Comments on: I Want My Silver Wings

By: JustCallMeJo

JustCallMeJo — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 17:27:00 +0000

WOW.

I think I might have laughed, too.

Would you like some fries with that?
/jo, rolling her eyes

By: The Platypus

The Platypus — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 02:57:00 +0000

About ten years ago a family member, angry at the death of their loved one and set on revenge against the responsible physicians, returned with a gun and murdered two people. They weren’t the responsible physicians; just the first white coats that person saw. These things do happen, and still people wonder why we have armed security police patrolling the campus and metal detectors in the ED entrance.

By: just4ofus

just4ofus — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 01:48:00 +0000

I feel you! I sit in some meetings at the hospital and think… WHAT? Where did patient care go? Do I work at Wendy’s or as a nurse? Customer Service has taken OVER our hospital, forget the patients best interest. Instead of Customer Service, we call it Family Centered Care.

By: Susan RN

Susan RN — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 00:28:00 +0000

That’s a load of crap. If I were you, I’d tell my story to human resources, just so they have it on file.

Jeez, if your supervisor isn’t on your side, who is?

By: Jo

Jo — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:23:00 +0000

I think you and I work at the same hospital. "Customer Service" is now the number-one priority for management, so much so that the hospital offers more courses on CS than it does continuing education classes.

And yep, your professionalism and dignity are often sold out to meet those customer service standards.

I 'magine the tide will start to turn in a few years, back to a patient-care focus. I wonder how many nurses we'll lose in the meantime, though.

By: universal health

universal health — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 20:39:00 +0000

We all must hang together, or assuredly, we will all hang separately, has been how nursing administration has driven apart (pretty successfully) nurses and used a divide and conquer strategy to keep nurses disempowered.

First off, no one - nurse or otherwise, is compelled to suffer abuse and threats of any nature.

Secondly, every person has the right to call the police when threatened or after suffering an assult.

Third, nurses will find a way to re-unite all in order to take back professional power.

I blogged about it in a post called Nurses: Prostituting for the Healthcare System Pimp on Universal Health.

Good for you for standing up to the manager.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:02:00 +0000

In the ICCU where I used to work, a psycho man threatened the ICU nurses (one floor above us) that he would be back with a gun if they “let” his (96 year old, demented and vented) mother die while he was gone. He was in the process of being removed from the unit by Security for the fifth time that week after making similar statements whenever the nurses came in the room to care for the patient. Another patient’s family overheard this and were so freaked out that they called the police, who picked him up in the hospital parking lot. He continued to make threats of killing his mother’s nurses while the police tried to calm him down, so they took him into protective custody for the night. When he was released from jail the next morning and came back to the hospital, he told the unit manager that the nurses had had him arrested so that they could kill his mother without him seeing. A critical care dept. staff meeting was called, which included my unit, the ICU and ED nurses (all of us had dealt with this particular psycho over the weeks that his mother had been in the hospital). We assumed that a procedure had been developed to deal with this very scary man, but instead we were told that hospital policy allows family to be present with their critically ill relatives any time they wish, and that having this “gentleman” removed by security when he posed no immediate threat to anyone was a violation of his rights. Three days later, his mother (finally, mercifully) died. As crazy man left the hospital, he very quietly told the unit secretary that he would be back. She called the police, who went to his home. They came in to talk to the unit manager. The next day, keypad locks were installed on all of the critical care unit doors.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:49:00 +0000

Just thought of something else -

Your supervisor needs some classes in how to be politically correct.

(1) The appropriate term is now "flight attendant" and

(2) Those flight attendants are responsible for our safety 30000 feet up in the air, even as they pass our coffee.

I heard an insult to nurses AND flight attendants in that article.

Never did take much to Vicki Barr, anyway. She had to get special dispensation to be a "stewardess" and NOT a nurse. The books were both written by Helen Wells and I guess she wanted to give all the good stories to Cherry Ames.....

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:42:00 +0000

Oh geez. Wow. I'm speechless.

I appreciate my manager so much more now.

My manager would have told that family member to go take a flying leap...in a polite way of course.

I think that's the difference when working in a charity hospital. It's less about money then ergo less about "customer service".

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 17:08:00 +0000

I thought I had heard it all.
And then I read this!

Hey, did you ever read the “Vicki Barr, Flight Stewardess” series. Written by Helen Wells, if I am not mistaken. Vicki had to get special permission to be a stewardess because she was NOT a nurse.