"Hardened" Healthcare Providers

Nurses Safety

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I recently floated to the ER and witnessed such poor ethics in two nurses and paramedics I was astounded! The EMT team brought in an extremely morbidly obese woman in respiratory distress who was “caked” in feces. Their heads were wrapped in towels because of the odor she emitted!

The EMT’s placed her in the bay while I started her vitals and placed her leads. They walked over to the nurse’s station and two RN’s and the EMT’s began talking about how filthy her home was and how disgusting the patient was. Their conversation was loud enough for the patient and the surrounding patients to hear!

I was mortified and embarrassed for the health profession! Sure the patient was disgusting. Sure she was filthy. But aren’t we taught to deliver healthcare in a non-judgmental manner?? Yes, I am new to nursing (and healthcare as a whole), but is this what happens to healthcare providers after years of witnessing these types of incidents? I said nothing, but delivered the type of care I was trained to deliver without judgment of the patient and with the compassion I show other patients.

What should I have done? How do I handle this type of situation in the future? Any input would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Specializes in Pediatrics.
When you get more time in the ER you will see there is the nursing school way and the real way of doing things.

That's for sure true, but the fact that you don't seem ashamed of it shows that at some point you veered off the path of proper patient care and can't find your way back. All that "psychosocial BS" and the "nursing school way" is why nursing is supposedly a profession. MOST nursing care I have seen is substandard and makes nurses look just one step above someone on the line at McDonalds. I say have some self-respect and practice professional nursing.

This is probably the most scathing post I've ever made on this site, but one thing I can't handle is sloppy nurses who use the excuse that they've been around and this is how it's done!

Since I was 11 years old (23 now) I have been a severe asthmatic. I refuse to go to the ER for any reason due to the callous and just plain cruel treatment i receive from nursing professionals there. The way my ashtma works is that i get enough oxygen, but i cant expel the CO2 in my luings. Several sources, including RT's and docs have confirmed that many asthmatics have this problem, and with these types of athsmatics it's very common for them to get 100% + reading on a pulse ox. More times than i can count I have had a nurse tell me that I'm just making up my breathing difficulty and they think i should just go home. If my mom was not a nurse these incidences would have caused me to lose all faith in the nursing community. Nobody wants to feel like they are dying only to be told that the people who are supposed to help them don't want to help them because they beleive the illness is being faked. Btw, I'm not attacking nurses in this, just trying to give my perspective from when i was a patient, and the traumatic experiences i had.

Since I was 11 years old (23 now) I have been a severe asthmatic. I refuse to go to the ER for any reason due to the callous and just plain cruel treatment i receive from nursing professionals there. The way my ashtma works is that i get enough oxygen, but i cant expel the CO2 in my luings. Several sources, including RT's and docs have confirmed that many asthmatics have this problem, and with these types of athsmatics it's very common for them to get 100% + reading on a pulse ox. More times than i can count I have had a nurse tell me that I'm just making up my breathing difficulty and they think i should just go home. If my mom was not a nurse these incidences would have caused me to lose all faith in the nursing community. Nobody wants to feel like they are dying only to be told that the people who are supposed to help them don't want to help them because they beleive the illness is being faked. Btw, I'm not attacking nurses in this, just trying to give my perspective from when i was a patient, and the traumatic experiences i had.

that is pitiful!

i'm sorry you've had that experience.

but please don't lump most nurses into that shallow stereotype.

most PROFESSIONALS know to assess the pt and not the devices.

as for the loudened emts and nurses, "psychosocial bs" is a critical part of appeasing a pts' fears/anxieties, as well as a means of encouraging them to feel safe in the hands of their healthcare provider(s).

i agree that many of us have that 'black humor'.

but it usually is and should be confined to any area away from the pts and the public.

whenever i've heard the loud conversations between hcps, i have no problem in reminding them to keep it down, discreetly pointing to those who can hear them talk.

thankfully, many 'professionals' are just that.

leslie

sorry.

duplicate post.

leslie

YOWZA!

triplicate post!!

mod, someone delete please????

Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.

Tencat and others are correct. While it is unfortunate that the EMTs had a patient such as the one described, their conversation should have been saved for the ambulance bay or break room. Certainly not appropriate for "the desk" or any other such public place.

It is however, majorly disgusting when you're in the back of an ambulance with someone caked in poop and it's 95 degrees in the rig. Um, can anyone catch my vomit...cuz it's for sure gonna happen.

And while it is absolutely a coping mechanism...it is nonetheless inappropriate for a topic of public conversation. What if that were your mother??

vamedic4

Sometimes wrong, always Dad

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

We need to vent, and it's hard not to take notice of such a patient in such conditions and not talk about it. But they were out of line.

Specializes in Peds Cardiology,Peds Neuro,Pedi ER,PICU, IV Jedi.
Since I was 11 years old (23 now) I have been a severe asthmatic. I refuse to go to the ER for any reason due to the callous and just plain cruel treatment i receive from nursing professionals there. The way my ashtma works is that i get enough oxygen, but i cant expel the CO2 in my luings. Several sources, including RT's and docs have confirmed that many asthmatics have this problem, and with these types of athsmatics it's very common for them to get 100% + reading on a pulse ox. More times than i can count I have had a nurse tell me that I'm just making up my breathing difficulty and they think i should just go home. If my mom was not a nurse these incidences would have caused me to lose all faith in the nursing community. Nobody wants to feel like they are dying only to be told that the people who are supposed to help them don't want to help them because they beleive the illness is being faked. Btw, I'm not attacking nurses in this, just trying to give my perspective from when i was a patient, and the traumatic experiences i had.

It's a shame you're treated that way Raksha...anyone who knows ANYTHING about the condition would know that you can't get it OUT, due to inflammation AND bronchoconstriction. Because they refuse to look at the patient and not the pulse ox...You can have sats in the 90s and above and still have capillary refill times of greater than two seconds...indicating WHAT??? Can we spell hypoxia....

vamedic4

going to work out

Specializes in Perioperative; Gyn-Onc.

Thank goodness the majority of respondents feel as I do! I've met other nurses who have become somewhat calloused to their patient's situations, and I do NOT want to become part of that statistic.

I have to wonder what caused this patient's circumstances? Perhaps she lived alone, fell, and was unable to get up, causing her to soil herself. Our view of this patient would certainly change were that to be true, wouldn't it??

Unfortunately, I can see how years of exposure to drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members, criminals, and other patients who care nothing about their own health, can make some health care individuals (or any public servant) view humanity in a very different manner. Since I started nursing in an inner-city hospital, I have seen sides of humanity I never knew existed....and that terrifies me! I only hope and pray I can retain my rose-colored view of nursing that all new nurses possess, and continue to provide unbiased, compassionate care to my patients for many years to come.

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

Well, the rose-colored glasses get broken pretty quick---when we've seen something a thousand times, we tend to become a little jaded.:o

That, however, does NOT relieve us of our duty to give competent and professional care to everyone, regardless of the circumstances. Nobody ever said we have to like our patients; we have only to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves. It's hard in some cases, but plain and simple, it's not our job to stand in judgment of those in our care.

'Nuff said.;)

Hello to everyone ! I got interested with this ethical display by heathcare providers that have forgotten their oath to fairness to everyone and especially the sick. Their attitudes needs to change and that can be corrected properly by reporting to the supervisor in the unit. A drastic punisment is not proper but the ethical issue has to be addressed and they should have to take some kind of inservice as a review to professional ethical behavior and this will serve as warning for them. Hopefully this could change their behavior.

I have been an RN for 25 years, and have been given all kinds of excuses for unproessional behavior. The nursing school way vs. the real world is one of my favorites. It is usually the result of either a nurse who should never have picked this profession, or people who get into the real world and find that standing up for the RIGHT way of doing things is too hard.

There is never a reason for making fun of a person's lifestyle, there may be unknown (and usually is) reasons both economically and psychologically for what these people are going through. Those who were standing at the station laughing and ridiculing are probably the same ones who picked on others in grade school also. Easier to care for people who are "normal", whatever that means, than to delve into helping those who we don't understand.

Specializes in Critical Care, Cardiothoracics, VADs.
There is no excuse for saying this where she could hear it. I use black humour same as most nurses, but I wouldn't dream of doing it within my patients' families' earshot.

:yeahthat:

There is no excuse for that. I would speak to my manager or write an incident report.

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