As health care professionals, we have a unique opportunity to meet many people who affect us in so many ways. Our patients challenge and encourage us, and each one has a story. If we're lucky, we are allowed the rare opportunity to not only know our patient--we get to know our patients' loved ones, too. I love it when a loved one wants to help and become involved in my patient's care. There are some instances when those who try so hard to help inadvertently create unusual situations that can be, well, non therapeutic. I have some favorites I'd like to share with you.
Oh, yes, we know them. The throngs of visitors, family members, and guests who flock to comfort our patients. This is just for fun. See if you can name some of our favorite guests.
The good Samaritan who brings your post-surgical NPO except ice patient some pungent tacos because the patient said he felt hungry. Patient eats three bites and begins vomiting epically. The visitor, big-eyed and instantly remorseful, tells you, "But he said he was getting really hungry and you guys weren't bringing him anything!" At least three places in the room, including the door, say "NPO x Ice". There will be Phenergan. Visitor bolts because of the smell and leaves the wrappers in the garbage.
The PCA pump spouse who watches the clock and pushes the PCA button every ten minutes, even if her husband is asleep. She tells me she doesn't want him to wake up in pain. Luckily, with the help of Narcan and some skilled critical assistance folks, the husband gets to see his wife's face again. No matter how many times you educate...
To my young patient's friend: I can see you care about your buddy's comfort and worry that we aren't giving him his choice dose of powerful narcotics. There are reasons. He is constipated, he is experiencing AMS, and a zillion other things. While it's kind of you to bring supplementary meds and slip them to your friend, it kind of messes up his breathing and living. Please don't visit again.
I like meeting my patient's relatives, but if I have already met 20 and answered the same 400 questions, I'm going to nicely ask you to start talking to my patient or to each other. Maybe bring a tape recorder when the doctor comes in if the patient agrees. I want you all on the same page.
Speaking of relatives, I know the hospital can be noisy, cold, annoying, and frightening. Should your facility permit, I have no problem with one of your relatives staying overnight. Just a foreword--the couches don't get any more comfortable, we will be coming in the room to do annoying procedures like vital signs and medication administration, the room will either be too hot or too cold, the patient down the hall may yell, there may not be 4 pillows readily available, and the TV does not have HBO. Plan accordingly.
We love kids. We just don't love it with young children decide to bounce on Grandpa and bust his stitches. Unfortunately, the care providers prefer that catheter bags, oxygen devices, JP drains, bed controls, suction canisters, computers, IV pumps/poles, and just about any cool thing be left to the appropriate hospital care provider. We hate to be a bummer. Oh yes, and the gloves. The gloves won't hurt you, but if you pull the entire box on the floor, it costs the hospital money and we don't want that.
Dear overzealous advocate for your sick loved one: I am proud of you for standing up for your friend/family member who isn't feeling 100%. I am happy to report complaints to my supervisor and if I can rectify the problem, by golly, I will. I can not help the shows on TV, the food, the lack of closet space, the consistency of the sheets, the brand of orange juice the hospital provides, the absence of a beauty salon, cafeteria hours, erratic doctor's rounds timing, or the size of your room. I will give you some paper to write those things down for my supervisor or let you talk with my charge nurse. I know I will get bad patient ratings for not correcting all these problems. Next time I will learn.
Please, guys. Don't ask me about labs. I want to tell you. I can't tell you. I'm sorry.
Shift change is a bad time to call about an update on patient condition. Try to call 2 hours before or two hours after shift change. If before shift change, the last shift nurse can give you the low-down. If you call a few hours after shift change, I will have a good handle on your loved one's status. Otherwise, it might be messy and I won't get a chance to thoroughly evaluate my patient.
If you are a visitor and if you curse, threaten, hit, or disturb my patient in any way, you will be leaving. Same goes for me and my colleagues. This is a place for healing.
Family drama is not conducive to healing. If grievances must be aired, please have quiet, non disruptive discussions. Screaming profanities is not therapeutic and everyone will be asked to leave.
I like help, don't get me wrong. But, uh, no matter how strong you are, certain patients require certain strategies to move about, pivot to the commode, whatever. The patient might wind up caught up in any number of tubing, fall, reopen a wound, etc. I like your go-getter attitude, but I'd prefer to help you get the hang of things. I like my patients unharmed.
We all make mistakes. Usually they are minor. It is painful, not fatal, if I accidentally blow an IV on MawMaw's floss veins. Don't call me names, don't assume I am just poking around for kicks. I'll get help if my technique fails. Twice is a good number before I ask another colleague.
I do love family stories, and I'd love to hear them all, but a floor nurse is on the go 24/7. I'm not ignoring you.
Please let the patient talk if he/she can.
There's generally a reason I ask patients' families to call me should something happen. Please don't unhook an IV, remove a mask, or any other 500 things without assistance. Some things could turn out bad.
Do not sneak alcohol to my patient.
Please do not paint my patient's nails, dye her hair, or otherwise alter her appearance unless it's been run by the doctor or me. The polish irritates other patients' lungs and dying hair is messy. No make-up... it's a no-no for surgeries. Please don't clip toenails, wax, or beautify without first checking with your nurse. Some hair styling tools may burn patients and hospital beds.
For those randy, lonely spouses missing their lover in the hospital: NO. Your time will come.
Visitors, never assume you know what's in a random cup.
No strippers. I don't know why I have to include this.
But I must say, on the whole, a good friend or family member helps brighten my patient's day. Please watch to see if my patient looks tired or in pain, because he/she may need a break. Your love, support, and comfort help beyond what I can do sometimes.
Oh jeez. Really? I'm so tired of these comments on this site. Please come back when you're an actual nurse with experience. Comments like these make me wish non nurses and nursing students were banned from commenting in the areas for nurses. I'm sorry if this seems snarky, but it's always the same thing.
Mine is the woman who spent the night with her husband who positively flipped out on us cause machines kept beeping. AFTER we told her it was against the rules but would let her to be nice. And she acts like that? Told her to go home we were enforcing visiting times from now on for the sake of our other pts because of the scene she caused at 3am.
I am not a nurse yet, so, I have not had the opportunity to experience any of the situations mentioned before. I will start this fall in an RN program. I am an older student and this is my second career. I know all careers have their challenging moments since we are dealing with human beings from all walks of life. However, I get the impression that many nurses are just jaded and extremely over-worked. Like the last nurse who commented, not all people know and understand "the rules". Visitors and loved ones are worried, scared, uncomfortable, nervous, etc. to see their friend, father, mother, grandmother, etc. in pain and sick. As nurses it is important to understand this and have empathy and sympathy not only for the patient, but their family as well. It is not our place to judge other people's intentions, motives, behavior...what might be unacceptable to you and your family, might be the norm for others. Some families are loud, some are reserved. Your place is not to judge. If the loudness bothers you and inhibits your duties, say something, otherwise, it isn't your place to judge. It is a nurse's job to explain to everyone what is needed for you to care for the patient. If that means sending 6 of the 10 people out of the room, just tell them to come back later. How difficult is that? If you need everyone to leave so you feel confident in your care, explain that...being kind and honest is usually a good choice. Tell people the rules in a non-condescending manner, yet, be authoritative in explaining why. Don't expect people to know and think like you do. Expect people to hear you and abide by the rules, once they know them. Some people have never been in a hospital before, you have to be empathetic to all situations. People handle stress and sadness in different ways...I thought they taught this in our fundamental nursing classes...I was just shocked at the tone of the article.
Considering you are not a nurse, your textbook experience doesn't really fit into judging what we feel does it? How can you tell people who actually have experienced such things that they are jaded based on your fundamentals class experience?
Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.
I am not a nurse yet, so, I have not had the opportunity to experience any of the situations mentioned before. I will start this fall in an RN program. I am an older student and this is my second career. I know all careers have their challenging moments since we are dealing with human beings from all walks of life. However, I get the impression that many nurses are just jaded and extremely over-worked. Like the last nurse who commented, not all people know and understand "the rules". Visitors and loved ones are worried, scared, uncomfortable, nervous, etc. to see their friend, father, mother, grandmother, etc. in pain and sick. As nurses it is important to understand this and have empathy and sympathy not only for the patient, but their family as well. It is not our place to judge other people's intentions, motives, behavior...what might be unacceptable to you and your family, might be the norm for others. Some families are loud, some are reserved. Your place is not to judge. If the loudness bothers you and inhibits your duties, say something, otherwise, it isn't your place to judge. It is a nurse's job to explain to everyone what is needed for you to care for the patient. If that means sending 6 of the 10 people out of the room, just tell them to come back later. How difficult is that? If you need everyone to leave so you feel confident in your care, explain that...being kind and honest is usually a good choice. Tell people the rules in a non-condescending manner, yet, be authoritative in explaining why. Don't expect people to know and think like you do. Expect people to hear you and abide by the rules, once they know them. Some people have never been in a hospital before, you have to be empathetic to all situations. People handle stress and sadness in different ways...I thought they taught this in our fundamental nursing classes...I was just shocked at the tone of the article.
Once you become a nurse & gain some experience you will be right back here posting like everyone else. You have no nursing experience, it's easy to post & say "do this & do that" but gain some experience you'll see how hard things really are.
Specializes in Neurosurgery, Oncology, Level 1 Trauma.
Terr
As a RN of 6 years and a former Licensed Paramedic of 18, I'd like to suggest that you....
1. Get over yourself, and your ideas about what you think Nursing is like.
2. Get some real world experience as say a CA while in school before you even begin to think you understand the hospital, LTAC or SNF evironment or humor (Google will tell you what the letters stand for)
3. Shut your pie hole, because most of us real nurses that take care of our patients everyday, put our hearts and souls into our work and advocate non-stop for these people that we care for, see the humor in these posts...... why....... because we have all shared these exact same situations, that you can't even fathom.
Oh yeah..... in a few years after you graduate and have your 1st job and with it your first breakdown because your patients are crashing while another patients family is demanding a Sprite..... maybe one of us snarky, cynical and well seasoned Rn's will be there to dust you off, dry your tears and reassure you that it will be ok.
I was enjoying all the posts smiling,nodding my head in agreement until the infamous post from a NON NURSE WHO DOESN'T EVEN WORK IN HEALTH CARE. My comment to all the following comments to the future "Florence Nightingale"-maybe:) were absolutely spot on,couldn't add more accurative posts/POV's. Thanks again to all who contributed to this topic & yet we still go on & make each other smile about it while reading.:)
Comments like these make me wish non nurses and nursing students were banned from commenting in the areas for nurses. I'm sorry if this seems snarky, but it's always the same thing.
I totally understand your frustration, as I was reading the post you're referring to, I thought "Oh geez, here we go again". But I just wanna say, it really is a bad apple that ruins the bunch. As a student, I've thoroughly enjoyed the insight and knowledge I've gained from the forums for nurses. It's been a really positive experience, I know some are annoying and come here with the typical "I'm not a nurse but you all are burnt out and mean"-- but I'd like to think the majority of us are gaining from and appreciating the nursing forums.
Thank you twss 2323!! It's the NURSING HUMOR board. It's anonymous and we get to vent and joke here. You can absolutely love something(like your mother perhaps) and just one day need to vent all their annoying habits. It's human!!! It's like they've never read a post here or something. Heads up to all you "future nurses". Here's the formula to your post:
1. Nurses make a funny post to blow of steam.
2. Bout 15 funny responses
3. Future nurse makes some self righteous comment.
4. Actual nurses read your profile. Comment you're not a nurse yet
5. 20 comments from nurses who actually work who you feel jump down your throat.
6. You comment about how we're mean and awful and just horrible nurses(while you're not even gotten your feet wet yet).
7. More real nurses jump in.
8. You say we're awful and you're never posting anything ever again.
9. Nurses say good riddance.
10. Nurses start commenting on topic posted after about 50 comments or so.
So news flash. Topic runs before your comment. It continues after your comment. Your little comment in between does nothing but invite people to be angry with you. So why invite negative attention upon yourself for no reason. If it bugs you, just stop reading and move on. We'll never know and won't comment. If it's out of line and not allowed the moderators are great and will shut it down. If they haven't obviously it's not that offensive to begin with.
What appears logical and perhaps a "no brainer" to us nurses does not necessarily mean the same to visitors/family/friends.
While there are things that are annoying to a nurse on one level or another, education with empathy and understanding will go a long way. Visitors may not understand instructions fully or have their own reasons for not following, which needs exploration.
I believe that there is no intent to sabotage the nurse's workflow or work for that matter.
Being a patient in a hospital and on the "other side" was an eye opener in many ways!
I really didn't have time to educate the two Grandpas who were VIDEOING my pt while she was in active labor, transitioning in a triage room the size of a cracker box while I'm trying to prep her for a c-section and keep her from coming off of the bed in so much pain. I could barely fit at the bedside and I'm not big. Dad was texting and Grandma was trying to wrangle two little kids. I just really feel like grown ups should be able to take social cues and get a clue.
floridanurse1983
169 Posts
Oh jeez. Really? I'm so tired of these comments on this site. Please come back when you're an actual nurse with experience. Comments like these make me wish non nurses and nursing students were banned from commenting in the areas for nurses. I'm sorry if this seems snarky, but it's always the same thing.