with lots of knowledge of what it really is like to be induced :chuckle Usually PIA's turn out to be well deserved C/S :cheers:
the last facility in which i worked had a mandatory in-service called (and i'm not kidding) "why healthcare should use disneyworld as a model." :barf01:all nursing staff had to go to it (all 5 hours of it) - and thank goodness i was already slated to be leaving in 2 months. i'm astounded that anyone could come up with this sort of customer service crap and apply it to healthcare as it is today.
and as for the "i'm paying for this" excuse: pardon me, but only 10% of our "customers" write a check for their healthcare, and precious few will ever know exactly what healthcare costs. i work in what is arguably the most expensive place in the hospital (or), and i deliver 1:1 care, sometimes 2:1 care (nurse: pt), not to mention the crna/md anesthesia team. i see $10,000 pieces of disposable sterile equipment dropped, seemingly without a thought (except for mine!) i am constantly trying to balance the costs ("should i open another $90 stapler reload yet?") vs. the md screaming at me for a 10 second delay when he finally makes up his mind that he really does want it. :smackingf and the technology that pts expect costs that much! if they had to write the check, i often wonder if they'd think twice.
i am grateful that i have my job, and i love it. but i work where i work because a) i love the or environment, b) i love procedure and technology, and c) 90% of families drive me bonkers. i love my patients and i advocate for them like a lioness with her cubs. but catering to families that haven't got a clue...ugh...i just don't have that kind of patience.
justavolunteer
193 Posts
I was actually being facetious with the 'family reunion' bit. I don't really think people mail out invitations to their hospital room. However, that's often what it looks like when the room is crowded with visitors.
I can understand that pts. who are near the end draw visitors, often as much to console the family as visit the pt. Visitors then are generally quiet & more cooperative. It's the ones who show up for routine surgery pts. & proceed to have a loud, noisy gathering, that can be a real pain. It has gotten to the point sometimes that security has come & told them to take a hike. Usually, the pt. is still groggy from surgery & would probably do better without the noise anyway. There are just people in the world who must have turned off their brains sometime back & never restarted them.