most troubling trend in healthcare

Nurses General Nursing

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I've been anurse for several years, and frankly, I'm tired. There seem to be so many troubling trends nowadays. What, to you, seem to be the most troubling trends in healthcare? What can we,as nurses do the improve things? Thanks. By the way, this is NOT homework:lol2:

Agreed, one thing that really bugs me is when nurses call the patient a client. There are much larger issues in nursing, but this one just irritates me. You think of a client and the thing that comes to my mind is a business transaction, not a healthcare situation. I understand healthcare is a business, but why the change from patients to clients, this makes me feel like we are treating the patients as moneymaking opportunities, which should not be the case.

Oh, that one drives me crazy, too! Geesh...

mc3

:nurse:

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Home Health.

No, Common Sense.......I meant that there isn't any common sense left in nursing anymore. Instead you are given 1500 hundred mundane task and documentation "their way". Shucks big brother can jump in the lake as far as I am concerned.There will be much failure especially now according to the government reimbursement . Gotta love how this has all affected us...big government!

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As a new grad and recent student, from my experience I was shocked at some bad behavior of the healthcare staff in general; nurses, doctors, PT's, front desk. Nurses verbally exploding, so all the staff, visitors and patients could hear their problems, belittling the students behind our back for all to hear, nurses who won't assist a coworker, etc. If these people were in any other professional setting, I would think they would be fired.

Fortunately I met some truly wonderful, exceptional nurses, doctors, etc who were so giving and kind beyond any of my expectations, to keep me encouraged to stay in this field.

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Specializes in Trauma/Critical Care.
I've been anurse for several years, and frankly, I'm tired. There seem to be so many troubling trends nowadays. What, to you, seem to be the most troubling trends in healthcare? What can we,as nurses do the improve things? Thanks. By the way, this is NOT homework:lol2:

[B]Trend[/b]: Incompetent nurses with express advanced degrees in nursing and minimal beside experience, in leadership positions. In my current emploment, I have to deal with three of those: one with a background in engineering, the other in accounting and the last one used to be a flight attendant. I am all in favor for futhering your education and changing your life, if things are not working out; but the current economy has created many advanced nursing programs willing to take anyone with degrees that has nothing to do with nursing and in less than two years, regurginate this "advance nurses practitioners".

What can be done to improve the situation?

I thing nursing education needs to be evaluated and a mayor overhauld needs to take place. Ultimately, nursing edcation in the US, needs to be standarlized across the country (Most countries do it...why not the US).

:twocents:

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Most troubling in my opinion? HCAPS!!!

Quality of care is no longer the focus...now it is all about the patient's perception of how they were treated. So, the people with dementia, the psych patients, and the a**holes who can never be pleased all have a say in how our facilities are reimbursed...which directly affects my employment.

Yet another way the government (CMS) is trying to reduce payments to healthcare providers while putting the blame on someone else. :madface:

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I remember being taught how to give a massage - and it was something we did on the 'evening' shift - - you know, the one that was 3-11pm.

And many, many years ago, there was actually a book called 'Fluff my Pillow, Bend my Straw', a series of anecdotes about nursing care, mostly humorous.

It is unfortunate that the customer service model has trumped the quality of nursing care model.

I believe that communication is a big problem. There are many situations that could be relieved with better communication. It is not inappropriate to tell your patients that you will be seeing other patients for a while, and you will try to get back in about an hour (or whatever you think is likely). If they need something urgently before that, please use your call light. I was in the hospital recently, and I tried very hard to NOT use my call light - but when I did, I usually received help in a few minutes.

My nurses were unfailingly pleasant and professional.

And usually kept me apprised of their level of 'busyness'.

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Agree wholeheartedly with RubyVee! The fact that hospitals put so much weight in Press Gainey scores is just WRONG! Customer satisfaction should not be placed above favorable pt outcomes...So many questions on those surveys are so non healthcare related. Pts should be well cared for, with positive medical outcomes- THAT'S WHAT HOSPITALS SHOULD BE "ALL ABOUT" When I was still employed, I actually had a my director tell me that I was not smiling "enough". Um, understaffed, high census, needing to run to dietary for late trays...central supply to dig through huge bins, hoping that the linen that you needed was available, trying to pass meds when they are not on the floor-and "put on a happy face"!)&%$%&*!! :mad:

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For the sake of budget, safety is compromised and blame is placed on staff. I'll give you an example. I read an evidence based practice article related to tubing misconnections. The fix is simple and costly, but not nearly as costly as when a death occurs from human error. If these tubes were made to only fit what they're intended for and nothing else, then blame would be placed on system error rather than a nurse (regardless of expertise) who is working in an understaffed unit.

I am only a student right now and I am amazed and disgusted at what is sacrificed for the sake of saving a dollar. To top it off, many truly valuable nurses have lost their place in the field due to human error. So many suffer from the cost of saving a buck. :mad:

I just had to get that off my chest.

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Specializes in Med surg.
Having customer satisfaction trump clinical needs of patients .

We are nurses , we are paid for our ability to assess a patients condition and implement / coordinate their care in accordance with that assessment .Of course a good nurse should ( as a matter of course ) be able to manage their patients in a manner that the patient is comfortable with .

But fluffing pillows or a patients ego should not take priority over a crashing patient , managers are ( or at least used to be ) there to explain to patients / their families why their needs cannot always be met immediately .The H signs outside are for Hospital not Hotel .

This is so true!!!

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I wonder if the shortage of various frequently medications is the beginning of a larger problem.

I practiced hospital nursing for years and never had to deal with shortages of Ativan, Zofran, PCA syringes, and IV electrolytes; I took all these things for granted.

It is only recently that our email boxes seem to announce one shortage or another. I will see how this bodes for the future.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Agreed, one thing that really bugs me is when nurses call the patient a client. There are much larger issues in nursing, but this one just irritates me. You think of a client and the thing that comes to my mind is a business transaction, not a healthcare situation. I understand healthcare is a business, but why the change from patients to clients, this makes me feel like we are treating the patients as moneymaking opportunities, which should not be the case.

In one of my nursing school classes, the professor INSISTED that we refer to pts as clients. I flat out refused. I turned in a case study for this class and used the word PATIENT, so she gave me an F. I took it to the dean and explained that as a nurse, I CARE for my patients. It is PATIENT care to me, not CLIENT care...that sounded absurd to me. The dean brought in my professor for a meeting so we could fight about it in her office, and the professor emphatically stated that we are providing a SERVICE to our CLIENTS. When I responded that I would announce to my family, my friends and my co-workers and all of the doctors that I knew that my school taught me how to SERVICE CLIENTS very well, they both realized that it sounded like they were running a brothel and gave the students a choice in how to refer to patients/clients. I got my A for that case study!

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This isn't anything new. Just more open and upfront. I've still got a copy of a letter by my head nurse, (shows you how long ago that was) stating she was disapointed in me. A couple of patients complained, that they didn't get their back rubs, and one patient even complained that I didn't leave the ashtray close enough after I gave him his meds. Yes pt's used to be able to smoke in bed.

It didn't matter that I had 4 pt's going to the OR and 8 fresh post ops. There were 28 patiens on the floor, 1 RN, 1 LPN and 1 aide.

The disapointing trend is that we as a proffesion, are just laying down and letting this all roll over us.

Now my personal troubling trend is the ever increasing BS that has to be done for accresidation. Just saw a crossfeed the other day were someone interpreted a JC tag to mean that all papers on the bulliten board must have tacks in all 4 corners. You have to be kidding me, right.

why doesn't management see that this is petty? No one should get written up for something like this. This will cause the profession to have an even higher turnover rate

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