Prayers for Bobbbiez's son

[chris]

May is supposed to be about flowers, not surgeries. I stopped to visit my mom and one of the girls I worked with at my old job was working the desk and asked me if I heard that another coworker was in the hospital at RGH. (by the way guys its becoming known as the cardiac hospital here. That's where Ted Turner came to have his done back a few years) mY friend had some major serious surgery done but was sent home and came back the next day...Found her in ER in the hall waiting for a room.

Glad to hear your son Mark is getting better Bobbbiez and you too Denise regarding your dad.

[bobbbiez]

Thanks Cris!

Personally I think they're sending people home way too soon after all surgeries. Many are returning after a few days. Early releases are good for the insurance companies but definitely not good for the patients.

In my son's case just recently, the doctor didn't come in till 8:30 pm to check on him and then decided to release him. I was pretty pi**d off cause I just left the hospital after another long day being there. Had to go back to pick up my son at 9:30 pm. Now that is damn ridiculous! Besides the fact that the day was already paid for so why not wait till morning to release him? It's a good thing Mark's doctor wasn't there when I picked Mark up to bring him home or his doctor would have needed a doctor.

I won't even go into facts about the lousy nursing care given in all hospitals today. All I will tell you is that I had a meeting with St E's administrator and the sh*t hit the fan after I was done with the complaints. Employees were called in on their day off for a meeting because of my actions. Bottom line is, it is pretty sad when a family member has to stay all day and all night to make sure the patient is properly taken care of and their doctor's orders are followed.

Nursing has gone down hill since I last worked in the hospitals. Many going into the field today should not be nurses and those are the exact words coming out of the mouth of a hospital's administrator. To many it's only a job to them and there is no sense of compassion for others, especially the very sick and the elderly.

[clarencebunsen]

A lot of the pressure to reduce hospital length of stay was and is driven by Medicare. In the mid 70's Medicare DRGs (diagnostic related groups) were recommended average stays for hospitalizations by type. They morphed into maximums that Medicare would pay for a given illness. If Medicare pays for 3 days and the patient stays 4, the hospital eats the extra cost. Most insurance companies have followed suit.

My wife certainly wouldn't argue with you about the changes in nursing over the course of her career. I've heard her express many of the same sentiments. I'm not sure how much is real change and how much is a difference in perspective. I hear a lot of complaints about the attitude of kids today. (I may have voiced a few myself.) However, when I look at my own kids and many of their friends I see pretty much the same work ethic as I had.

[dgriffin]

My impression is that hospital management ... no doubt for the reasons stated by CB ... have reduced staff so much that those left working a shift do what they can. And as usual, management blames the staff when they can't do more. That situation also leaves staff dispirited and sometimes mean spirited. I notice in CB's response what we've been expecting and that is government "leadership" in regards to healthcare. As soon as Medicare lowers care standards as far as time, the insurance companies follow suit. That's why I never believe government when they say that "you'll always have a private option."

Bobbbiez, hope all goes well for your son. Hang in there, both of you.
Dave

[bobbbiez]

Thank you Dave.

What I witnessed many times was people who were just plain lazy to get off their a**es to answer a call light to help another co-worker who was busy with another patient. When you have a room with a heart patient and a stroke patient with their call light on for over 20 minutes and no one gets up to answer it because it's not their assigned patient something is dreadfully wrong with the ones sitting in the nurses station gabbing with each other. What I witnessed in the lack of care or compassion was not due to anyone running around or being over worked. Most of them could use some running around to lose the weight they're carrying instead of sitting on their a**es ignoring call lights.

When I worked in a hospital for 10 years, before I went to home- care for the terminally ill, we were always under-staff but we did our work even if it meant giving up our breaks or staying over our shift to care for our assigned patients.
There is no excuse for the lousy attitudes some workers give to their patients or to the patient's families. In my nursing school we were trained to treat our patients like they were one of our own family members and would like to have them cared for. It's as simple as that. Sorry, but I'm not buying the excuse that they're under-staff or it's the government's fault for the poor attitudes and care given in hospitals today.

[dgriffin]

I don't doubt your experience, Bobbbiez, and as an experienced health worker I'm sure you accurately perceived the situation at the hospital. I was following CB's line of thinking trying to pursue a few answers to what has gone wrong in hospitals. By the way, when Mrs. Dave had her knee replaced a couple of years ago, I got the distinct impression that while I was on the floor, the nursing staff did not expect to receive a call light. That annoyed me.

[clarencebunsen]

Last night I attended the service awards dinner for Faxton-St. Luke's. There are still a lot of dedicated people working in health care. One woman who was honored last night had started her nursing career while I was still in high school, "retired" 10 years ago but still worked as an occasional. With a wife and a sister who are RNs I've associated with a large number of nurses over the years and found most to be caring dedicated people.

I've tried to square that with the expierences of Dave & Bobbiez and many similar complaints I've heard. In addition to my wife I also have a daughter and daughter-in-law who work at Faxton-St. Luke's (neither of the other two are nurses). One common complaint I've heard is that co-workers seem less likely to pitch in if an employee needs help.

I don't think the "not my job" attitude is limited to a single institution or to just health care. I'm not sure why it seems more prevalent now than it did in the past.

[dgriffin]

May 13, 2010 6:05:36 GMT -5 clarencebunsen said:

Last night I attended the service awards dinner for Faxton-St. Luke's. There are still a lot of dedicated people working in health care. One woman who was honored last night had started her nursing career while I was still in high school, "retired" 10 years ago but still worked as an occasional. With a wife and a sister who are RNs I've associated with a large number of nurses over the years and found most to be caring dedicated people.

I've tried to square that with the expierences of Dave & Bobbiez and many similar complaints I've heard. In addition to my wife I also have a daughter and daughter-in-law who work at Faxton-St. Luke's (neither of the other two are nurses). One common complaint I've heard is that co-workers seem less likely to pitch in if an employee needs help.

I don't think the "not my job" attitude is limited to a single institution or to just health care. I'm not sure why it seems more prevalent now than it did in the past.

I don't know either, but it probably has something to do with the general attitude prevalent toward "the customer" today, which is less than appreciative.

Years ago a friend worked for a small company that consisted of about 50 workers housed in a small office building where engineering work was done. Customers seldom visited the office, but when a customer or potential customer passed through the front door, the receptionist would page "Mr. Bartlebottom," or some such name that was a code to alert the employees there was customer on the premises. The purpose was to ensure that employees looked their best, wide awake and working hard on something, and to make sure they were kind to any stranger they met in the hallways. Eventually the company discontinued the practice, however. Management found that employees were going to sometimes inadvertently comical lengths to appear engaged in important work and wasting valuable work time in doing so. And in a few instances, overt friendliness on the part of some male workers to an increasingly feminine cohort of customers led to complaints from the women of being subjected to unsolicited attention.

By the way, my experience with my wife's stay at our local hospital was not totally negative. In fact, overall it was positive. I was just annoyed with the call light situation.

[Clipper]

I once was told by a nurses aid, while my dad was in the hospital, that "family normally cleans the patient's false teeth, and glasses" when my father asked her to simply rinse his plate when he was giving him his morning bath. I told her that if that was true, I could rent a room for him at the Holiday Inn and care for him myself.

I had to explain to her that the job description of a nurse was to administer medical care, give medications and change dressings, along with anything else that required medical certification. The duties of a nurses aid was to bathe patients, change bed linen, help patients on and off toilets and bedpans, groom them and generally make them comfortable. I also explained to her that I did not mind shaving my dad or washing his face, but I was not going to wipe his ass, or clean his dentures, and that if she didn't want to, maybe the charge nurse could assign someone to the job that would DO it.

At that point, I requested that the charge nurse annotate his chart that this particular nurse's aid should not be assigned to my father's room, so she could not neglect him or seek revenge for our little discussion. The next time my dad was hospitalized, that aid had been fired and replaced so the complaints must have been numerous.

No matter how understaffed or overworked, healthcare providers MUST remember that they are caring for PEOPLE, mothers, fathers, children, etc. that need compassion and an adequate level of care. Patients MUST be cared for and kept comfortable. If one can't do the job without taking their frustrations of over work and understaffing out on the patients, they need to find a different job.

It seems that more and more is being relegated to aids, and less and less is being performed by nurses, due to the nursing shortage.

[bobbbiez]

CB, believe me I'm not trying to tarnish the good people in the health care profession, especially since I always took pride in my work and feel I can label myself as one of them. There are many who are truly dedicated to their jobs and to their patients but it only takes a few "bad" ones on a floor to give all a bad name, especially if those "bad" are taking care of a loved-one of our own.

It is sad and not right but I guess it has to be up to the dedicated worker to help their establishment weed out the "bad" for every ones benefit. Just keeping a "bad" body there can become a very dangerous situation for those who need good health care.

My hat is off to your wife and family members who are in the health care positions. It is not an easy job and it does take special people who can deliver the sense of being cared for...... with feelings. I'm sure your wife will understand what I mean.

[bobbbiez]

May 13, 2010 9:15:01 GMT -5 Clipper said:

It seems that more and more is being relegated to aids, and less and less is being performed by nurses, due to the nursing shortage.

Boy Clipper, you hit the nail right on the head. In the last six months being with family members in a hospital I have seen that as a fact. It has been the aids who are running their a**es off to help the patients. I had more contact and have asked assistance from the aids then with the patients assigned nurse. It's too bad many of them didn't go into nursing for their license. Many have families they support and could not take the time or had the money to pursue the schooling.
Have to say, aids are the back bone of nurses and a savior many times to the patient. Without them on the floors many problems a patient was having would go unnoticed for too long. They also should be commended for their dedication and jobs well done.