"Customer service" and nursing

[LilPeanut]

I've seen a lot of people talk about 'customer service' in a disparaging manner, as if that is not what nursing is about and it's making their lives harder to provide it.

Could someone explain that more for me?

Personally customer service is another way of saying good bedside manner. It doesn't matter what you know if you cannot present it in a way that encourages others to follow you. Many of the things I hear people complaining about for "customer service", could be solved by patient/family education and a less adversarial relationship between staff and family.

What are your thoughts?

[VAC]

CRNI-ICU 20 You said it all!!!

I would love to be able to have mgmt back up the limits you wrote about.

LilPeanut, A lot of unrealistic theorys can be taught that would be lovely if we were STAFFED to devote that much time to the families. REALITY CHECK we are staffed according to our PATIENTS not according to their families, therefore we have to prioritize care, and the family CANNOT always be the priority.,

[TazziRN, RN]

Peanut, none of us are arguing that the family is part of the pt, but when they get in the way of pt care, they become separate from the pt.

[NurseguyFL]

To use your example - your manager told you that after the other pt. was stabilized, you should have gone back to the first pt. and explained what happened. Why is that an unreasonable expectation?

I have worked in retail and as a waitress, perhaps that's why I have a different perspective? Or maybe it's because I've been a long-term pt. in a hospital and know what it is like to be that pt. who is totally dependent?

I'm sure the L&D nurses who floated to my unit hated me. I looked perfectly healthy, I was just on bedrest. But if I wanted a ho-ho or cupcake out of my "goody box", I needed someone to get it for me. I wasn't supposed to be doing any sort of exertion. And I needed the goodies and sweets - I was chronically underweight for an unknown reason, and I was actually following the nutritionist's recommendations, but most float nurses wouldn't have that in-depth of an understanding into my case.

I think too many people forget what it is like to be on the other side of the bed.

I don't think you get the picture. It doesn't matter who is on what side of the bed. Priorities are priorities. Going back to warm up a bowl of soup for a stable patient is not a nursing priority when you have an emergency bleed going on and you're on the phone with the surgeon and trying to keep the families updated, and rushing around to prep and take your patient back to the OR, plus documenting the incident.

I don't neglect any of my patients on purpose, but I am not going to run around like a crazy trying to be super nurse and end up making serious mistakes and burning myself out. I try to work in an organized way, and I always prioritize care from the most important thing to least. I don't mind warming up food for my patients, but, again, warming up food is not a nursing priority when you've got other more important issues going on. I wouldn't even have mentioned the soup incident, except for the fact that the patient's wife could also just as easily have walked to the microwave down the hall and warmed up the soup herself. It wasn't like she couldn't see us rushing into the other room to try to stabilize the bleeding patient, and it wasn't that I DIDN'T go back to explain why I did not come back earlier to warm up the soup. It was her attitude that got me, as if I was supposed to stop everything else and warm up her husband's soup. Well, well, well... maybe I'm a terrible nurse but I will not EVER prioritize one patient's satisfaction over another patient's safety.

[NurseguyFL]

Hey, Tweety,

Did John Meyer really say that?

[lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN]

I am very apalled at the responses I have read! It seems that most of the nurses here could care less about their patients or their families, but are more concerned with their own status and the "Cardiac in Bed 6."

Are we reading the same thread?

[NurseCherlove]

Why don't the families of patients heat their own soup?! As they aren't the ones in need of 24 hour medical care they should address their own needs and let the medical staff attend to those truly in need...the patients. There needs to be some balance in place.

Batman, you read my mind exactly!!! I have noticed that the family members with brains/ability to recognize busy people/not too self-centered will go to the nursing station with their bowl of soup/request for water, etc. and make their request from the person who appears least busy.

I really love making people feel as comfortable as possible and will go out of my way to serve them IF I HAVE TIME!! Are some people just so out of touch that they do not realize how busy hospital staff are - nurses especially!!! Can they not look around and see that we are not just sitting around shootin the bull, playing video games, or whatever??

That woman who complained about the FL nurse should be....scorned (ok I won't say what I really want to). Screwing around with another person's livlihood over something so petty!!! Hello?!!! It's a friggin' hospital....where there are sick patients who might be having an acute problem you selfish, pig B*&@#! Sorry, I just need to go to bed.

The witch could have at least given the nurse the chance to say, "I am so sorry...I had a patient bleeding down the hall and we do not have assistants to help us today".

[Halinja, BSN, RN]

I interviewed for a job last week and one question was...how do you define customer service. I told them that patient safety and the patient's medical needs came first. If, after those were dealt with, there was something I could do to make their stay more comfortable, I would do it. Grin. I don't think I'm going to get the job....

[NurseCherlove]

I think we do our patients and their families a big disservice by communicating to them the impression that they are the only patient a nurse have. I would rather have a patient or family member KNOW they had to wait to have their soup warmed because I have a full patient load and have to prioritize first, than to basically have them believe they had to wait because I'm lazy and uncaring thanks to TPTB and their nonsense.

WOW! Absolutely could not have said it better myself!! I so wish we could convey the reality of hospital nursing to patients and families. Actually, I do when I can. I speak very frankly with my patients. I had a man who got his d/c orders the other day and he was ready to hit the door ASAP. I told him that I would get his papers ready as fast as I can (actually said that exactly), but that I had one more d/c in front of him that I had to get to. And he was ok with that.

I guess if he had taken 3 seconds to talk to the family member they could have also c/o how rude and abrupt he was.

Right again!! Why? Because some people just don't get it - they are too selfish or stupid one. Sorry again...still mad thinking about that nurse being written up for that.

[HealthyRN]

I am a nursing student and a recent family member (my father died after a 3 week ICU hospitalization). I am very apalled at the responses I have read! It seems that most of the nurses here could care less about their patients or their families, but are more concerned with their own status and the "Cardiac in Bed 6." As a Nurse or Student Nurse, we have no way of knowing what the family is experiencing or how that radiates/transcends to the client/patient/customer. In NS 101 we were all taught to care for the "Whole Patient"- which includes the family/support mechanism in place.

As an expert in Customer Service (22 yrs and an MBA), EVERY Business, including hospitals must recognize and cater to their customers- or lose them to competition- and most areas have competition even in Health Care.

When we as Nurses, Doctors, Lawyers, Politicans, or even Students forget who signs our paycheck- The Customer/Client, then we are doomed as an Economy, Hospital, or Profession.

Snickett, I am very sorry for the loss of your father. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this difficult time.

However, I have to disagree with you. I don't think that any of the nurses that replied to this thread are saying that they don't care about the patients or their families. I can only speak for myself, but I believe that I am a compassionate person. I can't always truly understand what it is like to be in the patient's/family member's situation, because I haven't had to face the difficult, terrifying, and horrible things that many of my patients go through, but I always try my best. Most importantly, I always try to deliver the best nursing care possible. Sometimes providing the safest nursing care leaves no room for "customer service". Also, I don't believe that good customer service = caring. Do you really think that the drive-thru person handing out your Big Mac and fries with the quick service and a big smile really cares about you?

What it comes down to is the realistic world of nursing versus the idealistic world of nursing. I would love to have enough time to make sure all of my patients and families in the ER are comfortable and enjoying their stay. But somewhere in-between dealing with the patient with a massive GI bleed and a hgb of 4 who needs a stat transfusion and NG tube, the 28-week pregnant female with difficulty breathing and the CT scan just came back positive for a PE, the patient having an acute MI and needs nitro and heparin before going to the cath lab, the elderly woman just brought in by ambulance from the dialysis clinic who has a blood sugar of 20, is in a-fib, and BP of 70/20 and still needs triaged, plus two other patients who are upset that nobody has been in to give meds/treatments, "customer service" kinda falls to the back burner. By the way, this was the report that I received when I arrived for my shift yesterday in the ER. It was not a fun night to say the least.

It is nights like this that cause me to find the phrase "customer service" in health care amusing, at least as long as management is not willing to adequately staff the facility. As a nurse, I am not there to cater to the patients'/families' every desire, I'm just trying my best to keep the patient alive, not make a mistake, and deliver safe nursing care! So yes, I am more concerned about that 'cardiac in bed 6' than providing customer service. Hospitals are not like every other business, because we deal with patients' lives. Perhaps the distinction will be clearer after you work for awhile at the bedside.

[NurseCherlove]

Imaybe I'm a terrible nurse but I will not EVER prioritize one patient's satisfaction over another patient's safety.

Well said!! Here here! You sound like a great nurse by the way!

[PeachPie]

If the hospital wants to provide customer service via other staff, fine. It's unfair to the nurses, who have to worry about comfort and keeping people alive, to be burdened with all sorts of extra jobs. I'm happy to give a back massage or wipe a butt, but not work in a hotel.

[burn out]

How many of us who have been in the hospital or had loved ones in the hospital have complained about the care. There have been several threads about this type of thing. By golly if I'm paying high insurance premiums, taxes to medicare, and high deductables, you but your bippy I'm a customer and you'd best treat me and my family profesionally and deliver quality care or you're going to hear from me.

There is the beginning of the lie. You may be paying high insurance premiums and high deductables but your insurance company is only paying the hospital "reasonable and customary", the rest of your money is going to the insurance company's pockets. The law only requires minimum standard of care and that which is "reasonable and customary" yet we have hospitals telling us that even though they will only staff for delivery of minimum care they still expect us to deliver the maximum of care just as they know we have been taught to do in nursing school.. This pits the patient and family paying high dollars against the nurses who are understaffed and unable to provide all that is considered "customer service". All that you get is frustrated nurses and patients.