nurses from maintenance point of view

[sailordave]

I do building maintenance at a hospital. When you submit a request for a repair, please be specific. "Toilet don't work" just isn't enough. Is it clogged? Does the water not flow when flushed? What is it? Also, I wish the floor staff would stop keeping the Soft-N-Fresh paper towels in the patient rooms. Some CNA's and patient's family seem to think these are great toilet paper until they clog up their toilet. And what is it about women who just gave birth that makes them think pads go in the toilet? I've had to deal with a nurse cursing me out for a tv not working in an empty room when the only thing wrong was she was too stupid to realize it wasn't plugged in the electrical socket. We had a roof leaking water near the station's kitchen and the floor supervisor tried to order me to go on the roof in the middle of a thunder storm to put out tarp to stop the leak. I tried to be as polite as possible when I told her no and if she didn't like it to write me up. I've pulled knives, straws, food, and paper out of the drain pipe of a sink in NICU and the nurses there said, "well why don't you install a garbage disposal?". I went off on her and told her why should the hospital pay for you to have a disposal when you're putting things in the sink that would break a disposal. Also, if something is broken and is important, send a request to maintenance. Don't wait until you happen to see us in a hall and say, "oh, by the way, since you're here,..." If we're on the floor then we're already busy with something and we don't have perfect memory to remember all of our duties as well as the one you "happen" to remember when you saw us. If a patient is complaining they are too hot or too cold, send a maintenance request before requesting a fan and don't assume that since you're comfortable that the patient is imagining they're hot or cold. I enjoy making the patient's comfortable. I hate seeing a patient sweating for days before someone bothers to let us know of the problem. And quit opening windows. We have some nurses who constantly open windows because they're either too hot or too cold while everyone else is comfortable. Stick your head in the freezer if you're having hot flashes and leave the windows alone. And to the ER staff members, if you have the key to access the elevators' independent service, remember to turn it back to normal when you're finished. Also for the ER, get your own tools. I don't mind bringing tools to the ER for medical staff to use on a patient but they always seem to expect me to use the tools on the patient which ain't gonna happen. One genius wanted me to bring my greasy boiler room tools to surgery. No, I didn't bring them the tools to use on a patient. Surgery has sterile tools for that, they just had to get off their lazy backsides to go find them for themselves. There are a few good nurses here where I work, but they are so few that all the lazy ignorant ones stand out. How about the floor that decided to take the education TV VCR cart to their desk, turn off all the lights, pop some popcorn, and watch a movie for their shift? Yep, they did that and yep, I reported them, and yep, they got a light slap on the wrist. That's what happens when your administration is made up of majority of former nurses. They can do no wrong while every other staff can't do anything right.

[sailordave]

On a funny note, this actually happened. Was paged to come to a floor. Nurse said, "Oh, I'm so glad you're here. How do you flush yogurt down the toilet?"

I can't make this up.

Another time I was called about flying bugs at the nurses desk. It was midnight, spring time, and all the windows were open. Told them to close the windows and they said they wanted fresh air and wanted me to get rid of all the bugs. Since they don't listen to people they feel are beneath them I was forced to call the nursing supervisor to tell them what I already told them. Idiots!

My favorite was the nurses of ICU who put the stopper on their kitchen sink, turned on the hot water, walked away, and allowed water to flow down three floors. I arrived and they were standing outside the kitchen. I walked in the kitchen and turned off the water. I asked them why didn't they go inside and turn off the water. They didn't want their feet to get wet. THREE FLOORS OF WATER BECAUSE THESE LAZY, SPOILED ROTTEN, LITTLE WITCHES WITH A B DIDN'T WANT THEIR FEET TO GET WET!!!

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

I'm sorry you have had some bad (and rather humorous) experiences with nursing staff. Unfortunately we rarely have the time to properly thank you guys for taking care of stuff for us. We're so loaded down with sicker and sicker patients, as well as mini-housekeeping, secretarial, and nurses aide duties in addition to our own, we get a little short tempered when it comes to things getting done. Coming here and venting about nurses is going to get you flamed, which I hope most people will avoid.

So thanks for the job you guys do. Just like nurses, the hospital wouldn't run without you. We all need to vent sometimes.

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

Sailor Dave---really good points. I was actually reading and agreeing with you, but when you start throwing the words around like "SPOILED ROTTEN, LITTLE WITCHES" and comments like " I went off on her" it takes away from I am sure the true intent of your post.

If you would clean it up a bit I think more people would take what you have to say seriously. But if you keep that attitude they will think "Oh that crabby maintenance guy---he can never fix anything right!"

I agree with SteveRN21 that the hospital could not run with out you and that your probably venting with due cause. We as a staff I am sure do take your hard work for granted. You have very valid points, I know I would be more receptive if they were spoken in a more factual manner.

[sailordave]

I'm having a bad day with toilets. One was clogged up with soft-n-fresh wipes and the other with urine sample cups. We do get our funny moments and I do come across some nurses who have common sense. One actually wanted me to show her how I corrected a problem with the bed. It was as simple as pressing the lockout button again to cancel lockingout the bedside controls. I've tried to explain this to some staff but most don't want to know. I was glad this one did want to know since this was genuinely part of the job. Locking out the bedside controls is vital for certain medical conditions and certain patients so the medical staff should know how to do this. I enjoy fixing things around the hospital. I don't enjoy fixing things that were broken due to user error. Don't know about your hospital but at our hospital I'm the one who gets people out of elevators if they're stuck, I'm the one who gets the emergency generators running when the power goes out, I'm the one monitoring the medical gas system and makes adjustments as necessary, I'm the one running the heating and cooling system, and if there's a fire I'm the one who puts out the fire even if it's a helicopter crash fire. Sadly I'm the only one in this entire hospital who's had formal firefighting training, including helicopter fire. Eight years in the Navy is where I got that training. At night and on weekends there's only one of us here covering all 12 floors and that includes what I listed above and performing over an hour of chemical water test.

[GilaRRT]

On a funny note, this actually happened. Was paged to come to a floor. Nurse said, "Oh, I'm so glad you're here. How do you flush yogurt down the toilet?"

I can't make this up.

Another time I was called about flying bugs at the nurses desk. It was midnight, spring time, and all the windows were open. Told them to close the windows and they said they wanted fresh air and wanted me to get rid of all the bugs. Since they don't listen to people they feel are beneath them I was forced to call the nursing supervisor to tell them what I already told them. Idiots!

My favorite was the nurses of ICU who put the stopper on their kitchen sink, turned on the hot water, walked away, and allowed water to flow down three floors. I arrived and they were standing outside the kitchen. I walked in the kitchen and turned off the water. I asked them why didn't they go inside and turn off the water. They didn't want their feet to get wet. THREE FLOORS OF WATER BECAUSE THESE LAZY, SPOILED ROTTEN, LITTLE WITCHES WITH A B DIDN'T WANT THEIR FEET TO GET WET!!!

Witch with a B eh? I guess that would make us nurses who have slight anatomical differences from our sisters Mitches?

Time for a vacation brother.

[sailordave]

racing-mom4, I see where you're coming from. I'm mostly venting from a bad day. That and having to deal with bad feet. Twisted my right ankle on limestone road and the inside tendon pulled and is swollen and now have a flat foot. Awaiting custom orthotics due next week. That is also causing pain in the left foot since I've been favoring my right foot. For a week I wore a pedometer to work and averaged 2 to 3 miles. To say I'm in pain is an understatement.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

i've had to deal with a nurse cursing me out for a tv not working in an empty room when the only thing wrong was she was too stupid to realize it wasn't plugged in the electrical socket.

this "stupid" nurse might be the very person who saves the life of one of your family members, because you might have been too "stupid" to recognize a change in their condition in a timely manner.

i'm sorry that you have had some mishaps with nurses during your maintenance ventures. please realize, however, that throwing derogatory terms around will serve no purpose other than getting people angered and ticked off.

have a pleasurable evening, and welcome to our online community! :)

[sailordave]

A more constructive point: Some valid reasons to call maintenance for a STAT call include overflowing toilet, leaking pipes (like a sink in a patient room), someone trapped in an elevator, smoke (bed motor, fan motor, etc), falling ceiling, or other things of that nature.

[SaraO'Hara]

I'd give cookies to our maintenance techs if I had any. They keep me out of strange situations with broken beds... like getting down on my knees to turn an unconscious patient because the darn bed won't raise up (and yes, I checked the wall plug and lockout controls).

[sailordave]

thecommuter, I had the exact same problem on a different floor but with different enviroment. In the other situation the nurse did not curse me out and call me names like the one above did. The problem was the same though, the TV was not plugged in. I politely showed her it was not plugged in and she thanked me for not laughing at her mistake. I replied that we all have brain hiccups once in a while. She was polite and smart enough to acknowledge her mistake and possibly learn from it. The one above was not so gracious, not to me nor the rest of the staff which is probably why she's no longer working here anylonger.

[sailordave]

I don't mind checking on beds. Most of the time it's a simple fix. But if it isn't then the patient has to be moved onto another bed so this bed can be repaired. I know it's a pain to move a patient from one bed to another but it's not as much of a pain as trying to work on a bed while the patient is still on it. On our beds, what we have to work on can only be properly accessed by removing the mattress and moving cover plates.