My top three pet peeves as a nurse
Not introducing yourself to the patient/family.
Dear physicians, therapists, dietitians, and anyone else who thinks it's okay to walk up to a patient and begin assessing them without an introduction,
Do you like it when strangers touch you or ask you deeply personal questions? No, I didn't think so. Patients and families can see dozens of new faces every day while in the hospital. Don't assume that they know who you are or what your role is. It's unprofessional, impolite, and confusing.
The bare minimum:
Hi, my name is ____ and I'm a ____. I'm here to ____.
It will take you less than thirty seconds.
Love,
The bedside nurse who knows her bedside manners.
(You should take notes).
Ignoring alarms.
Alarm. Fatigue. Is. REAL. And very likely due to the colleagues who will sit through two plus agonizing minutes of a critical alarm going off. You work in an ICU! Unanswered alarms should be, well, alarming because you're taking care of sick people, and they should be like nails on a chalkboard if it's artifact or the pulse ox falling off for the fourteenth time. For the sake of 1) your patient's safety and 2) everyone's sanity, respond to your alarms. Either fix the patient, fix your equipment, or fix your alarm parameters.
Insisting on speaking English to patients/families who do not speak English.
Healthcare workers who try to mime their way through speaking to a patient who doesn't speak English is like watching the stereotypical American tourist trying to function in another country. Speaking loudly and more slowly is not going to magically erase the language barrier between you and your patient. Worse yet are the people who will avoid actually speaking to a patient, trying to wrap up rounds as quickly as possible and hurriedly sneaking away.*
Use interpreter services. Yeah, it's going to take a little planning and some extra time, but patients who don't speak the language deserve the same amount of attention and information as those who do.
Don't be that obnoxious asshole tourist.
*You will be called out and asked to return to update the patient with an interpreter. You can run but you can't hide.
Dear physicians, therapists, dietitians, and anyone else who thinks it's okay to walk up to a patient and begin assessing them without an introduction,
Do you like it when strangers touch you or ask you deeply personal questions? No, I didn't think so. Patients and families can see dozens of new faces every day while in the hospital. Don't assume that they know who you are or what your role is. It's unprofessional, impolite, and confusing.
The bare minimum:
Hi, my name is ____ and I'm a ____. I'm here to ____.
It will take you less than thirty seconds.
Love,
The bedside nurse who knows her bedside manners.
(You should take notes).
Ignoring alarms.
Alarm. Fatigue. Is. REAL. And very likely due to the colleagues who will sit through two plus agonizing minutes of a critical alarm going off. You work in an ICU! Unanswered alarms should be, well, alarming because you're taking care of sick people, and they should be like nails on a chalkboard if it's artifact or the pulse ox falling off for the fourteenth time. For the sake of 1) your patient's safety and 2) everyone's sanity, respond to your alarms. Either fix the patient, fix your equipment, or fix your alarm parameters.
Insisting on speaking English to patients/families who do not speak English.
Healthcare workers who try to mime their way through speaking to a patient who doesn't speak English is like watching the stereotypical American tourist trying to function in another country. Speaking loudly and more slowly is not going to magically erase the language barrier between you and your patient. Worse yet are the people who will avoid actually speaking to a patient, trying to wrap up rounds as quickly as possible and hurriedly sneaking away.*
Use interpreter services. Yeah, it's going to take a little planning and some extra time, but patients who don't speak the language deserve the same amount of attention and information as those who do.
Don't be that obnoxious asshole tourist.
*You will be called out and asked to return to update the patient with an interpreter. You can run but you can't hide.
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