Being a RN, hospital administrator, and relatively healthy, it has been quite some time since I experienced being in the hospital as a family member where no one knew me or what I did.
What an eye-opener!! I just spent 3 days with my wife while she was a patient. I sat back and observed and was the "family member." I could go on and on but will make some general statements about this experience. It started with the nurse who was starting my wife's IV and dropped the sterile IV site dressing on the floor, she picked it up and proceeded to place it on my wife's IV site. When I kindly and gently asked her not to do that her reply was "well we do clean our floors." I thought she was joking but she was not.
Generally, the nursing staff was rude. All but 2 of the nursing staff that worked with us behaved in a way that communicated to us that we were an irritant and a bother. I was appalled and disappointed in my chosen profession. Everything was about the nurse, how busy they were, how overworked they were, how short staffed they were, how they insisted we must follow the hospital policies that no one bothered to explain, etc. etc.
During the few explanation of procedures that we received, when we attempted to ask a question the nurses would talk over us and seemed annoyed that we had interrupted their lesson to us. They talked down to us. I could go on and on.
Nurses--it is not about us, it is about the patient. It costs nothing to smile, have a good attitude, and focus on your PATIENT'S needs and not your OWN while you are at work. What is going on with healthcare in this country?
