So here I am sitting with my grandmother who is in the hospital with UTI, sepsis, ARF, and dehydration. I've only seen the nurse twice and I've been here since 6am. No one has assessed her, looked at her skin, or brought her fresh ice. No hourly rounds? They are obviously not on any computer systems but they don't even bring a paper MAR into the room when giving meds. I always assess my patients and at least try to round every other hour. What is the deal? Glad I'm here to look after her.
Last night my g-ma had a small seizure. Only lasted 10 seconds, no ictal period, but she had some disorientation afterwards. When we told the nurse she just said... "I'm sure she didn't have a seizure." Um... you know a seizure when you see one. Thankfully I was here this morning to tell the doctor about it. He thinks it was related to everything going on with her.
I just don't feel safe leaving her here but I can't stay 24/7. Also I have to back to work Thursday. Please say a prayer.
I hope your grandmother is feeling better. Unfortunately, the workload that nurses must take on, will have a direct impact on the type of nursing care that is given. I have gone through a similar experience with my mother. I am not making excuses for bad nursing. However, I have found that heavy workloads forces good nurses to set priorities according to the severely of the patient's condition. Many years ago, nurses got to know their patients. Today, It is a very different scenario. We have become task oriented nurses, because we are now given so much more responsibility, and we must constantly keep our focus in order to avoid errors at all cost. Sadly, we are not always able to be as nurturing as we should be.:redpinkhe
i didn't get the impresson that lack of nurturing was the problem here.
the op's grandmother's legs were extremely edematous and ended up developing dvt's...
which could have been totally prevented with your very basic nsg care.
Last night at work I started with 7 pts and ended up with 10!!! Nurse called in sick and the hall worked short. The whole night I was overwhelmed, within inches of a meltdown. None of my pts received good care. I didn't do a good job. I left feeling awful. If I had been your grandmothers nurse, you could be talking about me.
Sadly I have also seen it often...my mother was in hospital recently (anterior bowel resection) and we (the family) arrived at around 4pm. The day nurse who started at 7am was still working. We asked her about moms condition...when I asked, the nurse didn't even know if she had a catheter in ! And she had been here since mom arrived on the floor hours ago from surgery, and mom was supposed to be her patient.
The other nurses also had no idea - they had to go through all of moms notes . This wasn't an assumption that they didn't know what they were doing...they actually told us that they had "no idea" about my mom.
During the next few days they did not improve...they came in with saline to flush her drip one day, in the syringe , got distracted and left it on her bedside table. The next day I went in to visit her and it was still lying there, same position. The nurse came in and said "Oh...this must be some saline ??" and was going to put it in her drip ! She wasn't even sure if it was saline !!
:argue:
This hospital does have a reputation as being a horrible hospital...but it was the only one that could take mom in quickly (she had cancer that needed to be removed a.s.a.p)
Last night at work I started with 7 pts and ended up with 10!!! Nurse called in sick and the hall worked short. The whole night I was overwhelmed, within inches of a meltdown. None of my pts received good care. I didn't do a good job. I left feeling awful. If I had been your grandmothers nurse, you could be talking about me.
Although I have never had 10 patients, let alone 7, I can say that I have had shifts like this, and I know how it feels. Even so, assessments are a priority. Patients may have to wait for a Sierra Mist, warm blanket, or even to be helped to the bathroom, because my assessments and meds are more important.
If this kind of care had just been provided by one nurse, then I could see how it could be chalked up to that nurse having a heavy load or being overwhelmed, but it seemed to be across the board. NONE of the nurses did assessments.
To me, this points to a problem with the facility itself. Some of the questions I would have asked the nurses was how many patients they had, how long their shifts were, how long they've worked there, stuff like that. Because we do know that the higher the patient to nurse ratio, the worse the outcomes. Lengthy shifts can lead to fatigue, and high turnover points to a host of potential causes. These would all be red flags to me.
One of the nurses that took care of my grandmother during most of her stay had been a nurse 35 years. And used to be an ICU nurse. I know that you can get a lot of information just by looking at and talking to your patient, but you can't hear their heart/lungs that way.
Imintrouble,
I do not believe this thread is beating up nurses. I don't think most nurses skip out on assessment (esp nurses on this forum). I hope not anyway.
One of the nurses that took care of my grandmother during most of her stay had been a nurse 35 years. And used to be an ICU nurse. I know that you can get a lot of information just by looking at and talking to your patient, but you can't hear their heart/lungs that way.
Again, the fact that none of the nurses were doing complete assessments raises questions in my mind about that facility. Why is it that virtually the entire nursing staff feels comfortable taking this kind of shortcut? While we are all responsible for our own practice, we do not practice in a vacuum. The environment we work in has a direct impact on the care we deliver.
My potassium was 2.5, but they didn't check a tele strip to see if maybe I had an arrhythmia. My heart rate was 150. My BP was 65/30 (which made the trips to the sink and bathroom a dizzying and ardurous experience) but that was only checked twice.
Your potassium was low because you kept pooping it out. Your pooping didn't stop because you kept taking in fluids and stressing your gut.
My potassium was 2.5, but they didn't check a tele strip to see if maybe I had an arrhythmia. My heart rate was 150. My BP was 65/30 (which made the trips to the sink and bathroom a dizzying and ardurous experience) but that was only checked twice.
Your potassium was low because you kept pooping it out. Your pooping didn't stop because you kept taking in fluids and stressing your gut. It's so frustrating when people get sicker because they don't believe our instructions are necessary. If you'd had a cup you could have drank yourself into an arrest.
Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Last night at work I started with 7 pts and ended up with 10!!! Nurse called in sick and the hall worked short. The whole night I was overwhelmed, within inches of a meltdown. None of my pts received good care. I didn't do a good job. I left feeling awful. If I had been your grandmothers nurse, you could be talking about me.
Unfortunately this became the norm for me in nursing - not the 10 patients but that feeling - inches of a meltdown, none of my patients (feeling like none of) receiving good care, me not doing a good job, me feeling awful!! that should NOT be the norm. Why can't they do something? And yes, my assessments really suffered, speaking of this thread, which is one reason I keep leaving nursing, I can't feel ok about myself doing nursing that way.
Sorry to hear that this is happening.
Sadly I have also seen it often...my mother was in hospital recently (anterior bowel resection) and we (the family) arrived at around 4pm. The day nurse who started at 7am was still working. We asked her about moms condition...when I asked, the nurse didn't even know if she had a catheter in ! And she had been here since mom arrived on the floor hours ago from surgery, and mom was supposed to be her patient.
The other nurses also had no idea - they had to go through all of moms notes . This wasn't an assumption that they didn't know what they were doing...they actually told us that they had "no idea" about my mom.
During the next few days they did not improve...they came in with saline to flush her drip one day, in the syringe , got distracted and left it on her bedside table. The next day I went in to visit her and it was still lying there, same position. The nurse came in and said "Oh...this must be some saline ??" and was going to put it in her drip ! She wasn't even sure if it was saline !!
:argue:
This hospital does have a reputation as being a horrible hospital...but it was the only one that could take mom in quickly (she had cancer that needed to be removed a.s.a.p)
scary stuff and again, see what I wrote above this quote...
I work in a very well known hosp in our community.My father was transferred to my facility fm his community hosp. The care he received was in a word HORRIBLE.I was very disappointed and heart broken that the place that I worked treated him so badly.It has totally made me rethink nursing and I have been a nurse more than 20yrs.
Hours without anyone checking on him-monitor alarms that went off without anyone seeming to notice. A aspiration event for which I will forever blame the nurse.....I could go on and on. It seem that the new breed of nurses just do not care!
leslie :-D
11,191 Posts
i didn't get the impresson that lack of nurturing was the problem here.
the op's grandmother's legs were extremely edematous and ended up developing dvt's...
which could have been totally prevented with your very basic nsg care.
leslie