Vent....Visitors and Customer Service

Nurses Relations

Published

Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg, ED, Psych.

I am going insane with the demands that family members impose on me and and my co-workers.

Semi-private room. I have both patients. I am doing my initial assessment of the patient in the first bed - curtain drawn - this gentleman had a TURP - bladder irrigation via 3-way foley. As I am checking this elderly gentlemans privates.....The curtain is pulled open and an angry female visitor demands i check on her husband in the next bed.

Honestly...has society as a whole lost commen decency and respect THIS much?

Another instance....I was trying to check HR via my stethoscope on a patient c/o chest pain and sob. The ladies in the next bed over were talking very loud and i was unable to hear the pulse. When i politely asked to lower there voices for a few moments....I was given total disrepect and attitude from little miss upitty. My patient needed Raped response team intervention....i feel as though these drama-queens prevented me from providing appropriate medical care....

I fell sad that this inappropriate behavior is accepted and reinforced by management just so we can claim we provide the best customer service in the area. Customer Service is a crock. If it was me, I would want all the medical care in the world and not care at all about if i was treated as a valued guest.

i want to answer the phone at work sometime "Good Afternoon. Thank you for calling Ritz-Carlton Medical Center. I am _______, How can i be of assistance?"

Specializes in Legal, Ortho, Rehab.

Complete and utter bull ____!!! :) Makes me want to leave the profession. I can't stand when lay people, and management tell me how to do my job. I don't go to the post office and tell them how to sort my mail (ok, that one involved me and a postal worker as visitor).

Specializes in Emergency.

I won't hessitate to boot guests out of a room if they are impeding with my ability to provide care to the patient. I try to help my pt.'s family to the best of my ability, but the minute they begin to impede, they are out of there until I get what I need to done. Although I believe part of treating the pt. is to help family, my priority lies towards the pt.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

society has a whole has gotten increasingly rude, self centered and entitled. and our bent toward "customer service" is just reinforcing the bad behavior. i'm more than ready for the pendulem to swing back the other way!

I won't hessitate to boot guests out of a room if they are impeding with my ability to provide care to the patient. I try to help my pt.'s family to the best of my ability, but the minute they begin to impede, they are out of there until I get what I need to done. Although I believe part of treating the pt. is to help family, my priority lies towards the pt.

Ah, but what will you do if you have a manager who proceeds to call you on the carpet for offending family/guests? Check this board and you will see that some nurses have been fired for doing what you propose. Don't get me wrong--I think you should absolutely have the right to practice as you stated you will--you're doing what's best for the patient's recovery--but in today's climate of customer service before all else you may be in for an unpleasant surprise from those who run your facility.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
ah, but what will you do if you have a manager who proceeds to call you on the carpet for offending family/guests? check this board and you will see that some nurses have been fired for doing what you propose. don't get me wrong--i think you should absolutely have the right to practice as you stated you will--you're doing what's best for the patient's recovery--but in today's climate of customer service before all else you may be in for an unpleasant surprise from those who run your facility.

i'll second that. management, in their zest for "customer service" have by and large abandoned the concept of health care.

I believe the best and most important customer service you can give, to pts. and family members is acurate, professional and compassionate care. Kissing someones butt, while your in the middle of caring for someone should not be part of your job description. Give respect and ye shall recieve respect. The nurses at my area hospital dont play that jive, you act up or pull a stunt like opening a curtain and security will most likely escort you to the waiting room. I witnessed that as a pt. myself.(it wasnt me who was escorted by the way)

Yes, visitors/family can be challenging at times. How many times have our calm, normotensive patients become agitated, hypertensive patients due to stimulation from family? And, then, as the alarms are sounding, the family member turns to you and asks, "why is this happening?" Duh!!!

Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

You know, I never seem to have much of a problem with this kind of issue because I use a lot of humor with my patients. I will go over to the next bed and in my nicest Texas accent with a big smile and just have a little general discussion with people first. How you doing etc. Then I will ask for a moment of quiet so I can listen to the other patients heart and I have never once had anyone be rude about it. I go into a room and I introduce myself up front, tell people why I am there (I am the charge nurse) and why I am there to help them. If they have a problem, I pull up a chair. I try my very best not to stand over someone when I am talking to them. I try to get on eye level when ever possible. I give everyone a business card. Every now and then I might have a person who gets angry but 99% of the time I can resolve the problem by taking some time to talk to them and to explain things.

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