I know last week there was discussion about how nurses were NOT featured in the first episode. Tonight, 10 minutes in, they've shown two nurses talking and working.
the first one addressed how people think that nurses just pass pills and bedpans. well, she talked about it briefly
second one-(or, other viewers, was it the same nurse on a different day witha different hairdo) she was caring for a drunk man. it appears she was giving a bedside report-to another nurse, maybe? they didn't say. anyways, the gentelman was saying how he had to get out of there, had a paper he had to turn in to school in 3 hours, etc. Nurse was telling him that he almost died last night, he wasn't leaving, she had already heard his sob story and she didn't care that he had something to turn in, he should have thought about that before getting so drunk.
Did anyone else who watched that think that she was seriously being rude to him? I mean, if you dont care, you dont care, no one can make you care. But she stood there and told him to his face that she didnt care about what he had to do. Yelling at him like she was his mother. What a great public impression of nurses- its like the Nurse Ratchet sterotype. Yes, it was just an edited clip of an episode, adn possibly taken out of context.....but, she did say it.
and, maybe that was a poor editing job to purposely make her look all snotty....
Yes the ER nurse was a little rude and a little short and maybe even a little harsh with the patient, buuut as she said he almost died, and it was not the 1st time he had done that. They said his family basically had given up on him and left him there.
They had hinted that he had been incohernt and passed out all night long, someone needed to tell him the consequences of his actions.
Where I work we had a teenager with ETOH intoxication who ended up being intubated, she eventually woke up and was ready to be extubated in the ER and before she extubated her, our MD basically said the same thing to the patient that the RN said. You almost died, this is serious, do you not get it?!
i just watched the episode online and oh yes, she most definitely was rude and seems to have an attitude problem. i'm not even a nurse yet and i know that you do not, by any means, address a patient in such a manner. she needs to get an attitude check. i agree that she really represnts nurses in a bad light. the first nurse seemed nice and empathetic. i wonder if anybody from the boston bon or anyone over her watched that, if so i hope they address that. even if a resident has an ego issue you suggest not tell them what dosage to give.
when you are a nurse you may see things differently. for anyone that has worked in an er sometimes tough love is what these patients need. not to mention lord only knows what happened in the hours before that one conversation. also suggesting meds to a doctor is exactly what nurses do...advocate for our patients!!
as for the show, i liked this episode better then the first. it was nice to see a nurse in there, hope it continues this way!
First, I don't think that I would have my back to a patient in his room, talking about him to another nurse and giving report.
A lot of hospitals are going to bedside reporting. That way, the patient can be introduced to the oncoming caregiver, lines can be traced, pumps can be checked, and eyes can be laid on the patient at the start of shift. This is especially pertinent in the ED and critical care units, where patients can go bad quickly; at least the oncoming nurse can have a rough idea of what the patient's LOC, etc. were at the beginning of shift. This is instead of having to take the word of the outgoing nurse who may have been in another patient's room for 30 minutes, then made his/her way to the report room to give report.
She's my hero. As a Boston nurse who previously worked in an ER, the halls are lined with regulars and college kids who are always drunk. The kid featured had been hospitalized more than once before for alcohol poisoning, and to the point that his family didn't want to bother with him because they're clearly sick of his crap. In my opinion she was gave it to him straight. He needed a dose of reality. Patients with problems with alcohol are often manipulative and try to get you to feel bad for them. When you have patients with real life or death crises like MGH constantly has, the sob stories get old.
I just watched the episode online and Oh yes, she most definitely was rude and seems to have an attitude problem. I'm not even a nurse yet and I know that you do not, by any means, address a patient in such a manner. She needs to get an attitude check. I agree that she really represnts nurses in a bad light. The first nurse seemed nice and empathetic. I wonder if anybody from the Boston BON or anyone over her watched that, if so I hope they address that. Even if a resident has an ego issue you suggest not tell them what dosage to give.
She said "how about 2.5 since they come in 5mg/1ml?" She didn't demand that dose be written for. 1mg of Haldol is as useful as injecting water. The resident's superior agreed because he stepped in and said it was fine. I don't think she was rude, I think she was real. I wouldn't have done anything differently.
I'm not even a nurse yet and I know that you do not, by any means, address a patient in such a manner. She needs to get an attitude check....Even if a resident has an ego issue you suggest not tell them what dosage to give.
At this time of year in a teaching hospital, you may just need to tell an intern what to give. They'll run it by their senior, of course, but you're their best friend afterward when they realize that you DO, in fact, know what you're talking about.
And when you have patients who are wholly and entirely out of line and don't respond to a normal tone of voice suggestion and are endangering themselves or others, you'll address them however you need to in order to get your point across.
Give yourself a few years of practice and I promise you'll realize it. :)
I thought that ER nurse, I think her name was Amanda, was fabulous. She obviously has the spine needed for ER work, and I thought she was absolutely appropriate with that patient. Drunks and addicts will manipulate like crazy if they see a sign of weakness. The kid obviously wouldn't let up on bugging her about leaving and she let him know it wasn't going to work. And I loved how she was all flirty with the old guys. I have a lot of old guys in my ICU and they love that. It never gets inappropriate, and it makes them smile and laugh, which is never a bad thing when you're sick enough to be in the hospital.
I remember when I was in nursing school clinicals and I'd pass a door with some LOL yelling for help non-stop and I'd think how jaded, cruel and lazy the RN's were because they just ignored her cries for help. Now that I've been a nurse for 3 years, I've realized that people with dementia will sometimes yell for help non-stop, and even if you stand by the bed holding their hand for hours they'll yell for help while you're right there next to them. Don't judge us, student nurses. You have NO IDEA.
I would work beside Amanda any day of the week. She looks like she's very sharp and a very good nurse.
ETA: In my unit, we often suggest what a patient needs and we don't even have residents. At 2 am, when a doc is half asleep, sometimes you just have to say, "Did you want me to give a 10mg Cardizem bolus and then start a drip at 5mg?"
I saw the episode & I thought that nurse was simply being realistic about the drunk patient's having to stay.
I am 'justavolunteer' on a pt unit. I have often heard nurses speak sharply to pts. with dementia to try & get them to stay in bed. Someone who thinks he has to go outside & mow the lawn (in the middle of a raging blizzard, usually) will often respond to an authoritative voice. A simple 'please get back in bed' won't work. Sometimes I have even found a patient out of restraints. I try to use my 'voice of God' & tell them to stay put. I also hit the call light & make it clear I need help NOW!
One time near the end of my volunteer shift I wasn't feeling well. I said "I'm leaving" I had a nurse on each side of me grab an arm & say "You're not going anywhere". It turned out they thought I might be having a heart attack. No heart problems, luckily, it may have just been the flu or something. I ended up being admitted for tests, which were all negative. I wasn't too thrilled at the time, but I realized the nurses were just doing their jobs.
I know that sickness & death is very hard on families, but the amount of grief that nurses get for doing their jobs is unreal sometimes. I have also seen drunk patients try to flatten a nurse who is trying to check their vital signs.
I'm guessing part of so many viewers' perceptions of this nurse's "rudeness" had to do with editing, as many have suggested already.
I probably wouldn't have gone as far as she did--I personally find the "tough love" role not my own to take on, especially in the case of a "repeat offender." Rather, I would have said something along the lines of, "Sir, I understand that's important to you, but right now our priority is your health, and you can't go home until you are sober."
And after I was done repeating said phrase thirty times in fifteen minutes, I would have shortened it to, "No, I'm sorry, sir, you cannot go home right now,".
After another fifteen minutes of intoning that, I would have probably said, "No, sorry, can't."
Another fifteen of that, and the answer would have been a very flat, "No."
(Only half joking, but it does get very exasperating to say the exact same thing over and over again--sometimes literally for hours, if not your entire 8 to 12 hour shift--to someone who, for whatever reason, does not have rational cognitive skills to process what you are saying and comply with treatment, or failing that, quit making unreasonable demands/repeating themselves ad infinitum, all the while being abusive and combative.)
I've taken care of many abusive, combative, non-compliant, intoxicated, demanding patients; I'm sure all of us nurses have. It's challenging--to say the least--to find a balance between delivering competent care through "therapeutic responses and interventions" and wishing you could just let them sign out AMA.
HappyNurse2005, RN
1,640 Posts
Mr Chew's update--
http://bostonmed.abcnews.go.com/patient-profiles/charlie-chew