Visitors with no common sense!!

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 9, 2002

WE put up w/this IN OB ALL THE TIME!!!!!!! growwwwwwwwwwwll....people (many who are only distantly related or not at all even), who shove their way into a room, damn near knocking us down to "see"....A room where a woman was just delivered....blood ALL OVER, her legs up in the air w/nothing covering her bottom.........room full of contaminated equipment!!!! Does NOT matter if it's 3 a.m....go ahead and drag the SCREAMING toddler and preschooler child who should be in bed in to see his baby sib or cousin!!!!!!

...MAKES ME NUTSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I try to remind them there (VERY POLITELY AND DIPOMATICALLY) are other patients trying to sleep and that we want to give the new family time to bond w/their baby...but they don't care. They just push right past you. Sometimes, esp if the patient expressed a desire to be alone for a while and they are obnoxious, I will literally lead them to the waiting room and tell they WILL KINDLY WAIT THERE OR be escorted off the FLOOR! OH gosh this is my BIGGEST HUGEST PET PEEVE IN THE WORLD!!!!

mother/babyRN, RN · Jun 9, 2002

Definitely a problem in OB....First we let them in when ever ( the powers that be) and NOW we are told to throw them out....What a way to run a unit....

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 9, 2002

that is a mess, mother/baby. there has to be a happy medium! where, i dunno. we are so into pleasing everyone that safety and dignity are becoming huge issues and difficult to maintain.

fergus51 · Jun 9, 2002

Another OB nurse who hates this crap. We recently changed visiting policies so that on PP the visitors can only come between 3pm and 8pm (except dads of course). But we're still very lenient on the L&D side, unless the mom doesn't want them there or they are causing a disturbance. I especially love the grandmas who think we should look after the screaming bratty siblings to be while mom is in labor....Cause, you know, we don't have anything else to do (LIKE CARE FOR THE WOMAN IN LABOR!!!!).

deespoohbear · Jun 9, 2002

Glad to see that I am not the only one who is upset about this! I have "helped" out in OB before (answering the phones, running errands) and the visitors there just floor me!! :eek: :eek: If I was having a baby I would want the least amount of people in the room that would get the baby delivered safely. Otherwise, everyone else, stay the heck out! Our Med/Surg Floor pretty much has unlimited visiting also. Anymore, I just ask the visitors to leave if I feel like my patient is being overwhelmed or the visitors are preventing me from doing my job. I had an Amish patient once who had about 25 visitors in his room! The visitors would hover over this man (who had just found out he had lung CA) until the poor man would have a panic attack. I kicked everyone out except the wife and promptly put a sign on the door limiting the visitors to 2 at time for 10 minutes. (Seemed reasonable to me ). One of the sons went to a phone and promptly called his Dad's doctor's office and told the doctor the nurses were taking over! LOL! (Only in my dreams, sadly). I got the funniest call from one of the office nurses wanting to know what was going on. The doctor pretty much agreed with me but did tell the family they could have 4 visitors at a time in the room. I still laugh about that one. :roll

studentnurse_02 · Jun 9, 2002

i havent started working yet, but at the hospital i will be working at, there are no certain visiting hours except in CCU and ICU. So, people can visit any time of the day/night they want!

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 9, 2002

LIBERAL visiting hours and policies don't bother me, Amanda. what bugs me is the LACK OF CONSIDERATION AND COMMON SENSE that is inbred in some of them.....i don't care if support people are here at 4 am. for a laboring mommy....i think it is GREAT. but it gets my DANDER UP and can be SCARY when they are loud, drunk, drugged, rude, pushy and obnoxious. i don't say restrict HOURS necessarily, but give us (nurses) LEVERAGE in who to have removed when they are disruptive or downright dangerous w/o repercussions from family members or doctors who want to please em all but don't have to put up with them once they go home!

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jun 9, 2002

How about the woman who delivers at 6am having been up all night and a 10am is expected to smile and entertain the whole clan until evening visiting hours are over. People just don't think.

prmenrs, RN · Jun 9, 2002

Grandparents (and other family memebers) who come to see their grandchild in the NICU!!!! as in Intensive Care Unit! and then proceed to "browse" all the other patients. What's wrong with this one? How old is she? etc.

Also, people who lie to the clerk doing the health screening at the desk. Common sense would dictate that if you're sick, the sibling is sick, you wouldn't want to expose your 27wk, 900gm baby (or any one else's) to some little germ or virus that might KILL them? No problem for some folks!! :angryfire :uhoh21:

st4304 · Jun 9, 2002

Once worked in ICU with open visitation hours and children okay.

I could never get over the people that would bring BABIES!!! to the ICU! Good Lord, you never knew what kind of bugs some of our patients had and they would be in there kissing these babies! One time a woman brought her 5 yr old to the room to see grandma who was on a vent.......the poor kid was crying in terror from her fear of all the machines and Grandma not waking up (propofol induced). I would try to educate people as much as I could, but you guys know. . .sometimes they just ain't gettin' it.

The absolute worst was when we had a near drowning victim who was 7 yrs old. Now this was an adult ICU but we got him for some reason. His parents were in the room with his younger brother (around 4 yrs.) The nurse taking care of the boy had a code in her other patient's room. We were in there doing chest compressions, bagging, etc. In the middle of the code, I looked up and there in the doorway was the 4 yr old brother watching the whole thing. I immediate ran over to him and took him back to his brother's room. The parents HAD GONE OUTSIDE TO SMOKE and had left the little brother in the room. (This was about 1 am, I might add!) What were they thinking? Babysitters.

Keep the light on,

Sherri

SmilingBluEyes · Jun 9, 2002

omg sherri ....that story about the 4 year old at the code is sickening. we have plenty of family likethat too..expect us to babysit and entertain kids....like we have time and can take on such a liability...when did the hospital become Playland or the local DAYCARE?????? UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH