Never enough-vent

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I am just writing this thread to vent since I have no where else to turn to regarding this or other nursing matters. It might not make much sence since I am not the best at expressing my feelings etc......I am a newer nurse ( 5 months on a med surg floor). Sometimes we are very short staffed. Today we were short one aid and a nurse. Anyway, a pt's family member yelled at me because his/her family member had not had, and I quote, "am care done yet and I thought nursing care was better here" at the time it was 9am. I was still finishing my assessments and 0800 med pass. Frankly, that was low on my priority list. I hate being thought of as a bad nurse because of this when I was RUNNING AROUND trying to finish my med pass, deal with other issues, had done am care on other pts. Etc...... I HATE this part of the job the most. It is never enough. I can never do enough. One time a pt's visitor complained because I didn't get the group of 5 visitors chairs fast enough...(took ten minutes). COME ON ! I have to actually FIND the chairs, drag them there...etc and if I can tell from the hallway that another of my pt's needs to have their trach suctioned, then that IS THE PRIORITY. not chairs for visitors......... I have worked with the public in all my other jobs but as a nurse this really gets to me. :crying2::mad::crying2:

There's a lot of days that nursing just makes me hate people.

It's most days for me at this point.

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Specializes in Med/Surg and ANCC RN-BC.

People expect us to be freaking super heros and do a million things at once. It can get tiring!

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ask the family to go suction the trach while you go them a chair!!

Get them a chair from where? Another pt's room and then have to spray it down and disinfect it?

Is the patient passing? If so, then please by all means take the pains and do it. Otherwise, every pt's room is assigned a set number of chairs, if you would wait, I would get the chairs later when I'm caught up. Otherwise, you may stand just fine:).

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I hear you. My last shift I was running down the hall to draw a stat blood on a patient. When a visitor came out of another room and asked me to get them a soda. I mentioned to them that their family member was NPO and was not allowed soda. The Visitor said or it's not for the patient it's for me, I'm thirsty.

I can't beieve families are so incensitive that they would eat or drink in front of a NPO family member.

Did you direct the family member to the vending machine?

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Specializes in Med Surge, Tele, Oncology, Wound Care.

I try to plan a time of the day that the patient can ambulate, get AM care and such.

I always tell them I can't do it "now" I have to check on my other patients and make sure everyone is okay and not in distress.

Sometimes it works, because I go in and acknowledge that they want to do a-z, but I give them a time to pick. Like if they have a 10am ABX I will say how about 10am we go for a walk?

I try to go in the patients room and introduce myself as I hand them a warm washcloth to freshen up.

However, like this week it backfired. One patient said "I don't care about your other patients."

It just reminds me how awful some patients can be.

I am one person, caring for several. I can't do it all.

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However, like this week it backfired. One patient said "I don't care about your other patients."

.

*cough* Pt. has a point*cough*:D

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I've never understood why nurses don't just come out and tell patients the number of staff on duty and the number of patients each nurse is responsible for. I know, I know, we're not supposed to do it, and I know it can sound like just another excuse. But what else is the patient expected to think when we allow them to believe there's plenty of staff, other than that the nurses are lazy, uncaring or have no idea what they're doing?

If I was a patient, I would far rather be told that there's only x number of nurses for y number of patients and there's been an emergency down the hall, and know that THAT is why the nurse hasn't time to help me with a wash yet. There are ways of saying this that are respectful to the patient, and don't make them feel frightened or unimportant. I think sometimes we listen to these complaints over and over, feeling unable to defend ourselves, until the stresses of the day or the ridiculousness (if that's a word lol) of the little complaints get the better of us, and unfortunately we say something we shouldn't or say it in the wrong way.

Maybe if patients knew the staffing realities they would start saying "the nurses did their best but there wasn't enough of them", rather than "the nurse took forever to get my visitor a chair".

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Specializes in Med Surge, Tele, Oncology, Wound Care.
*cough* Pt. has a point*cough*:D

Katie5-

cough, thanks for making me feel even more stupid, cough :D

that is why I said "it backfired."

The only thing that worked was the warm washcloth....

Kind of like an experiment, I tried my hypothesis and it failed hahahah

Katie5 what do you do in your day to make it easier?

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Katie5-

cough, thanks for making me feel even more stupid, cough :D

that is why I said "it backfired."

The only thing that worked was the warm washcloth....

Kind of like an experiment, I tried my hypothesis and it failed hahahah

Katie5 what do you do in your day to make it easier?

Thanks to everyone who replied. I have been working the last few days and haven't had a chance to reply. Maybe the pt had a point but what gets to me is that I GET BLAMED FOR IT when I have no control over the staff levels. I can only move so fast. I already speed down the halls as do my co-workers. I don't see myself staying in nursing for long cause I am sick of it already.

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Specializes in cardiology/oncology/MICU.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I have been working the last few days and haven't had a chance to reply. Maybe the pt had a point but what gets to me is that I GET BLAMED FOR IT when I have no control over the staff levels. I can only move so fast. I already speed down the halls as do my co-workers. I don't see myself staying in nursing for long cause I am sick of it already.

Please do not give up yet. I worked on a tele floor that was very busy and at times it sucked tremendously. I have left work thinking I will never go back there. Continue to work hard and try to move to another position or floor. That is one of the reasons I chose to become an RN. There is such a wide variety of jobs that I think there is something for everyone. The poor economy has slowed that down some, but it is still there. Nurses that run their rumps off are the ones that really care. We don't need to lose one of those kind. We need the ones that are burned out and don't care anymore (if they ever did) to leave and make room for those of us who still have ambition. Find some way to unwind and take your mind off the woes of work:banghead::beer::spam::clpty:or whatever else you can think of!

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At this point MGT doesnt care, their are a thousand new grads waiting to take your position OP, if you leave. Just do your best and get .

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Specializes in CVICU, Obs/Gyn, Derm, NICU.
This happened to me recently. I had 4 pts, discharge & admission. Very, very busy 'no time to sit down' shift. One of my patients was an A&OX, fully independently elderly patient. After her assesments I gave the bathing supplies to her and told her to wash herself.

When I came back a while later to give her a medication her daugther was there and started laying on me. These were her complaints:

1. I did not wash her mother.

2. I placed her gown on the bedside table, making her mother cold.

3.I did not get her a fresh, new gown.

I apologized and said that since her mother was independent, she was perfectly capable of bathing herself and putting on her own gown. The patient disagreed and said that as I nurse I had to wash her. And I should have placed the gown beside her mother. I asked her without sarcasm 'Does your mother have a problem with her arms that she is not able to reach a few inches for her gown'?

As for the new gown, since it was put on yesterday, it was not stained, and she was being discharged this afternoon, I did not think it was necessary.

She got really upset and said that she was going to report me. I smiled and told her that was her right. I gave the mother the medication and quickly left to tell my manager.

Strangely, she did not report me. And I wouldn't have cared if she did. I'm not going to give a capable person a bedbath. I even make the patients who have limitation at least wash some part of their body - be their face, or even just their fingers. I'm really into encouraging independence. Sitting in that hospital bed all day and having us do things for them like a baby does not benefit anyone.

.

With these pushy daughters (funnily enough they are usually daughters - not sons) of A & O independent elderly parents .... I trot out something that never fails to quieten them up. Works like a charm

I remind them that a lot of elderly p'ts lose a degree of independence when they are ill and we should be aware of that and do what we can to prevent that.

Daughter usually has a wry look on her face when she's thinking of rest-home costs.

Also when she thinking of how much busier she is going to be when her parent becomes less independent

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