I’ve written about the “service with a smile” previously, and about how hospital administrators (the ones who never got close enough to a patient to see the blood and poop) think that they are running a 5 star resort. Nurses are a combination concierge, housekeeper, cook, and slave, and administrators make sure that their customers (aka patients) are aware of that.

Even if it kills the patient.

And from what I’ve been reading, it seems that nurse managers and supervisors are also so busy brown nosing administration, that they too, forget that patient care and safety is the first priority. This is a story (which I have condensed and paraphrased) that a nurse posted on allnurses.com. It is really scary.

A child was admitted with a viral illness and febrile seizures, and the mother was a local physician’s secretary (uh-oh). The mother wrote a formal complaint to the hospital management about the nurse, because she committed the crime of checking the baby’s temperature every 4 hours. Now, if a baby is admitted with seizures due to fever, I would certainly hope that he was being monitored closely. In fact, I would expect temps to be taken every two hours. The baby also had an IV in, which does need to be checked–make sure it hasn’t infiltrated, flowing properly, sufficient fluid in the bag, etc.

But this parent said that the nurse “compromised the sleep of her baby and her” by coming into the room and checking the temp, and that the nurse’s actions were “insensitive to her needs” and that basically, the nurse should have just said “night, night,” and closed the door behind her, and left them alone for the shift. Unless, of course, mom wanted room service at 2am, or eggs benedict at 7am with a mocha latte (hold the foam).

I don’t know if the mother complained to the nurse or not, or if anything transpired between them–ie, mom telling the nurse not to disturb them, etc. If so, I would have told the mother that she is in the hospital for a reason (or did she think she was at Disneyworld?) and that her child needs to be closely monitored. This is the standard of care at this facility, these are the physician’s orders, and that we can’t care for her child if we are unable to look at him and assess him. If that speech failed, I would have phoned the physician and the nursing supervisor, and dumped it into their laps. Bottom line–you want a peaceful night of sleep without a pesky nurse trying to take your baby’s temp–then don’t come to a hospital. Or check out AMA.

Most shocking was the reaction of the nurse manager, in response to the complaint. It goes to show that a working brain is not required for the job. The manager told the nurse that in the future, she should check with families if it is “okay” to disturb them at night for vital signs and assessments. The nurse then asked her manager if she would be held responsible for a dead or seriously ill baby, should the family refuse to be disturbed during the night. The manager hesitated and said she wasn’t sure.

Double, triple and quadruple..DUH!

The poster doesn’t say how she responded to the manager, but again, her reaction to the complaint is so inappropriate–she should have her license revoked. The manager should have supported the nurse without question, and told the recipient of the complaint that this was unit policy, physician’s orders, and it was for the safety and well being of the patient. Throw in the word malpractice a few times, and lawsuit, and they start to get the message.

And her response that she wasn’t sure if the nurse would be held responsible? How about she take the responsibility instead? If a family again decides that they are at a poshy resort and don’t want their sick baby disturbed at night, the nurse calls the manager and lets her make the decision–and then charts it? For further back-up, the nurse should also call the physician and the nursing supervisor–and let everyone know that this family has come to the hospital to sleep, and not get their baby treated.

The customer service bandwagon is galloping out of control, but I’m sure that the weenies who came up with this bright idea never imagined the worst case scenario–that disgruntled customers, like the family whose baby dies from neglect because of their stupidity, are going to the sue the hospital and not the nurse. They are going to head for the big pockets.