OK, OK, I know why. It's because it makes them feel unsafe, that they won't get good enough care, that they won't hit the callbell when they need to bc they don't want to be a "bother" because we're "already so busy."
But mgmt is SO ADAMANT about us never speaking to pts about staffing, it makes me feel as if they're protecting themselves from something. A bad reputation in the community, perhaps?
I don't normally say this. But if I'm late with something simple, like a ginger ale, I may say, "sorry, I had to grab it, we're short techs tonight." Sometimes a short, truthful explanation goes a long way toward pt satisfaction, as opposed to them just thinking I was lazy or Facebooking.
Other times someone else has said something to the pt before me, and they say to me, "I hear you're short staffed."
True, our hospital is a business and we shouldn't discuss business with clients. But a little nagging voice in the back of my head says to me that this may be one of the ways to effect change, if the community starts to hear about what goes on here instead of us just complaining to each other. (We are in a notoriously union-unfriendly state.)
No, I'm not going to start discussing staffing with pts or their families. Often a pt will say to me, "You must have a lot of pts," like a backdoor way to test staffing levels (these old people are savvy), and I will simply say, "I do have other pts, but you are my focus right now."
Patients are the first to know if we are short-staffed, they do not get the immediate service or service in a timely fashion. Believe me, they know. What they do not know or seem to understand is that we are not waitresses, phone answering services, stock people etc. They seem to expect other services that are outside nursing. How many of us end up making multiple trips for water, picking up a telephone etc. Yes, we want to do things for our patients, but nursing has reached the point where it is so demanding, patients and families need to realize that we are spread-thin and need to concentrate on the nursing part of their care!!!! Yes, I always told the families, if they asked, when we were short staffed, and I usually gave them the extension of the supervisor or unit manager if they wanted to discuss it with them. We are a part of the service industry, but the service we provide is very specialized and surely there could be ways to lighten up our load so that we can provide better care!!!
I have always freely given the DON, the ADON, the CEO's, ombudsman, resident advocate, janitor (jk) and whoever else's contact information to anyone who noticed, complained, questioned, etc., our staffing levels. All staff needs to do this in order to get some semblance of relief from this issue. Help won't come from just the staff complaining, LTC staffing needs to be fixed from the outside.
Management isn't fooling anyone. Patients/residents and their families aren't as dumb as they'd like to believe. No need to staff to "mention" the lack of warm bodies answering lights
loriangel14, RN
6,933 Posts
There is no rule against saying this where I work. We tell our patients all the time when it happens. Usually they know anyways.