Saw this on Facebook. Felt the need to share.

[KarmaComesAround]

the post:

"seriously...do you really have to change out the freaking latex gloves at 1:40am?? i bet that freaking box can stay empty until 7am without any problems!!!!"

the replies:

"they do crazy stuff in the hospital to keep the patient and visitors from getting any sleep that's for sure. i hope your brother is getting better. thinking of you and praying for him and the family. hugs."

"oh i'm with you girl! you can not get rest in a hospital. it's either checking bp,or waking you up to give you meds come on people!"

i understand this person is distressed with their loved one in the hospital, but it is a hospital, not a hotel. ok, maybe changing out the gloves can wait, but you never know when there is an emergency, and people need them. and, we are required to make sure the patient is stable during the night and check in on them. at times, it seems you cannot win...either not doing enough or doing too much. we do some "crazy stuff" to purposely keep you awake, like checking bp and giving medications. i think the replies bother me more...so rude, unappreciative, etc... what happened to respect for caring for you or your loved one? guess they would have to walk in our shoes...hate that saying, but most medical staff have empathy, and we have also been in the hospital, and/or we have had a loved one there.

[gymnut]

I volunteer at my hospital from 4pm-7pm and my main job is to fill glove boxes and pass out waters both of which are in high demand. If a patient is sleeping (or appears to be) I will tip toe quietly into the room and see if they need gloves and if so I'll open the glove box outside the room and then rest it gently near the empty tray. Others will just go in and starting slamming everything around and being disruptive which I find uncalled for.

As another poster said I feel the sleep issue depends on the circumstances. If you're in for a couple of days and hardly get any sleep well that's just how it is. Rest when you go home. However my father was in for 6 months. He was in critical care for awhile but was in a medically induced coma. When he was moved to a different part of the hospital he began to go a little nuts. His condition was still slightly serious so it really was around the clock care with tests both on and off site, countless blood work and various other diagnostics being run at all hours of the day. Plus he had on a vac pac that blew out a lot and required frequent painful changes. He was only getting 2 - 3 hours of sleep a day and really began to lose it.

Eventually he flipped out completely and they started him on Ativan and the doctors and nurses came up with a different care plan so he was able to be left alone between certain hours of the night. They even gave him ear plugs and a sleeping mask! Needless to say there was a major improvement all around :)

[angel337, MSN, RN]

You don't get rest in the hospital. You get rest at home after discharge.

thank you. people just can't be pleased.

[stefanyjoy]

Ugh! This reminds me of the other day, I got so mad. I'm pre-nursing, but my coworker says to me, "don't be one of those nasty nurses that wears their scrubs in public places, like a store, that is so disgusting!" All I could picture was my stupid co-worker mean mugging some poor woman who just off a hellish 12-hour night shift who just wants to buy milk and toilet paper on her way home...

[GadgetRN71, ASN, RN]

It's just ignorance, I don't think there's malice behind it. Sometimes, all you can do is this when it comes to the public.

[KneKno]

I rarely have patients that complain about night shift care activities. However, I do not understand the fmaily member that stays with an ill patient overnight and sleeps for 8 hrs. I work in ICU. I've had lights on, done complicated dressing changes, given 2 or 3 complete bed baths to an incontinent pt--and the visitor doesn't stir. I'm pretty sure we could code the pt without the visitor waking up. Why are they there? If they don't get those 8 hrs of sleep, they c/o how much their family member was disturbed (even if the pt was heavily sedated and vented....).

[martymoose, BSN, RN]

i always tell my pts if they have nite meds at whatever time. and i alo tell them if they are on a heart monitor- theyy WILL be having their blood pressure/vs taken every 4 hours- that includes at nite. not to mention with the pt rounding- we will be rounding on them every 2 hours from 10 pm to 6 am. that means i will be walking in their room that often and actually laying an eyeball on them. sorry if i have sqeaky shoes. this is for safety, but also customer service. dont like it- feel free to refuse care so i can document it in your chart as non compliance.

that all being said- i thnk ativan, sleepers, etc should be handed out routinely whe in the hospital.

[katebean04]

I can say, that I was thankful for the nurses who woke me up to check on me and my newborn children after I had them. If this person really stopped to use their brain for a second, they would have been happy that the nurse came to change the glove box/ check bp etc during the night. It really saddens me to hear all of the negative things that people dream up about nurses. Since I have been in school for nursing, I think about the dedicated men and women who leave their families on Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthdays etc. to help complete strangers. That person should have thought more about her brother and less about her sleep. I have been awake for almost 24 hours at the bedside of a family member. Who cares about sleep when it comes to family?!? Being "disturbed" by a nurse, who is coming in to monitor your family member- COME ON! That makes me crazy.

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

I am a nurse and was a night turn nurse for years so I totally get it. Yes, the glove box does need changed at 1am. That is the only time restocking can get done BUT do two housekeepers or whoever need to do this and carry on a full conversation in normal day time voices?? Do I need to hear about Mary's day while they are outside cleaning the floors? Do I need to hear them holler up the hall about lunch and where they are ordering?

Maybe that is what the FB poster was trying to convey?

As a patient in the hospital, no...I wasn't on vacation and needed my wound checks and BP meds and IV flushed at 2am....I didn't need the rest of the noise etc.

[abbaking]

I think patients/visitors need to understand that the hospital is a 24 hour machine. Just becuase its nighttime, does not mean you will be tucked in and sleep like a baby.

Certain things irk me the wrong way. Just the other day, I had a patient go banana's at me for waking him up for 0400 vitals. "I can't get any sleep, I want rest - you idiots keep waking me up for this mundane BS". I always tell the patients that they have ever right to refuse any treatment or procedure. Frankly, I am too busy to get involved in a power play with ungrateful and rude patients. If they refuse, I document everything. I had a patient the other day that was repeatedly threatening to leave AMA. I brought over the paperwork and said they can leave if they decide to (fully informing them that insurance will cover NOTHING and they will pay out of pocket for EVERYTHING).

Patients have the wrong idea about night shift. They assume we pass meds at 9pm and tuck them in. They assume we sleep on duty. When collecting dinner meal trays, Often I get asked "Would you like to finish what I didnt eat"? (cross-contamination in a MRSA isolation room - not even for a million dollars!).

I had once older gentleman on his call light literally every 5 minutes demanding to be taken outside to smoke. #1: Sir, this is a smoke-free campus. #2: Even if we allowed smoking we still would not have the time to take you out. "BUT I WANT TO SMOKE NOW!!!"

I am ranting here, but that what happens with old age and years of experience.

[coolpeach]

I had a patient a few weeks ago who called me in for prn pain meds at about 2am. He apologized for having to wake me up. He was a 50ish year old male. I just couldn't believe he actually thought we were somewhere sleeping.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Having spent a lot of time in critical care, on a pediactric oncology ward, in peds neuro ICU and on a ped endocrinology floor (two very sick kiddos, one still with us, one not), I can say I have a great deal of appreciation and respect for the nurse who manages to come in at nights, do awesome care and still manages to do it in a way that is soft, subtle, kind, competent and minimally disruptive. I went out of my way to communicate our desire/need to sleep at night as much as possible and to trouble shoot ways to make this happen together with the nurse (ie combining vitals with meds so we didn't have to be awakened by both the tech and the nurse an hour apart, using the bathroom light instead of flipping on the overhead, combining meds as much as possible, etc). I only had two nurses that ever had a problem. One was just uncooperative; one was fresh out of school and didn't have a good skill level with the IV pump yet. All the others managed to honor our wishes and to do so with extreme professionalism. And I was grateful. Very. And said so frequently and with doughnuts.

So thank you to those of you who still care and who keep a good dialogue with the family. As mentioned above, communication does a great deal to diffuse frustration on all sides. We got what we needed in the vein of what was realistic for the treatment that was going on; they got what they needed in the vein of balancing our needs with the medical requirements and a grateful family who felt part of the team and wanted the nurses to know we appreciated them and all they did for us.

Lots of middle ground between "go home AMA if you want to sleep!" and "Get out of my room at night no matter what!!"

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

I went out of my way to communicate our desire/need to sleep at night as much as possible and to trouble shoot ways to make this happen together with the nurse (ie combining vitals with meds so we didn't have to be awakened by both the tech and the nurse an hour apart, using the bathroom light instead of flipping on the overhead, combining meds as much as possible, etc).

When I was a floor nurse on 7P to 7A, this was just part of my routine. I always asked the tech to come get me when she was going in for VS, or if my pts were stable and I had time I would just do the vitals myself when I went in for meds and/or assessment at 0400. I always thought this was just part of being a night nurse! Of course, there are times when you have no choice but to disrupt a pt/family member's sleep if things are going wrong, but minimizing it as much as possible was always one of my major goals.

I am a little bit amazed that you had to have the conversation, but good for you for advocating for your child and family in a way that was respectful to the nurse and staff.