I really like the Reader's Digest new monthly article. 13 things_____ won't tell you. This month it was teachers. So here are some I would like to see listed for nursing:
I really resent when you call and say you need a nurse immediately and when I get to the room you tell me you need a drink of water with a lot of ice. That is NOT something you need immediately and not something you need a nurse to do for you. Next time I won't hurry.
Standing at the desk staring at me isn't going to get me moving any faster, I am on the phone with the doctor getting orders. Glaring doesn't help either.
I understand you just had surgery, part of your recovery process is getting up and walking, so get up and walk.
Your doctor is an #@$hole, he will kill you sooner or later. Please don't sit there and say to me "well, my doctor says..."
Your family is crazy. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
If you hit me, I will prosecute. I am not your punching bag.
You break my heart. You have been sick for so many years and yet you still smile when I walk into the room. AND manage to make me smile.
I love my work, but it is my work. My life is outside this place with people I love.
Please don't talk to me like I am stupid or deaf. I have a four year college degree and great hearing.
Use your call bell and your inside voice. Screaming nurse, nurse, nurse and banging your cup on the tray table will have people thinking your crazy and they will just ignore you.
When you come in acting like an idiot, your not advocating for your mom. The second you leave every nurse on the floor will avoid that room because they don't want to do a thing to tick you off.
That hug you gave me meant the world to me. The thank you for your great care? Made my day. Yes, I will be back tomarrow and one way or another you will be my patient.
Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work. Nursing is hard physical work.
Eymie, you have nothing to be upset about! We all think that way sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with thinking these thoughts as long as we still get the work done. After all, we're only human! I don't know where people get the idea that nurses are always going to be little rays of sunshine- it just doesn't work that way! You vented..this is a venting thread..therefore, you did nothing wrong!!:loveya:
That I am worried about you receiving good care after I leave, because the nurse following me isn't exactly a great nurse.
That I missed my lunch break, because I was treating your pain and assisting you back to bed. And then I had to call the doctor because you are hypertensive. (This is not a complaint, my patient's are taken care of before I take a break)
That it feels great to hear you say thank you, you have been a great nurse. You have no idea how wonderful it feels to hear that once in a while. (actually, I do say this to patients)
That you have been a lovely family member, not overbearing, not hovering, speaking up when you have a question. You have proven there is a way to be involved in the patient's care without being annoying and rude.
That your doctor never carries a stethoscope around, but yet somehow manages to chart a full head to toe assessment on you after he sees you for 1 minute.
That the reason you have not had the same nurse twice in the 3 days you have been here is because no one wants to take care of you.
That I am going home to say a prayer for you because you are having surgery tomorrow with a crappy surgeon.
1. Just because I say "how can I help you", that doesn't mean I am ready to take you order.I do work in a "service industry" yet the customer has to wait sometimes...the customer isn't always right
2. I am here to help make your stay in the hospital easier, not to be your personal secretary, maid, not to play fetch, and to fix all of you life's problem's.
3. Just because ER states that you can eat when you get to "the floor", that doesn't mean you can eat right away, I need a doctor's order because you may still have to go for more tests.
4. When the doctor says you can be discharged, it doesn't mean that as soon as he/ she walks out the door you need to put on the call light and demand your discharge instructions and scripts.
5. No I can't give you extra vicodin or dilaudid pills so you can have a stash in case you can't get to the pharmacy tonight.
6. No I can't loan you some money to pay for your meds and for a cab, that's why the social worker came to see you, but you told her to go away because she "asked too many questions".
7. I do have a name, I informed you of my name the last time I came in the room and even wrote it on the bedside board so you wouldn't forget, stop calling me out my name and definately stop referring to me in racial undertones because I hear you and I don't answer to it.
8. To make your life and my life easier, when I ask you if there is anything else I can do for you...let me know when I am in he room... I try to give you some TLC and you aren't my only patient, the open heart patient and trauma patient need some attention too.
9. When you sleep 5 out of the 7 hours we try to let you sleep at night, stop telling the doctors you didn't sleep at all at night. I and he other staff heard you snoring for 5 hours and we don' like when you make the docs think you need more drugs to sleep.
10. If you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all. I can only take so much of your complaining before I walk out of your room without showing any concern...I do care, yet I can only handle so much.
11. No we aren't short staffed, we just have alot of patients and they all want to be seen at the same time!
12. This is not home...stop telling your boyfriend/girlfriend that they can share your hospital bed at night because it's against our policy! You are also being rude to your roommate who may not like share a room with you and your mate.
13. No I can't tell you what your roommate is here for and why she is getting that test and taking those meds and where she is from and who her mother is..., ask her for yourself. If I told you I would be violating HIPPA, you know...her privacy.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
evidently you do not understand what it's like to offer a patient a bedpan every morning at 0645, explaining to them that you will be unavailable during report and this is their opportunity to use the bedpan, and to have them demand a bedpan at 0705 every morning anyway. yes, the bedpan comment seems harsh, but i do understand where the poster was coming from. interrupting report every single morning to handle a demand that could have been handled before report is not only irritating, it gets everyone's day off to a poor start including the other patients who now have to wait for breakfast because their fingersticks haven't been done.
and as far as mouthing words around the tube -- i can lip read things like "water", "pain", "bedpan" or "family", but a long soliliquy about your granddaughter's no-good boyfriend or your daughter's deficits in the parenting department are a bit much. i, too would turn up the white stuff.
evidently i never claimed to know what it was like, regardless the point that i did make was that students were not the only people that said something about that particular post, other nurses did as well, who have walked a mile or more in the shoes of nurses. i also do know what it is like to have to request a bed pan and be made to feel like i am such a burden for doing so, which i admitted, probably makes me a little biased on my feelings, but again, that wasn't the point i made.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I see from a few on this thread that it's true what they say about nurses eating their young.
No need to jump down their throats whilst explaining why you feel the way you do. A little bit of explaining goes a long way.
THANK YOU, I don't even understand why my post was attacked. I never put down anyone, I even said in a post I don't know the person that posted it to say what kind of nurse they are, all I said is I was a little appalled by that specific comment and nothing more. Other nurses made comments on that comment as well, I wonder why they weren't attacked. I also stated that I like reading these threads because it gives me an inside look as to what I am getting myself into. Apparently though since I am a measly student I am not allowed to question or ask things or even point out it wasn't only students that thought a certain way as I did in this thread.
To the students out there who are shocked by some of the posts... just wait. I hope you keep your pollyanna attitude for many long years into your career, but somehow patients and more so visiting family members have a way of wearing you down. I sometimes think that if the grand canyon was baraged with needy hospital patient and their obnoxious family members, it would have been carved out in about 3 weeks time. At the same time, don't let it get you down. There are trying times that you need to vent about but there are also times that make your heart swell with pride and love for your career.
that being said 13 things your nurse tell you:
Thank you for you're thought out and respectful reply, I do often try to put myself in someone elses shoes, my first day of clinicals I was put off by a few things I saw when I was in the nursing home, at the end of the day though I tried to put myself int he shoes of the CNA's I shadowed since I just got a small glimpse of what they go through and it helped, although I was a little disturbed I also understood the pressure and time contraint they were on.
In fact as taken a back as I was by only 1-2 posts out of 10 pages, hearing some more made me understand a little more. Anyway, I apprecitate your feedback.
I see from a few on this thread that it's true what they say about nurses eating their young.
No need to jump down their throats whilst explaining why you feel the way you do. A little bit of explaining goes a long way.
I don't believe that explaining yourself and/or defending yourself equates to jumping down someone's throat. One may even say that the comment regarding poor nursing care is equivalent to the "young" berating a nurse whom is merely trying to vent away his/her frustrations. -Peace-
Trying to grope the CNA and myself at 2300, then preaching to us about the "love of Jesus" four hours later is not the way to convert us to your religon.
1) No, I don't believe you when you say you've never done any narcotic drugs. I've seen your drug screen, and I looked after you the last 2 times you were in with withdrawl.
2) No, you're not in pain / nauseated to the point where you need IV phenergan, pushed fast, and follow it with a demerol chaser. You're telling me the pain and nausea comes from the D&C you had last week...did you forget I was your nurse during your complete hysterectomy 6 months ago? You're a drug addict. Go HOME.
3) Your mom has a colostomy. She will never "poop" normally again because of her cancer. So please stop telling me that "we" had the colostomy done because we don't like cleaning up poop. What do you think's coming out of that colostomy bag, tapioca? She cleaned you up when you were a baby, now get over here and learn how to return the favor, you self centered little s***.
4) I work full time, I go to school full time, I'm looking after 2 elderly parents with health problems, I've got sleep apnea and I'm in pain daily from scoliosis, and the only meds I take are inderal and Advil. So, yeah, my face may look funny if you tell me you're on disability from sleep apnea (not as bad as mine) and scoliosis (you've got 1 curve, i've got 3) and you need IV morphine to deal with it. No you don't. You need to get off your butt and go get a job.
5) If I tell you you can't go out and smoke, and you do anyway (while on a nitro patch and a nicotine patch), I will be waiting for you with an AMA form.
6) Yes we remember you. We all drew lots to see you had to take you, and I lost.
7) If you ever, EVER hit the code button again just to show your family members how to get people in your room faster, I will discharge you from the hospital. Via the window. (The CEO actually came up and told the guy he was no longer welcome at our facility, as he did that 4 times in one day, once just to get a soda while NPO).
8) Of course you're not pregnant. That must be a Hobbit crawling out of there....
9) If you hit me, you are going to jail. And if you hit my pregnant coworker in the stomach, you're going to have a nasty accident with a removable head board before we call the cops.
10) I know you're oh so proud of your little soldier, but if you "salute" me one more time, I'm going to fill your bath basin with ice water.
11) If you put your callbell there one more time, I'm going to wipe it down with pepper oil and see how that goes. That's just DISGUSTING.
12) No, I won't go out with you. Ever. And if you were the last man on earth, the human race would come to a screeching halt. I don't date outside the human race, sorry.
13) For all the pain, the grief, the useless futile codes, the hateful families, the tantrum throwing doctors... the fact that you woke up after being in a coma for a week and told me later, "I remember your voice. You were the only one who talked to me like I was still there. You were my angel." That...that's why I keep coming back. Not for the 90 percent you can't help, but for you, the few I can. Bless you ma'am, where ever you are.
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BSN75
56 Posts
Eymie, you have nothing to be upset about! We all think that way sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with thinking these thoughts as long as we still get the work done. After all, we're only human! I don't know where people get the idea that nurses are always going to be little rays of sunshine- it just doesn't work that way! You vented..this is a venting thread..therefore, you did nothing wrong!!:loveya: