Hello everyone!!! I hope this New Year has been a kind one to you all thus far.
Well, here i go again on one of my rants about the ever so intriguing world of nursing. Here's my pet peeve of the day:
Is is just me, or does it seem to you all that everytime you go into a patient's room to pass meds, do procedures, or simply check on the patient, they always have to ask you to bring them something.
I know for me, it never fails. If I go in there to just look in on my patient they always will stop you before you get out of the door and say, "Oh, nurse, could you get me some coffee," or "May I have something for pain?" or "Turn the lights off, will you". And it drives me crazy.
Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing anything for my patients. But it seems that patients look at nurses as nothing more than handmaids to wait on their every beckon and call. For example, I had this man to ring his call bell just to tell me that he wanted to sit up on the side of the bed. I wanted so badly to tell him, "Well, what are you waiting for?". This is because I know that this man is very capable of moving himself because I've seen him do it when he has a male nurse caring for him. But whenever a female steps in, the patients all of sudden become invalids.
I feel that too much of my time is taken up running up and down the halls getting water and coffee. I mean, as much as family members like to stay all day in night in these patients rooms, it would seem that they would get up off of their lazy bums and get these patients something every now and then. It wouldn't hurt them to do this. Oh no, they won't do this. But they can tell you and I how to do our jobs, can't they? (LOL!!).
I have gotten to the point that I actually like being pulled to the critical care units in the hospital because we have telemetry there and you don't have to go into the rooms quite as much as you do on the medical floor because the telemetry is evident.
Do you all feel the same way? Do you all feel that patients are too darn demanding and don't respect us as care providers but see us as handmaids instead? Male nurses, do you feel that patients tend to not bother you as much as your female colleagues? I welcome all input.
It drives me CRAZY when you start doing your morning assessments and almost every pt wants coffee. Well, coffee is downstairs in the cafeteria at that hour. I used to go get coffee, but now I politely state, "If I have some extra time before the coffee on your tray arrives, I will be happy to get it." Generally, that is the craziest time of day and I normally don't have extra time.
I don't mind if a patient comes to the desk to ask me for something.....I figure if they came all the way up there, to ask for a pain pill or whatever, it just saved me steps from going down the hall to answer the call light, go back to the med room to get the med and take it back.
Seems some nurses don't want patients asking for things all at once in the room, and some do, and some don't want them ringing the call light and some do prefer the call light method and some don't want them coming to the desk.
Just how are the patients supposed to know exactly what method their particular nurse would like them to use that day, to get what they need?
I also would rather the families/patients ask ME to get their ice, instead of going into the ice room to get it themselves.
I've seen too much, about how other people get ice. I've seen patients/families take their own personal cups in there and just scoop ice with it. No thank you...............I prefer to keep my ice room locked and if they want ice, ask me and I'll get it for them.
You also don't know where their hands have been.
I realize some patients go overboard and are too demanding, but sure seems that some nurses are hard to please, too.
Hello everyone!!! I hope this New Year has been a kind one to you all thus far.
Well, here i go again on one of my rants about the ever so intriguing world of nursing. Here's my pet peeve of the day:
Is is just me, or does it seem to you all that everytime you go into a patient's room to pass meds, do procedures, or simply check on the patient, they always have to ask you to bring them something.
I know for me, it never fails. If I go in there to just look in on my patient they always will stop you before you get out of the door and say, "Oh, nurse, could you get me some coffee," or "May I have something for pain?" or "Turn the lights off, will you". And it drives me crazy.
Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing anything for my patients. But it seems that patients look at nurses as nothing more than handmaids to wait on their every beckon and call. For example, I had this man to ring his call bell just to tell me that he wanted to sit up on the side of the bed. I wanted so badly to tell him, "Well, what are you waiting for?". This is because I know that this man is very capable of moving himself because I've seen him do it when he has a male nurse caring for him. But whenever a female steps in, the patients all of sudden become invalids.
I feel that too much of my time is taken up running up and down the halls getting water and coffee. I mean, as much as family members like to stay all day in night in these patients rooms, it would seem that they would get up off of their lazy bums and get these patients something every now and then. It wouldn't hurt them to do this. Oh no, they won't do this. But they can tell you and I how to do our jobs, can't they? (LOL!!).
I have gotten to the point that I actually like being pulled to the critical care units in the hospital because we have telemetry there and you don't have to go into the rooms quite as much as you do on the medical floor because the telemetry is evident.
Do you all feel the same way? Do you all feel that patients are too darn demanding and don't respect us as care providers but see us as handmaids instead? Male nurses, do you feel that patients tend to not bother you as much as your female colleagues? I welcome all input.
Peace and love, y'all!!!!
Has anyone ever called you the "maid"? I had to pinch myself before I said something and hi-tale it out of there.
My pet peeve is when a patient tells the CNA he/she wants to see the nurse.
{And this patient is usually the one at the very end of the hall.}
So you ask the CNA, "Did the patient say what they wanted?"
No, they just want to see the nurse.
So you go down there, and they want two tylenol or some other pain med, or
some other request. They could have told the CNA and you could have taken it with you.
No, the worst is when they tell the CNA they need the nurse and they ask you to take them to the bathroom. I work with Neuro Rehab patients and this is usally a very time consuming task.
OliveVinesRN"No, you shouldn't writhe in pain. But, if I have a patient that is two seconds away from coding (going into cardiac or respiratory arrest) you're pain in the last thing on my mind."
supermo "However, as a patient, I am only dealing with the problems and pain of one person and consider myself the top priority."
I am sorry, but the underlying message I am hearing from you is your obvious misunderstanding of what "real" nursing is, and a bit of selfish inhumanity. You have a priority to your sickest patient and if it were you, you wouldn't mind that someone else had to wait for pain medicine. These nurses are venting, it is in no way saying they treat their patients that they are a burden. You have a very unrealistic view of nursing. Post back when you've had this situation on your hands and you let a patient die so you could get another one pain medicine. Make sense to you? Absolutely not!
I have told a very demanding patient before that I had another patient that had a "life threatening situation", because she wouldn't stop yelling at me even after I apologized for taking a while to assist her with her bowel program.
Another patient had s/s MI, desat, the works. I don't feel I violated HIPPA policy. Although, the patient outright said, I DON'T CARE, you should've come when I called. That's the kind of crap I can't stand dealing with!
My pet peeve is when a patient tells the CNA he/she wants to see the nurse.
{And this patient is usually the one at the very end of the hall.}
So you ask the CNA, "Did the patient say what they wanted?"
No, they just want to see the nurse.
So you go down there, and they want two tylenol or some other pain med, or
some other request. They could have told the CNA and you could have taken it with you.
No, the worst is when they tell the CNA they need the nurse and they ask you to take them to the bathroom. I work with Neuro Rehab patients and this is usally a very time consuming task.
Well, maybe that's the worse for you......I just said that MY PET PEEVE was as I stated. Am I allowed to have a pet peeve? JEEEZ.
I work with mentally challenged people, and it is not actually the people that I take care of who call me when they need a nurse. It is the CNA/caregivers that work in the homes. I have to get out in a small golf cart and travel all over campus to go take care of complaints. Most legitimate, some are not. One aide called me all the down to this particular home to check a person's finger.....know what was wrong with it...................a hangnail!!!
A small amt of ointment and a bandaide would have taken care of that.
I had to get out and go take care of that, and my time for setting up medications for about 55 people was interrupted and I was put behind probably 20 minutes. Or I get called out sometimes, the aides demand that we come look at a bruise! Things like this can be addressed during the medication round.
Unless it is a real emergency we shouldn't have to go out.
interesting topic...for me, i think it depends on how sick the patients are and what they are capable of...i encourage indepependance with anything someone could do for themselves, if it's not inconvienient i don't mind, i check on my patients often, i give them all the info they need, i don't wait for people to ask for things, alittle tlc will help someone settle and bother you less, if i have a needy patient (eg anxious or lonely person) sometimes i will chart in the room etc or use alittle butter or sugar (kind words, soft voice, humour, gentle touch), also letting someone know when you do your rounds helps too ("i'll be back in an hour or i will be busy/on a break" or i'll check on your when your pain med is due again at 02:00)
the only time we should be annoyed by getting off our butts is if we are doing paperwork or on a break or after a rush/demanding task..we aren't paid to sit on our "lazy bums"...i found this was true on nites..everyone just wanted to sit around...let the workd end of someone was nauseated or in pain...this is not true of everyone for sure but it's not rare.
one time i helped a patient switch rooms in the middle of the nite because she was is a room with an elderly person who was confused, wandering, talking in her sleep, snoring, pulling her iv out every 15 mintues..etc...this was on a nite shift, my coworkers thought it was unheard of and discouraged me acknowledging my patients request..the lady was in tears...it was like pulling teeth to get help moving the bed etc...the pt was ready to just help me herself and she was fresh post op...
another time i heard an rn whining cuz a quadrapilegic wrang to ask her to scratch his nose....i couldn't believe it...how the #@$$** is supposed to scratch his own nose!!!!!if my nose was itchy and i couldn't scratch it, i'd go crazy!!!
as far as family goes..you never know the circumstances...
anyone remember the type a, type b nurse thingy here? i think it applies..
i am a type b nurse..don't get me wrong some pt are just plain demanding and whiny i also know -type a nurses deserve respect because they get the job done but balance and empathy are very important.
meeting a patients needs is part of our job. As for telling them to get out of bed on their own, what if they fall off the bed, get dizzy and fall. A patient should always have a staff in the room when getting up if possible. this will help prevent any falls and allow you to assess their gait and steadiness.
As for family members helping, that is ok in some instances, but if the patient has been very ill, receiving IV fluids, has a foley, generally weak, the family or friends are not trained on how to manipulate all the lines and equipment when getting someone up.
I once had a patient with a subclavian central line, the mother didnt want to bother the nurse just to get her daughter, after all she had been getting up in a chair without problems with the nursing staff. When the call bell rang she cried out for help, it seems the mother had inadvertantly pulled out her daughters central line, this resulted in an embolism and she subsequently died. I always tell my patients to call for assistance any time they want out of bed, this could possibly save you a lot of grief in the future.
Please remember these people are and have been sick. We did not sign on as nurses just to be able to say "I'm a nurse". It is a very service oriented profession. I have worked med/surg, tele, recovery room, postpartum and ICU, all these patients require the same amount of diligence and care, whether they are ambulatory or on a vent....
Please try to remember why you got into this profession to begin with...
I think it's great that everyone is venting here cuz I can totally relate to nearly everything posted here and I've only been an RN for 7 months! Here is what happened to me last night at work that really annoyed me: I had 4 patients to take care of on my busy tele unit. I was really busy the entire shift even AFTER I delegated what I could to CNAs and other nurses. My pts. just simply required a lot of meds, treatments, dressing changes, etc. Anyhow, 3 out of the 4 were very reasonable pts and not overly demanding in the least. The 4th one was a 23 year old male who was verbally abusive to the day staff (one doc was about to sue him for threatening her) and he required security (on the day shift)to come in and calm him down, etc. Anyways, he was very polite to me (I work evenings)and never threatened me (thank the lord). But my problem was this: he was now allowed to go outside and smoke whenever he wanted. The only thing was that he had to let me know when he left and when he came back and I had to chart that. Fine. That was his pt contract he made up with his docs. I don't smoke but I have no problem with pts going outside to smoke except for the fact that he went outside to smoke on my shift 5 times!!! And he had all these meds that were scheduled like constantly...he had antibiotics to give (2, and one was vanco-which takes 2 hours alone to run) and he had pills too, plus he had a PICC line and I needed to change the PICC dressing too AND he kept asking for morphine IV for pain every 2 hours but of course I had to flush the PICC with saline first, then give morphine, then saline again, and then heparin every single time I gave him anything IV. My point is he kept leaving so often that I was getting so annoyed because I was always behind in giving him his meds and treatments and then when he was gone I would go see my other 3 busy pts and I was in the middle of changing a TLC dressing on another pt when he was on his light saying he is ready now for me to come in.When I finished what I was doing, he was like "Where were you?" And I know why he was upset -because he wanted me to hurry up and change the dressing on his PICC and hang the vanco (which wasn't due at a specific time by the way, I could time it on the MAR when I hung it) since he knew the vanco takes 2 hours to run and he wanted to go back outside for another butt. Well excuse me! This really got to me because he acted like I was there only for him. I'm not dropping what I''m doing for other pts for him, esp when he is constantly leaving the floor and I'm constantly rearranging my schedule for him. I tried to set limits with him but I was not about to start arguing with a person with a long psych history who nearly punched a doctor three hours ago and required 2 big security officers to escort him back to his room earlier in the day. So that is what I cannot stand: pts who think no one but them matters and expect you to drop what you're doing for them. I needed to vent! :)
Hello everyone!!! I hope this New Year has been a kind one to you all thus far.
Well, here i go again on one of my rants about the ever so intriguing world of nursing. Here's my pet peeve of the day:
Is is just me, or does it seem to you all that everytime you go into a patient's room to pass meds, do procedures, or simply check on the patient, they always have to ask you to bring them something.
I know for me, it never fails. If I go in there to just look in on my patient they always will stop you before you get out of the door and say, "Oh, nurse, could you get me some coffee," or "May I have something for pain?" or "Turn the lights off, will you". And it drives me crazy.
Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem doing anything for my patients. But it seems that patients look at nurses as nothing more than handmaids to wait on their every beckon and call. For example, I had this man to ring his call bell just to tell me that he wanted to sit up on the side of the bed. I wanted so badly to tell him, "Well, what are you waiting for?". This is because I know that this man is very capable of moving himself because I've seen him do it when he has a male nurse caring for him. But whenever a female steps in, the patients all of sudden become invalids.
I feel that too much of my time is taken up running up and down the halls getting water and coffee. I mean, as much as family members like to stay all day in night in these patients rooms, it would seem that they would get up off of their lazy bums and get these patients something every now and then. It wouldn't hurt them to do this. Oh no, they won't do this. But they can tell you and I how to do our jobs, can't they? (LOL!!).
I have gotten to the point that I actually like being pulled to the critical care units in the hospital because we have telemetry there and you don't have to go into the rooms quite as much as you do on the medical floor because the telemetry is evident.
Do you all feel the same way? Do you all feel that patients are too darn demanding and don't respect us as care providers but see us as handmaids instead? Male nurses, do you feel that patients tend to not bother you as much as your female colleagues? I welcome all input.
Peace and love, y'all!!!!
Maybe you shoudl fine another job, cause taking care of people is not your cup of tea. One other thing, you will be like that one day.
military spouse
577 Posts
It drives me CRAZY when you start doing your morning assessments and almost every pt wants coffee. Well, coffee is downstairs in the cafeteria at that hour. I used to go get coffee, but now I politely state, "If I have some extra time before the coffee on your tray arrives, I will be happy to get it." Generally, that is the craziest time of day and I normally don't have extra time.