Patient Attitudes

[Davey Do]

My medical nurse wife Belinda works in IMU and does, as I'm sure many nurses on here do, an amazing job in a high stress situation. I never tire of hearing her stories when she comes home from a shift, and I ask her how her night went.

Sometimes Belinda describes the attitude of the patients, their diagnosis, what she did in rendering care, and questions her actions. My typical response is, "You gave them great care because you are a great nurse!"

I'm not sure Belinda would share situations, or her trials & tribulations, if I didn't pry. Belinda has a tendency to be rather stoic in her nature.

Stoic: To endure hardship and pain without complaining.

Patients, and people in general, seem to be less stoic than in years past. For example, when I recently asked Belinda how her shift went, she responded, "I had to take care of a bunch of whiney old people who couldn't be satisfied".

She went on to tell me that one patient became upset because Belinda could get them only a turkey sandwich and not what they really wanted: a pizza.

I made comment that older people nowadays are less stoic than they were. My first nursing job straight out of the LPN program of 1983 was in a Mom & Pop nursing home, and I cannot recall in three months of working there, one complainer.

Quite the opposite, for I specifically remember residents who were on their last leg and had relatively good attitudes.
 

I say again: Patients and people in general seem to be less stoic than in years past.

What say you?

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I'm not sure whether it's less stoicism or just the general consumer attitude that the customer is always right, and should be served right now, that seems to pervade all areas of the world these days. People know that we in health care are judged on our Press Ganey surveys and the like. Saved you from a nearly fatal bout of sepsis? Meh. But you didn't like the soup?! Heads will roll! 

I do know that I get the random patient, usually an elderly one, that apologizes for bothering me to ask me to do my job. They're usually very sweet and unassuming and would be the first to fall because they didn't want to bother anyone to ask for help to go to the bathroom. Rarely does anyone under the age of 50 even consider that I have more to do than cater to their requests constantly. 

We had one night where there were two codes in the unit relatively close together. We also had a young man who was there for an overdose and was awaiting transfer to a floor. In the midst of the second code he starts banging his call bell against the bed because no one answered it right away. One of the techs went in and explained it was pretty busy. His response was "yeah, I heard the announcements. I want a snack". Fortunately, he was in a roll belt so all he could do was yell until we finished actually saving someone's life. 

[Davey Do]

10 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

I'm not sure whether it's less stoicism or just the general consumer attitude that the customer is always right, and should be served right now, that seems to pervade all areas of the world these days.

I truly appreciate your perspective, JBMmom, and believe it holds some validity.

Abraham Lincoln said something along the lines of, "Nearly anyone can stand adversity. If you truly want to test an individual's character, give them power".

In giving power to these individuals, as in "the customer is always right", we simultaneously allow them to openly exhibit their true character.

21 minutes ago, JBMmom said:

 Rarely does anyone under the age of 50 even consider that I have more to do than cater to their requests constantly. 

Some become more understanding and tolerant as they age, while others are brats from the cradle to the grave. I sense that a combination of things has caused people to behave as the "entitled ones".

One school of thought says that deprivation raises the consciousness. Hence, if we are not deprived, our perception leans more toward being more parochial and self-centered. 

Medical professionals were more revered in days past. I could relay voluminous information on past perceptions qualifying that premise.

So- couple entitled individuals receiving services from fallen-in-stature medical professionals and we get the "me first" population's attitude shown to us as belittled servants.