Well, Isn't This Special

MedChica · Jun 3, 2015

golson said:

Looks like it has been removed from the Google play store.

Good.

No one has time for unmportant phone calls. These family members are annoying enough without any apps. Two scenarios:

Sometimes, the clerk tells the entire area to pick up instead of paging a specific nurse's hall. I rec'vd such a general page. I was in the middle of medpass. I stride to the phone, bothered, but masking it. I don't like being interrupting with nonsense when I'm doing heavy work (like a medpass) and since I didn't place a call out - and unless it were pharm - I knew it was bound to be a time-wasting phone call. Still, I slapped on a smile and answered the call.

The guy said that he wanted to speak to a certain pt, by name.

I didn't recall. I asked for the name again and looked at the phone list for the other station. He got all surly, repeated the name and exclaimed, "the patient?!"

I said, "A patient, not MY patient. I have 32 residents. ____ is not one of them so I wouldn't know who you're talking about ... which is why I tried to clarify so I could place you in contact with his actual nurse, clearly. One moment, please."

*click*

...and snapped his butt on 'hold' to transfer out before he could stammer through an awkward apology. The hell with that guy. I don't care that it was rude. He was rude TO ME and interrupting my work. I can only 'grin and bear it' for so long.

Another incident. Had a woman coming down my hallway yelling for her mother's nurse.

Problem?

Wrong hall. Wrong nurse. I was at the med cart drawing up syringe. The aides were feedng residents and passing out coffee. I just heard yelling. The aides and I didn't know what was going on. She was just yelling about needing to speak to a nurse. Reason? Her mother called saying something about not feeling well. (she was fine, of course).

Instead of calling the facility like a rational, mentally well person - this stupid woman hops into her car, drives 30 miles to the facility, enters the facility through the side door (bc she didn't come down the front.) and barrels down my hall raising hell. "I need to see the nurse!" ; "We need to call the ambulance or do something!" ; "We need to do something!"

My first thought was to secure the building. I dind't know if she was a threat or not.

She sped past me and the aides. I followed, insulin and syringe in hand. I led her down the right hall telling her that the nurse is at that nurse's station. "Well, she's not there!"

First of all, "He". Her mother's nurse was a 'he'. How many times must I say it?

Secondly, duh. The nurse is busy, stupid. We're about to start meals, stupid. The aides are getting everyone up and the nurses are flying from room to room, trying to take everyone's blood sugar and pass meds, stupid.

...and I will call her "stupid". I'm tired of people that don't listen. I'm tired of people that don't know how to conduct themselves in public. I'm tired of abrasive and demanding family members. She came through there, just loud and wrong, taking her frustrations out on me and the aides. She is a stupid woman.

We get to the room. I go in to look at the pt. She's fine. Another nurse on that station comes in, hearing the commotion. She tells the aides to get some vitals. Seeing that the situation was being handled, I prepared to leave. Insulin and syringe still in hand.

The crazy lady apologized to me. I looked at her with a flat expression, said nothing and walked out of the room.

EDIT:

Actually, she apologized twice while we were in the room. The first was a general apology. She just thought that I was too immersed in the situation to acknowledge it. Nah. I heard the first time; I just ignored her. Second time, I acknowledged but said nothing.

What was I suppose to say, "Oh, it's fine. It's okay..."

No, it's not okay. Get away from me before you make me forget that I'm in a professional setting.

MedChica · Jun 3, 2015

"...make sure the nurses are doing their job".

This quote gets under my skin for too many reasons to discuss. The creator of this app gets the bird for that string of words alone.

They should follow a nurse for a day. Then, they'd get to see all the 'nothing' that we do every day.

ixchel · Jun 3, 2015

MedChica said:

Good.
No one has time for unmportant phone calls. These family members are annoying enough without any apps. Two scenarios:

Sometimes, the clerk tells the entire area to pick up instead of paging a specific nurse's hall. I rec'vd such a general page. I was in the middle of medpass. I stride to the phone, bothered, but masking it. I don't like being interrupting with nonsense when I'm doing heavy work (like a medpass) and since I didn't place a call out - and unless it were pharm - I knew it was bound to be a time-wasting phone call. Still, I slapped on a smile and answered the call.

The guy said that he wanted to speak to a certain pt, by name.

I didn't recall. I asked for the name again and looked at the phone list for the other station. He got all surly, repeated the name and exclaimed, "the patient?!"

I said, "A patient, not MY patient. I have 32 residents. ____ is not one of them so I wouldn't know who you're talking about ... which is why I tried to clarify so I could place you in contact with his actual nurse, clearly. One moment, please."

*click*

...and snapped his butt on 'hold' to transfer out before he could stammer through an awkward apology. The hell with that guy. I don't care that it was rude. He was rude TO ME and interrupting my work. I can only 'grin and bear it' for so long.

Another incident. Had a woman coming down my hallway yelling for her mother's nurse.

Problem?

Wrong hall. Wrong nurse. I was at the med cart drawing up syringe. The aides were feedng residents and passing out coffee. I just heard yelling. The aides and I didn't know what was going on. She was just yelling about needing to speak to a nurse. Reason? Her mother called saying something about not feeling well. (she was fine, of course).

Instead of calling the facility like a rational, mentally well person - this stupid woman hops into her car, drives 30 miles to the facility, enters the facility through the side door (bc she didn't come down the front.) and barrels down my hall raising hell. "I need to see the nurse!" ; "We need to call the ambulance or do something!" ; "We need to do something!"

My first thought was to secure the building. I dind't know if she was a threat or not.

She sped past me and the aides. I followed, insulin and syringe in hand. I led her down the right hall telling her that the nurse is at that nurse's station. "Well, she's not there!"

First of all, "He". Her mother's nurse was a 'he'. How many times must I say it?

Secondly, duh. The nurse is busy, stupid. We're about to start meals, stupid. The aides are getting everyone up and the nurses are flying from room to room, trying to take everyone's blood sugar and pass meds, stupid.

...and I will call her "stupid". I'm tired of people that don't listen. I'm tired of people that don't know how to conduct themselves in public. I'm tired of abrasive and demanding family members. She came through there, just loud and wrong, taking her frustrations out on me and the aides. She is a stupid woman.

We get to the room. I go in to look at the pt. She's fine. Another nurse on that station comes in, hearing the commotion. She tells the aides to get some vitals. Seeing that the situation was being handled, I prepared to leave. Insulin and syringe still in hand.

The crazy lady apologized to me. I looked at her with a flat expression, said nothing and walked out of the room.

EDIT:

Actually, she apologized twice while we were in the room. The first was a general apology. She just thought that I was too immersed in the situation to acknowledge it. Nah. I heard the first time; I just ignored her. Second time, I acknowledged but said nothing.

What was I suppose to say, "Oh, it's fine. It's okay..."

No, it's not okay. Get away from me before you make me forget that I'm in a professional setting.

This whole post.....

MedChica, I'm not sure if I have a professional way of saying this, so I'll keep it simple. Your hostility in this post is alarming. We all deal with annoying family members from time to time. I doubt that guy knew he had the wrong extension, and the woman was just looking for help. These things aren't really rage worthy.

roser13, ASN, RN · Jun 3, 2015

Keep up the "reviews" everyone! We've skewed the ratings from 5 down to 2 stars.

Animal House R.N., ADN, CNA, LVN · Jun 3, 2015

No we would get told we have adequate staffing according to state guidelines. Uuntil state law change we are just sol folks.

Raven Sierra, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2015

Whoa boy...this app idea is a hot mess in so many ways...

Farawyn · Jun 3, 2015

RHC81 said:

Whoa boy...this app idea is a hot mess in so many ways...

Shhhh. Mavrick is crushing on the Nursey in the app! He may get protective of her if we keep dissing the app.

SunCityInsPhysical, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2015

The hospital I used to work for issued cells that the patients could call us on, it was educational for the patient I was working on. Excuse me, delivering quality one one bedside care...oops don't forget to mention x 5 plus all their families, friends an flowers and trash that had to moved or stepped around. he hey had listen to it ring while while my hands were gloved and busy. The other option is to place it on auto answer and talk to all the other patients. We could also use it to call the nurse or aide for the other pt in the room who isn't assigned to us instead of taking a moment to Explain for the umpteenth time that you are not her nurse (we all look alike) how about if they put a picture of Florence Nightingale on it. We could go back to the good old days of 4 to 8 bed wards so the patients knew where we were and how hard we work. With the advent of single patient "private rooms" I wore a pedometer a few times....stopped when the average was ten plus miles. Now I know why my feet and legs hurt. Took early retirement at 62 due to arthritis. I'm struggling but I don't miss the job. I no longer call it a profession. I think I could have stayed a waitress and done as well financially, a good friend of mine and I sat and compared our lives, hers was better.

annie.rn · Jun 3, 2015

PhillyRNtoBe said:

1.) This is very real.
2.) They are absolutely taking all the patient data they can and selling it!

3.) Yep, totally a scam to collect medical data.

Unbelievable! Thank you for posting this. Very often people buy these apps w/o reading the T&C. Scary stuff. We need to spread the word.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jun 3, 2015

I can't even find the app! Either it's moved, or I'm technologically challenged. The latter is a distinct possibility at this point....time to go home!!

ixchel · Jun 3, 2015

RNsRWe said:

I can't even find the app! Either it's moved, or I'm technologically challenged. The latter is a distinct possibility at this point....time to go home!!

Are you on iPhone/iPad?

Hoosier_RN, MSN · Jun 3, 2015

No, some CNO or other nondirect patient care person will decide that the nurse was lazy and someone will get terminated or discipline. To me, this is just crazy stuff, with lawsuits waiting to happen...

icuRNmaggie said:

This means the public, even software developers, are aware of the dangerous understaffing in hospitals and LTC facilities and they are trying to do something about it. I don't think that is meant to be degrading or a customer service tool; it is intended to be a lifeline.

I think we should comment on the app reviews about how we need national staffing ratios, and a social media campaign to accomplish this. Response time data for each hospital unit correlated to the staffing ratio could be aggregated and posted online.

For multiple calls that go unanswered, a notice should go the CNO stating that the lack of nursing staff response is noted and will be added to the Twitter feed or something like that. This could be a very useful tool for increasing public awareness and ensuring patient safety.