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!
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
giving report at the desk? why not go elsewhere where you can't be seen by families? and, no need to stop and get the requested item stat. tell the family you are in report and they can expect the cup or whatever in about 15 minutes - or direct them to the kitchen and let them get it.
the design of some units is that there is no place to go -- except the staff bathroom -- where families cannot see you. and if you're not having report at the desk you're talking to a provider about a patient or reading back lab results or trying to extract drugs from the pharmacy. and how many times should we stop what we're doing to ask yet another visitor to wait 15 minutes for something that clearly is not an emergency? twice? sixteen times? why not just skip report and fetch ice water for everyone??
I'll post first- then go back and have fun reading all the replies.
My first year in nursing I was working CCU and experienced my first code. The patient coded 4 times that night. It's a small hospital, and it was obvious what was going on. We had everyone running around, family members in hallway, etc...
Across the hall- my ETOH withdrawal patient (through most of it, ready for med/surg the next morning) kept calling for milk. ALL night. He'd already gone through 4 cartons.
Finally (after the 3rd code was finished) I went to him (he was yelling out since noone had answered his call light) and told him "Lay down, close your eyes, and GO TO SLEEP. If you were drinking milk in the first place- you would NOT be here....we have a critical patient who actually needs me right now"
Specializes in LTC, home health, critical care, pulmonary nursing.
A favorite line I have used a few times goes something like this:
(needy Pain In The Butt patients) - Can you move my tissues? Reposition me? Feed me? Open my mail?
Me - If you can wipe your own butt and go outside to smoke (which you've already done) you are more than capable of doing X, Y, and Z by yourself.
Another incident that stands out was a very hostile and demanding visitor. She was a middle aged WASP lady that DEMANDED a recliner.
Visitor: You are going to get me a recliner!
Me : In a few moments when I have time I will get you one.
Visitor : Are you deaf or just stupid? I said you WILL get me a recliner - Not when you have time - NOW!
Me: I have some other things I need to....
Visitor: YOUR AN IDIOT! GET THE F-ING RECLINER NOW! NOW! NOW!!!! I CAN MAKE YOUR LIFE A LIVING HELL - DO WHAT I WANT NOW!
Me: In A Moment - Hold on
Visitor - (in my face yelling and cursing)
Me: GET OFF MY BACK! Get the Gosh Darn (not the real words I used) chair yourself - Its down the hall in the storage room. Your attitude sucks sweetie. Your wants are not my first priority....I am here to care for the patient. Got it? Good!
I kick those out of the unit. My demented residents can verbally abuse myself and my staff, but I will not tolerate it from visitors. You yell, you scram. Period.
I have a particularly vocal resident who is only mildly demented, but is extremely manipulative and melodramatic. She screams as if someone has just removed a limb with a chainsaw every time she wants a drink of water. A high pitched "HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
We came to an agreement today, that if there is no blood, there will be no screaming. If there is blood, scream your little heart out.
I work on a behavioral unit of a facility specifically for dementia patients. I have a resident who frequently removes an article of clothing, takes 2 steps and then puts it back on, so she is often has her boobs hanging out or has lost her pants. By the time you get to her, she's put the clothes back on, and it just makes her mad when staff tries to "make" her keep her clothes on. A visitor kept snarking at me tonight that "Mary has her shirt off, you'd better go put it on," or would just yell "Damnit, keep your clothes on Mary!." I finally said, "This is her house, and if she wants to go naked, she can go naked. If that upsets you, feel free to go to your home where there are no disrobing ladies. And I had better never hear you speak that way to one of my residents again.
I started talking about gardening or houseplants with a patient's mom once. I don't have a green thumb and said, "Yeah, I end up killing pretty much anything that I touch."
My mastectomy patient the other day.... up with SBA-I didn't touch her between call light and toilet. She calls for help back to bed- bends over waiting for me to wipe.
I said "ok, are you ready to wipe now?"
pt "no, you need to wipe me"
Me "oh, I didn't realize you were discharging to a nursing home- I thought you were going home today"
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.
You may have understood perfectly. However, most visitors nowadays seem to think it is OK to interupt a nurse NO MATTER what she is doing for any request. I have been on the unit cell phone and walked away from someone who thought waving his hand in front of my face and making hand gestures would stop me from talking to the pharmacist. Days later he made a complaint that "the nurse was too busy chatting away on her cell phone" His mother was not my patient and a call light push would have got his request to have his mother pulled up in bed by a CNA. The reason why we tend to just get up in report to fetch ice water or blankets is because we know that days later the "customer" will have written a letter stating that two nurses were just sitting at the nurses station chatting and ignoring their request.
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.
Yes, anybody that works in any job has to do customer service whether they are the CEO of a company, a politician, a receptionist, a short order cook or a garbage man. You will never understand having to be all things to all people all at once like a nurse does until you are a nurse. Not a nursing student that has a few clinicals under their belt. A nurse.
As the saying goes, you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but You WILL NEVER please all of the people all of the time.
Honestly I wish I had know that when my mum was in and out of hospital. Now I completely "get it". But I used to bounce over to the nurses' desk and ask for things instead of using the call light -- I thought it was more polite than using the light.
Oh well live and learn.
You'll never please everyone. I prefer family to come to the desk if they see me there. I tell them to when I admit my patient. I never realized other nurses hate it- if they do-they've never commented. I prefer them comming to me if they need a blanket/water/coffee etc.. Then- not only does it save me one trip down the hall but 90% of the time I hand it to them and it saves me a second trip.
Overall- there are much fewer families I've found who bother me constantly than there are those who just need something occasionally and are willing to bring it back to the patient for me.
We're on the generator, there is no power coming into the building, I have 43 other residents on this unit, your O2 is on an emergency outlet, and I am not going to run around getting you on a tank so I can plug your nebulizer into that outlet so you can have your neb tx in the middle of this.
I'm assuming this is a scheduled neb and pt is NOT c/o SOB? You can run a neb in with O2 though.
That man sounds like a typical cafeteria Christian - I am glad that I have not dealt with such hypocrisy yet because i would have told that man the truth -
My big mouth does get me in trouble sometimes, But in this world we live in nowadays - Take a Chance sometimes and be honest.
Last night for example, I had a patient (45 y/o female a/ox3 DKA hx HTN) that got on my very last nerve. Complaining about everything under the sun. Insulting the tech, the staff and me at every waking moment. I would be doing here accuchecks and she'd be on the phone complaining about me to whomever she was talking to. Yada Yada Yada - all shift long. Around 0500 this morning, the doctors told her she'd be d/c later in the morning and recieve follow-up home care with home health nurses. This lady did not want to leave to "comforts" of the hospital. In an effort to keep herself hospitalized, she cut her wrists and legs with a sharp knife. Minor cuts but still some bleeding.
After we dressed the wounds and called for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, the patient continued with strange behavior and an aggressive attitude. She would Pee on the floor, finger-painting with her poopoo - all for attention.
I snapped.
Me: "Do you honestly think that you will be staying here on this unit? The Self-abuse, strange behaviors, and suicidal threats you have made have gotten you a first class trip to the 5150 Psychiatric Unit - its were you belonged in the first place"
clocked out 2 minutes later.
A few things on this thread made me LOL but this one just took the cake!!!!
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I'll post first- then go back and have fun reading all the replies.
My first year in nursing I was working CCU and experienced my first code. The patient coded 4 times that night. It's a small hospital, and it was obvious what was going on. We had everyone running around, family members in hallway, etc...
Across the hall- my ETOH withdrawal patient (through most of it, ready for med/surg the next morning) kept calling for milk. ALL night. He'd already gone through 4 cartons.
Finally (after the 3rd code was finished) I went to him (he was yelling out since noone had answered his call light) and told him "Lay down, close your eyes, and GO TO SLEEP. If you were drinking milk in the first place- you would NOT be here....we have a critical patient who actually needs me right now"
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
That man sounds like a typical cafeteria Christian - I am glad that I have not dealt with such hypocrisy yet because i would have told that man the truth -
My big mouth does get me in trouble sometimes, But in this world we live in nowadays - Take a Chance sometimes and be honest.
Last night for example, I had a patient (45 y/o female a/ox3 DKA hx HTN) that got on my very last nerve. Complaining about everything under the sun. Insulting the tech, the staff and me at every waking moment. I would be doing here accuchecks and she'd be on the phone complaining about me to whomever she was talking to. Yada Yada Yada - all shift long. Around 0500 this morning, the doctors told her she'd be d/c later in the morning and recieve follow-up home care with home health nurses. This lady did not want to leave to "comforts" of the hospital. In an effort to keep herself hospitalized, she cut her wrists and legs with a sharp knife. Minor cuts but still some bleeding.
After we dressed the wounds and called for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, the patient continued with strange behavior and an aggressive attitude. She would Pee on the floor, finger-painting with her poopoo - all for attention.
I snapped.
Me: "Do you honestly think that you will be staying here on this unit? The Self-abuse, strange behaviors, and suicidal threats you have made have gotten you a first class trip to the 5150 Psychiatric Unit - its were you belonged in the first place"
:confused:
Ruby Vee, BSN
17 Articles; 14,051 Posts
the design of some units is that there is no place to go -- except the staff bathroom -- where families cannot see you. and if you're not having report at the desk you're talking to a provider about a patient or reading back lab results or trying to extract drugs from the pharmacy. and how many times should we stop what we're doing to ask yet another visitor to wait 15 minutes for something that clearly is not an emergency? twice? sixteen times? why not just skip report and fetch ice water for everyone??