I'm sorry, but I didn't realize I signed up to please the customer. While the nurses go around reminding the patients this is a hospital, not a hotel, we get notices that we SHOULD make these people feel like they're in a hotel. Or "even if you know they're wrong, you should apologize and let them know that they're right" THIS IS AN ACTUAL MEMO THAT APPEARED IN MY MAILBOX.
... oh but it gets worse.
I got tapped on the shoulder by the "hospital customer service rep" telling me this patient (customer) really really wants a milkshake and would really make her day if she could have a milkshake. And I tell this rep this patient just had a bowel resection yesterday and not only can she NOT have a milkshake, but she probably can't even have water, even ice, for the next couple days. I spend all day listening to this patient whine and complain, and now the hospital has provided her a rep to follow me out in the hallway to whine and complain. And neither of them can admit that although a milkshake would make the patient really happy for about 15 mins, going back to surgery and prolonging the recovery would not. I know there's a lot of things in the medical field that seem downright cruel. But if we go by "the customer is always right" keep the patient/customer happy, there will be consequences.
Should customer service be #1 priority? Or am I just being delusional believing that patient safety is more important than patient satisfaction?
I see what you're saying, but a huge part of the problem is the whole "one voice" part. As you can see, evidenced by this thread, there is a huge chasm among nurses as a profession. We have an entire camp that states that those here chafing at a "customer service" role for nurses are "bitter" and "should find a new profession". Well, I take exception. I can only speak for myself, but I am a kind, caring, and professional nurse. I do my best to treat each of my patients with the respect and dignity they deserve. I'd bet you could say the same of almost every other nurse here who has a problem with this. My role being what it is, sometimes will lead to people not liking what I am asking of them, or the things that I have to do. The very nature of good customer service, is that the customer is always right. Well, in healthcare, that is an impossibility. So to try and meld them is ludicrous. So until we can try to find a common ground about these types of issues, our voice will continue to be weak. In addition to that, not a single policymaker in my hospital (read-nurse management) has been at the bedside in more that 10-20 years. They are out of touch, and don't speak for me. There are a couple that sympathize, but their job is to look after the bottom line,so they won't do anything for fear of losing their own jobs-much easier to go with the flow, and let the bean counters make the decisions. I imagine it's the same way in Washington. So I don't feel too hopeful.
As someone who's been there, I'd like you to know that there is hope! Keep finding that common ground and use it. Customers of health care usually don't know what's right for them, which is why they can't always be right. We have to discover what they know, correct misconceptions as best we can or redirect them to authorities on the subject without sticking our necks out too far. Once they know what to do that's right for them, they're on their own health care team, and can be its most valuable member. They can even tell their families that they're in good hands, which will be such a relief for them, that they'll stop the negative interference.
Our new administration in DC has strength and the desire to do things better than ever before. Have you ever seen a President do so many things after he was elected, before the inauguration? Then after that, he took his "to do" list, and is more than half way down it, getting bills passed that help all Americans in ways that have immense creativity, and show concern for us all. Despite nay sayers who are watching, waiting, expecting a pratfall, he has set his sights on success. His leadership is a model for us, and his concern is that he may not hear our voices.
So sit down at your computers, write all your representatives about what things mean a lot to you, and what you'd like to see accomplished, concisely - no griping, pointing fingers, etc. Just clear adult to adult communication about getting the job done, the best way possible. Then cc it to Barack Obama.com You may not get a reply, but your message will be seen, and when many others voicing the same concerns write, too the issue's credibility will be proven and then acted upon.
For example, I've written about hospital admissions that shouldn't have happened, because I hate to see our healthcare dollars wasted, and people exposed to infectious organisms that occur mostly in hospitals and LTC facilities. One case in point, was a middle aged man, the father of one of our members, who broke his ankle. No surgery was needed, but his doctor wanted him admitted for PT.....huh? The man developed a MRSA caused pneumonia and died! His daughter, a nurse, contacted her representative and he wrote a bill, putting MRSA prevention measures into law. She also started a thread about it here, and got others involved. That's how it should work, being part of the solution, not the problem!
Join a "Support Obama" group, by going to the Democratic party's website for your community, and then "grassroots groups" (or something like that). You don't have to be a democrat to do that, or even have voted for the man; and believe that he's in because HE CAN and WE CAN! Things are getting done at this very moment for you......
I am still relatively new to nursing, so I do not find this customer oriented nursing and scripting we do as something new and noxious as I am still really learning. In a lot of ways it is easier for me because I dont know the older ways that I hear about but have not seen. So customer service is just fine with me.
I also voted for Obama, primarily because because I was raised with Democrat beliefs by my parents. That and that old guy McCain, some of the things he espoused scared me. I mean really scared me to what he was hinting at. I am politically very left and very active on a wide spectrum of beliefs and activities. I take after my mother. She was also very loud and outspoken.
my facility was bought out by a big LTC company. prior to that we had been owned by a christ based hospital system. so we've gone from being patient oriented "whatever it takes for the patient" attitude to "all that matters is the bottom line" attitude.
it's took me over a year to come to a realization.
this new company has this slogan called "the better way" and has modeled it's customer service policy on The Ritz or some hotel.
what i've finally realized is that the company doesnt give a crap about what happens back there on the floor. all they care about is that i do "whatever it takes" to make the "customer" happy and keep them from complaining to the administration. they don't care if I have to make myself look like a fool and tell a patient or family member that anything they want is ok or anything they say or do towards te staff is ok as long as the patient doesnt leave the facility AMA and the money keeps rolling in.
as a supervisor, i thought my job was to ensure care to all our patients. in reality, my job is to make sure that all those complaining family memebers with their ridiculous demands are kept happy so they don't complain.
as long as i do that, i'm told "great job!"
it makes me sick to think about even going to work, and this was a job i loved and thought i'd stay there till i retired.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
until we all realize that the politics of nursing is important then nothing is going to change. the docs, the hospitals, the insurance companies have each had a powerful lobby in dc and the state capitols for years speaking for them and getting the public to see things their way. we nurses on the other hand have been at the bedside providing care, working our tails off, and then complaining about how no one gets it. if we don't all speak with one voice through our professional organizations no one ever will get it. only very recently have nurses gotten "a place at the table."
ajn is just one professional journal, one of several that i personally subscribe to from one of several professional organizations general and specific that i belong to. every one of us has the professional responsibility to stand up and be heard through our professional organizations to make things better for our patients and for all of us too!
if we're all going to "speak with one voice," i think bedside nurses should have that voice, not nursing executives or nursing managers who haven't been near the bedside in years and don't have a good idea what it's like now.
Specializes in Med/surg, pediatrics, gi, gu,stepdown un.
I think that if nurses are happy then our patients will be happy. If management could ever figure this out and stop running nurses away from the bedside everyone would be happy "customers"
I for one, can't stand it. I had no idea it was this bad, or I would have turned around and RUN out of my nursing school classes. Our manager could care LESS about how these patients are doing clinically - only that we are charting correctly, fillout the the boards correctly, and achieving the proper customer satisfaction ratings. That's it. Doesn't seem like she/they care if or what I learn either -- just get those great ratings and that's it. There is nothing that's tied to except for money. It's all about beating the competition and I suppose, keeping the paying customers. We have no shortage of unpaying ones, so when the paying ones come through, it's all about pleasing them. I just think it sucks - compared to what I saw as a patient long ago and in hospitals when I had my children -- was never babied or waited on. I got the care I needed to get well and that was IT. You just didn't expect to be "babied" and your family members were there to wait on you. I can't stand it --
Specializes in Med/surg, pediatrics, gi, gu,stepdown un.
I agree, it seems as though the management wants us to act like our hospital is a luxury hotel, where we want on people hand and foot. They do not care if are patients get well. It has become such a business instead of a healing place.
Think of all the extra nurses we could hire at the BEDSIDE to do patient care if we didn't throw billions of dollars into USELESS nursing research, and cut the nurse executives in HALF, and stopped generating advertisement journals with a splash of real information, and had "paperwork reduction act" in healthcare like we did in taxes. I am all for valuable research, but how many billions of dollars do we have to spend to define the concept of "nurse"!!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaarrrrrrrggggggg. Thank you for letting me post. And if we get into politically biased conversations where everyone ASSumes that all nurses are or ought to be democrats, I am resigning my membership LOL
and one more thing......... It would be amazing if management, administration, and the "nursing is love" philosophers would support nurses and listen to their pain and believe that "nurses pain is what they say it is" as much as they listen to and support abusive patients. Nurses need to listen to other nurses, without judgement as well. I might come on to this site "sounding" like a burn out..... but that is here. I am, like most venters i'm sure, a caring and compassionate nurse at the bedside, yes, even to the patients that abuse me. Wish nurses would stop judging and abusing each other. ok. I think I'm done venting for the evening :)
lamazeteacher
2,170 Posts
As someone who's been there, I'd like you to know that there is hope! Keep finding that common ground and use it. Customers of health care usually don't know what's right for them, which is why they can't always be right. We have to discover what they know, correct misconceptions as best we can or redirect them to authorities on the subject without sticking our necks out too far. Once they know what to do that's right for them, they're on their own health care team, and can be its most valuable member. They can even tell their families that they're in good hands, which will be such a relief for them, that they'll stop the negative interference.
Our new administration in DC has strength and the desire to do things better than ever before. Have you ever seen a President do so many things after he was elected, before the inauguration? Then after that, he took his "to do" list, and is more than half way down it, getting bills passed that help all Americans in ways that have immense creativity, and show concern for us all. Despite nay sayers who are watching, waiting, expecting a pratfall, he has set his sights on success. His leadership is a model for us, and his concern is that he may not hear our voices.
So sit down at your computers, write all your representatives about what things mean a lot to you, and what you'd like to see accomplished, concisely - no griping, pointing fingers, etc. Just clear adult to adult communication about getting the job done, the best way possible. Then cc it to Barack Obama.com You may not get a reply, but your message will be seen, and when many others voicing the same concerns write, too the issue's credibility will be proven and then acted upon.
For example, I've written about hospital admissions that shouldn't have happened, because I hate to see our healthcare dollars wasted, and people exposed to infectious organisms that occur mostly in hospitals and LTC facilities. One case in point, was a middle aged man, the father of one of our members, who broke his ankle. No surgery was needed, but his doctor wanted him admitted for PT.....huh? The man developed a MRSA caused pneumonia and died! His daughter, a nurse, contacted her representative and he wrote a bill, putting MRSA prevention measures into law. She also started a thread about it here, and got others involved. That's how it should work, being part of the solution, not the problem!
Join a "Support Obama" group, by going to the Democratic party's website for your community, and then "grassroots groups" (or something like that). You don't have to be a democrat to do that, or even have voted for the man; and believe that he's in because HE CAN and WE CAN! Things are getting done at this very moment for you......