Click here to credit the artist of this piece, from deviantART. (naturally)
Help me, help me. I might be socially inadequate, but I know how to do my job. Try and talk to me outside of my job and I might look like that girl in the picture.
He might have a big fist, but punching family members is not considered therapeutic, says me, the nurse.
One shift last week we were all at max ratio 6:1, which in my opinion is equivalent to a gangbang in the world of nursing. All my patients were having procedures, required extra care, and one was having a stroke.
So here walks in our newest patient care technician as they are called in my hospital. I give him report, about who can eat, who is on bed rest, who is a fall risk, blood sugar checks etc. He is going to be a nurse, and that is great, because usually nursing students working tech, seem more eager to please the nurse, learn, and be rewarded.
He worked well with us, as I frantically tried to keep up, treading water with PTTs, and heparin drips, and transfer, discharge, admit. The bleep bleep bleep of fast or slow heartbeats and ectopy. When everything is now, labs now, drugs now, must go to the bathroom now day. Everywhere I turned he was there, I was starting IVs he was watching, bed panning, can you help me turn this patient every two hours, can you take Mr. Jones to the bathroom, and please and thank you. I was stressed and he knew it and at 1800 hours, that is 11 hours into this non-stop telemetry tango, I get called to the nurse’s station to see a family member.
The family member, a daughter of my stroke patient is looking pretty pissed off. Her dad is in MRI getting an MRA of the brain, who came in for heart failure and had an in hospital acute stroke on night shift.
She says to me in a nasty tone, “Has my Fathers linens been changed today?” Now, I did not know if they were or not, I could go ask the PCT, but that would look silly, so I replied, “We do not routinely change linen in the hospital on a daily basis, unless they are soiled.” Her face became so reddened; I thought that she would hit something or me. In a social situation, I would have immediately taken a step backward, I would have blushed myself, and I would have laughed nervously or looked like an idiot.
This is not a social situation, I am good at my job, and I control it well. It is quite possible that the linens were messy and I had not realized it because I was drowning in hypotension and bleeps. I was mortified, was it possible that the sheets were dirty and I did not notice it, in the middle of untangling IV tubing like an electrician? She said the sheets were bloody. I replied, “I will change the linens at once then.”
She stormed off in an angry manner, her ugly hair nearly whipping me in the face. I thought to myself, does she even know that her father has had a stroke, and what is going on here? Where are her priorities? I know where my priorities are, and that is anti-coagulating her Dads blood stream, and controlling the abnormal heart rhythm with intravenous calcium channel blockers, but she will not understand any of that. People cannot comprehend things like that when their loved ones are sick. They only know what they can control, when they feel that everything else is spinning out of control, and that happens to be: the linens and the nurse.
I get that, and I give them that control in a gentle professional manner. It is OK that they do not even realize it.
After she turned her back to me, I turned, looked to my PCT who watched the whole conversation, and I know that my face is a movie, regardless of what words spill out of my mouth. I said, “Let’s do it together.” Who wants to be in the room with stressed out, confused, family members alone?
We get to the linen cart, and he starts punching is fist into his hand, and says, “You want me to take care of her? Cause I will, you just don’t know me.” I started laughing cause, I knew he would not punch any one; this is a hospital after all. It was just funny. So we went to the room smiling, and changed the bed quickly.
There was one very small spot of blood on the top sheet, and that my friends, is totally unacceptable.
Tags: bloody
Wow. Speechless. Unfortunately I think we have all encountered similar situation of some degree.
I agree. Unacceptable.
BTW- I’m still laughing hysterically at your comment : “One shift last week we were all at max ratio 6:1, which in my opinion is equivalent to a gangbang in the world of nursing”.
Hang in there.
Yeap yeap Sean, It is a gangbang and everybody is getting screwed, the patient, the nurse, and the ancillary staff. I read your post on the strike, I really don’t have the answers, and we are not unionized where I am. I often wonder what it would be like if we were union…enforced ratios would be nice, but I would even be happy with a lunch break on some shifts.
I never even followed up with the Temple nurses strike…I am going to look it up now.
Still hanging in there, you big motivator!
I’m a nursing student in Alabama, and I didn’t even realize there were blogs about nursing. Thank you for doing this. It makes me look forward to becoming a nurse even more knowing what kind of things might happen and how others in my future profession deal with them-especially being able to see the humor in it.
Heather,
Nurse blogs are everywhere, I am glad you found us! I started writing about my experiences 2 weeks off of orientation, and even if I get lazy or distracted at times, I will continue. I carry on reading and writing about nursing because really, it is a way to relate experiences, and know that we are not alone in this.
Yes, the humor is important, it is a coping mechanism, maybe. Really if we can’t laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?
Good luck in school, you will love it, I do. And hang in there through the nursing school stress and drama!
Holy crap you have a 6:1 ratio on Tele? We have 4:1 here in CA and it’s almost all I can do to keep up somedays.
I hate the family members who sweat the small stuff. We have one patient, a frequent visitor to our unit, with CHF. Her son is certifiably insane at this point, and things have gone downhill with his mother every subsequent hospitalization. She’s trying to shuffle off her mortal coil and he’s not letting her…
Anyway, he’s the type of person who will run down the hall after a nurse, any nurse, and say “Have you seen ______ my mom’s nurse? I haven’t seen her in the last 5 minutes and I told her that mom needs her hemorrhoid cream right away and I can’t believe she’s not back with it yet. Can you get it for us? No one here ever takes care of my mother properly, having to wait this long for the simplest little thing! You need to go find her for me right away and tell her how important this is!!!”
Poor woman almost made it to heaven, but he changed her code status from DNR to Full at the last moment. Now she’s in the ICU on a vent… going through hell
Yes, the ratio can go 6:1 and it does not always do that, but it sure legally can, and it is absolute insanity on those days. A lot of times the acuity is not that high though, so it evens out sometimes. I guess I could write essays about doctors who “always” admit the their patients to telemetry. On the swing side of this when it is 3:1 or 4:1, I find it very manageable. I will find myself escaping the tele gangbang hell one day soon, I have just been lazy.
It is hard when family members major in the minors, when we are majoring in the majors. I always fall back on the control issue with them, they want some control because they can’t understand. I give them control over the little things to comfort them. It sucks when we are busy and have to do that, but in the end it goes a long way. *hands over the ass cream* with a smile is how I rock it, most of the time, unless someone is coding lol
I know what you mean about the frequent flyers, and heart failure, it is a revolving door, that spins so fast. I feel like a recording: take your lasix, weigh yourself every morning, if you gain 2 pounds over night, call your doctor.
The code status! We accept death as a part of life. Send me home on the morphine drip, please. gtt gtt gtt gtt gtt
I have DNR tatted on my chest, and DNI tatted on the inside of my lower lip, if and when I find myself in a long drawn out death process.
Wow been there, done that. God bless you. Family members can be the bane of your existence sometimes. And I think a therapeutic slap may be just what the Doctor ordered. Maybe you can send her down for ECT? It may improve her mood.
Yes, some people do need a good therapeutic slap once in a while, I like the idea.
Thanks for the blessing pinky.
I was a tele RN for ten years. So, I totally get where you’re coming from and have had family members like that one, what seems like a million times. Now I work in PACU. Sometimes, it feels like our job is a thankless one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But sometimes you do want to slap them if you could.
Lana,
That is a long time to be spinning on telemetry! Wow! I went to tele right out of nursing school, and that was a little more than 3 years ago. I am still rocking it, I do get stressed and tired though, but as you said, I would not want to do anything else. I like the chaos, and the fast pace of telemetry. I might want to go to ER one day to satisfy the need for speed, but sometimes, I think I want to get over to ICU to satisfy my need to control. I never really thought about PACU, but I do find anesthesia interesting.