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
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. :)
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
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 hear what you are saying...
however, too much emphasis is on customer service, and not enough on common sense nursing/medical care.
AND reading from some stupid script is trite and patients/families pick up on the falsehood of it rather quickly. If EVERY nurse, dietary employee, housekeeper, etc. says the same stupid customer-service canned line, they pick up on it and begin to either deride it or think it's the insincere line it really is---and lose trust in us all! No nurse or other employee should be handed a script and said "this is what you say every time you interact with your patients and family members". Yet there are places where this is happening (as you can see when you read here).
Good, SOLID and SINCERE Customer service is not a bad thing---in IT'S PROPER PLACE------prioritized properly. What *is* "disproportionate" to me, at least, is the over-emphasis on shallow, meaningless customer service moves at the expense of quality nursing care. JMO...and you are right, we are lucky to live and practice where we are free to express our varied opinions.
And I am sorry about your feeling attacked as a childbirth educator. I missed that somehow. I find the ones who work with our patients excellent---and usually do not set anyone up for false or unrealistic expectations. I have a great respect for CBE's and want to become one myself one day, actually!
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
We have these same problems in our Women's services dept. Our hospital is very big on patient satisfaction. If we have a family complaining they want a comp tray, extra chairs, or even an extra bed in their room, the nurses will tell them it is not allowed but if they complain to our nurse director, they end up getting fruit baskets, complimentary movie tickets, comp trays with every meal, and we have even moved them to a suite so that they can have a room large enough to have an extra bed in it. So we end up looking like the bad guys because we try to play by the rules, while our nurse manager keeps reminding us that we want our patients to be VERY SATISFIED!
And now you know why I am a traveler. I was really close to quitting nursing at that point. Traveling let me feel better appreciated.
It is really sad when it can be said in all honesty, "I have been treated better at virtually EVERY assignment hospital that I have worked for than at a facility that I worked for over 1/2 my nursing career." Even at the one that I listed as "Hospital O'Hell" in a column. I have received more Thank Yous and appreciation for working extra time than I did at my "home" hospital.
I just wish that I didn't miss "home".
I know how you feel - I did the same thing for the same reasons - I now have the freedom to choose the days, shifts and locations I work. If I don't feel comfortable working at a particular site, I have the freedom to decline. my work schedule is now on my terms, I no longer feel that my hard-earned license is in jeopardy, and a lot of my work-related stress has been greatly reduced. I also enjoy having the freedom to choose if I want to work weekends or holidays instead of being forced to work or being made to feel guilty for not working.
I can see the point of trying to be helpful to visitors, pt families, etc. I will often, as a volunteer, direct lost people in the right direction, find an extra chair for visitors, (esp. elderly people who can't stand long) or an extra pillow for pts., etc. However, nurses hardly have enough time to do proper NURSING, let alone be the all-purpose gopher for demanding families. Hospitals seem to want the available staff to do more all the time. It's like they tell the nurrses, "well, you should just run faster".
If patients are complaining that they need pain meds or that their IV pump has been beeping for ages & the nurse doesn't have time to take care of it, that stuff should , IMO, take precedence. If I'm running to fetch an O2 tank or something else for a nurse because there's a code on the floor, someone who wants me to stop & call the kitchen RIGHT NOW (this has happened to me) is going to wait, period, end of discussion, case closed.
The owner of a Home Health Agency I once worked for told us about a client who rather arrogantly informed her over the phone: "You're working for me!" To which my boss informed her rather politely: "No, Ma'm, but I am not".
So much for "customer service". Ka-Ching! :chuckle
Depends on the hospital. IMO my current workplace really caters to crazy family members and does not support its nurses.
Last year we were having a celebration for the nurses on our unit that we paid for ourselves. It was catered and was set up for us ahead of time, but by the time we got there a family of 350 lb. visitors (4 women) had come in and eaten all the food designed for 26 people. The hospital didn't want to do anything about it due to the bad publicity, but as the coordinator I called the police and had them arrested for theft (meals were charged to us at $15/person so was well above the petty larceny amount). Suggested that if it wasn't a big thing the hospital would pay for their "snack" insted of the herd of visitors. Not only did they spend the weekend in jail due to not being able to post bail, but they had to pay us back with interest.
They were in the lobby last week as one of them was up in the ICU with an MI, demanding to be wheeled up to see their sister as it was too far for them to walk (waddle). Then they complained to administration that ther were not enough double wide chairs in the waiting area for all of them to have seats at the same time.
My only fear is that they are diabetics and might need hyperbarics in the future!!!!!!!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
Depends on the hospital. IMO my current workplace really caters to crazy family members and does not support its nurses.
Last year we were having a celebration for the nurses on our unit that we paid for ourselves. It was catered and was set up for us ahead of time, but by the time we got there a family of 350 lb. visitors (4 women) had come in and eaten all the food designed for 26 people. The hospital didn't want to do anything about it due to the bad publicity, but as the coordinator I called the police and had them arrested for theft (meals were charged to us at $15/person so was well above the petty larceny amount). Suggested that if it wasn't a big thing the hospital would pay for their "snack" insted of the herd of visitors. Not only did they spend the weekend in jail due to not being able to post bail, but they had to pay us back with interest.
They were in the lobby last week as one of them was up in the ICU with an MI, demanding to be wheeled up to see their sister as it was too far for them to walk (waddle). Then they complained to administration that ther were not enough double wide chairs in the waiting area for all of them to have seats at the same time.
My only fear is that they are diabetics and might need hyperbarics in the future!!!!!!!
Good for YOU! I applaud you for calling the police. Good outcome. I've had visitors threaten me with a gun (got arrested, was back before the end of my shift), a machete and scissors. I've seen a co-worker attacked by a "service dog" (You ever seen a service dog with a chain around it's neck and used as a leash?) that the patient's step-son sicced on him, and another coworker imprisoned in the patient's room against her will by the same visitor and dog. (The stepson didn't want any "Fag" taking care of "Pa", so attacked the male nurse who was assigned to the patient and dragged a female nurse into the room and away from her patients.) No charges were pressed. No consequences to the visitors. I don't understand why hospitals don't value their professional staff enough to support them, and to protect them from this sort of nonsense!
Where but a hospital can you go into a conference room and eat food you know is not for you?
Some of these stories are funny, but when you really think about it, this kind of rude behaviour is downright sad.
What kind of manners do people have these days if they think they can treat a healthcare worker like a servant.
Getting water and providing a chair is not to much, but the nurse is there to care for the patient, not some overbearing family member. These same folks who insist you wait on mom, dad or Aunt Ethel hand and foot don't give that family member the time of day when they are not in hospital.
GLORIAmunchkin72
650 Posts
On a lighter note...I have a resident(who is not all there) compliment me on my "cooking" when I gave her her meds in applesauce:rotfl: