As nurses, we're taught that every patient has challenges, rights, and deserves our respect. And, this is true. But, it's also true that not every patient is respectful, cooperative, or just nice. Nurses are taught that we must be "therapeutic" in providing care; and we must learn to "put the patient's needs first."
Many nurses do this everyday-we put our patients first, and push our needs to the back burner. We can't even go to the bathroom or enjoy our break, off the floor, much of the time, because we are doing just that-putting our patients' needs first. If we're honest, more often than not, as nurses, we are working through most of our shift non-stop, from the time we hit the clock, and even, after we hit the clock, our thoughts and minds are scattered with so much information and data bits that we can't even get a good night's sleep. And, I won't even mention trying to get a decent vacation without getting that infamous phone call, "Are you able to work an extra shift?"
But, can I be real? Or, am I being selfish, petty, or "un-therapeutic" when I say some patients can be a real you-know-what!
I know I'm not sounding professional and maybe I'm not being the bigger person. But, that's just it-I AM a person, with feelings, too. It's not that a particular patient can drive me crazy or be so difficult, rude, and downright indignant, what's more frustrating is when I go out of my way to provide the best service, the best communication, and prioritize my time to make sure I check-in on this patient a little more, purposed with a smile, and then this patient is still not satisfied.
Also, it seems that in many cases, patients like this are not acting our or responding to their pain or present condition. No, these patients are acting like this because this is who they are-this is their personality. Even more, when I document the patient's rudeness and disrespect, supervisors and managers do or say nothing, nilch, nada! That is the ultimate form of professional disrespect, in my never-to-be-humble-opinion.
Yes, we've all had stressful days and some days we just wanted to walk off the job. But, I believe the silence on dealing with these type of patients is contributory to the burn out and job dissatisfaction experienced by nurses and documented in many research studies.
Research has recorded nurses as being, "Stressed out," "under-staffed," and with "too many patients." Also, research demonstrates why some nurses leave their professions because they feel, "burnt out," "dis-respected," "un-appreciated," or even ignored. Nurses have left their jobs or transferred out of a unit because they feel trapped and some nurses have stated they feel their managers and supervisors never defend them. Worse, some nurses feel their managers and supervisors only see them as bodies for the staff or census coverage.
Should we as nurses toughen up? Maybe, in some cases we should. But, as professionals, we must be able to discuss touchy subjects with our colleagues and managers, and expect that they will listen. As professionals who want to better our units and our profession overall, we must be able to provide viable solutions that are able to address real-time issues when they happen. Sometimes, those issues include sensitive events regarding our therapeutic relationships with our patients.
Please, nursing profession, if we want to attract and retain good nurses, who are happy with their jobs and feel connected to a unit, employer, profession, then, please, let's start having real conversations about issues that no one wants to talk about. Silence is not always golden!
Mhsrnbsn
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Why did medical facilities become burger king? They all think they can have it their way