In the hospital where I used to work, family members would come up to the desk all the time to say "dad needs a _______ (blanket, cup, straw) and I developed a nasty habit of saying (in a perfectly innocent tone) "Does he know how to use the call light?" Gradually my tone started getting more and more sarcastic. Had to stop that one after a few nasty looks. oops.
Or "that's not real high on my priority list"
I know there's been plenty more....
At least I knew I had to leave the hospital setting for a bit before my mouth could get me in too much trouble. Feeling much better suited to home health, where you can throw whatever you like at me! I'll be out of your house in less than an hour!
Ok, so maybe I'll come to understand this when I'm a nurse, but wouldn't it be real easy when the person walks up to say, "Give me a second to finish this real quick" or "I'll be with you in just a moment" or "what room is your mother in? I'll have someone bring that in just a moment". There are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". I would have understood PERFECTLY if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk. But, I never had a single one do that. They were always pleasant, and I waited when I needed to, it was no big deal. As someone else said, we just want to help, and you could let us know how else we could help.
Like it or not, a hospital is a business as well. Your patients and their visitors are still CUSTOMERS, and a little customer service goes a LONG way. I have worked in customer service for 15 years, so maybe this is why I feel this way, but it's true. Sure the hospitals want to help people get well, but in the long run they are in it for the money just like everyone else.
I think your argument makes good sense, and, as I've already mentioned, in my department (ER), we're usually fine with family members coming up to the desk and asking for blankets, etc. Just make sure you tell the person at the desk which patient you want it for, so s/he can check and see if it's okay. (It's amazing how many total strangers will walk up to the desk and say, "Mom needs a glass of water," and assume that the whole world knows who Mom is.)
I'll tell you what would help immensely, though: if the nurse or CNA just let the family know, at the outset, which approach is best. And, let's face it: if a call light has been going off for 10 minutes and no one is answering it, sometimes visitors HAVE to go to the nurses' station for help.
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Ok, so maybe I'll come to understand this when I'm a nurse, but wouldn't it be real easy when the person walks up to say, "Give me a second to finish this real quick" or "I'll be with you in just a moment" or "what room is your mother in? I'll have someone bring that in just a moment". There are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". I would have understood PERFECTLY if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk. But, I never had a single one do that. They were always pleasant, and I waited when I needed to, it was no big deal. As someone else said, we just want to help, and you could let us know how else we could help.
Like it or not, a hospital is a business as well. Your patients and their visitors are still CUSTOMERS, and a little customer service goes a LONG way. I have worked in customer service for 15 years, so maybe this is why I feel this way, but it's true. Sure the hospitals want to help people get well, but in the long run they are in it for the money just like everyone else.
You are correct....but......when things are crazy, and you are in charge of 10 patients, there are 3 family members to each patient.......... all comming out to the desk for different things at different times... no matterhow well intended.........that is 30 people:eek: with good intentions looking for the same nurse for just "one little thing" can be overwhelming and frustrating no matter how well intendened. Sometimes the desk is looked at sort of sanctuary.....a place to hide and regroup.....reorganize and rejuvenate.......and it is full of private information and conversations protected by law. Unfortunately......most of the time we as nurses don't take breaks off the floor, even if you do your are paged and interupted. When you worked customer service......we you interrupted even in the bathroom....... that so and so needed you or.... dr so and so was looking for you and on the phone? rpobably not with regularity and frequency that nurses are badgered.......i can go on and on. Just keep that in the back of your mind and you will see when you get into nursing that even well intentioned attempts at helping can, at times, seem like badgering and being staulked! Just another point of view:twocents:
Ok, so I have a question, though I'm sure I will figure this one out over time. I start school in a week, so I have no experience. My question is why does this annoy you? I mean, other than that it is at shift change? My mother was frequently in the hospital, and we always thought it was easier for YOU, (the nurse) if we came to the desk to ask for or get a cup or blanket or whatever, because them you didn't have to come all the way to the room to find out what was wanted, go get said item and return, all the while trying to attend to other nursing duties. Am I wrong in this? My family's intention was never to annoy the nursing staff, but to assist them by not making them have to do extra stuff. For whatever reason, my mothers room was typically at the end of the hall / ward and we figured it would result in less walking or work for the nurses.
99 percent of the time the request is something an aide can get. A blanket, a drink. The constant requests interrupt the nurse from what he/she is doing. There is a study that shows every time someone is interrupted it takes them 7 minutes to regroup and get back on track. We are so pressed for time as it is. In order to get out on time so management does not get on our back most of us have to work through lunches and breaks. I know of one nurse on my unit that actually takes a lunch off of the unit. The rest of us eat at our computers and chart. During that "lunch break" you are constantly paged and interrupted by physical therapy, MDs, aides, pharmacy, chaplains, families, etc., etc. So while we are charting on our lunch break to get out on time we still never get anything done and cannot chart till the end of shift when we have actually handed our assignment over to the next shift. Nurisng is like a marathon of constant brain work and physical activity. It is exhausting after being there for 10-11 hours with no break when you should be out in 8. So any time we have uninterrupted time is like a reprieve where we can actually get some of our charting done. I hate to say this but I am guilty of taking my computer on wheels and charting in an empty patient room to get some relief. I have my 2 way radio or overhead page if a patient needs me. If I sit at the nurses station I cannot get any charting done and no relief from the constant interruptions.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
ok, so maybe i'll come to understand this when i'm a nurse, but wouldn't it be real easy when the person walks up to say, "give me a second to finish this real quick" or "i'll be with you in just a moment" or "what room is your mother in? i'll have someone bring that in just a moment". there are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". i would have understood perfectly if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk. but, i never had a single one do that. they were always pleasant, and i waited when i needed to, it was no big deal. as someone else said, we just want to help, and you could let us know how else we could help.
like it or not, a hospital is a business as well. your patients and their visitors are still customers, and a little customer service goes a long way. i have worked in customer service for 15 years, so maybe this is why i feel this way, but it's true. sure the hospitals want to help people get well, but in the long run they are in it for the money just like everyone else.
i always hate it when someone who is not a nurse tells us how we should feel about thus 'n such, how we should handle this 'n that and then lectures to us about customer service. or that they know all about it because they've been a patient, a visitor of a patient or in customer service. until you've been a nurse, you have no idea. you just don't.
no matter how nicely i tell visitors not to just walk into a patient room if the door is closed (our rooms are all doubles) because you don't want to embarress someone who is getting a bath or using the bedpan, not to look over my shoulder when i'm charting or that i really can't chat with them because i have to concentrate on what i'm doing, they still do it anyway. and some of them get upset when i tell them again. people seem to think they have to talk to someone and if the patient cannot converse, they feel the need to discuss their gall bladder surgery or uncle jed's hernia with me.
perhaps the nurses didn't tell you not to come at the desk because they'd already explained how to use the call light, shown you and your mother how to use the call light, reinforced the use of the call light, oriented you to the unit and given you a handout encouraging use of the call light and discouraging standing at the nurse's station. and perhaps they did tell your mother or someone else in the family. they may have even encouraged you to use the call light but you just didn't understand how disruptive visitors standing at the desk can be.
despite the fact that "customer service" is currently in vogue, patients are patients, not customers. if it was customer service, we'd be trying to keep them happy at all costs and give them everything they need. unfortunately, patients don't always know what they need, and often what they want is the exact opposite. coughing and deep breathing after surgery hurt -- but they have to do it anyway. being npo sucks -- but sometimes it's necessary.
At our local hospital the critical care areas have "charting rooms" that you have to go through the desk to get to. The unit secretary is the sole guardian of the desk territory. I always thought that was a wonderful idea- a charting room where no one disturb the staff unless it is urgent, and a gatekeeper to decide if it is urgent. Unfortunately the regular floors don't have a desk at all, they have little charting kiosks in the hall where you sit on barstools to chart. It minimizes time wasting, but how they can concentrate there is beyond me. Everyone streaming by with carts, trays, cleaning equipment, people walking, visitors talking, ugh. The hospital I work for still has a traditional desk- mostly surrounded with glass wall to prevent HIPAA violations, but there are still a myriad of things going on there and phones ringing, etc. I vote for a charting room for every nursing unit everywhere.
The hospital I work for still has a traditional desk- mostly surrounded with glass wall to prevent HIPAA violations, but there are still a myriad of things going on there and phones ringing, etc. I vote for a charting room for every nursing unit everywhere.
When they renovated our hospital, they left little coves at the desk "for the doctors" because as we all know, nurses can cope with distractions but doctors can't. But they opened up the glass walls around the desk areas so that nursing staff wasn't "separated from the patients and families." Of course they didn't put anything sound absorbing in, so now they complain that the nursing staff at the desk is too loud for patients and families to rest.
Ok, so maybe I'll come to understand this when I'm a nurse, but wouldn't it be real easy when the person walks up to say, "Give me a second to finish this real quick" or "I'll be with you in just a moment" or "what room is your mother in? I'll have someone bring that in just a moment". There are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". I would have understood PERFECTLY if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk. But, I never had a single one do that. They were always pleasant, and I waited when I needed to, it was no big deal. As someone else said, we just want to help, and you could let us know how else we could help.
Like it or not, a hospital is a business as well. Your patients and their visitors are still CUSTOMERS, and a little customer service goes a LONG way. I have worked in customer service for 15 years, so maybe this is why I feel this way, but it's true. Sure the hospitals want to help people get well, but in the long run they are in it for the money just like everyone else.
There is a huge difference here comparing regular customer service work and nursing.
When the nurse is interrupted for something really minor eg ice .....she/he is also simultaneously multitasking several major, very important things.
It's the constant imposition of little service stuff on top of some really major stuff that wears on the nurse.
In retail or hospitality ...providing basic service is ALL the employee is doing ...and probably not even multitasking the ice and the water and napkins whatever
At our local hospital the critical care areas have "charting rooms" that you have to go through the desk to get to. The unit secretary is the sole guardian of the desk territory. I always thought that was a wonderful idea- a charting room where no one disturb the staff unless it is urgent, and a gatekeeper to decide if it is urgent. Unfortunately the regular floors don't have a desk at all, they have little charting kiosks in the hall where you sit on barstools to chart. It minimizes time wasting, but how they can concentrate there is beyond me. Everyone streaming by with carts, trays, cleaning equipment, people walking, visitors talking, ugh. The hospital I work for still has a traditional desk- mostly surrounded with glass wall to prevent HIPAA violations, but there are still a myriad of things going on there and phones ringing, etc. I vote for a charting room for every nursing unit everywhere.
Those little kiosks seem to be a trend lately. My hospital has gotten rid of the charting areas in the nurses' stations, too, in an attempt to make nurses do their charting by their assigned patients (or, preferably, in their rooms).
In the ER, they're pushing for us to do all our documentation at the bedside, too, which doesn't work very well. I'm not particularly crazy about the idea of charting about the patient right in front of family and friends (many of whom seem very interested in what I'm writing), or trying to make a note while someone's asking me questions or making small talk. Why is it that every hospital has to jump on whatever bandwagon rolls along?
There are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". I would have understood PERFECTLY if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk.
Somehow I don't think most other people would "understand PERFECTLY." No matter how polite the nurse is, for every 1 person that understood, you'd probably have 3 others that would get offended.
Ok, so maybe I'll come to understand this when I'm a nurse, but wouldn't it be real easy when the person walks up to say, "Give me a second to finish this real quick" or "I'll be with you in just a moment" or "what room is your mother in? I'll have someone bring that in just a moment". There are polite ways to tell someone you cannot help them right away, and at the same time, you could say "if your mother needs anything else, just have her press the call button and we'll be happy to help". I would have understood PERFECTLY if any of the nurses ever said that it would make things easier on them if we pushed the button, or explained that it makes things more difficult on them when someone comes to the desk. But, I never had a single one do that. They were always pleasant, and I waited when I needed to, it was no big deal. As someone else said, we just want to help, and you could let us know how else we could help.
Like it or not, a hospital is a business as well. Your patients and their visitors are still CUSTOMERS, and a little customer service goes a LONG way. I have worked in customer service for 15 years, so maybe this is why I feel this way, but it's true. Sure the hospitals want to help people get well, but in the long run they are in it for the money just like everyone else.
I thought I was being helpful too. In fact, I thought the call light was an incredibly rude way to summon someone. Except now I know a little better. Sometimes it is helpful, sometime it is not.
I don't think many people would take it that well if they were asked to use the call light in future. People, who think they are doing you a favor by coming to get the nurse, do not like to be made wrong (no matter how politely they are asked to use the light in future). Also, when a family member is sick, a person probably won't want rationales behind call light use and how it is easier on the staff (or even how it may get them what they want faster). Then there is the person who thinks "I got up and came to the desk because I wanted it right away" and they sure expect it right away regardless of medical/nursing priorities. People generally couldn't give a toss. This probably is based on the idea that customer service is supposed to be of primary importance when, in actuality, it is patient care.
A nurses won't be lauded for getting the pain meds for patient A before the pillow for patient B if patient B (or their family) complains about how slow the nurse was to get the pillow (especially after they came all the way to the desk to ask for one). Nor will the nurse get kudos for asking someone to use the call light when they went to all the trouble to get up and leave the room to get a nurse (that too would be quite likely to end in complaint).
So I see nurses that just deal with it because everyone thinks they are the nurse's customer and that they are entitled to a level of customer service, including speed and a cheesy smile, similar to that afforded a first class traveller on Singapore Airlines. Also, I suspect, the nurse wants to avert a complaint directed at them.
I am not completely dismissing the idea of customer service in healthcare. Just that the model for it should not be the same as that of The Gap. AT & T or TGI Friday's. Yes, the mighty buck is involved but I don't know any nurses who get profit share as part of their remuneration package.
I think, today in fact, I just let on a few too many times to a family how "busy" i was. I mean -- these jerks were calling me every 5 minutes for something ...anything they could dream up. The techs were in their usuall la-la land helping me with NOTHING.
I just have to try to get these families to understand ...there is only ONE of me and FIVE or more of you. Your requests CAN wait. Your dad's diaper does not need to be changed 10 seconds after he urinates into it. He is not a priority for me right now.
How can we get people to understand this??? I WISH so badly there was a reality show, on nursing, FOR AMERICANS -- to get it. NURSES ARE FREEAKINGOVERWORKEDANDBUSYCAN'TYOUJUSTSEETHISHOWDUMBANDOBTUESECANYOUBE????
Here's an idea, American families, and others: try changing it yourself. Oh, you don't DO that?? You'd just rather step out of the room? Well, time to start doing it. There aren't enough nurses. Period. Your grand hosptial won't hire them, for whateverfreakingreason. It's really going to have to get to this, at some point. We nurses on staff right now ... we're at the breaking point. Or close to it.
Yes, the mighty buck is involved but I don't know any nurses who get profit share as part of their remuneration package.
BRAVO!!! This is the point of the day. We are here, pulling ALL of the customer service "weight," yet receiving none of the benefit of the hosptial being "chosen" as the place to come for whatever service/op/treatment they need.
Your'e right -- who gets that particular reward? The docs, the admins, the BOD, whomever?
The folks who actually get the financial reward ...perhaps they ought to mosie on down and lift a finger towards some good customer service. Put on a pot of coffee ...fluff a pillow ... how about help granny to the br for a change??
Sometimes the desk is looked at sort of sanctuary.....a place to hide and regroup.....reorganize and rejuvenate.......and it is full of private information and conversations protected by law. Unfortunately......most of the time we as nurses don't take breaks off the floor, even if you do your are paged and interupted. When you worked customer service......we you interrupted even in the bathroom....... that so and so needed you or.... dr so and so was looking for you and on the phone? rpobably not with regularity and frequency that nurses are badgered.......i can go on and on. Just keep that in the back of your mind and you will see when you get into nursing that even well intentioned attempts at helping can, at times, seem like badgering and being staulked! Just another point of view:twocents:
For whatever reason, my mothers room was typically at the end of the hall / ward and we figured it would result in less walking or work for the nurses.
But they opened up the glass walls around the desk areas so that nursing staff wasn't "separated from the patients and families." Of course they didn't put anything sound absorbing in, so now they complain that the nursing staff at the desk is too loud for patients and families to rest.
NocturneRN
168 Posts
I think your argument makes good sense, and, as I've already mentioned, in my department (ER), we're usually fine with family members coming up to the desk and asking for blankets, etc. Just make sure you tell the person at the desk which patient you want it for, so s/he can check and see if it's okay. (It's amazing how many total strangers will walk up to the desk and say, "Mom needs a glass of water," and assume that the whole world knows who Mom is.)
I'll tell you what would help immensely, though: if the nurse or CNA just let the family know, at the outset, which approach is best. And, let's face it: if a call light has been going off for 10 minutes and no one is answering it, sometimes visitors HAVE to go to the nurses' station for help.