I work as a patient safety attendant (patient sitter) per diem and every other weekend. I sit with fall risk patients, patients who are suicidal, confused, tend to take off their IVs/nasal cannula, who need my assistance walking to the bathroom, etc. I thought it was a good idea to get my foot in the door since I am a nursing student. I need to wait a couple of months until I can work as a nursing assistant. I also graduated with a BS in biology and work other days in a bio lab.
I was sitting with an older male today and I heard yesterday he was very agitated and almost hit/punched the nurse and the nursing assistant. Today, he was totally relaxed. He slept most of the time and I helped him in small ways. The patient's room is right in front of the nurse's station and he was in bed 1 so I can hear some of the conversations. The patient's nurse came in to give the patient the medication about 30 minutes before my shift ended. I hear another nurse ask him, "do you really need a sitter?" she asked him in a really sarcastic way. the patient's nurse went to the door and shrugged and said, seriously, no. The unit clerk laughed sarcastically and said, what's the point of having a sitter? Then the nurse who was outside says it's useless to have a sitter. They bickered and laughed while I'm listening to the whole thing.
I grew extremely angry. I understand that the patient today was very calm, but I was there to help their patients out. I was not there to just relax. I didn't have the tv on, I'm not allowed to read or look at my phone so I paid close attention to the patient especially since he was in a respiratory floor. why say they need sitters and say we are useless, but when they need us, they call us up. I just felt very hurt..
I know I shouldn't let this bother me, but I just didn't feel appreciated. Since I am a nursing student, I know how to do the things that nursing assistants do, but I am not allowed to since it's my job. I really appreciate your comments. I feel much better.. thank you again.
I work as a patient safety attendant (patient sitter) per diem and every other weekend. I sit with fall risk patients, patients who are suicidal, confused, tend to take off their IVs/nasal cannula, who need my assistance walking to the bathroom, etc. I thought it was a good idea to get my foot in the door since I am a nursing student. I need to wait a couple of months until I can work as a nursing assistant. I also graduated with a BS in biology and work other days in a bio lab.
I was sitting with an older male today and I heard yesterday he was very agitated and almost hit/punched the nurse and the nursing assistant. Today, he was totally relaxed. He slept most of the time and I helped him in small ways. The patient's room is right in front of the nurse's station and he was in bed 1 so I can hear some of the conversations. The patient's nurse came in to give the patient the medication about 30 minutes before my shift ended. I hear another nurse ask him, "do you really need a sitter?" she asked him in a really sarcastic way. the patient's nurse went to the door and shrugged and said, seriously, no. The unit clerk laughed sarcastically and said, what's the point of having a sitter? Then the nurse who was outside says it's useless to have a sitter. They bickered and laughed while I'm listening to the whole thing.I grew extremely angry. I understand that the patient today was very calm, but I was there to help their patients out. I was not there to just relax. I didn't have the tv on, I'm not allowed to read or look at my phone so I paid close attention to the patient especially since he was in a respiratory floor. why say they need sitters and say we are useless, but when they need us, they call us up. I just felt very hurt..[/quote
Clearly, THAT nurse was not grateful for what you do, but I'm quite certain that the majority ARE thankful that you and others like you are there. Unfortunately, as in every area of life, you hear about the negatives far more than the positives. If nothing else, you are learning what attributes NOT to exhibit when you graduate nursing school and are that nurse on the floor with a "sitter" 12 steps away who can hear what YOU'RE saying =)
My interpretation of those comments would be that there are some patients who need a lot attention by sitters, and some who don't (oftentimes those same patients, but when delerium starts to improve), and this one now did not need as much attention. As a nurse I feel like someone needs a sitter the most when they are pulling at stuff or climbing out of bed all the time. If this patient wasn't, I might also agree that he didn't need a sitter - but that's not saying that I don't appreciate sitters.
There are a few really good sitters who will go above and beyond and help patients with incontinent care or communicate their needs to nurses or do other nurse aide-like work. These I'm grateful for even when a patient is not a threat to themselves or others. I bet you are one of these!!!! I am always grateful to have a sitter when a patient is agitated or in danger. On the other hand, there are some sitters who will sit and watch tv and completely ignore the patient who is pulling out their IV. Or those who will not even attempt to stop or redirect them but will just hit the call light to inform the nurse that the patient has pulled out their IV. And of course, there are those sitters who will keep the lights and TV on all night when a patient clearly needs to sleep. This is really annoying to me. I don't envy that job, though, because the bad days are really bad. I appreciate what you do.
Don't know if your paid, but if your are sounds like they think you work for free.It has to be hard on a nurse working their tail off only to watch someone do nothing for a while. They shouldn't mind you are trying to get where they are.
Try not to take it too personally. Like someone said, you will find ungrateful people everywhere. So don't take the negative comments to heart.
And for what it's worth, she sounded more like she was making light of the fact that he actually had a sitter assigned (because he didn't appear to need one), and not so much like she thought you were useless. :)
Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.
We rarely get sitters, since they must be privately paid for in our facility. I love a good sitter! I know they can't always toilet them, help with ADLs, etc. Like others have said the only issue is when you really have to babysit the sitter. Falling asleep, spending the entire day on their phone, or at worst (and most common unfortunately) working the patient up. I've had sitters fighting with the patient and making their sundowning 100x worse!
But a sitter is worth their weight in gold, and I won't ever knock a sitter until I have to physically remove or wake them up and then call their agency.
Some people have the problem of not getting sitters at all, my unit dealt with the problem of repeatedly getting sitters that were completely useless. As in, a patient was actively pulling out his IV and NG tube and getting out of bed, and the sitter left the room to go get a nurse. Another horror story that happened more recently, the sitter helped the patient into the bathroom, left the patient in the bathroom alone so she could return to her chair and watch TV (in the A bed, not the B bed). The patient proceeded to fall in the bathroom, the sitter went into the bathroom and attempted to lock nursing staff OUT in hopes of covering up the fall
After months of complaints from us the quality of our PSA's improved. I am now SO grateful for the ones that come and do their job! I don't expect them to single-handedly bathe the patient, take them for walks, etc. But I do expect them to at least tell me if the patient is soiled, and help me clean them up if necessary. I do expect them to actively protect the patient's IV's and tubes and to keep them safe.
Just as a tip re: breaks. If you ask the nurse at the beginning of the shift to agree on a good time for a break then maybe we won't roll our eyes. I've had many sitters who work 3-11 while I work 7p-7a. They ask me at 8pm for their dinner break. While I totally understand and want you to go to dinner, that is right in the middle of my med pass time and I probably haven't seen all 6 of my patients yet. It isn't safe for me to give you a break. If you check with the day nurse at 3pm maybe you could have gone on break before change of shift instead.
All that being said, I give you a lot of props for doing what you do. You keep my patients safe, you keep me from having to insert new IV's three times a shift, and I love to see you form relationships with patients when they are scared or lonely.
Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.
And for what it's worth, she sounded more like she was making light of the fact that he actually had a sitter assigned (because he didn't appear to need one), and not so much like she thought you were useless. :)
Good point. Maybe she requested a sitter and the patient had calmed down, so she felt a little foolish for asking for a sitter. Or maybe the nurse that had requested a sitter has since left, and everyone else was poking fun at her for requesting a sitter. Like most things we overhear, it's probably not about you or the way you perceived it.
while i was leaving, the unit clerk came into the room to inform me that the sitter was d/c and she gave me a funny look. i told the nurse that the patient was coughing so much and he says.."oh that's just how he is..."
Good point. Maybe she requested a sitter and the patient had calmed down, so she felt a little foolish for asking for a sitter. Or maybe the nurse that had requested a sitter has since left, and everyone else was poking fun at her for requesting a sitter. Like most things we overhear, it's probably not about you or the way you perceived it.
I work as a patient safety attendant (patient sitter) per diem and every other weekend. I sit with fall risk patients, patients who are suicidal, confused, tend to take off their IVs/nasal cannula, who need my assistance walking to the bathroom, etc. I thought it was a good idea to get my foot in the door since I am a nursing student. I need to wait a couple of months until I can work as a nursing assistant. I also graduated with a BS in biology and work other days in a bio lab.
I was sitting with an older male today and I heard yesterday he was very agitated and almost hit/punched the nurse and the nursing assistant. Today, he was totally relaxed. He slept most of the time and I helped him in small ways. The patient's room is right in front of the nurse's station and he was in bed 1 so I can hear some of the conversations. The patient's nurse came in to give the patient the medication about 30 minutes before my shift ended. I hear another nurse ask him, "do you really need a sitter?" she asked him in a really sarcastic way. the patient's nurse went to the door and shrugged and said, seriously, no. The unit clerk laughed sarcastically and said, what's the point of having a sitter? Then the nurse who was outside says it's useless to have a sitter. They bickered and laughed while I'm listening to the whole thing.
I grew extremely angry. I understand that the patient today was very calm, but I was there to help their patients out. I was not there to just relax. I didn't have the tv on, I'm not allowed to read or look at my phone so I paid close attention to the patient especially since he was in a respiratory floor. why say they need sitters and say we are useless, but when they need us, they call us up. I just felt very hurt..
ALSO, the patient kept coughing and had a lot of mucus. The patient kept spitting it out into the tissue papers I kept giving him. I told his nurse, and he says "oh..that's just how he is.."
I was quite shocked. A few hours later, the swallow eval therapist came and she suctioned him. She had to change the diet and told the nurse what was going on. I was just shocked...goodness..
I read the OP from the perspective that now that the pt was calm & wasn't displaying the behaviors that called for the sitter need in the first place, they were trying to suss out whether or not they really needed to keep you.
We re-eval our sitter need every shift (heck, even every 4 hours sometimes), because just having a sitter blows a budget. Especially if we keep one longer than we really need to.
Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN
20,908 Posts
I am sorry you experienced this....but there are ungrateful people everywhere.