Be grateful

I work as a healthcare professional and I can't stand when family members of patients are overly concerned and overly protective and extremely controlling in their loved one's care, to the point that it interferes with care and family interaction. I understand that you may have had bad experiences with the healthcare system but please don't take it out on the nurses, doctors and other professionals who are only helping your loved ones recover. We work in the best interests of the patient. Nurses are humans too and don't have multiple arms and legs to provide care all at once. Please don't tell medical professionals how to do their job or ask why a test is taking so long. We don't have control over the "system" and the "politics", so please be patient. If you have serious complaints, then you should really consider who you vote for and where your tax money is going towards, and be grateful we actually have a healthcare system that's not charging you for your hospital stay plus all the other equipment, services and materials we use on a daily basis.

4 Comments

Post a Comment

Consider the other side.

Oct 12, 2017 at 7:20pm

I see your point, as someone who's been in hospital over 11 times for anorexia and gastrointestinal / heart problems, my parents completely trusted the doctors, I ended up being abused in the hospital by my psychiatrist who was upping and changing types of men's daily. I was silenced in family meetings, forced not to talk about all the things I had seenhad done to me. As the patient , I was deeply traumatized well into my 20s, for those reason I have a hard time trusting my new team. Of course, hopefully that was an isolated incident, but my family now wishes they'd asked more questions. Whether there's a reason to be suspicious through past experience or its an overbearing parent who won't shut up, remember in moments of frustration, that it's because they're worried, they are stressed out over the long waits because they're looking for anwsers. I know it's frustrating and sometimes insulting, but in times of crisis love can manifest in a helicopter parent or a patient who is deeply worried for their help. It's human nature,

That being said, you matter just as much and so does the nature of your work environment. I'm sorry you have to deal with extra pressure in your job, and I hope this helps youto think of in times where you wanna smack em. Patience goes both ways

Mostly agree but

Oct 12, 2017 at 9:33pm

I found it was inconsistent depending on the staff. In our experience, the pain meds often arrived one to two hours after the other meds had worn off creating unnecessary pain and trauma for the patient. The reasons were a shift change or someone being on lunch break, etc. And many times they were understaffed so nurses were doing back to back shifts or called to work on their day off and were exhausted. I found that if you did not have a family member advocating for you, you were lost in the shuffle. There is an increase in population now but not a corresponding increase in doctors and nurses. I often emptied the urinals or vomit bags of the other people in the hospital room because there were no nurses in sight for a long time. Not enough staff. Not the nurses fault.

So timely

Oct 12, 2017 at 11:41pm

That I should read this post today. You know, I understand your point of view. However, I have personally experienced such terrible service from multiple health care professionals this year, and have witnessed close friends and family members who are also dealing with the repercussions of receiving substandard care. I'm just completely fed up. I'm sick and tired of the excuses. From what I see the biggest problem isn't with the actual people such as nurses and most doctors. I agree that they are usually just trying to do their jobs. However, asking patients and their families not to get involved or to just put up and shut up because the political system is the problem, is not a solution! My own life has been severely impacted by the lack of decent care from some doctors. Trying to be nice and being exceptionally patient hasn't worked. I'm now in a situation where im being forced to get nasty simply so that I get my legal rights as a patient taken care of. I believe that there are just too many people who need care and not enough resources to support them. We keep inviting more and more people to immigrate here, without having even close to enough infrastructure to support the ones who are already here. I'm sorry that you're caught in the fray of the front lines, but it's not the patients or their families who are responsible.

Anonymous

Oct 13, 2017 at 4:21pm

I wish I could believe that nurses work in the best interests of the patient. Those that do seem to be few and far between in some units. At times, the doctors in the hospital have seemed as frustrated as I was that the nurses weren't doing their jobs. Who I vote for isn't going to do anything to change that.

Join the Discussion

What's your name?