I had something happen today that really bothered me. l lost my voice. I lost it in the name of patient satisfaction.
I listened to a male patient yell at me for something completely out of my control and then demand a new nurse because he didn't like my attitude.
My attitude consisted of explaining to him a certain policy and why it couldn't be broken. I then asked him why he was so mad and not to raise his voice at me. I said it in the most even, professional tone possible.
The bottom line and what bothers me most is he can treat me however he chooses. He can yell at me and if I say one word I am replaced. I am disposable. Who sticks up for me?
In what world is it ok for a grown man to speak to a woman or anyone for that matter in such a way? I feel like I have no voice or rights as a nurse sometimes.
1of the top 10 reasons I chose to retire early. I got so tired of being verbally abused for enforcing "policy" and then fired by the patient! No back up by manager or facility. Finally just gave it up.
I know this is not what many people want to hear, but it's a reality that we all have to deal with. I hope that maybe seeing it from another perspective will help some people understand.
And I think it's great that you had several good experiences. But, as you say, you're not the type to demand and complain. The exact OPPOSITE of the type of patient that most of us are referring to.
I've been threatened because I wouldn't let someone eat before a procedure - because he might vomit, aspirate, and die.
I've been told I'm a horrible person and a terrible nurse because I was "late" bringing in the "as-needed" pain medication.
I've been told that I'm nothing but a "medical waitress" and I need to get my "Mediao-nurse butt" into gear and get the family everything they want because I'm their "servant" for the shift. -- Nearly a direct quote there.
Heathermaizey, most of our patients are like you - wonderful people who we love to take care of and spend time doing the little things for. The people and attitudes we complain about are the ones that treat us like we're not worth anything at best, and are insulting and assaultive at worst. Those are, unfortunately, the ones that tend to stick in our minds, because words hurt, and attitudes hurt, and it's hard to keep coming back to work when the people who hurt us for no reason are given free reign to keep doing just that.
It also hurts that the insulting person's review carries just as much weight as the happy person's review. More, in fact. Because it's not the pleased people telling the administration that 'you're doing everything right, keep up the good work, your nurses are awesome!' that they're going to pay attention to. It's the review that says, 'my pillows weren't fat enough, the noise level was atrocious, my elderly mother wasn't allowed to stay overnight, and I had to wait forever for my pain medication!' that's going to generate a response. Some of us don't exactly think that's fair.
I need to maintain five different certifications to keep my ER job, so the educational demands are different. We also need to be minimally competent in every specialty the hospital serves, as admitted patients often stay for several days, and require the same education and tasks they get on the floor.
What are we calling certifications here? ACLS and PALS are not "certifications" that are relevant in this situation, as many floors require either or both.
And I think it's great that you had several good experiences. But, as you say, you're not the type to demand and complain. The exact OPPOSITE of the type of patient that most of us are referring to.
I've been threatened because I wouldn't let someone eat before a procedure - because he might vomit, aspirate, and die.
I've been told I'm a horrible person and a terrible nurse because I was "late" bringing in the "as-needed" pain medication.
I've been told that I'm nothing but a "medical waitress" and I need to get my "Mediao-nurse butt" into gear and get the family everything they want because I'm their "servant" for the shift. -- Nearly a direct quote there.
Heathermaizey, most of our patients are like you - wonderful people who we love to take care of and spend time doing the little things for. The people and attitudes we complain about are the ones that treat us like we're not worth anything at best, and are insulting and assaultive at worst. Those are, unfortunately, the ones that tend to stick in our minds, because words hurt, and attitudes hurt, and it's hard to keep coming back to work when the people who hurt us for no reason are given free reign to keep doing just that.
It also hurts that the insulting person's review carries just as much weight as the happy person's review. More, in fact. Because it's not the pleased people telling the administration that 'you're doing everything right, keep up the good work, your nurses are awesome!' that they're going to pay attention to. It's the review that says, 'my pillows weren't fat enough, the noise level was atrocious, my elderly mother wasn't allowed to stay overnight, and I had to wait forever for my pain medication!' that's going to generate a response. Some of us don't exactly think that's fair.
I completely understand that. Those are the people that no matter what, you will not make happy. In my vast years of experience in customer service, I have been backed up one time by those higher up than me. One time. It was because the FBI put a guys gun background check on hold. The guy was mad, wanted me to break federal law, then tried to do a straw purchase by having the gun put in his wife's name. I told him my job and freedom were not worth him getting his gun at that moment. He tried to come over the counter at me. He was nuts. The only reason I got any back up from my corporate office was because of federal law. Over the years, I have been called every name in the book had people get mad then go into the corner of a store and poop to try a prove a point. I have been told they would have my job more times than I can count. I pharmacy teched for a while and was called names when people changed their doctor's scripts, all kinds of stuff. I was counseled one time because I did not have a particular broom that was in an ad. This woman called and went off over a broom. A broom!!! After a while, you just have to let things go.
I have had guns pulled on me, had people spit in my face, people smear feces all over the bathroom wall. In retail, yes, I have had this done to me. And the people who take stuff to extremes like that you will never make happy. Never. And if you think management doesn't know a ridiculous comment like my pillows weren't fluffy enough is petty, they do. It just has to trickle down somewhere. The people that you need to get mad and upset with is the people who tie reimbursement to these surveys. If I'm not mistaken it's our government that has decided to do this. Medicare and Medicaid. It always amazes me how a bunch of men in suits think they are experts in medicine. I have asked my insurance company before when they wanted to deny one of meds, why do you think you know better than me and my doctor what medications are best for me? I said please enlighten me on how you guys know my body and what I have dealt with more than me or the physician treating me. They had no answer but my medication was mysteriously approved for my next refill.
It is terrible what some people have to put up with. No person should ever have to take abuse from another human being, no matter what job they are in. I like to think though, that those people are not the majority. I like to think that most people at least can act a little classy no matter how terrible they feel. And if there is some way to get the satisfied customers to answer the survey, like those that are dissatisified do, I think that especially nurses would not feel like they weren't getting anywhere or were just spinning their wheels with patient care. Very few of your satisfied patients are calling in to sing your praises or have the time to fill out a survey. So you really only hear from the negative people and that can be demoralizing. There has to be a better way, you know?
If critical care nurses are not more educated than MS nurses, where do you think we learned the necessary information, concerning, heart rhythms, pathophysiology, etc. that is needed to be able to monitor, responds, and treat arrthymias, the knowledge concerning the use of vasoactive drips, etc, since that is information that is not taught in nursing school.
Critical Care training programs, even for experienced nurses, can last up to six months. Where did this information come from? From the classes that are provided to nurses when they start to work in Critical Care.
Doctors do not learn how to do Heart Transplants, Brain surgery, complicated orthopedic procedures in medical school. They learn their trades by going through lengthy residencies, before they are let loose on patients. That is why specialty physicians charge more than Family Practice Physicians. The last I checked, A LOT MORE!
This comes at great personal sacrifice by physicians, in terms of money, personal time, loss of income if they were already working at a profession other then medicine or surgery.
Cardiologists go through extensive training to learn how to insert Swan Ganz catheters, Intra Aortic Balloon pumps, hear catheterization, etc. Why is OK for physicians to charge a lot more money than generalist physicians, and not nurses.
You may do more patient teaching on a med surg level, but that is because my patients in ICU were unconscious, their families are to distraught over what may have been a tragic accident, or unexpected health issue that put them in ICU, and patients and families are not ready to process, understand, comprehend, information that at the time, is not pertinent to the patient at the time, and would most likely be forgotten in the lengthy time until the patient is ready to discharge.
Patient education and teaching is taught in nursing school, critical care nursing is not. It may be discussed, it may be part of a one day clinical assignment, but that it not enough to be able to function as a critical care, or ER nurse.
I am sorry that you think that all we do in ICU is, "tasky baloney", but this, "tasky boloney", comes with the advanced knowledge of the above issues i have discussed, and only emphasizes that med surg nurse, don't know what they don't know, because they don't know.
The reason that med surg nurses do not take patient assignments in ICU, is because their lack of education, training, and expertise, in ICU procedures would kill someone.
I am sorry that med surg nurse need to get their knickers in a wad, over ICU expertise that they do not have, and others have worked hard to attain, by attending ICU training programs, continuing education, frequently at their own expense and time out side or work.
Go work in ICU for a day, without the training and education that ICU nurses have gone through, and come back and tell me how that worked out for you.Let me know how many patients that you killed.
If critical care nurses are not more educated than MS nurses, where do you think we learned the necessary information, concerning, heart rhythms, pathophysiology, etc. that is needed to be able to monitor, responds, and treat arrthymias, the knowledge concerning the use of vasoactive drips, etc, since that is information that is not taught in nursing school.
Critical Care training programs, even for experienced nurses, can last up to six months. Where did this information come from? From the classes that are provided to nurses when they start to work in Critical Care.
Doctors do not learn how to do Heart Transplants, Brain surgery, complicated orthopedic procedures in medical school. They learn their trades by going through lengthy residencies, before they are let loose on patients. That is why specialty physicians charge more than Family Practice Physicians. The last I checked, A LOT MORE!
This comes at great personal sacrifice by physicians, in terms of money, personal time, loss of income if they were already working at a profession other then medicine or surgery.
Cardiologists go through extensive training to learn how to insert Swan Ganz catheters, Intra Aortic Balloon pumps, hear catheterization, etc. Why is OK for physicians to charge a lot more money than generalist physicians, and not nurses.
You may do more patient teaching on a med surg level, but that is because my patients in ICU were unconscious, their families are to distraught over what may have been a tragic accident, or unexpected health issue that put them in ICU, and patients and families are not ready to process, understand, comprehend, information that at the time, is not pertinent to the patient at the time, and would most likely be forgotten in the lengthy time until the patient is ready to discharge.
Patient education and teaching is taught in nursing school, critical care nursing is not. It may be discussed, it may be part of a one day clinical assignment, but that it not enough to be able to function as a critical care, or ER nurse.
I am sorry that you think that all we do in ICU is, "tasky baloney", but this, "tasky boloney", comes with the advanced knowledge of the above issues i have discussed, and only emphasizes that med surg nurse, don't know what they don't know, because they don't know.
The reason that med surg nurses do not take patient assignments in ICU, is because their lack of education, training, and expertise, in ICU procedures would kill someone.
I am sorry that med surg nurse need to get their knickers in a wad, over ICU expertise that they do not have, and others have worked hard to attain, by attending ICU training programs, continuing education, frequently at their own expense and time out side or work.
Go work in ICU for a day, without the training and education that ICU nurses have gone through, and come back and tell me how that worked out for you.Let me know how many patients that you killed.
JMHO and my NY $0.02
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret),
Somewhere in the PACNW
I am an experienced ICU nurse, as well as an experienced floor nurse, so I do know what I'm talking about despite your smart aleck assumptions. The knowledge you pick up in the ICU is not fundamentally different than the information you'd pick up in a specialty floor - be it surgical, OB, oncology, whatever, and I'd disagree that patient teaching is taught in nursing school to the extent that it applies in the real world. I'd challenge you to go to the floor for a day and manage six patients with no monitoring and see how many you've killed. You're a perfect example of a hideously arrogant stereotype ICU nurse.
Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.
If critical care nurses are not more educated than MS nurses, where do you think we learned the necessary information, concerning, heart rhythms, pathophysiology, etc. that is needed to be able to monitor, responds, and treat arrthymias, the knowledge concerning the use of vasoactive drips, etc, since that is information that is not taught in nursing school.
Critical Care training programs, even for experienced nurses, can last up to six months. Where did this information come from? From the classes that are provided to nurses when they start to work in Critical Care.
Doctors do not learn how to do Heart Transplants, Brain surgery, complicated orthopedic procedures in medical school. They learn their trades by going through lengthy residencies, before they are let loose on patients. That is why specialty physicians charge more than Family Practice Physicians. The last I checked, A LOT MORE!
This comes at great personal sacrifice by physicians, in terms of money, personal time, loss of income if they were already working at a profession other then medicine or surgery.
Cardiologists go through extensive training to learn how to insert Swan Ganz catheters, Intra Aortic Balloon pumps, hear catheterization, etc. Why is OK for physicians to charge a lot more money than generalist physicians, and not nurses.
You may do more patient teaching on a med surg level, but that is because my patients in ICU were unconscious, their families are to distraught over what may have been a tragic accident, or unexpected health issue that put them in ICU, and patients and families are not ready to process, understand, comprehend, information that at the time, is not pertinent to the patient at the time, and would most likely be forgotten in the lengthy time until the patient is ready to discharge.
Patient education and teaching is taught in nursing school, critical care nursing is not. It may be discussed, it may be part of a one day clinical assignment, but that it not enough to be able to function as a critical care, or ER nurse.
I am sorry that you think that all we do in ICU is, "tasky baloney", but this, "tasky boloney", comes with the advanced knowledge of the above issues i have discussed, and only emphasizes that med surg nurse, don't know what they don't know, because they don't know.
The reason that med surg nurses do not take patient assignments in ICU, is because their lack of education, training, and expertise, in ICU procedures would kill someone.
I am sorry that med surg nurse need to get their knickers in a wad, over ICU expertise that they do not have, and others have worked hard to attain, by attending ICU training programs, continuing education, frequently at their own expense and time out side or work.
Go work in ICU for a day, without the training and education that ICU nurses have gone through, and come back and tell me how that worked out for you.Let me know how many patients that you killed.
JMHO and my NY $0.02
Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN (ret),
Somewhere in the PACNW
And yet, you also posted this in another thread:
In other words, ICU nurses can do everyone else's jobs, but everyone else cannot do, and are not trained, to do everyone else's jobs.
No, ICU nurses cannot do everyone else's jobs. No, ICU nurses are not more deserving than other nurses. The work is different, yes. The job requires training from the facility, yes. But that is true of every specialty out there. ICU nurses have ICU expertise and training. OR nurses have OR expertise and training. L&D nurses have L&D expertise and training. The list goes on for every specialty. ICU is not ​unique in having required education.
No, ICU nurses cannot do everyone else's jobs. No, ICU nurses are not more deserving than other nurses. The work is different, yes. The job requires training from the facility, yes. But that is true of every specialty out there. ICU nurses have ICU expertise and training. OR nurses have OR expertise and training. L&D nurses have L&D expertise and training. The list goes on for every specialty. ICU is not ​unique in having required education.
Correct. Take an ICU nurse who's never worked on a surgical floor (because they have spent their time in MICU or cardiac medicine) and see how well they manage those surgical patients. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that **** show.
Correct. Take an ICU nurse who's never worked on a surgical floor (because they have spent their time in MICU or cardiac medicine) and see how well they manage those surgical patients. I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that **** show.
Ooh,ooh, me!! I've seen it!!
This was over ten years ago, but I was working on a very busy MedSurg floor. TPTB decided one day to float an ICU Nurse up to "help" us.
Now, remember, this was before electronic charting took over completely, so we were still doing a lot on paper. No med scanners yet, the Omnicell was still pretty basic back then.
Average patient load was 6, could sometimes go up to 7-8 if you got admits and none of your discharges left before 3. We were nice, gave the ICU float only 5, and no admits.
She started out a bit smug, definitely a Superior Nurse, and did a fair amount of eye-rolling during report.
By the end of the shift (7-3), her hair was standing on end, she was hyperventilating, and had some weird stains on her scrubs.
She had the good grace to admit that she no longer thought MedSurg nurses were somehow inferior, couldn't believe we worked at that pace every day, and couldn't wait to get back to her two intubated, sedated, immobile patients in the unit.
I'll just never understand why, in a world where everyone is blaming the nurse, we can't just stand up for each other. Enough with the pissing contests! There's enough negativity from every source imaginable, let's not hate each other too!
How did a topic about patient satisfaction turn into an argument about whose got a bigger gauge needle? Get over yourselves. Hospitals can't function without all of the different specialties. Remember in your interview when they ask you if you played well in the sandbox with other kids?
Dizycat
7 Posts
1of the top 10 reasons I chose to retire early. I got so tired of being verbally abused for enforcing "policy" and then fired by the patient! No back up by manager or facility. Finally just gave it up.