Rant:How NOT to be a nurse

[crnahole]

Good evening, I am writing this post because I had recently encountered horrible nursing care. And I want to provide an example for future nurses on how NOT to be. One day my grandmother was found unconscious in the street and was rushed to the nearest hospital. She spent several days in the ICU intubated, with a chest tube (for a pneumothorax) and congestive heart failure. She slowly recovered and was weaned off the ventilator and had the chest tube taken out. The nurses in the ICU provided her with amazing care! She then was discharged to the floor.....

When I visited her on the floor I was flabbergasted with the way she was treated. I walked into the room and saw my grandmother with a vest restraint( which wasn't even tied to the bed), happy to see me. She was placed in a vest restraint because she fell in the bathroom. I asked my grandmother, " what happened, how did you fall?". She replied with, "they walked me to the bathroom and left me there for a very long time so I tried to get back in bed and fell" After falling she had an X ray (which turned out to be fine) but was in a lot of pain (in her back) from the fall. Okay... I get it, nursing is a very busy job, and sometimes you cant be there all the time to help patients... I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, things happen right? I tell my grandmother not to get up until someone is there to help her. I also tell her that if she is in pain to ring her call bell ask for some pain medication. She answered with "they hid the call bell because they said I call too much. It doesn't matter because the wont come anyways. I look around the room and see the call bell hanging on the wall, away from reach. I reattach it to her siderail. She then rings her call bell....... 15 minutes go by without anyone responding to the callbell. So I go to the nurses' station and speak to the nurse, we'll call him "M". M comes to the room and tells my grandmother, " you just had Percocet 30 mins ago, you need to give it time to work". Okay...I get it PO med...have to wait for it to work, makes sense. Half an hour passes and shes still in pain. I use the call bell again, M comes in and she tells him she is still in pain and I add....

Me: hows her Bun/creatinine , maybe we could give her some toradol

M: did you speak with her doctor? They're here in the morning.

Me: No I wasn't here in the morning

M: Ill write the doctors name on a piece of paper, and you could speak to them tomorrow morning

Me: Yea but she's I pain NOW. I'm sure you have a nightfloat or an on call resident who can come assess her

M: are you a nurse or something?

Me: Yes. I'm a nurse anesthetist

M: Oh ...wow. Okay I'll speak too the doctor.

Half an hour passes. No response. So I ring the call ball again and M comes in.

M: still in pain huh?

Me: Yea. Did the doctor say anything?

M: yea I'm waiting for him to put in an order for another Percocet... then I'll give it to her

Another 30 minutes pass by and M is not in sight, so I ask another nurse...

Me: can my grandmother have pain medication?

Nurse: she is not due for her dose.. she already received one.

Me: yea but she is still in pain

nurse: (sigh, rolls eyes) Ill see what I can do

Another 15 minutes pass by....still in pain. I go to the nurses station....

Me: can my grandmother have some pain medication, I was told by M that we were going to give her more Percocet but were waiting for an order

Nurse: That's not my patient but it seems like she already received Percocet

Me: but shes still in pain

Nurse: Ok ill speak with her nurse

Me: ok thank you. And just wondering does she have an incentive spirometer? She barely gets up, and she has CHF, and was fresh from the ICU intubated

Nurse: shes not ordered for one

Me: so... can we get an order for it?

nurse: you have to speak with her doctor

Me: so ... can I speak to the doctor?

nurse: (sigh) .....okay

Another 15 mins pass by with out any pain medication so I go to the nurses station and throw a fit...

Me: My grandmother has been pain, for several hours now. I don't know who is taking care of her I thought it was M

Nurse: M went HOME

Me: well whoever is taking care of her please help her. We're been waiting so long that shes probably in the timeframe for another Percocet

...finally the oncoming nurse comes in gives her some pain medication after waiting for over 3 hours.

I know what it is like to work on the floor. I began my nursing career working on a medsurg floor for 2 years. Things get busy, I get it, but I would never do that to any of my patients. Take away their call bell? Ignore them? Leave them in pain? Have restraints improperly applied? I became a nurse because I want to help people, and I hope others entered this profession feeling the same. I know a lot of nurses become burnt out from understaffing, overworking, and crazy hours, but I want everyone to remember that we are patient advocates. We ARE the patient's voice.

I left the hospital that night with a feeling of uneasiness, hoping that this is an isolated incident and that new nurses don't learn to be this careless. So to all the current and future nurses, please never lose your passion and drive to help others.

[WV-RN]

Wow sorry to hear your grandmother had such a bad experience. My husband was admitted from ER one night with severe abdominal pain. I left him for the night because I thought he would get care being in a hospital. He laid in agony all night with an rotten gallbladder that was so diseased the surgeon said it basically fell apart when he was removing it. Anyways, I called him that morning to check on him only to find he had been in pain all night and they just kept telling him they would call the doctor soon. He was in severe pain all night without meds. When I called the nurses desk that morning to ask what was going on the nurse actually laughed when I told her I was his wife. Like she thought it was funny that he was in pain all night. Nobody had tried to call the dr all night because I asked him when he came in at about 7:30am. The dr examined him and took him to surgery immediately. I made sure I told the dr he needed a PCA pump when he returned to room. It's sad that you have to monitor your own family member when they are in the hospital or they won't get adequate care. I don't expect the royal treatment but you don't even get appropriate care. I've been a nurse for a long time and just with my own family members I have probably twenty other stories just like this. Sad!

[LittleCandles]

Isn't it neglect to withhold call bells and leave a pt who is unstable on the toilet for so long?

I would report that.... Like yesterday.

I'm sorry your grandmothers going through this though.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Wow. You have much more patience than I. Call bells should NEVER be taken away. She shouldn't have been left on the toilet alone as part of the fall protocol. My hospital has computers in the room, and charting can be done while the patient is on the toilet, so there isn't an excuse for "I don't have the time to wait."

I'm sorry this happened to your grandmother. Talk to the unit manager about your concerns. Like tomorrow, first thing.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I'd be talking to the administrater so fast my tongue would be on fire. This isn't just bad nursing. This is abuse. Was this a normal med surg floor, or rehab or SNF? I wonder what their ratios are like.

Also, an order for an incentive spirometer? What? That is standard of care where I work.

[duskyjewel]

I was a CNA on a tele floor for 7 months and even that small amount of experience has reinforced that I would never leave anyone I care about alone in a hospital. Not for five minutes. Did you hear about the recent case before the Supreme Court where hospitals were trying to argue that they couldn't be sued under a certain law because it only applied to SNFs? Their rationale, which they actually stated in court, was that they don't "provide care" they only "perform treatment." Yeah, no doubt. I'll find a link. PS they lost.

[duskyjewel]

Sorry, it was the Arizona Supreme Court. Here ya go. I still can't believe they actually said this:

http://m.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_66194fe8-007b-11e4-84ad-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=jqm

[Texas86RN]

Sadly, this sort of thing occurs often, I have stories of my own, and I have heard of many others. There are a lot of nurses in this field for the wrong reasons, and the nurses that do want to care for their patients have other things to worry about, like charting to hospital standards, or too many patients, insurance will not cover that med etc, sadly computer issues delay care, technology can really work against the medical field at times, these are not excuses, but things nurses have to deal with now

[llg, PhD, RN]

I would have spoken to whoever was in charge -- especially about the call light.

[ponymom]

Every one of the op concerns and experiences is directly related to understaffing. The OP needs to really raise holy hell with the administration. The staff needs to back him/her up.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Every one of the op concerns and experiences is directly related to understaffing. The OP needs to really raise holy hell with the administration. The staff needs to back him/her up.

How do you know it relates to understaffing?

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

If my grandmother ever told me that they "took away her call light because I use it too much" , I would have demanded a house manager (nursing supervisor) immediately. That is abuse. She would have been moved off that unit. No way would I have let that go. Even if in the evening.

I have never ever taken away a call light for someone "calling too much". That is awful. You need to go to administration first thing in the morning.