I'm trying NOT to be insulted...

Today I went to Kroger and when I was in the check out line the customer before me was telling the cashier all about a place she stayed that was just as nice as a hotel. The towels were so soft, the food was excellent because of Room Service, and she even had a lap top to play around with while she was there. After listening a bit more (yes I know eavesdropping isn't nice) the customer had been a 'customer' at my place of employment, in the new Tower.

Initially I was really insulted. She was there for medical care!!! Not to lay around for a vacation in a 'hotel'. This is something I have to deal with every night I work. Our 'customers' ... aka our patients ... expect everything to be just the way they like it with little thought to the medical and nursing care they receive. Wouldn't they rather have an educated nursing staff? A board certified physician with an excellent treatment history? Nope, most of them would rather order food off of a menu and have a house keeper bring them fresh linens everyday just like when they're staying at the Hilton. Just like this 'customer' I over heard.

However, at my hospital 'customer' satisfaction is a big deal. Surveys are mailed out to everyone after they are discharged. Most of them are never returned. If they are returned often it's because something bad happened. For example(s) complaints about how the food wasn't so good. Or the doctors didn't come see them at the same time everyday. Or the nurses were so busy they didn't have time for them. If they have nice things to say it is at times about the staff but usually it's about the 'hotel' like room they had, the flat screen TV, ordering off of the menu, etc. At our monthly staff meeting we get the results of our patients' returned questionnaires. The past few months our results haven't been so great because of things out of our control such as wait times for procedures and temperature of delivered food. These items in the whole scheme seriously weigh down the good rankings of quality of nurses, doctors, staff and overall physical care.

I know what I should have said to the lady in front of me in the checkout. I should have said Thank you for saying such nice things about our facility and I hope the physicians and nursing staff ALSO exceeded your expectations. But I couldn't. I was so MAD that all she kept talking about was the 'hotel'. Doesn't she know that every nurse who took care of her went to school for at least 3-4 years? The doctors 11-12 years? Not a single person who took care of her body didn't have some type of training to care for an ill person. Now, I'm not saying that I don't like working in the new part of the hospital. I don't have to deal with double occupancy rooms, shared bathrooms, paper charting like so many nurses do. But by building this extraordinarily nice building what's happened to the expectations? A really nice room equals a really nice wait staff? A flat screen TV means someone will bring movies to watch? NO! But 'customers' think it does.

I just wish that lady in the checkout line could have seen what we do on a daily basis at work. I wish she knew how many hours of my own time I spend educating myself so my patients only get research based nursing care. I wish that lady could have seen how 4 nurses worked a code on one patient while 3 others took care of the other 29 patients on our unit the other night. I wish she could have seen how 1 HUC (that's a unit secretary) and 1 CNA shared the duties of answering call lights, turning patients and assisting the nurses as much as they could even though we should have had 2 more CNA's that night. Then maybe she'd understand what she was there for... to get better and go home safely.

Now, what's the point in my rambling on about this? I just wish people knew how fortunate we are in our country to have medical care and clean hospitals and competent staff. That fluffy linens aren't necessary, but clean ones are to assure good skin care. That the lap top isn't for playing around on but educating yourself about your medical diagnosis and to be shared with the next patient. That food is meant for nourishment of your body so it will get well. Everything we do has a purpose and it's not to be a hotel like environment.

OK, I'm done now.

PS Yes, I like being a nurse. I do work for a good company that's promoting my education and oncology certification. The doctors I work with are very educated and board certified and most of the time OK when I have to call them at 3am. And most of my patients are very nice most of the time. I just wish some more education of our health care system occurred in our society.