What to do

saw another nurse post this in another thread.

several years ago, when i worked in ccu i had an elderly female patient who had had a big infarct. she was on multiple drips and was having runs of ectopy. her daughter came in to visit, bringing her two pre-school children. when i informed her that our visiting rules prohibited visitors under the age of 12, she threw such a fit that the charge nurse ok'd a "two minute" visit. daughter brought the kids into the room, parked them on grandma's bed and proceded to launch into a tirade about "what was she supposed to to with the kids while grandma was lying around in the hospital and who was going to watch them while she went out?"

we explained to the daughter how ill grandma was, how she needed to rest so her heart could heal, and how she needed to be protected from any stress. daughter replied that she'd talk to her mother any damned way she wanted to. she then left while i was taking grandma's blood pressure (with the old-fashioned syphgmomanometer). she left the kids there for grandma to watch.

i am just curious, in a situation like that, is that a time to call social services and treat them as abandoned children? what would you do?

[cali2007]

Hi,

I read your post....I cannot believe what I just read. That daughter is the most inconsiderate, selfish person I ever heard of. Absolutely, I would call social services....the kids should not be there in the first place (they were under 12), the charge nurse gave her 2 minutes. But, when the daughter started yelling at her mom, the critically ill patient, she should have thrown her out!!! If that didn't work, then she should have called security to escort her out. The house supervisor should have been informed immediately as well. The daughter needed to be informed not to bring in children and that she would not be allowed to visit if she could not control her temper......of course this is in my opinion.

[CHATSDALE]

gramma was incapable of watching the children, this was not one of your jobs nor does a nurse have time

hence they were certainly abandoned by parent..you needed some one to be at your back..call supervisor - social services - security let them call the protective services of the city

[caliotter3]

I would certainly hope that the nurse supervisor took some kind of action, if nothing more than to remove the children from the room and place them near or at the nurses' station awaiting security. How unfortunate for the grandmother.