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Nurses General Nursing

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Time to time, I have patients who ask me to wake them at a certain time. Now recently, I have gotten calls from their family members who are AT HOME asking me to call them for certain things, like call and wake them at 7 or call when the doctor gets there. Excuse me? I have enough to keep me more than busy with patients, charting, etc. that it's hard enough to keep up with scheduled meds that at different hours than the regularly scheduled meds. Now families are expecting wake up calls at home?

Time to time, I have patients who ask me to wake them at a certain time. Now recently, I have gotten calls from their family members who are AT HOME asking me to call them for certain things, like call and wake them at 7 or call when the doctor gets there. Excuse me? I have enough to keep me more than busy with patients, charting, etc. that it's hard enough to keep up with scheduled meds that at different hours than the regularly scheduled meds. Now families are expecting wake up calls at home?

I haven't really had that scenario, but the one in which the family demands that the doctor call them the moment he arrives, well, that's a common one. And I tell them I can't promise that he'll do that, or even when he'll arrive. Or, frankly, IF he'll arrive; sometimes an associate goes if it's a weekend or whatever. I don't schedule my time with patients around what the doctor does or doesn't do.

I tell them I'll be happy to place a note on the pt's chart for the doctor to see when he sees the chart. But I have no way of knowing if he'll see that note before or after he's visited pt, etc. Family is usually not thrilled knowing that I'm not hovering in the doorway of the room, waiting for the doctor myself, but I always manage to get it through ;)

The other common request is "Make sure Mom's Doctor does xxx for her". Nope, can't do that either...Doc might want to do that for Mom, might not, but I sure am not going to tell him that he needs to do that because Mom's Niece (who is an EMT, so she knows this stuff) wants it done. I tell the family member that if they have certain requests, they are going to need to speak to the doctor themselves, even if that means calling THEIR MD'S OFFICE and waiting for a return call...themselves :rolleyes:

You know, reading back over this, I wonder if these kind of demands come from the thinking that we're the doctors' personal aides, personal secretaries...?? That's gotta be it.

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Specializes in Peds.

My little one has scared me a couple of times. Once the hr went to 18 - thank goodness for only a couple of seconds. On occasion the sats will drop incredibly low too but we muddle through. The bad part is that I've grown really attached. One good thing is that mom is just a phone call away though if I need anything and there's always 911.

I see you're from the Willoughby area. My daughter's fiance' is from there. They both go to OSU (go Bucks!).

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Specializes in vascular, med surg, home health , rehab,.

We had a spouse demand a queen size bed for her hubby because they have one at home. And his doc wrote an order for it!

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We had a spouse demand a queen size bed for her hubby because they have one at home. And his doc wrote an order for it!

LOL! I can promise you that would NEVER fly at my hospital. We have specialty beds (First Step and bariatric) for those who really NEED them. Not for prima donnas! :nono:

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Perinatal, Float.

that family member sounds manipulative and probably wanted to see if you really would cave into his demands!

I can picture you saying, "well let me see, it looks like I will be busy at that time, but I could fit that phone call in at 0245, would that work for you?

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Specializes in ICU-Stepdown.

I've only once ever had a patients' family (TELL me) to call them at a given time in the morning (wake-up) and all I said was "No. I do not provide wakeup calls". There is NO WAY I'm going to get into THAT habit. Like we aren't busy enough as it is!

I'm not in the habit of calling the doctor for them either -they can call the dr. office (and try to talk the paging service into getting the doc if they like) themselves. Sometimes you have to have a thicker skin -as someone else said, patients families get to be a bit too self-centered, and despite their desires, the world does not center around them.

The one family that had literally demanded a wakeup call, went on to tell me that the previous nurses (different floor) had called them every morning (:angryfire ) but it really got them nowhere with me. I don't call my WIFE every morning just to wake her up, so I'm really not about to do it for THEM.

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Never heard of such a thing.

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The trouble is, I've noticed when my coworkers or myself start standing up for ourselves and refusing to do stuff like this, the family then decides to complain about something else to administration like "The nurses ignored me when I said my Mom needed kleenex/extra blanket yada yada......."

What they meant was Mom had to wait 15 minutes for kleenex because we asked at change of shift/during med pass. But the initial reason they were mad is because we said we wouldn't do something else that is not our job.

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We have family members staying with our moms most of the time. Occasionally they request a wake up call so they can get up for work. I simply tell them I will do my best to remember, but I cannot guarantee that I will not be in an emergency situation with another patient when they need to get up. We even went as far as purchasing a travel alarm for the unit to loan to families.

We also help patients figure out how to set the alarm on their cell phones - everyone has a cell phone now, can't pay for anything else, but they have cell phones, cable, internet, video cameras, cigarettes and beer (but that's another thread).

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

i know this kind of stuff happens but it is so hard to believe that patients have that type of nerve. i just came home from a 2 day hospital stay and was not wanting to ask to have the water pitcher refilled cause the nurses are so very busy..plus i could get it myself , but they frown on that type of thing.

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Specializes in Peds, Home Care, Cardiology, Pulmonology.

My personal favorite is the family who comes in on Saturday or Sunday morning after no visits during the week and DEMAND to speak to mom/dad/grandma/grandpa/auntie/uncle's doctor. NOW. Try to explain that the specific doc is not ON this weekend and the attending covering for emergencies not family consults really gets my dander up!!! I politely give them their doc's office number and tell them to call Monday morning.

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Specializes in CT ,ICU,CCU,Tele,ED,Hospice.

never heard of it -family wake up calls.yes of course heard the call md right away i tell them to call office even give the number if they don't know it .i will do mostly anything for my pt family is another issue.

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