There Are No Words…

*RANT ALERT*

I’m sorry but I had to do it. Nothing pisses me off bothers me more than so-called health care “professionals” leaving patients to lay in their own piss and shit urine and feces. I came in today and one of my patients was literally laying in just that—liquid shit feces at that. I’ll give them that she was admitted to the unit sometime during the night. But you cannot tell me that no one noticed the odor that was not only limited to the patient’s room, but was now starting to creep down the hallway. Just how many people had been in and out of that room in the last few hours and just left her that way?—the night shift RN, the day shift RN, the PCAs (don’t even get me started on them), the phlebotomist (who we all know is notorious for waking up the patients at the ass crack of dawn to draw blood)… So don’t tell me that no one noticed this poor woman laying there, writhing in a sea of body fluids. I felt absolutely horrible for her. To make matters worse, she didn’t speak  any English, only Korean. AND HER CALL BELL WAS ACROSS THE ROOM!! How the hell was she supposed to call for help?—especially since she was neatly tucked in a far corner away from the nursing station. She was using the only method of communicating she had available—moaning—and still people continued to walk on by.

So I grabbed one of my fellow Supa Dupa SN’s and we went to work on getting her cleaned up. I should’ve grabbed one of the lazy ass PCAs (who see nursing students and believe that we’re here solely to do all of their work), but I wanted it done right—and without the attitude. Just yesterday, one of the PCAs came into a patient’s room to change his linens but he was on the phone. He asked her if she could wait a few minutes until he finished his call. Her response was: “Okay, but I ain’t guaranteeing that I’m coming back!” Now what type of shit is that to say to a patient?!? These people are sick. They have end-stage kidney and liver disease, multiple transplant rejections, terminal cancer… The least you can do is keep them clean and comfortable. It’s not like you’re doing anything since I’M doing YOUR vitals, YOUR accu-cheks, YOUR a.m. care, and whatever else needs to be done while YOUR ass is hiding in the clean linen closet on your cell phone.

But that’s a story for another day.

So we got my patient cleaned up, put a fresh gown on her, and changed her linens. We talked soothingly (and apologetically) to her as we worked, even though we knew she wasn’t able to understand what we were saying. I just hoped that maybe our tone of voice, facial expressions, something, would convey to her that we cared. Guess it’s just the NURSE in me…

What are you supposed to do in these types of situations? I know this happens often enough—but it shouldn’t. The majority of students (and clinical instructors as well) are scared hesitant to make waves since we’re technically “guests” at these hospitals. But shouldn’t ensuring a certain standard of patient care supercede all of the damn politics? Am I being oversensitive/overreacting? 

What if it was YOUR mother/father/loved one?