A pt complained about a nurse not helping enough. It was a very vague complaint amid a whole string of complaints. Food, the room too cold, too long to wait...
In the interest of patient satisfaction the nurse was "encouraged" to approach the patient AND family, and apologize for their unhelpful behavior. ( I can't be more specific about the complaint)
There were no threats of being fired, but management was not going to be happy if the nurse refused. I've offered a fair amount of apologies over the years, but not because someone told me to.
Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.
It's tricky. I will apologize effusively if I'm at fault - say, I promised to bring your pain medication or get your prune juice or whatever, and I forgot because I was charting.
However, if a patient says... "YOU'RE EIGHT MINUTES LATE!" when I bring them Percocet, after I just discharged one patient and got another admission in less than an hour, I will really, really need to bite my tongue to stop myself from blurting out something offensive.
amygarside
1,026 Posts
And we're going to improve our services, thank you.