Hi, my name is AngelfireRN, I'll be your nurse tonight.
I am not a waitress, nor am I your slave.
Yelling and hurling obscenities at me will not get you your pain meds any sooner than they are ordered. Nor will having your family member or entourage do the same.
Threatening lawsuits and having umpteen family members camp out in the halls or hold up the nurse's station will not get you preferential treatment.
Physically grabbing me as I go down the hall is NOT a good idea.
I do not give the orders, but I do have to follow/enforce them. This is something that you should take up with your doctor.
No, I will not call him again to ask him for more pain medicine. He has been called twice and has said no both times.
No, I will not give you his number so you can "straighten him out".
No, you are not my only patient, and I highly doubt that you are single-handedly paying my salary. On the off chance that you are, let's talk about a raise.
NO, NO, NO, I most empahatically will NOT come get you when it is time for your next pain shot while you are having a smoke break. I also will not bring it to you in the smoking room. (Have actually said that, I am allergic to cigarettes. I did it once, had an asthma attack, desatted to 83, and turned blue, according to the patient and my charge nurse, after the patient had to help me back to the floor).
No, I don't really care if your family has not eaten all day, they drove here by themselves, they are not sick, and no, I will not call for 6 guest trays. (This of course, is if the patient in question does not need all 6 family members present, and is not at death's door).
No, you may not have 3 six-packs of soda from the kitchen, there are other people that would like a snack, too.
No, they will not open up the kitchen up just for you, at 1 in the morning, because you don't like the snacks we have on the floor.
I could think of hundreds, but those will do for a start. I know it sounds mean, but this is why I got out of bedside nursing. When a hospital becomes the Hilton, I'm gone!
Specializes in Cardiac, Hospice, Float pool, Med/Peds.
Just because the Dr. came in and said you are being discharged does not mean that I don't have a ton of paperwork to do. You will not be able to walk out the door the minute that the MD says you are able to leave... I hate it when I come into the room and the patient is all dressed and wants to leave right now... GRRR
Squeakykitty: "Yeah, you're a selfish demanding person who thinks the entire hospital should revolve around your piddly complaint, never mind the fact that there are other really sick people in here who who need care----and they are acting a lot nicer than you are!"
And invariably, this phrase is said usually by someone that has minimal power.
I have worked in some facilities, where I dealt with the truly famous - people on TV, in clothing design, music, etc. And for the most part (not all), they polite and easy to deal with.
It is the owner of the local orange grove/car dealership/law group/second cousin of a state rep in DididlySquat Springs, State in the Middle of Nowhere that feels the need to throw their "weight" around.
What I would like to say.....
Each time you say " I am good friends with Jack, you know the guy WHO SIGNS YOUR PAYCHECK!!!!! - we play golf regularly", WINK WINK........
'''''''''''''''''each time, I double the number of times that I spit in your water pitcher.
And invariably, this phrase is said usually by someone that has minimal power.
I have worked in some facilities, where I dealt with the truly famous - people on TV, in clothing design, music, etc. And for the most part (not all), they polite and easy to deal with.
It is the owner of the local orange grove/car dealership/law group/second cousin of a state rep in DididlySquat Springs, State in the Middle of Nowhere that feels the need to throw their "weight" around.
What I would like to say.....
Each time you say " I am good friends with Jack, you know the guy WHO SIGNS YOUR PAYCHECK!!!!! - we play golf regularly", WINK WINK........
'''''''''''''''''each time, I double the number of times that I spit in your water pitcher.
(just kidding)
I was a pt. care tech. at the hospital a certain NFL QB went to after a bad motorcycle accident. This all happened a few months after I had left the place. I graduated school and went to another facility for my first job. But I still kept in contact with a number of people from that hospital.
They said he was a dream come true pt. He was more motivated than the usuall pt., set his alarm for when PT was coming and got himself ready and everything. He was polite and personable to everyone from his physician to his nurse to the housekeeper on the unit that day.
Of course, part of that may be that he was given preferential treatment. But, you can play the "which came first, the chicken/egg" game too here. I do believe some of his preferential treatment came from how much people liked him.
I was a pt. care tech. at the hospital a certain NFL QB went to after a bad motorcycle accident. This all happened a few months after I had left the place. I graduated school and went to another facility for my first job. But I still kept in contact with a number of people from that hospital.
They said he was a dream come true pt. He was more motivated than the usuall pt., set his alarm for when PT was coming and got himself ready and everything. He was polite and personable to everyone from his physician to his nurse to the housekeeper on the unit that day.
Of course, part of that may be that he was given preferential treatment. But, you can play the "which came first, the chicken/egg" game too here. I do believe some of his preferential treatment came from how much people liked him.
And this sounds like an NFL player who had a scandal-free career, and a happy life after he retired.
Are you sooo helpless that you can't bend your straw/move your kleenex box a half an inch. If you can press the call light, you can do this. And just why is it that you need the kleenex box moved half an inch?
Just because the Dr. came in and said you are being discharged does not mean that I don't have a ton of paperwork to do. You will not be able to walk out the door the minute that the MD says you are able to leave... I hate it when I come into the room and the patient is all dressed and wants to leave right now... GRRR
Or the family member tracks you down to tell you the same....
No i cant get your dad home any quicker as we are waiting for transport to get back to us. There is 5 inches of snow on the roads and the county has a shortage of grit so i kinda doubt he will be coming home today. Ringing us every 5 minutes will not get him home any faster, if anything it slows things down as transport cant get through as you are on the blinking line!!!Trust us, we want him out of here as much as you do.
Just because the Dr. came in and said you are being discharged does not mean that I don't have a ton of paperwork to do. You will not be able to walk out the door the minute that the MD says you are able to leave... I hate it when I come into the room and the patient is all dressed and wants to leave right now... GRRR
WHY don't units have an admission/discharge nurse?? That would expedite discharges, improve patient flow, and in general make everybody's life so much easier. I hate when I have a discharge to get ready, but I also have 4 other patients that need meds, somebody needs to get to the cath lab, someone else needs to get OOB and there's no CNA in sight, etc etc etc. I'd love to get the discharge out the door as much as they'd love to go.
Oh, and it would help immensely if that ever-so-helpful MD would have his discharge directions clearly stated and the discharge meds checked against the medication reconciliation sheet so that I wouldn't have to track him down for clarifications.
:yeah:
:angryfire:spbox:
diane227, LPN, RN
1,941 Posts
I am the charge nurse and I have to interact with her to keep her off the staff nurses. I have been taking care of all communication with her.