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
Unfortunately, we've raised a generation of 20 and 30 somethings, who believe they are the center of the Universe and everything revolves around their needs and wants.
You've hit it on the head! My son, who is 27, regulary complains about being in debt, the cost of having kids, yadda, yadda, yadda...yet he turns around and buys another new pickup truck and is about to become a father for the third time in less than six years. Go figure.
You've hit it on the head! My son, who is 27, regulary complains about being in debt, the cost of having kids, yadda, yadda, yadda...yet he turns around and buys another new pickup truck and is about to become a father for the third time in less than six years. Go figure.
Sounds like a nurse i work with. Trades cars every 6 months, buys a ton of $12 scrub hats online, shops Ebay, getsweekly manicures, pedicures, facials, buys expensive clothes. THEN whines "i don't have any money". Well no wonder, ya blew it all!
Yeppers. We truly live in a narcisstic and self-serving society. If I had demanded that my mother wait on me like these people do while I was growing up, she would have kicked my butt to the moon and back.... :uhoh21:
Reading all your stories really sheds some the sense of entitlement that is encouraged in our society (especially in the United States!) I'm a student, and I've worked plenty of retail. People never fail to amaze me with their bogus demands. (which is why I'm relieved to be out!) This whole emphasis on "customer service" just serves to breed terrible senses of entitlement in people!
And since when is the word "hospital" synonymous with "hotel" ?
Sounds like a nurse i work with. Trades cars every 6 months, buys a ton of $12 scrub hats online, shops Ebay, getsweekly manicures, pedicures, facials, buys expensive clothes. THEN whines "i don't have any money". Well no wonder, ya blew it all!
:rotfl: I thought this might have been confined to MY coworkers in Southern California. I always have a good chunk of change at the end of the month, but it's probably because I'm not shopping at Tiffany's and Prada. :chuckle
I discussed these same gripes with my manager and asked for non-nursing staff to accomodate families and friends. I was informed that if she were to hire someone in this capacity, it would take away one full-time nurse!
What about working with your hospital's auxilliary unit and see if they can work out something in which they send up a volunteer to take care of some of these matters? There are probably many people who volunteer who'd love the chance to work in L&D, doing things for families, and you wouldn't have to lose a nurse. Would that work?
:rotfl: I thought this might have been confined to MY coworkers in Southern California. I always have a good chunk of change at the end of the month, but it's probably because I'm not shopping at Tiffany's and Prada. :chuckle
LOL! I'm in SoCal, too! I'm pretty bad about overspending...I'm exactly the type you two are talking about!
Specializes in Gerontological Nursing, Acute Rehab.
Unfortunately, we've raised a generation of 20 and 30 somethings, who believe they are the center of the Universe and everything revolves around their needs and wants. They seem to pass on this attitude to their own kids also.
It's amazing how much child like behavior, I have to deal with so called adults.
I have had them scream, yell, cry and threaten to get me fired, because they couldn't have their own way. The only thing missing was the holding of their breath till they turn blue or throwing themselves on the floor.
Well, I am a "30 something" and I see my generations kids being raised the same way....toys out the wazoo, new clothes every year (God forbid our kids have to wear hand me downs!!) 2 or 3 vacations every summer, all the junk food you can eat whenever you want, and then when mom does say no to something, the kids will throw a fit and scream "I hate you!" The sad thing is that instead of soaping the kids mouth for saying that, they just think "That's just normal kid behavior, he'll grow out of it." Yeah, right honey.....if they act like this when they're 5, imagine what they'll be like when they're 15.
In short, I don't see our patients or family members getting any easier to deal with any time soon.....
Gosh, I think I really need to move away from it all sometimes.......
Specializes in OB, Telephone Triage, Chart Review/Code.
Yes, BabyRN2Be, I did suggest volunteers, but unfortunately we are low in that department. We have ads in the the newspapers to recruit. Some are disabled and can only do desk jobs. And I certainly don't see teens beating down the door (they would rather be paid than to get actual experience and responsibility).
Here's another entitlement story: I was in PP the other day and this young man comes to the desk asking us where the car seats are and who can get one for him. He goes on to say that he figured we had car seats to give out and they were ready to go home and would like one. We are the only public hospital in the county and a couple of our clinics have programs that earn their patients car seats after not missing any prenatal appointments and attending a car seat safety class. We give him the benefit of the doubt and ask if they have a certificate from their clinic. He comes out with a certificate that is no where near complete. My charge was feeling nice and told him that if he and his girlfriend watch a car seat safety video we have we will give him a car seat. This is where it all goes wrong.
He wants to know how long the video will take because they want to leave now. We tell him about 20-30 minutes. Oh, that is way too long. They want to leave now. Oh well, we tell him. Then he says that the girlfriends' parents are coming and have a car seat with them but he just figured he could get a second one from us for his car--it's nice to have two, he tells us. WTF????? I'm sure our mouths were hanging open at this point. "Sure, let me get my wallet out and pay my taxes so that I can supply you with a second car seat when I didn't have that luxury--no problem!" OMG!
Yes, BabyRN2Be, I did suggest volunteers, but unfortunately we are low in that department. We have ads in the the newspapers to recruit. Some are disabled and can only do desk jobs. And I certainly don't see teens beating down the door (they would rather be paid than to get actual experience and responsibility).
Thanks for the suggestion, though.
I'm sorry that you don't have enough volunteers. I understand that situation though, many of ours have passed away and there hasn't been a recruiting drive until lately.
It's very sad that there aren't teens banging down the door. You're right that they'd rather get paid than volunteer. Geez, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital in the early 80's, there were so many teens wanting to volunteer... we were still candystripers but they were really trying hard to phase the word out even then. :chuckle Most of us wanted to work either OB/GYN or peds. There were just too many of us and I ended up working on a med-surge floor. LOVED IT! Worked there for nearly 2 years until moving to Oklahoma. It's just really sad that within the past 20 years things have changed so much and that there aren't that many teens who want to simply volunteer.
That being said, we recently did have a quite successful teen volunteer drive. The teens were working for 6 weeks, and of course, we only accepted the most responsible to work in the newborn nursery. Boy, those girls wanted to be there and it SHOWED!! Too bad that the program only lasts 6 weeks though. The volunteer coordinator told me that it's so hard to find teens who will commit to a job for the 6 weeks, never mind an ongoing volunteer job.
I learned so much volunteering, and I got to see what the life of the nurse was REALLY like. The lessons learned have carried with me until today, lessons such as confidentiality (which was the first thing we learned), dealing with difficult and manipulative patients, dealing with doctors. Wow. It was a rich experience.
I'm sorry that you don't have enough volunteers. I understand that situation though, many of ours have passed away and there hasn't been a recruiting drive until lately.
It's very sad that there aren't teens banging down the door. You're right that they'd rather get paid than volunteer. Geez, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital in the early 80's, there were so many teens wanting to volunteer... we were still candystripers but they were really trying hard to phase the word out even then. :chuckle Most of us wanted to work either OB/GYN or peds. There were just too many of us and I ended up working on a med-surge floor. LOVED IT! Worked there for nearly 2 years until moving to Oklahoma. It's just really sad that within the past 20 years things have changed so much and that there aren't that many teens who want to simply volunteer.
That being said, we recently did have a quite successful teen volunteer drive. The teens were working for 6 weeks, and of course, we only accepted the most responsible to work in the newborn nursery. Boy, those girls wanted to be there and it SHOWED!! Too bad that the program only lasts 6 weeks though. The volunteer coordinator told me that it's so hard to find teens who will commit to a job for the 6 weeks, never mind an ongoing volunteer job.
I learned so much volunteering, and I got to see what the life of the nurse was REALLY like. The lessons learned have carried with me until today, lessons such as confidentiality (which was the first thing we learned), dealing with difficult and manipulative patients, dealing with doctors. Wow. It was a rich experience.
This is why I have suggested that people who aren't sure about nursing may want to consider volunteering. I volunteer just because I like to, but I sure have learned a lot about hospital life.
As far as finding a volunteer to cover a specific job in a hospital, most volunteers only work a few hours per week. It would take a really dedicated person to cover this full-time or several volunteers to be around at various times.
CseMgr1, ASN, RN
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