Mystery Shoppers

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Does your facility use mystery shoppers? If so, how do you feel about it?

A nurse friend of mine works in a facility that is using them now. He's already very stressed about his job and is looking to get out of nursing. The ridiculous amount of charting, the verbally abusive patients and family members, the constant push from management to do it better/faster/safer (which is often mutually exclusive!).

Now, with the mystery shoppers, he's even more stressed to be perfect in every way, fearful that information will be used punitively. He tries his best--he is a very good nurse, very knowledgeable, and has helped me immensely in becoming a competent nurse--but when a patient is demanding something small NOW! IT MUST BE NOW!, appropriate prioritization is difficult to impossible, and the stress level increases.

There was a post here recently in a thread in which the poster said something about a nurse who patients absolutely loved, but who was a bad clinician, left orders undone, and the next nurse was forced to do clean up. Is that what patients want? Really?

I've also seen threads in which nurses-as-patients themselves have criticized the nursing care they've received. Some were talking about no assessments, some were talking about inadequate pain relief. Both of those, in my opinion, are valid. In comments sections of healthcare news stories and blogs, those claiming to be nurses-as-patients will also state the "best" nursing care was the above-and-beyond stuff, such as fixing someone's hair or hand-holding.

I would LOVE to have time to do that myself, but I just don't. But, is that the new standard?

If you have been a nurse-as-patient, what are YOUR standards of care. And, if you work in acute care NOW, are your standards for others less than or the same as the care YOU provide?

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I thought I was done with Mystery Shoppers when I left the restaurant industry...

How, exactly, does this work in healthcare?

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I thought I was done with Mystery Shoppers when I left the restaurant industry...

How, exactly, does this work in healthcare?

I have never known if there has been a "Mystery Shopper Patient" ever in my experience, and for that matter, I wouldn't care; my care will continue to be consistent, and if it's not good enough for one facility, I will find one that appreciates and wants me to fulfill my practice competently and effective as I can-even as an Independent Contractor if I have to cross that bridge again.

At the end of the day, I ultimately control my nursing practice.