alert and oriented guidelines

There have been a lot of posts lately weighing in on patient satisfaction surveys. I agree in the fact that it seems we as nurses are treated more like room service than well, nurses. I believe in participating in your own care if you are able. So you get the survey and are asked if the nurses were helpful or attended to your needs. You may score them low because they didn’t let you go outside to smoke or bring you something to eat in the middle of the night knowing that there isn’t any food on the floor other than graham crackers or unsalted saltines or because you simply cannot eat anything right now. You may even choose to score them low because when you rang your call bell your nurses were in another room cleaning up an incontinent episode, and they didn’t get you in your allotted ‘me now want something’ time. So here are a few guidelines for alert and oriented patients in the hospitals. Please abide by them carefully.

- Assuming that you do not have some debilitating injury, you were able to do many things for yourself at home. We encourage you to continue doing them here at the hospital as well. Please feel free to bathe or wash up anytime you feel like. We will be happy to bring you the supplies you need. Want to walk down the hall? Go for it. Docs love to see ambulating patients. So do nurses, for it means you will be going home soon.

- Please don’t use the call bell for trivial matters. While you are spending time lying around in the bed, think of things you will need as the day goes on. That way when the nurse makes rounds, you can tell her what you need so she can get it at one time instead of being interrupted all day long to get you a drink or ice or whatever else it is that you need. Unfortunately, there are other patients on the floor too that need to feel just as special as you do, only they aren’t able to control many of their own body functions, including their own minds. And then when you do ring, we know that you really do need something that is important and will attend to it as soon as possible.

- Bored? Need something to read? We have a ton of patient education materials at the nurse’s station. You could always ask for materials about your diagnosis to read in your downtime. Also, while you are reading and learning about your illness, you could write down questions to ask the doctor when he makes rounds. This saves a lot of time at discharge.

- Speaking of discharges. So the doc said he is going to send you home today. Great! Now remember that we cannot just unhook all that tubing and iv’s and stuff before we get the definite orders for you to leave. You have to remember that typing up discharges can take a good amount of time depending on what medications you were on and what the doc has ordered for you at home. Instead of standing at your door giving us the evil eye because you have been waiting for an hour, pack up your stuff and wait patiently. Oh and remember that patient education? We need to go over it again, so if you had been reading the information from when we gave it to you earlier, whether you asked for it or not, it could make the discharge time go by much faster.

- Don’t be a complainer or a whiner. As a patient, you have a reputation with nursing staff. Those patients who fall into this category are the ones that the nurses dread going to see. Why? Because we are doing our job as required by the hospital, by the state licensing board, by your medical diagnosis and all you ever do is find something wrong or something that just isn’t quite right according to your personal wants. You have to remember that being in the hospital isn’t about what you want, it is about what you need. And often, you need to rest so that you can heal.

- When we are firm with you, don’t take it as that we are being hateful or just mean. We are being firm because you aren’t paying attention to us. Remember when we told you not to mess with your IV? Well you didn’t listen and now the site is leaking, and so we have to stick you yet again, causing pain. We aren’t being mean. We don’t like to cause pain. We tried to warn you. Now see the point about complainers and whiners.

So the next time you get that survey in the mail, put it all in perspective. As stated above, it isn’t about your wants in the hospital, it is about your needs. Did you have everything you needed? If you did, then score it high. Were the nurses caring? If we were firm with you, was it for your own good? We also understand that not everyone has a great bedside manner, so you have to judge how you acted and how the nurses acted in response to that. If they took care of your needs no matter how ugly you acted, then score them high. Did the nurses answer your call bell in a timely manner? Ask yourself how many times you hit the call bell and what exactly were the things you needed? And then answer this question, did the nurses respond and bring you what you need? If so, score it appropriately. Oh and if you cannot remember the names of all of the nurses who took care of you, don’t single out one person who may have only had you for one shift. We all share in your care, so we all should be rewarded accordingly. This includes not writing down only the name of the discharge nurse because she was the last one you talked to, even if it was me.

Now, starting with that next admission, should you ever be admitted as an alert and oriented patient, remember these couple of guidelines. Your experience is likely to be much improved. :)

I am sure there a few more I forgot to add..