What to do about barrage of questions from families

[SoundofMusic]

I am frustrated and stressed at times w/ family members who show up, usually after they get off work, barging into the rooms and DEMANDING to know every answer to everything about what is going on w/ the patient -- what doctors have been by? When are they coming? What is going on now, etc, etc.

What is reasonable to answer -- exactly how much CAN we know about each and every case? Even though I know it, by the end of the day I have to run back to the charts and check because I just can't keep 4-5 pts and all their issues and stories straight in my head.

It seems we nurses are looked at as the walking answer book when it comes to these patients -- I mean -- I can't answer for every doc and I definitely don't feel I can explain WHY the doc hasn't been by, or WHY this doc hasn't discussed this and that w/ the family -- I feel I'm explaining a lot for doctors who are never around when the families come by.

Any advice?

[Pepperlady]

Well, I can sympathize with you, I think for me personally there are a couple of approaches.

First of all, I don't/can't speak to families unless the patient okays it. So if we are in the room I try to engage the patient in these questions.

I then offer my apologies, not for my work but for the physician not coming, and suggest that they make up a list of questions that we can leave on the table for the physician to address.

You can excuse yourself, do a quick review of the chart and see if that provides any answers.

For my patients I will also tell family that they are welcome to send one family member to sit at the bedside at 8 am so that they can be there when the doctor visits.

Nothing really deals with the barrage of patients in the afternoon, but these are just some ideas.

[Nellie Nurse]

Sometimes when a family member would ask me more questions than I could answer about the patient's plan of care by the physician who usually did not share that information with me I would give the family member the phone number to the doctor's office and let them contact them directly.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Where I work, a family "spokesperson" is selected, and I filter all calls and queries beyond the "serious but stable" to them.