hewert

Hi there - I'm a retired pharmacist who would like to volunteer at a hospital. Please bear with me as I might have some trouble articulating this, but my idea would be to volunteer to aid floor nurses (rather than specifically the patients). I'd do anything that would help the nurses, such as running for water, blankets, snacks. Answering call buttons to see if there was anything I could do for the patients that did not need a nurse. Anything that would help the nurses out. In case you are wondering why I have this interest, I worked some on the floors in my hospital career, and I always felt the nurses were the hardest-working people in the facility. I always did whatever I could do to support nurses (and I miss that aspect of work). I'd appreciate any comments before I approach the hospital volunteer office.

Verbal orders are prone to errors. The trend is to require all med orders to be written by the prescriber with the exception of "urgent" orders. What is your hospital's policy on this? If you were not noncompliant with a written policy, you should not be punished! 'Course the docs find this policy "inconvenient" but it is being successfully used now in many hospitals

You got lucky! Nasty people are a gift. You are probably really busy right now, but use some of the free time you do have to study how to get along with difficult people. It can be done. Learn this now and and you will make the rest of your life easier! You can find a lot of info online. Believe me, this is an incredible skill to master. Now, for the super-rare people you just can't get to...DON'T ENGAGE.

this is a little long, but please read (it's from Steven Covey): ""I remember a mini-Paradigm Shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly -- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene. Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed. "The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing. "It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?" "The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, 'Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know how to handle it either.' "Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn't have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?" Everything changed in an instant." Who really knows what is going on with this doc. It's a bit of work, but I think it is worthwhile to learn to put one's ego in one's back pocket and just be nice to people.

Nurses are understaffed and overworked......why can't management get this?

Should you stay and suck it up? Naw - that never works. But if you truly want to work with these patients, you might attempt to make your situation better. Talk to the PA and MA and find out why they are hostile. Most of the time people will communicate if you approach them neutrally. You said it's a small town - are you their first FNP? I've had situations where I turned nasty people into friends, and that is always worth it.

hmm....why was the patient unhappy to begin with?

Come on - you know you are not going to be happy by creating an adversarial relationship with a patient.....

Usually, a comment like that, or like the OP's gets then\m a blank,non descript stare, and a therapeutic "Oh,........., I see........ There you go! Plunge and move on!

There you go! Plunge and move on!

Here's two of the things I have learned from many years of dealing with people........ 1. Never engage - defuse. This means don't continue on the track they have started. I might say "Oh honey, I want you to be happy. Can I get you anything?" The hard part is to really mean it; and I almost always do. 2. Don't take these things personally........don't fume and ruminate about this. You do not have to defend yourself. You have got to learn to let negativity go right over your head. I've worked long and hard on these techniques, and they have never let me down or backfired on me. Idiotic things happen every day - it is healthy to ignore them. Love is all that matters.