Composite Yellow!

Being a nurse, and a chart audittor, I have seen one end of nursing, nursing from the point of view of the dieing family member, and I see health care from the inside out, as a chart audittor.
I have concerns. I am concerned about nurses, as people. They are often not treated as such, but are treated as slaves, or as live stock. This makes the nurse not care about the patient. Nurses are rushed so often that small things are forgotten. Small things such as saying, “I’ll be right back, I am the only nurse on the floor today.” Instead of making patients wait 45 minutes to be spoken to again, or seen in a clinic. Nurse rush in, rush out, dash here, dash there. The feelings for patients are gone.
They seem so concerned about their job, or pleasing a doctor. But, face it, as a nurse working in the field for so long, there’s people’s jobs are on the line. Always. There is tension in the clinics, so thick, it can be cut with knives. I know why no one suggested hospice to me when my dad was so sick, which should have been suggested from a nurse, they forgot to suggest it. But then, I looked into it, and the payments from hospice wasn’t availalbe for what I needed. This is due to budget cuts, and such.
I know the day my dad died, January 22nd, I should’ve been called that he was chaine-stoking. I would’ve dropped everything I was doing and ran to the hospital. Would things have been turned around? I don’t know. That might be the case. This is why I’m not writing a thankyou note to Research Medical Center. This is why I question the hospital’s communication practices.
I am goign to call nursing schools in my area, and find out if they teach communication, and how long do they focus on this part of the course? My nursing education focused on communication for practically 3 weeks. But, today, nursing schools might not have the time to focus on nursing communications. In 50 Communication Tips for Caregivers, #27 says: Be responsive: When your patient wants to talk, listen, and pay attention to nonverbal cues.
I don’t think nurses today, have time to be responsive. This leaves them coming accross as cold, and uncaring. But they have thousands of other things going on at once. Nurses don’t have the time to even notify patient’s family members when a medicaiton is about to be dropped by the insurance company. For goodness sakes, NURSES, don’t call 3 days after the fact! Nurses don’t have time to call patients families when they know the patient is failing, rapidly. Family members who are involved in the patient’s care, should be notified of all changes, including change of condition,and change of medication covered under insurance. But, hospitals and facilities would never admit to not doing this.
It is the community’s responsibility to change the way some parts of health care is being ran. Hospitals are so under staffed, they are loosing nurses daily. No one wants to be a nurse, for real. It’s starting to get around how patients are treated, and how nurses are treated. I don’t feel for these hospitals at all. So, they are short staffed? It’s their fault. It’s not the nurse’s.

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