I’m gonna rant for a second because I hate the shitty way visitors treat hospital staff, and I’ve spent all of my last 6 12 hour shifts dealing with it
Yes, I know you want an update with the nurse, but they aren’t available right now. It’s shift change, last night’s nurses are exhausted and want to go home, today’s nurses don’t even know who their patients are yet.
Yes, I know, it’s inconvenient. But every single fucking time I have to pull a nurse away from their patient so you can talk to them, that is CARE that the PATIENT ISNT GETTING.
Like, I’m really sorry, but when it comes down to your feelings versus a patient’s actual life, I don’t care about you. I’m sorry that you’re worried and anxious. I sympathize with it. But if you want your loved one to get the care they need, you need to handle yourself because you are a distraction to the nurse, you are hindering patient care, and the more often this happens, the worse your loved one will be, and I don’t get why that’s so hard to understand. If something significant happens, the nurse will call YOU. If they haven’t called, that means there’s no meaningful updates!
I’ve seen it time and again that people think by being the loudest voice in the room, they’re showing how much they care about the patient. These are usually the people that couldn’t give a shit about them when they were healthy. The son that hasn’t seen his mother more than once a month since putting her in a nursing home suddenly needs to be up everyone’s ass all the time. The daughter that hasn’t called her father in months screaming at the nurses over every little thing. It’s such performative bullshit and I hate it. We are not here to be your emotional punching bags so you can feel better about how you’ve neglected your relationships, as if abusing us makes up for your lack of contact and caring.
And the families that like to stand in the doorway staring at everyone who walks by, or come up to the nursing station demanding to speak to the nurse/a charge nurse, because they feel like that care isn’t happening patient care is done on a schedule. Everything is planned down to the hour. Yes, sometimes there are delays. But if a nurse should be providing something at a certain time and doesn’t, that usually means something more important is happening with another patient. Example: you want to tell me to remind the nurse that someone’s pain medication is due in exactly 11 minutes? believe me, that nurse knows down to the exact second when the last dose was given, she’ll be there on time, she does NOT need a reminder. (this is my BIGGEST pet peeve)
Even the people that are well-meaning about their calls, it’s still so self-centered to constantly demand a nurse’s attention every hour, every two hours. Again, I understand when you’re anxious, but the nurse isn’t here to reassure you. Work out your anxiety with a loved one that isn’t the current patient. Because all you’re doing is taking up the nurse’s valuable time, which is taking away from patient care, so that you can have your nerves soothed when there is ultimately no update to be had, other than “everything’s the same.”
If there is a significant change, good or bad, the nurse will call you.
If the patient codes/almost/actually dies, the nurse will call you.
If your loved one spontaneously wakes up from a coma, the nurse will call you.
If there is a major procedure, the nurse will (probably, it’s complicated) call you.
I am so done fielding phone calls from people that are passive aggressive, angry, or straight up yelling at me over the smallest thing. You are not helping anyone when you’re calling the nurse to demand whether the patient has eaten or not yet. Either they did, or they’re not able due to illness, or they’re not allowed to due to an upcoming procedure. Nothing you say or shout will change anything. Medications are added/changed/discontinued practically daily, don’t start freaking out just because the patient was on one blood pressure med one day and a different one/none the next.
If you don’t get a call for a day or two, the nurse isn’t refusing to communicate with you. They just have no significant updates to give, and their time is better spent on patient care than on the phone with you talking about how much the patient did or didn’t urinate.
This goes doubly for patients that are fully conscious/aware of their surroundings, and able to advocate for themselves. In those cases, any family members become entirely superfluous, because we do not need you. We don’t need you to understand what’s going on with the patient, because we don’t need you to consent to their procedures as a medical proxy. Your input doesn’t matter. And you better be damn grateful when the nurse is willing to give you any information at all, because at that point, it should really be up to the patient to disseminate the news of their condition.
Except because nurses are saints and recognize the mental and emotional strain that will put on the patient, they take care of that too. People need to start showing some gratitude instead of attitude, because contact with the nurse is a privilege, not a right, and people like me are incredibly happy to remove it when you can’t be respectful of everyone’s time.
Tl;dr not to be rude but if you’re not the patient, or the patient’s medical proxy, you don’t matter, so you better be nice
6 notes
·
View notes
Invited a guy I’ve been casually flirting with to a concert in September. Free ticket & a single night in the hotel I booked because I thought he’s cute. He immediately sprung to come visit three days before the concert. Expecting me to pay for his hotel for the extra days, when I told him I couldn’t take off work that long but he could come stay at my place at work for a couple extra nights he immediately started complaining about not being able to smoke weed here and edibles not being effective for him. I told him that him smoking weed here would jeopardize my job and if smoking weed takes priority over spending time with me I’ll invite someone else to the concert and he immediately told me he never wanted to speak to me again. Like….. okay? Bye??
2 notes
·
View notes
★
Send me a ★ and I’ll bold what applies to your muse.
“Morning, sweet thing...”
I like you / I hate you / I dislike you / I love you / You are family / I would take a bullet for you / I would shoot you / I would lie to your face / I would say something cruel to you on purpose / I would say something cruel to you accidentally / I would cheat on you / I would physically hurt you / You annoy me / You amuse me / I’d laugh at you / I’d laugh with you / I’d manipulate you / You scare me / You confuse me / I wish I knew you better / I trust you / I don’t trust you / You inspire me / I consider you an equal / You are beneath me / You’re better than me / I would trust you with my life / I think you’re mean / I think you’re petty / I think you’re childish / I think you’re smart / I think you’re stupid / I think you’re a bad person / I think you’re a good person / I’m not sure what kind of person you are / I wish you would listen to me / I want to make you proud / I wish you would notice me / I want to impress you / I would hurt other people for you / I’m not sure how to make you happy / I’m a bad influence on you / You deserve better than me / We make a great team / I’d have a one night stand with you / I’d have a relationship with you / I would marry you / I fantasize about our life together / I would trust you with my most treasured belonging / I would tell you my darkest secrets / You disgust me / You intimidate me / I hope I intimidate you / I’d hug you / I’d let you hug me / I’m scared of losing you / I don’t think you like me / I want to be better for you / I respect you / I don’t respect you / You’re my mentor / You’re my friend / You’re my best friend / I have a crush on you / I could easily watch you die / I’d get drunk with you / I’d party with you / I’d comfort you / I’d prank you / I’d spike your drink / I’d act behind your back / I’d abandon you / I’d hurt you to get what I want / I would choose my happiness over yours / I would choose your happiness over mine / I despise how much I care for you / I need you / I’m dependent on you / I don’t know what I’d do without you / I’m scared of you leaving me / I’d give my life for you / You frustrate me / I’d call for you in a time of need / I would protect you / I’d visit you in hospital / I’d carry you if you were hurt / I’d feel guilty if I hurt you / I’d let you be near me when I am vulnerable / I’d ignore a phone call from you / I’d call you at 3am / I’d break you out of jail / I’d get angry at you / I would shout at you / You’re too loud / You’re too quiet / You’re too sensitive / You can’t take a joke / You embarrass me / I feel nothing for you / You’re reckless / You’re bossy / You bore me / I would ask your advice / I would blame you for something I did / I would cry in your arms / You have the power to hurt me more than anyone else /
2 notes
·
View notes