Nurses Humilated - Illinois

[SuburbsGirl]

Nurses Humiliated, Demeaned by Hospital Boot Camp: Complaint - Joliet IL Patch

[gonzo1, ASN, RN]

I lived near this hospital as well for most of my nursing career and worked in it in another capacity. I never considered working there as a nurse. I know numerous people who live within a ten mile radius of it but drive twenty five miles or more to work in other hospitals. I also have several friends who worked there for a short time and quit due to the poor environment.

To be fair I do know one person who worked there as a nurse and loves it.

[Extra Pickles]

administration at this hospital felt that it was important to educate a nurse that a hearing-impaired person has difficulty hearing, and that a vision-impaired person has difficulty seeing???? By wearing goggles and earplugs the nurses are supposed to suddenly have that Eureka moment when they finally understand that some people have problems seeing and hearing??? That is so insulting.

I don't think anyone who works with patients is confused as to whether laying on a bedpan for longer than necessary is uncomfortable. of course we know it is!!! I've never known anyone to intentionally leave anyone sitting on one of those things longer than they have to and I do understand that sometimes it is longer than we'd want but can't be helped. The whole boot camp thing of having a nurse sit on a bedpan to show her it's uncomfortable is beyond insulting. Do they think we are morons or maybe completely insensitive??? IF they think we're morons then this won't help, and if they think we're insensitive then it definitely won't help. Don't know too many nurses I'd call morons or who are incapable of understanding pain or suffering. Not allowed to urinate? Trying to remember the last time I refused to allow a patient to urinate!!! But I sure know lots of nurses who don't have the time to urinate because we're too busy with patient care!!!

How about this, the administration of this hospital intentionally inflicted pain and suffering on its staff!! Are they going to have a boot camp next, to learn how humiliating it is to treat staff like this????

[CountryMomma, ASN, RN]

I'm wondering what nurses with existing disabilities thought of this charade, especially if it was something that would be affected by the "exercises". I know my sciatica would be on fire after being in a bed on a bedpan - I can't lay flat in a bed on my back to start with. Also, with IBS, nobody better come between me and a bathroom. Shady stuff right there.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

I get the point of this exercise — but I think we all came into nursing wanting to care for people. I believe that the majority of nurses would be bothered by leaving mee-maw on the bedpan longer than we wanted to because we had to put out seven other fires with other patients. We desire the tools to provide the very best care that we can. Does the administration in that hospital truly believe that there is malice in the hearts of their staff nurses, that they are just leaving their patients unattended because they're too busy Facebooking or filing their nails or making weekend plans?

The whole thing just makes me sad.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

ON BEHALF OF NURSE EDUCATORS EVERYWHERE --- I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR THIS UNBELIEVABLY MISGUIDED "TRAINING" DEBACLE.

I don't want to believe that any of my colleagues would have violated all precepts of effective instructional design, not to mention simple human decency... but they must have been.

*hanging head in shame*

[quazar]

This is why, whenever I hear the phrase "patient satisfaction scores," I automatically bristle and tense and expect bad things. It is honestly a reflex at this point. I have so many negative associations with that one little phrase due to so many bad experiences in the name of patient satisfaction, it's scary.

[dec2007]

Administration of this facility should be ashamed! I hope this article is published far and wide, and impacts the "patient satisfaction" of said facility! NEVER would I allow a member of my family or a friend to be treated at this institution!

[esrun77]

Maybe they could reallocate funds from abusing the individuals who care for their patients to hiring more nursing staff. Do they really believe nurses intentionally want their patients to wait and suffer?

[wolf9653]

i think after the experience 100% of the nurses should seek counseling for PTSD and file for disability. :'(

[RegularNurse]

Why would an adult participate in this?

Just refuse to participate. This is a laughable situation demonstrating how detached administrative personnel are with the realities of patient care and how pathetically spineless these nurses are in not preserving their own dignity.

At the very least, they should make a mockery of this request while participating by mirroring how actual patients act. Perhaps, after waiting thirty seconds, they should request to speak to a supervisor and force administrators to listen to a long winded story about how they aren't getting their pain meds and the food is horrible etc.

I get that people have a lot on their plate, but if your employer tries to pull this stuff on you and your not willing walk away...

[Axgrinder]

I'd like to know a bit of background about the insensitive creature whom envisioned this brainchild of cruelty. It is so far outside of the realm of acceptable that I have to wonder how the hospital will escape litigation for abuse and willful negligence.

I also have to wonder if any of the nurses whom participated in this "training exercise" may have possibly come to harm in some manner when all the chips finally finish falling and the dust settles?

What kind of person thinks up and proposes enacting something as vile as this? What does the private mindscape of an individual capable of fashioning a sadistical opus such as this look like? And nearly as important - what sort of person willfully supports enacting depraved, abusive training activities upon other human beings in their employ?

It seems to me administration was trying to make a point, however despite whatever that point may be they went about implementing it without even pausing to consider what constitutes minimally acceptable behavior in civilized society. Their actions were so distasteful - so wholly inappropriate to societal norms that the reputation of that hospital may never recover from the blow they landed on their own chin. TKO at their own hand - well done.

[nursel56]

I've always said, and have the battle scars to show for it, that "feel what the patient feels" or even the "how can you expect to care for your patients if you are unwilling to experience what they experience" is no more than an untested theory. Supposing that theory to be valid,, I guess I would be providing inferior care to most of my patients, because the vast majority have diagnoses that aren't in my medical history.

Ages ago, "feel what the patient feels" was not part of the curriculum, except for the bed bath skills, but that could be a regional thing.

I was forced to attend a training, but it was strictly on the positive, and nowhere was it intimated nurses were bad people who needed to be punished. We left smiling with our new insight and our complimentary coffee mugs.

Really, the most insulting thing (other than the insinuation that nurses fail to provide timely care because they basically don't feel like it) is the inclusion of the word "discipline". "Empathy" is supposed to more of warm and fuzzy. This is more of a "rub their nose in it" what with the intentional infliction of physical and emotional distress and all.