A few weeks ago, a couple nurses were talking about a common happening on our unit: nurses asking not to have a certain patient back the next day.
One nurse in particular felt that "firing" a patient is completely unacceptable. He said that it is unprofessional and should not be tolerated.
I disagree.
Patients are allowed to request a new nurse. Families are allowed to "fire" their nurse. If this is acceptable, then why shouldn't the same hold true for the nurses? I've had a patient tell me that they don't want the nightshift nurse back because he was a certain ethnicity/gender/religion/sexual orientation. When I asked management how I should respond to that, I was told, "That is their right, and we must honor the request". Talk about unacceptable.
For example: we had a patient covered in lice. We were suctioning lice from his mouth. The nurses went home (most likely) infested themselves. Would I request a new assignment the next night? Absolutely! Or how about the 900 lb. woman who required six staffmembers to turn her. And then decided to spit/kick/swear at anyone coming in the room.
The bottom line is, the world is filled with all kinds of people. Some are wonderful and pleasant to deal with. Others are not. Sometimes, my patients truly aren't in control of their behavior- and I honestly believe that they don't know what their doing. That's okay. But after I've spent twelve to thirteen hours with them, should I have to do the same the next shift? Sometimes, its just someone else's turn.
What do you think? Agree? Disagree?
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3 comments:
agree! just checking out your blog. thanks for the xanga comment
I agree. I have had some patients/situations which left me so emotionally and pysically drained that after a couple shifts I had to request another assignment. To not do so I would have been compromising pt care.
Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like a cool blog. I'll keep checking it every once in a while. :) Can't wait to hear the stories!
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