Nurses receiving poor care....

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What do you say when youre the patient and your nurse is screwing up? Ive had this dilemma a few times, I often do not reveal myself as a nurse to the staff, even when I notice they are doing something incorrectly UNLESS its with my children OR could REALLY harm me. What do you do in this situation?:nurse:

Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

I absolutely tell people I'm a nurse if I'm in hospital or a relative. From my experience when it is known that a patient is a nurse then things tend to get done the right way. I'll use any advantage I can get!

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Specializes in Med surg, LTC, Administration.
But that's just so wrong! I truly detest the reality that those of us in the health care profession receive "better" (and sometimes this only means "adequate") care just because we know which buttons to push and whom to call.

What if your mom didn't have you? This is the part of American health care that I really, really don't like. And sometimes, to my chagrin, nurses are at the root of the problem, as your story illustrates.

It is wrong and most "moms" don't have daughters that are nurses. But I still would have taken it upon myself to call as she did. I would have gone one step further and reported the a**! hole nurse. Absolutely, you act like that and I will make some noise. It is sad to think, people go through this everyday, because of a self serving, arrogant healthcare worker. It is a shame.

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Gee, I wish I would have had a nurse relative to speak up for me to get my pain meds that time. I was so out of it, I never even thought of, or located, the call light to use if it had occurred to me. Goes to show the patient can be at the short end of the stick should they be unlucky enough to get one of those nurses who doesn't like to do their job.

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I had a real bad scare with my 2nd daughter when she was born she woke up gagging and turning a lovely shade of blue. I was still in pre-health at the time and not a nursing student andi watched as my call bell light was turned off from nurses station and no one showed up. I walked down to the nurses station fresh from a c-section and made them do something. The 2nd incident that day was it was 2nd night of breastfeeding and I had one very upset baby. She screamed non stop for hours! I was in a room beside the nurses station now ( they wanted me closer) and the patient across the hall had really bad dementia and kept ringing to ask the nurses to help the poor baby. Around 3am I heard one of tjhe nurses say "I wish she would just shut that baby up!"

In the morning I filed an official comnplaint with the hospital and they had the nurses give me written and verbal apologies

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Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

I make it perfectly clear who I am and that I expect a standard of care that is given to all. I won't tolerate an RN who acts like they know what they're doing when it's all too painfully clear they don't.

I'm not there to make friends but to have whatever taken care of. I've had to stop nurses multiple times with trying to give me the wrong medication when I was in the hospital and my kids errrrrrrrrr...don't mess with my kids unless you know what you're doing.

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*couldnt edit part of my post was missing*

After the ordeal at the hospital I feel that when I go into a hospital I make it known that while I am not a nurse YET I am a student nurse and people are dealing with my children I want to know what your doing, why your doing it and if you have to do a certain procedure on my child I expect they listen to the advice I offer beacuse I do know my child best.

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I always am known as a nurse when I check in, (for Gosh sakes, I WORK there)!

And yeah, it makes a difference.

I WANT people to be on thier toes.

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"Mom is a nurse and she stays the night," was probably the first part of the shift report.

Many moons ago, I walked into my then 6 yo's room; she screamed at a nurse using only a kelly clamp during a dressing change of an open wound, "Get those scissors outta there!" I calmly suggested sterile gloves, too.

There were a few misadventures during the kiddo's 6 day stay and it didn't seem to matter that I was a nurse. Very scary.

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I am not afraid to let people know I am a nurse. There have been way too many times when I had to step up to get things done for my family or myself. It is very scary sometimes.

About 10 years ago my mom was in the hospital for sepsis - very bad UTI. At 10 AM the doc was in the room, and changed her IV meds. I arrived at 4 pm, and the med HAD NOT YET INFUSED. Seems her IV was clotted off. No one noticed this? After talking to her nurse, and the charge nurse, I called for the supervisor. This delayed her discharge for another day, because they wanted to get 3-4 doses in her before they let her go.

My husband had a very bad allergic reaction to an IV antibiotic. Turned red and had hives on entire trunk, BP crashed to 80/36. No kidding. I made the nurse stop the infusion and call the doc. She came back a few minutes later to tell me that the doc was too busy to see my husband 'for a rash'.

My MIL was admitted for a psych eval - turned out she was well into Pick's Dementia. During the family conference, we were told she was no longer competent to make her own decisions. She was discharged WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE to a nursing home. The nurse told me that she happily signed the discharge papers.....

I repeatedly asked for pain meds on one recent admission - took over 3 hours to actually get them.

I hope I did better for my patients when I was actively working.....

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Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.

I meant to say you can get pain in the INTERCOSTAL SPACE (b/ween the ribs), and the pec muscles can get sore from leaning over/lying in bed all day.

And for the doubters, ask any physio. My own physio treated me for this not too long ago. Could also be from intercostal space infection or inflammation.

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I suppose the easiest solution would be to change the old addage "treat every patient like you would want your family treated" instead to "Treat every patient like they are nurses who are married to lawyers, have children who sit on various boards within the facility, and have the family pit bull sleeping under the bed" :lol2:

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What's there to hide? Go ahead and be the patient like you're supposed to be and let the nursing professional do her job. if there is something being done incorrectly, speak up in a non-confrontational way about. And if every thing is being done right, then please relax and accept the treatment.

That does not mean, laying back, tense and watching the nurse's every move with a hawk-eye like you want her to make a mistake.

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