Visitors are worse than the patients!

[PuckLizardRN]

Hi, I am new to posting here. Love reading these, what a good place to vent. I am a nurse on a general medical/surgical floor.

Anyway, sometimes the families are worse than the patients. This weekend, we had a family of at least 10-12 people visiting one patient, including several children under the age of 10, and an infant. We do have "rules" regarding visitors, but no one, especially management, seems to enforce them. These people were driving us crazy! They kept on coming up to the desk and asking for water, ginger ale, and food, which instead of being for the actual patient, went for the whole family.Everyone was getting in the way of the care of their relative, but didn't care or even try to move. The kids were running up and down the halls being loud, and even going into other patient's rooms despite staff telling them not to. Of course the adults did not care at all, or correct them. When the family FINALLY left, the room was a mess with water and coffee spilled everywhere. It was so bad we had to call housekeeping to come and mop. We didn't have any managers there because it was a weekend, but even if there were I don't think it would have done any good. I don't know if it is like this at all hospitals, but mine is so obsessed with getting good patient satisfaction ratings that situations like this go unchecked because the patient might complain and give us a bad score if anyone says anything to them about visitors or behavior. Soo glad I am off for a few days!

[Deserted]

What. The. Fuck.

Did none of the other patients complain about this? It's pretty damn hard to keep a bunch of kids quiet...

[wagegoth]

When I was recovering from the c-section from my younger son, the last night I was there I got a roommate. Poor woman had had a c-section, and I guess it was an emergency one, because she was moaning and miserable. Of course, the whole family decides to come visit. There's a sign on the door that stated there were to be no more than two visitors per patient, but they ignored it.

I called the nurses' station twice. I physically went down to the station and complained. Security finally showed up 40 minutes later, after most of them had left. It was stupid. The patient was miserable and in pain, but I guess the family doesn't get much excitement, because there were at least three generations of them there.

Then the husband decided to stay the night, so they brought in a recliner for him. He turned on the shared TV and fell asleep. I turned it off from my bed. I was so glad to go home the next day.

[cindybubbles]

You ought to reserve the right to restrain or expel any child that isn't a patient in the hospital. See if you can have the number for Child Protective Services plastered on the walls, and if you can station big, burly security officers, police or just plain big burly people to help you keep watch.

[freeatlast]

About a month ago, I spent 8 days in ICU with sepsis and surgery. On the second day, all of my family converged at once and also a couple of friends. Even though they were quiet and considerate, I was afraid that the nurses would make them leave. I didn't really care because I was on some really good drugs and was asleep more than I was awake. Later, the nurses laughed to me about the crowd and how popular I must be.

[Mel]

What. The. Fuck.

Did none of the other patients complain about this? It's pretty damn hard to keep a bunch of kids quiet...

Exactly what I was thinking! One positive patient satisfaction survey won't matter much if 10 other patients give negative surveys.

[kaherbert]

When my mom was in the hospital, we had a family like that show up. They were very rude to the other patients and their visitors. My sister and I knew the nurses' hands were tied. So we call security and the omnibus man directly to complain about the disruptive family. We clued in other patients and their families and they started to call.

Some big time muckied muck showed up on the floor with security and cleared the disruptive family out.

My sister worked for the same system at the time and said the person who showed up was above both this hospital and the one sis worked at.

[jedimaster91]

I don't know if it is like this at all hospitals, but mine is so obsessed with getting good patient satisfaction ratings that situations like this go unchecked because the patient might complain and give us a bad score if anyone says anything to them about visitors or behavior.

Oh don't worry. This happens everywhere.

Yeah, my patients drive me crazy sometimes, but patients' families are going to put me in the loony bin. The other day someone poked their head into my exam room (which is down the hall from the waiting room) to let me know another patient's husband wanted a cup of coffee. Luckily my brain to mouth filter kicked in before I told him to go to the cafeteria and buy some. We have a coffee machine in the back so I got him some. But dangit, I'm an imaging tech, not a barista.

[Sapphire Silk]

You ought to reserve the right to restrain or expel any child that isn't a patient in the hospital. See if you can have the number for Child Protective Services plastered on the walls, and if you can station big, burly security officers, police or just plain big burly people to help you keep watch.

Calling CPS for that isn't going to win you points with hospital administration. It's overkill.

However, I am very firm when it comes to snacks for family. Unless it's a family member who's been holding vigil with a very sick patient, the answer is always NO, followed by directions to the cafeteria/snack machines.

If it's L&D, hubs/SO can have snacks, but Uncle Joe from Kansas who just came to oogle the new baby? Buy your own food, fucker (said in much more polite terms, of course).

If they push, I will explain we have limited food that is for patients ONLY.

In the ER even patients don't get food unless there is a clear medical need, or they're being admitted.

And I don't hesitate to talk to parents who are letting their kids run wild and be firm with them. If they don't discipline the kids, I don't hesitate to call security and have them escorted out.

I don't have time for that kind of shit.

[dalesys]

I had to be nice to the nurses taking care of my daughter...

One of 'em was my little sister and she'd tattle to mommy.
(DS 62, DD 41, LS 61, M 83)

[AccountingDrone]

When I broke my back, I got put into a semi private room with a little old lady. She had rented the TV and thusly had control of it. [this was back in 1980 and things were way primitive.]From about 9 am until 6 pm she watched soap operas. She wouldn't let me listen to my radio because it was too loud and she couldn't hear her TV. I had to turn my radio up to hear it because she blasted the volume on the TV to max. After dinner I couldn't listen to the radio because her friends came to visit until the end of visiting hours at 9 pm. I couldn't listen to my radio because it disturbed their chatting. I couldn't listen to the radio after 9 pm and before 8 am because she needed to sleep.

I told my doctor that if he didn't move one of us, I would unhook myself from the frame and find something to kill her with. She got moved out the next morning to a private room. The other bed stayed empty, and I rented the damned TV myself.

To this day, I absolutely DETEST soap operas.

[Catwoman2965]

I've spent time both in the ER and hospital with my mom and grandmother. One year, 6 times in 3 months. It would never occur to me to ask for anything to eat or drink while there. People really are entitled! I will say, when my grandmother broke her hip, and spent hours in the ER while waiting for a bed, and I stayed with her, the nurses did offer, and I accepted, a cup of tea. It was cold out, and I'd been there a good 8 hours, and it was in the wee hours of the morning. That was nice, but had they not, I would have hunted down either the caf, or a soda machine and gotten my own.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've spent time both in the ER and hospital with my mom and grandmother. One year, 6 times in 3 months. It would never occur to me to ask for anything to eat or drink while there. People really are entitled! I will say, when my grandmother broke her hip, and spent hours in the ER while waiting for a bed, and I stayed with her, the nurses did offer, and I accepted, a cup of tea. It was cold out, and I'd been there a good 8 hours, and it was in the wee hours of the morning. That was nice, but had they not, I would have hunted down either the caf, or a soda machine and gotten my own.

I would have offered you coffee or tea in a situation like that.

The frequent flier wanting narcs for "headache." Don't think so.

AD: I understand your situation perfectly. Been there, bought that T shirt. I don't watch TV when I'm a patient in the hospital. I sleep. That's it. But having a roomie who keeps the volume up is an irritant.

When I was born, Mom was in a semi private room. You rented the TV daily; there was one for each bed. Dad paid the rent for Mom so she could entertain herself while she recovered from having me. Later that same day, Mom got a room mate who'd also just had a baby. She was on public assistance (this was pre-Medicaid), and couldn't afford the rent for TV. She was very demanding with the nursing staff, constantly complaining about how she wanted TV. But because she couldn't pay for it, the staff could not and would not turn it on.

Then the woman started giving Mom a hard time, trying to bully her into watching what this woman wanted to watch. Mom refused. Mom got so agitated over it, her OB discharged her a day early just to get Mom away from the crazy bitch.

[raudf]

Ugghhh... I was the first one in my family to have a kid, so my parents, sis, cousins, aunts and uncles had to come down for my first kid. I don't think any of them made demands on the staff, but they sure as heck drove me nuts. I had my sister and one cousin thrown from my room not only because she tried using her cell phone after being warned by nursing staff not to (I was high risk, being induced and was hooked up to a lot of machines. Older cells don't have the shielding that the newer ones have) and also not letting me farking cat nap!

On second thought, she did irritate the nurses. Having to come bolting into my room due to my BP monitor going off because they were irritating me had to be frustrating for them too. (It was a nurse whispering to me if I wanted to remove them that set off the chain of events come to think of it.)

The second kid... Ahhhhhhh.... so much more quiet. Emergency c-section, shorter visits and not so many damn kin. I love my extended family, but there are times I find myself wanting to trim the family tree and I'm pretty sure the morphine would have had me strongly considering it if they couldn't STFU.

[Deserted]

I love my extended family, but there are times I find myself wanting to trim the family tree and I'm pretty sure the morphine would have had me strongly considering it if they couldn't STFU.

You obviously didn't have enough morphine.