Being the Charge Nurse, that lucky nurse who is the head honcho for the shift, comes with a handful of responsibilities and extra duties. One of those would be the area of patient complaints.
While recently in charge I received a complaint from a patient’s spouse. This wife was very unhappy about the nurse that had taken care of her spouse overnight, and it was immediately apparent to me that there was an obvious conflict of personalities between the aforementioned nurse and the wife of the patient. Indeed she felt the nurse was rude and not attentive enough to her husband’s needs. I listened intently as she detailed instances she felt were unacceptable.
I listened, I offered a blameless apology, and I ensured her that we took great pride in customer service on our unit. Then I promised that another more suitable nurse would be assigned that evening.
Even as I knew it would mix-up patient assignments making continuity of care suffer I felt assigning a different nurse was my best option until the situation could be further investigated. Considering the customer friendly environment we fostered around here I knew my superiors would agree. But a part of me felt bad for that nurse.
I mean maybe that nurse had been brisk or used a less than friendly tone, but hadn’t we all been there before? And even though I was currently the one being complained to I had not forgotten when I was last the complained about. At the time it stung to realize I hadn’t been seen in a positive light because deep down that’s what I always wanted to be. Deep down all nurses want to be a beacon of hope in this horribly challenging time of illness that patients find themselves in. But sometimes we may fall short. It doesn’t mean we’re not trying though.
Because actually we’re trying really hard. In fact, considering the difficulty level of the task at hand we’re doing the best we can.
When we’re late with your pain pill it’s not because we want you to wait. Consider that we are in the room of the man who just coded down the hall. Or perhaps I’m helping get the elderly woman out of the floor who I just witnessed go down while I was pulling your medicine.
We’re doing the best we can.
When we tell you that you cannot eat or drink it’s always with reason. Even if it doesn’t seem like a good one to you. And that cumbersome mask on your face is helping you breathe. So even though you want to take it off I will not let you. I might even raise my voice to get my point across, but I think you’d rather hear me talk sternly than have a tube stuck down your throat. Now that’s uncomfortable.
Sometimes our personalities will clash, or perhaps sometimes we won’t explain ourselves as well as we should. Sometimes you will not be happy no matter what, and I’m honestly sorry for that. It’s challenging to make people happy in an environment of constant noise and waking, frequent needle sticks, worsening pain, and the frightening reality of the unknown. But despite the challenges we honestly do try. We’re doing the best we can under the circumstances.
I once heard a story of a patient family member who was dissatisfied with the cot built-in the room for visitors to sleep on, and in her anger she was demanding a different, portable cot be delivered to the room. It was explained that the portable cots available would actually prevent entry and exit from the room, posing a fire hazard, and for this reason the request could not be granted. Still the family member demanded different sleeping arrangements for her as a visitor.
I honestly do not know how her story ended, but it does remind me of this. Although we will fight tooth and nail to get you everything you need there are actually some things we just cannot do. Some things are not options due to safety restrictions, patient well-being, or realistic expectations. With this in mind we may not always make everyone happy, but it’s certainly not for lack of trying. We’re doing the best we can when we can.
Because the thing is we really do want to please you, and we really do want to try and make the bad experience of hospitalization a positive one for you. But sometimes we just can’t. For whatever reason we just don’t.
I’m not saying there are not bad nurses out there. There are; I’ve met them. But for the most part we are compassionate and caring. Overall I would stand beside any of my nurse comrades knowing that they truly are doing the best they can. And that’s really all we need you to know.