Nurses not responding fast enough-VENT

[pirap]

This is truly a VENT. A VENT about my own family-specifically my AUNT.

It all started last week when my aunt said she would have to spend the night with my grandma(her mom) because the nurses would probably not be there enough to help grandma after surgery. Went on to remind everyone how my grandpa suffered during his death 30+years ago with cancer and that the nurses wouldn't give him anything for pain. OK how they treated cancer patients in that era IS so different now-told her that. Also said nurses don't prescribe medicine they administer it so it's not up to us. She still kept flapping her mouth. I just ignored her and went on-no use in arguing with someone who already has her mind set up anyway.

Grandma had back surgery yesterday..23 observation pt. Did great. My mom stayed the entire day and I worked until 7pm so I went to see her and stayed for about 30 minutes after work and made sure she had what she needed. No one stayed with her--grandma said she would be fine and she was. My aunt called a few minutes ago said grandma was home, did fine BUT IT WAS A GOOD THING SHE GOT THERE WHEN SHE DID--GRANDMA HAD RANG THE NURSE TWICE FOR ASSISTANCE TO THE BATHROOM. I said maybe the nurse was helping someone else to the bathroom? Or giving a pain med, etc. She was like "told you nurses don't come fast enough." I am so mad I can hardly stand it.

Do patients and families really think we are just sitting around watching TV??:angryfire

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

I just love it (NOT!) when my hands are full an a family member picks up cups, diry linen, whatever, and shoves it at me. How do they think I will carry it? On my head? Some people think we're not doing enuf even when they can SEE us working like crazy. I was also taught never to say I'm "busy", but I do let pt's and family know how many other pt's I have. They deserve to know the truth. If the truth bothers the mangement, too bad.

Don't mourn (or whine), organize. Joe Hill, 1915

i love the family members who stay in the room and put the call light on when grannie needs to go potty. they watch you struggle to sit her on the side of the bed and then break your back while walking her to the bathroom, dont offer to help you but complain that im being too rough with nannie getting her out of bed. hello! maybe if you got up and helped me i would be able to do a better job! and if you dont think i am doing a good job, please do it yourself!!

and my all time favorite is the family members who pick up the water pitcher and stand outside trauma 1 during a code while im on top of a patient doing CPR and ask why i didnt bring grandpa his drink. hes dying of thirst you know. my sincerest apologies. this patient is already dead.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I believe most patients are aware at some level of the nursing shortage. Even if they aren't, it's not their problem. They are there for nursing care, and it's up to the hospital to provide it. The patient is understandably and justifiably self-centered (and no, I'm not talking about those who scream for coffee during a code). Burdening the patients, who already have enough issues to deal with, isn't the answer. In my experience, it is also counter-productive for the nurse, as a patient who feels insecure and unsafe is going to be far more difficult to care for than someone who believes (whether it's reality or not) that there are calm, competent staff in adequate numbers to care for them. At their baseline, most tend to be suspicious and watchful of everything we do (no thanks to the media reporting tens of thousands of errors and deaths in hospitals); I'm certainly not going to compound that by telling them, "Oh by the way, we are understaffed."

Bingo. I don't want to undermine the patient's confidence in the care they are getting. Telling them how busy we are and how understaffed we are is counterproductive, IMO. I will, however, be honest about how many patients I have assigned to me if asked. And, if a patient asks if I've been busy, I will answer honestly. Not in great detail, of course, but a simple "Yes" is okay, I think.

I agree that if patients/families see you sitting in front of a computer, they think you're not busy. They don't realize that this may be the first chance in four hours that I have had to do my documentation.

I try not to let it get to me, because until you've been a nurse, it can be hard to understand things from our point of view.

[EmmaG, RN]

I disagree. One has to be honest with ppl these days. Nurses should not be subject to abuse, simply because they are nurses. You say never to tell a patient that you were busy, but yet you do tell them that you were with another. Is that not the same thing?

I will tell them if I was with another patient to explain why they have had to wait or if I'm helping another nurse I'll tell them she is tied up with another patient and ask if there is anything I can do for them until she returns. What I meant by my post is I don't tell them we're short-staffed or running ourselves crazy. That kind of busy. If they ask if I'm really busy, I'll say 'busy enough to make the night go by faster' or something along those lines. Like I said, I don't want to raise their anxiety levels any further by causing them to worry that we'll be too busy to attend to them or that we'll make an error in their meds or whatever. I'm certainly not talking about accepting abuse. That's a whole 'nother issue...

Am I making any sense here LOL. Gah I'm exhausted...

[GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN]

I don't try to sugarcoat or excuse delays to pt's but to be realistic so they understand ie,"sorry for the delay, I was______fill in the blank, " in the middle of a sterile procedure,attending to an emergency,etc .pt's get the hint,' oh maybe my ice chips aren't top priority....If response to medical intervention is delayed out of my control, I explain and keep them updated.. ie, I've called the resident and he hasn't returned my call, he/she's in an emergency... i'm waiting for the pharmacist to xyz, I'll give them a few minutes, or it should take _____ long, " sometimes it's faster to go to walgreen's down the street"..your CT scan is on hold/rescheduled, lifestar brought in a trauma etc. I find if you inform people and keep them updated and realistic most will understand,and appreciate the info , understand your'e trying to work on things,can only do one thing at a time,and realize the nurse isn't accountable for everything ,(and things don't happen with the snap of a finger ) I don't tell people were short staffed per say, but I think being honest works,I do tell them how many pts I have if they ask

[sphinx, BSN, RN]

Well I've been on the "other side" plenty of times, but never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time, and when I or my loved one had put on a light at least someone would pop their head in to make sure we were not in serious trouble...or answered over the intercom if available. Except once......I was in the ED and the IV in my antecube started causing me great pain. I put on my light to tell the nurse and ask to have her change it. Believe me, I hate IV sticks, so for me to want to be stuck again, you know I am hurting, lol! Now what got me is that I literally waited ONE WHOLE HOUR with my light blinking and not one person checked to make sure I was ok, either over the intercom or by peeping their head in. It didn't have to be my nurse, it could have been a tech, or another nurse...all they had to do is make sure I wasn't having something like, oh...crushing chest pain or something.....

I was unable to get up and find someone either...I was there for excrutiating hip pain and could not walk without assistance. After an hour I was crying out of sheer frustration! The husband of the woman on the other side of the curtain heard me and went out to get someone. My nurse came in and said that she was busy and I should understand because I am a nurse too! I told her I understand being busy but where I work we don't leave call lights on for an hour without making sure our patients are at least ok! To make matters worse, when the IV nurse came, she first refused to move my IV saying the one I had still worked. I told her I didn't care, that it HURT. I was quite upset by this time, crying, etc. I asked for my regular nurse to come in, and when she did she told the IV nurse to go ahead and change it because I was causing trouble and being a pain! They must have told my doctor that too, because when he got there, he came in and told me he heard I was giving the staff a hard time! Huh?!

But I have to say, any experience I have had as a patient or a family member of a patient has helped me become a better nurse. My ex-husband was very ill when I was in nursing school, and those experiences shaped me and made me the caring nurse I am today. If I am busy I am honest to my patients, but I don't leave them twisting in the wind, not even making sure they are ok.

[miss arron]

Well I've been on the "other side" plenty of times, but never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time, and when I or my loved one had put on a light at least someone would pop their head in to make sure we were not in serious trouble...or answered over the intercom if available. Except once......I was in the ED and the IV in my antecube started causing me great pain. I put on my light to tell the nurse and ask to have her change it. Believe me, I hate IV sticks, so for me to want to be stuck again, you know I am hurting, lol! Now what got me is that I literally waited ONE WHOLE HOUR with my light blinking and not one person checked to make sure I was ok, either over the intercom or by peeping their head in. It didn't have to be my nurse, it could have been a tech, or another nurse...all they had to do is make sure I wasn't having something like, oh...crushing chest pain or something.....

I was unable to get up and find someone either...I was there for excrutiating hip pain and could not walk without assistance. After an hour I was crying out of sheer frustration! The husband of the woman on the other side of the curtain heard me and went out to get someone. My nurse came in and said that she was busy and I should understand because I am a nurse too! I told her I understand being busy but where I work we don't leave call lights on for an hour without making sure our patients are at least ok! To make matters worse, when the IV nurse came, she first refused to move my IV saying the one I had still worked. I told her I didn't care, that it HURT. I was quite upset by this time, crying, etc. I asked for my regular nurse to come in, and when she did she told the IV nurse to go ahead and change it because I was causing trouble and being a pain! They must have told my doctor that too, because when he got there, he came in and told me he heard I was giving the staff a hard time! Huh?!

But I have to say, any experience I have had as a patient or a family member of a patient has helped me become a better nurse. My ex-husband was very ill when I was in nursing school, and those experiences shaped me and made me the caring nurse I am today. If I am busy I am honest to my patients, but I don't leave them twisting in the wind, not even making sure they are ok.

my bf had a similar problem with an IV this spring... it had been in for 5 days and had definitely infiltrated (unfortunately i wasn't in nursing school then and didn't recognize it)... anywho, our first day of pharmacology, my instructor was telling a story about when she had been asking for her IV to be changed and no one would listen to her...

she just pulled it out and they had no choice

totally off topic, but a very good lesson, imo. i personally will never suffer from a painful iv from that day forward.

[ebear, BSN, RN]

sphnix,

I am so sorry that you were treated (or not treated) in this manner! It sure does make a difference when you're the one on that stretcher (bed) doesn't it??! You are exactly right! It does make for a more compassionate/caring healthcare provider. I know that people HATE having nurses/docs as patients and IT IS DIFFICULT to care for our own. It's because we know the difference that we are often considered a PIA. If I am a patient, I will try to be as understanding and wait for as long as possible; however, there is an end to my tolerance--and there should be...

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

Sometimes words fail me when I'm going as fast as I can to solve as many of my patients' problems as possible, and then some patient or family member accuses me of being too slow.

This happened to me with no less than 4 families one day last week when my tech was stolen for a 2 hour meeting. Even if I'd had a tech, it would've been complete chaos. As much experience as I've had and as many years as I've been dealing with this kind of problem didn't keep me from wanting to run out of the building and never coming back.

I managed to keep a lid on it and answered all the demands as reasonably and as quickly as possible. Had I blown any of them off or wasted any time answering their lights or checking on them frequently, it would've been truly disastrous. One patient developed a sudden GIB and had to go to the Unit.

But at the start of that awful shift, it really took a Herculean effort to contain my anger when the only person who volunteered to help my new patient was "asked" by a family member for a pitcher of water by holding the empty pitcher up and shaking it impatiently like my helper (a retired nurse volunteer who was pushing 80 and an amazing person) was a cheap waitress in a greasy spoon.

I know they're tired, stressed, frightened, but you know what? So am I. The least we could do is be civil.

[EmmaG, RN]

My nurse came in and said that she was busy and I should understand because I am a nurse too! I told her I understand being busy but where I work we don't leave call lights on for an hour without making sure our patients are at least ok! To make matters worse, when the IV nurse came, she first refused to move my IV saying the one I had still worked. I told her I didn't care, that it HURT. I was quite upset by this time, crying, etc. I asked for my regular nurse to come in, and when she did she told the IV nurse to go ahead and change it because I was causing trouble and being a pain! They must have told my doctor that too, because when he got there, he came in and told me he heard I was giving the staff a hard time! Huh?!

At that point I would have realized they were clearly confused as to what 'giving [someone] a hard time' really means and proceeded to demonstrate the concept for them.

I certainly hope you reported this...

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

If someone complains about their IV being painful my first solution is an offer to change it- even if it works. Every time someone takes me up on the offer there is something wrong with the site that I didn't see initially. I'm with EG, I hope you reported them.

[rnmomtobe2010]

My son was in the hospital not long ago and there was 2 nurses on the peds floor at the time. My ex-mother-in-law(son's grandmother) came to visit and my son needed more fluids and was still vomiting Well,she(ex-mother-in-law),after we rang for the nurse and after 15 min. with no responce, started to get loud and talking about what she was going to do to the ladies. That floor was full of sick kids, including my own and she was acting plain ignorant. I told that fool that I am the mother and if I am not having a problem with the wait, then it was none of her business to say a word and if she would not shut her you know what, I was going to slap the you know what out of her and have her excused and not to return while my son was in the hospital. She got mad and left and that was the best thing that she has ever done in all the years I have known her. I get mad everytime I think about it.

[ebear, BSN, RN]

I went to Chik-Fil-A yesterday. When I received my order, the person said "It's been my pleasure serving you". I immediately thought of KeyMaster's post! Especially since he looked so "Pleasured". This sort of scripting is just ridiculous for nurses. WHY can't these admin. sorts SEE THAT????? We are not selling sandwiches here! We are caring for the sick and injured and they really don't care if it's our "pleasure" or not!

ebear