Patients with sitters

[SarahJ0811]

This is mainly just a vent, but I dread hearing in report that the patients has a sitter at bedside. Not because that means the patient is confused, but because 9/10 the sitter is crazier than the patient, completely useless, and like having a 2nd patient in the room. My last shift, the patient was obviously confused and could not be reasoned with. A sitter was called to beside and she was a complete nightmare. She would call out every five minutes saying that she needed the nurse because he was trying to pull on his foley or his picc line, or trying to get out of bed (he had a posey vest on). After the fifth time the sitter called out (each time myself or the aide went in). I told her that I was we'll aware of the situation and that is why she was called in to watch the patient and make sure that he didn't hurt himself, not call the nurse every time he attempted to pull at something. Approx ten minutes later two of my coworkers came to the nurses station saying that the sitter is threatening to hurt the patient! I rush to the room and from down the hall I hear her SCREAMING at my patient! Not sternly talking to my patient, but screaming! I was livid, I told her to leave the room, called my charge nurse and told her that the sitter needed to leave immediately. I, unfortunately, had to put my patient in wrist restraints as well after she left because there was no way I wanted another sitter. This isn't the first time she has been reported to the company by one of our nurses, and yet she still comes back. I obviously had to chart my butt off about that one. Our floor has also had a sitter bring a gun into the patients room and have it within reach of the confused patient, had a sitter leave the room without telling anyone for her smoke break and the patient got out of bed and fell, I've also had a sitter tell the patient that I was an evil nurse because I was wearing all black scrubs. Just to name a few examples.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I feel your pain. There was one sitter for a suicidal patient that gave me a really negative vibe when I first met her, and I couldn't put my finger on it. When her shift was over, the PATIENT told me that the sitter (who I had never met prior to that shift) bad-mouthed me and said I was an awful nurse. The poor patient said she felt uncomfortable and scared the whole time the sitter was with her. I told the charge and the NM, and thankfully, I've never seen her again.

[loriangel14, RN]

When we have sitters it one of our regular staff called in to sit.Sometimes it's as exhausting as having a full assignment.And sometimes it's really dull.

[SarahJ0811]

We're supposedly going to transition to that... But for now were getting sitters from outside companies

[boricualuna]

The hospital I work for use a company and we also use CNA/PCT when they get called off on their regular shifts. I had a CNA from a different floor that sat with an ICU pt and she was horrible. Spend all morning on the phone trying to book a hotel room. When her phone started to die she asked if I had any extra chargers laying around for her phone I told her I didn't and she was upset. When she wasn't on the phone she kept coming out of the pt's room and asking the tech I was training at the time to relieve her. For lunch she was gone for an hr and a half oh and with her phone charger. Poor pt kept de sating because the sitter was too busy from keeping her from removing her NC. I had no choice but to report her to my charge nurse, AD and the tech's nurse manager. She has never returned to my floor to sit or work the floor. It's techs like her that give good techs a bad name.

[MunoRN, RN]

All of our sitters are Nursing Student hopefuls (it counts towards the healthcare experience required to apply), so they tend to be fairly competent and work for peanuts (I think they may actually get paid in peanuts). Maybe you could arrange something with the local Nursing schools.

[Morainey, BSN, RN]

This is mainly just a vent, but I dread hearing in report that the patients has a sitter at bedside. Not because that means the patient is confused, but because 9/10 the sitter is crazier than the patient, completely useless, and like having a 2nd patient in the room.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

in the hospital I used to work in there were a few "sitters" (thats all they did) around but mostly it was one of us aides that would get pulled off the floor to sit...the aides would toilet the patient, keep them from pulling out lines and try to redirect, the "sitters" would just sit there because they had no training beyond that...

if I had a patient that was sleeping, I would get up out of the chair, pace the room or the hallway in front of the room to stay awake - I usually was overnight sitting

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

My hospital used CNAs as sitters and that worked out well. However, one time we used an agency sitter instead and she was pushy and demanding. Not to mention her company let her wear white scrubs! White and ceil blue were NURSE colors where I worked, and the fact was that she was just a CNA and she was wearing nurse colors! I was a CNA at the time and it really drove me up the wall. As a CNA in my last semester of nursing school, if anyone who was not a nurse should be wearing white it should have been me!

I'm pretty sure the agency sitter's uniform made me crazier than the patient that day.

[loriangel14, RN]

Usually our sitters are nurses. One of our staff called in to just sit.

[mstacyi]

Usually our sitters are nurses. One of our staff called in to just sit.

Wow that must have been nice of your company. Our hospital wouldnt pay nurses that much just to sit. They rather use us for hard labor 

[SleeepyRN]

Im am definitely going to be defensive here. I was a sitter for 3 years. I was a DAMN good sitter/pct. I saved the nurses and pct's working the floor so much time, you probably have no clue. I also saved a couple of patients lives. There are definitely unskilled, lazy sitters out there, but please don't group them all together. My experience as a sitter was invaluable to me as a nurse today. I am sorry to come across so cranky. Im sure you've had bad experiences with sitters, but there are many awesome ones out there. It was downright exhausting at times, trying to keep the high fall risk pt in bed, or calming them down by therapeutic communication when they started to get very anxious.....I could go on and on. As a sitter, I'm the one who realized once a pt was not simply sleeping. I took vitals, tried waking her up while calling a nurse in the room and went down to CT with her. Turns out she was hemorrhaging again after a fall she had taken the week before. She could have gone on bleeding in her brain for hours if there was not an astute sitter in that room that morning.