Unit Secretary Abuse

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I have a situation in my hospital. A patient kept hitting his call light to the point of abuse. This patient just wanted someone in his room. Even when the staff would see to his needs, he would punch that call light as soon as or before they had even left the room. He wanted "his nurse". When the unit secreatry would ask him how could we help him, he sometimes wouldn't even answer her. After so much of this, she explained that there were several other patients on the floor that also needed assistance, so please let our staff know what we can do to help you. This did no good. After hours of this continuation...the unit secretary would try to judge whether or not he actually was in need. If so, she would page the nursing staff. If not, she would turn off his call light. This unit secretary of 20 years...with no other record of a patient complaint...is now on suspension and in danger of being fired because this patient complained to a doctor.

Needing some input here.....:sniff:

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Specializes in Critical Care, Capacity/Bed Management.

I would report the situation to your Nurse Manager and explain that the patients constant use of the call bell was interfering with her ability to perform her job adequately.

I would then suggest that maybe the MD overreacted in pointing her our and writing her up. If the patient was made comfortable and was attended to in a reasonable manner then there should not be an issue.

I am truly sorry for the Unit Secretary but she sould be following this up with Human Resources.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

DO I understand that the unit secretary was filtering this patients calls on instruction of and with the knowledge of the nursing staff. In which case wasn't she just following instructions.

I agree with happy loser, you need to speak to your nurse manager and your secretary needs to speak to HR

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I agree with the above. All of you should go speak to the NM to try and help this woman out. It's a shame they didn't give the US the benefit of the doubt with 20 years of service and no prior complaints. That should have been a pretty good indicator to her superior that perhaps the issue was this patient and not the US. I wonder if this was pointed out to the MD or if her manager just rolled over. I hope she does talk to HR ASAP. If they write her up she shouldn't sign it. I wouldn't if I did nothing wrong. I don't think she will be fired. It would be a shame to lose such a valued employee over a rude and abusive patient.

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Specializes in SICU.

It is so sad that twenty years of service is of no consequence. What kind of message is being sent by the NM that suspended the Unit Secretary? I understand that people are sick and not happy when they are in the hospital, but when did it become ok to show a fellow human being no respect. I see this all too often from patients and families. Thank God for the few civil and appreciative people that make this job worth while. I think some of these drastic new customer service initiatives are really putting strain on everyone from the top down. The whole "the customer is always right" mantra is being taken to an extreme that is affecting job satisfaction. We will see how satisfied the patients are when all of the burned out nurses quit and ratios get even worse.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Hospitals go too far to please patients. That is just proof.

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I have a situation in my hospital. A patient kept hitting his call light to the point of abuse. This patient just wanted someone in his room. Even when the staff would see to his needs, he would punch that call light as soon as or before they had even left the room. He wanted "his nurse". When the unit secreatry would ask him how could we help him, he sometimes wouldn't even answer her. After so much of this, she explained that there were several other patients on the floor that also needed assistance, so please let our staff know what we can do to help you. This did no good. After hours of this continuation...the unit secretary would try to judge whether or not he actually was in need. If so, she would page the nursing staff. If not, she would turn off his call light. This unit secretary of 20 years...with no other record of a patient complaint...is now on suspension and in danger of being fired because this patient complained to a doctor.

Needing some input here.....:sniff:

Don't just stand idly by. Rally up and help her!

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

Some of these patients really, really tick my funny bone. I would certainly speak in her defense as well, because next time, it WILL be nurses reported and even suspended behind such silliness. And, the doctor should be the one answering that call bell if he is really that passionate about it...the BUM!!

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Sorry to be a wet blanket here, but it seems like turning off the call light was the big no-no. I don't think that can ever be justified really. Please correct me if I read the post wrong. I feel for everyone involved. It's an awful situation for anyone to be in. Whoever was in charge should have handled it before it got that bad seems like to me. Hope all works out well.

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You are right, Pattymac...turning off the call light is the iceberg in our unit secretary's Titanic. As her union rep, I am trying to reconstruct the events that led to this decision. I think the house supervisor should have been contacted long before this decision was made. I just think termination, should it come to that, is an extreme discipline. Also, the US should not be the scapegoat. Thanks to all for your suggestions. :redbeathe

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Specializes in Medical Surgical.

This is just terrible. What are nurses supposed to do---sometimes you feel as if these constant demands will just drive you absolutely insane. Besides the aggravation, I am very much afraid for the well-being of my other patients when one misbehaves like this because it drains most of their share of my nursing time off for utter foolishness. Management has GOT to back down, back up their employees, or there won't be a nurse in this country left. Nobody can stand this nonsense on a daily basis when there is actual, important work to be done.

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Specializes in Staff nurse.

...crying wolf wins again...

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