35 Healthcare Secrets Are Finally Exposed And The Internet Is Not Ready For Some Of Them

Our charge desk is at the front nursing station and I get soooo annoyed when family members walk up to me and ask for stuff. I get that I don’t seem busy because I’m sitting, but I’ve got 70 things I’m trying to do. Please use the call bell.

It's less common now that I'm working a specialized ICU but there have been many times during my career where I was giving report to the next nurse and I had to explain that there currently was no plan of care and I'm unsure why the patient is a patient.

There are sometimes when the docs have no idea what's happening.

Also how bad staffing is. We talk about how horrible nurse and PCA staffing is, but I've worked floors at hospitals that had a single mid level provider covering for all non ICU units over night. 1 NP for over 100 patients.

"Sorry sir, we don't carry salt up here. No, no matter how much you raise your voice at me, how hard of a tantrum you throw, it won't make some magically appear, and I'm not about to call nutritional services to bring you up just a single packet of salt. Why don't we have salt? Because a lot of patients that are on a salt-restricted diet also have the ability to walk, and if we kept it out in the open, they'd just take it, and we're in the business of helping our patients get better, not worse. Now, if you're not salt-restricted, I can show you how to order your own food, and I would suggest that you add a seasoning kit to each order, so even if you end up *not* using salt on that specific meal, you'll have some for later in case you forget to order. Make sense? I'll see you in a bit, I'm in the middle of changing a patient's sheets, and I had to stop for 5 minutes to tell you why I don't have salt in a way that'll prevent you from arguing with a nurse."


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Side note #1 - As far as ratios are concerned, one of the things that I love about my unit, is that it feels like between management keeping tabs on staffing, and the physical size of our specific unit, they don't have the ability to have dangerous ratios for the nurses. We have a maximum of 20 patients spread across 12 rooms. The closest I've seen us to full capacity would be 18 patients spread across 4 nurses, with a 5th coming in later in the shift. 2 of our patients are essentially residents and have been with us for months. I do know that *if* a nurse gets assigned 5 patients, it's one of those 2. Otherwise, the most I've seen is 4 patients to a nurse. Now, there have been shifts where I'm the only CNA on the floor. Whether that's because we have a surprise need for 1:1 sitters and that leaves only 1 tech on the floor, but about 2/3 of the way through a shift, the house supervisor goes to every unit and see what their staffing needs are, to make sure that if the next shift needs an additional nurse or tech, they call someone in from the float pool or offer overtime. The house soup is usually pretty good at talking to each of the techs to make sure we're not overwhelmed as well, in case the charge nurse of the unit is too busy to keep tabs on us, and they're pretty good at getting us reinforcements if we need it.

Side note #2 - The only thing I like about our charting software is that once you get in to write a note, you literally can't do anything else. Either you're finishing the note, or you're abandoning it and typing from scratch later. Understanding this, I don't have an issue when a nurse redirects a patient to me. "Blind, can you get 22 a pitcher of water?" or "Blind, can you get 27 bed 1 a heated blanket please?" Sure, all day, every day. I also take the time to (re)educate the patient and/or family on how to use the call light, because 4 times out of 5 it's faster than someone getting up and approaching the nurses station.

That I am asked to keep working until nobody needs anything before I can take a lunch break. It’s often 8-9 hours of hard work before I can eat.

Choosing to stay longer when you’re already advised to be discharged puts you at risk for an unnecessary nosocomial (i.e. hospital-acquired) infection like pneumonia.

Also we notice when your alarm coincides with your PRN pain relief being due.

“I needed help and all the nurses were just laughing and playing on those computers!”.

What you said was very succinct and accurate of what people do in the hospital. It's those moments that we get a laugh out that keeps us sane. If you are not insanely resilient as a healthcare worker the emotional, physical, psychological stress is crushing. The moments of respite makes it manageable so you can be there for your patients and their families to aid in the care team in reaching their goals of returning to either their normal or their new normal life. Thank you for representing us well.

Also reading documentation. It’s wild how pts/family expect me to be an expert on their personal medical history, but think I’m just f*****g off when I’m reading about it.

Many times the morgue shares the back half of the walkin freezer with the kitchen (separated by a wall).

Not a Dr or a Nurse, but my job as a coder makes me aware that if you say something funny, stupid or rude to them, it will be in your chart. Speak accordingly.

The pillows aren’t replaced between patients. They’re wiped down with bleach wipes and a pillow case it put on

You guys document every patient and doctor interaction? I know literally no one who does that

Like yea if it involves orders and stuff sure but I’m not documenting every dumb convo I have with a doctor or saying I gave room 21 another box of tissues.

Patients get into the emergency room with loaded firearms because the hospital authorities are too p***y/cheap to install metal detectors.

Oops just saw a mouse run across the ER floor.