preparing to be one of them????????????

RN2B73 · Feb 2, 2008

Hmm ... interesting, considering that no one used the term until you used it in your post.
And you seemed to imply that someone was slacking simply because no one looked in on your stable grandmother who had a visitor, during shift change, although staff did respond when called.
Again, I ask you to broaden your definition of "sick" and consider that your grandmother is stable. I will stick my neck out here and take an educated guess at what your grandmother's hospital plan of care includes:
IV antibiotics 2-3 times/day
breathing treatments 2-3 times/day
whatever other oral meds she normally takes 1-2 times/day
labs drawn 1-2 times/day
vital signs every 4-8 hours
she may or may not be on continuous O2
In my experience, this is a typical care plan for a pneumonia patient. If your grandmother is ambulatory, continent, and not diabetic, this is a fairly light patient assignment for her nurse. I can virtually guarantee you that that nurse's patient assignment includes sicker, more labor-intensive patients.
Bottom line: a stable patient with a visitor ... nurse or CNA did respond when called ... I don't see a problem.
I hope that, as a student, you'll consider the information you've been given in this thread to broaden your knowledge base. And I hope your grandmother is feeling better soon.

I just want to thank everyone who replied to my post, whether I felt your response was what I wanted to hear or not! In all honestly, after leaving the hospital that night the one thing that provoked me to post the thread, was I kept picturing myself as the nurse and asking myself what would I do. Even though I have been in a hospital many times, it was never in the capacity in which you all have served. I'm sure that my view on things will change once I've been on the other side. I was in no way implying that I thought all nurses were slackers, if that were the case I definitely would not want to enter this field. My father passed 9 months ago in my home from lung cancer and it was the hospice nurses who helped me take care of him and that influenced my decision to pursue nursing in the first place. If I didn't respect and admire what they do and what they stand for I wouldn't be pursuing my degree now. Enough said and thanks again.

SDS_RN, RN · Feb 2, 2008

I'm sorry to hear about your father. I'm sure he is very proud of you. I think that you will make a great nurse. You stood your ground on this thread and defended your self you will need that when you get into practice. Also your questioning and concern for the care of your grandmother shows you have a good heart.

Believe me we do not like to not see our patients in a standard amount of time after hitting the floor but that's just how it goes sometimes. You have to keep going and know that all nocs or days are not like that. Good luck to you and I hope your grandma is feeling better. God bless.

beachbum3 · Feb 2, 2008

Sorry to hear about your father's passing, and your grandmother's illness.

As for your statements about slacking nurses... I'd suggest you be less judgemental and broaden your thinking about what it is nurses are supposed to be doing. You have a very idealistic view of what nursing is, as do most students (me included way back before I even started school), and the truth is that nurses are overloaded, underappreciated and are forced to use their attention to pts and tasks that HAVE to be done at any particular moment.

If a pt is stable, and family is in with the pt, if there isn't something in particular that HAS to be done for that pt at that moment (meds pass, assessment, vitals, other tmts) in most cases the nurse is probably not going to stop in just to chat, especially when the family is there. Unfortunately, nurses don't have that kind of time. Before you jump to thinking that your grandma was not receiving good safe care, consider that most nurses rarely even get time to go to the bathroom or eat during a 12 + hour shift, so they also probably don't have a lot of extra time (and especially not during shift change) to check in on stable patients whose family is already there when they've already passed meds, assessed, done treatments etc on that patient. On the flip side, you can bet if the pt is unstable, the nurse will be checking on them often. Also I'm wondering if your grandmother was in a room that was in view of the nursing station. Often you can see a pt in their room from the nurses station and tell a good bit about what is going on.

I hope I'm making sense. I'm just trying to say that there is SO much more to what a nurse's day is than what most think, and that just because in a 2 hour period during shift change no one checked in on your stable grandmother whom had family visiting in the room with her doesn't equate to lazy, slacking, uncaring or unsafe nursing care.

Is it ideal? Probably not. But its reality.

Brie80 · Feb 2, 2008

I'm not a nurse yet. waiting for a reply to start school. I just wanted to share my experience at the hospital with my grandmother and just how the family can sometimes make a difference in the care the patient received. In no way am I suggesting that the OP was problematic, but my family was.

In trying to keep story condensed it maybe a little vague, in parts.

My grandmother Fell and broke her hip 1/17/08 and was released from the hospital 1/24/08. She has emphysema and congestive heart failure, is 68 and up until the broken hip caused by a very hard fall not weak bones worked over 40 hours a week not out of necessity but because she enjoys working. The entire time she was in the Hospital one of my aunts or my self stayed with her as she didn't want to be alone in the hospital. On more that one occasion, one and sometimes both of my aunts went on rants to the nursing staff, calming neglect and mistreatment. They also had it out the the PT staff demanding to speak to PT manager.

Multiple I times tried to explain that the nursing staff were doing their job.:innerconf

Yes, sometimes it took a little while for someone to come in after they answered the call light to see what was needed. My family members seemed to have a misconception that the nurse was just standing around waiting for us to call for something. On two occasions they sent the nurse aid (bath time) and respiratory therapy (breathing treatment) away. Once because my grandmother was tired and another due to waiting on a visitor to arrive. They complained about neglect on the hospitals part, how were the medical staff supposed to do there jobs when being prevented. A lot of there complaints were about stuff we could help out with, when we preformed the tasks my grandmother was more comfortable anyways, (food trays, water, cold cloths, helping toilet once showed how to use walker). I could go on and on. I get really upset when I see nurses being abused. :madface:

My biggest fear is not knowing how to deal with abusive and controlling family and it getting in the way of patient care as it did with my grandmother.

Sorry of such a long post this subject is close to my heart on both sides.:redpinkhe

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Feb 3, 2008

My biggest fear is not knowing how to deal with abusive and controlling family and it getting in the way of patient care as it did with my grandmother.

After dealing with abusive, demanding, screaming families for the past couple of years, I have very recently accepted a night shift position (10pm to 6am) at another facility. My motives for switching to night shift revolve around my desire to escape the visitors and family members that help to make my job a living hell.

ERRNTraveler, RN · Feb 3, 2008

After dealing with abusive, demanding, screaming families for the past couple of years, I have very recently accepted a night shift position (10pm to 6am) at another facility. My motives for switching to night shift revolve around my desire to escape the visitors and family members that help to make my job a living hell.

I work ER, so I'm in a little different environment, but lately, I've wanted to get tattooed on my forehead: "No, I don't know how much longer it's going to be, please stop screaming at me!"

fronkey bean · Feb 3, 2008

One other thought RN2B, we have strict visiting hours where I work so I try to get my assessments and tx's done prior to visiting time so that I don't cut in on family's time w/ the pt. I do try to get in to introduce myself to the fam. and answer any questions but in ICU I only have 2-3 pts. and even then it sometimes just isn't possible.

Tait, MSN, RN · Feb 3, 2008

If my patients are stable (I work complex cardiac) I try to stay out of thier room. I want them to have privacy, time with family and some peace. Patients deal with a multitude of random people in and out all day, if I can give them a well deserved break from that I will.

Tait