Hospital Hell: Entitled Nurse Wants Her Equipment Now

From Untitled Dispatcher

This is my first time posting on RHU, but I have been reading it for years... way back when I slaved away at a big box shoe retailer and was routinely mobbed by custys at one of the largest malls on the Northern East Coast.

After graduating college, I thought I was lucky enough to get a management position (titles are a LIE - manager just means I don't get paid for anything over 40 hours and have no other incentives for dealing with the people I deal with on top of my employees). with a company on the Forbes 500 list... ah, but in all honesty, I am a glorified dispatcher handling one of the departments in one of the hospitals in the inner city of a very old, old historic city named over a town in England.

Ok, so getting to the fun stuff... in most hospitals - there is something called a priority list AKA who goes first in any situation. Number one priority are intensive care patients, codes, STATs, and traumas. Next is operating room patients, special procedures, people going to XRAY, Cat Scan, etc. On the very bottom is equipment - things like the pumps used to give people an IV.

Our primary custy is the hospital. We live and breath to serve the hospital and take whatever they want to shove up our brown-holes in any fashion.

Here is a REAL conversation I had with one of the hospital personnel (in which I have MANY conversations like this daily):

Nurse: Hello, I am calling from Unit XYZ. We called for some equipment an hour ago.

Untitled-Dispatcher: Yes, I am sorry for the wait, but we currently do not have anyone available to bring that equipment up, though as soon as we do, I will make sure it gets to you.

Nurse: Well, why is no one available?

Unitled Dispatcher: They are handling other patients in the hospital.

Nurse: My equipment is more important.

Untitled Dispatcher: I am sorry ma'am, but the hospital has strict priority standards that we have to stick to.

Nurse: Yes, but this equipment is for a PATIENT.

Uuntitled Dispatcher: Yes, I understand that, but unfortunately, we have had several ICU patients that have had to go down to testing units. In fact, we just received a call for a STAT (very important), ICU to go down for an emergency test for complications.

Nurse: Well, equipment should come before anything, as it is for a patient. This is a problem, it needs to change. I want to complain!

Unittled Dispatcher: If I am understanding you correctly ma'am, you would like things such as a wheelchair, a stretcher or a pump come before a patient that is profusely bleeding?

Nurse: Yes! The equipment is FOR the patient. It's just as important!

Untitled Dispatcher: [In disbelief on the other line] Well, I would like to apologize again for the wait, but we will get the equipment up to you as soon as we are able to. Good-bye. *Click.*

Isn't it nice to know that the next person taking care of you could be this nurse who values an inanimate object over getting you down to a testing procedure that could save your life?

Sometimes I wonder what was worse... retail or hospital customer service. Anyway, hopefully I'll be back... I've got quite a few stories about the wonders of the inner working of a hospital.

--Untitled Dispatcher

Comments

[The Last Archimedean]

Any nurse who genuinely thinks that a stretcher is more important than a bleeding-to-death patient needs a reality check.

[Evie]

I think I had this conversation last week. One of my employees who is notorious for sitting in her roll-y chair like a mafia don and issuing orders, even though she has no authority to do so, called over to another section (where I was, coincidentally) to ask for assistance. She goes, "Send Angie* over, we've got a patient who needs an X-ray." I said, "Sorry, Angie is assisting in a sterile procedure and can't be disturbed." Don Nurse says, "Well, this is important! I think this patient has a broken arm!" I go, "Great. You have an x-ray degree as well, do it yourself." She goes, "I have OTHER PATIENTS." "So does Angie. Bye!"

*Names changed to protect the (mostly) innocent

[Hellbound Alleee]

If I understood correctly, she said multiple times the equipment was for a patient. So it does seem that she in fact does not value an inanimate object over a patient.

[Larry Berry]

I could take a scalpel to her, until she is bleeding profusely, then see if she still thinks the equipment is more urgent.

[Queer Geek]

I always wondered what a dispatcher does. Now I know!

[The vacationing NC Tony]

What hospital is this, and where is it, because I never want to get sick or injured anywhere near this hopsital, because I don't want this woman taking care of me.

[No Nonsense Nurse]

She had a patient who needed a piece of equipment. Not something for herself, but for a patient. And she sounded desperate to get it. Was it an IV pump? Maybe she needed to hang potassium, so a pump was a necessity. Sounds like she had a patient she was trying to care for. Yes, in theory the patient in the ICU needs something more, but when you are caring for patients, YOUR patients tend to be your priority. If she'd sat around and just waited, the family or doctor could accuse her of not caring, being lazy, not doing her job. Sounds like she was advocating for her patient, which is exactly what she is supposed to do.

[ajason495]

similar store that a friend of mine told me that happened to her. she works at a hospital too, but she isn't a nurse more like a counselor between depts. She was talking to a patient who she had turned down into being in some clinical trial or some jazz, and another nurse backed her up. what did the patient say "i want to speak to your manager." she bluntly but professionally told her, "i do not have a manager, but you can see set up an appointment with another counselor but according to your tests blah blah blah you fail to meet the guidelines."
Do crustys think that places like hospitals have manager managers? makes me laugh everytime I go to a dentist or doctor. Like i dont like your bedside manager, i want a discount. :)

[photoslave]

Even though this was for a patient, it obviously wasn't something needed ASAP. I'm fairly certain that if were needed quickly, it would have been ordered STAT.

[AmigaTech]

Strongly suggest you go read the archives at www.traumaqueen.net The later posts are a bit more esoteric, but the archives are passionate, disturbed, and hilarious.

--AT

[Kristina]

Somewhat of a BTDT. I used to work for a durable medical equipment company. All deliveries for a given day were placed in order of priority, ie oxygen tanks will be delivered first before things like in show seats. As a lowly temp slave the bulk of my work was printing the delivery orders for the guys, checking insurance filing and so forth.

Had a woman call one day just before my lunch(2pm, deliveries leave at 10am) wanting to know why her order wasn't there yet. long story short I had a woman complain than not having to help her mother in law bathe and get to the bathroom was more important than other people being able to breath when I told her she was behind several stops that were more detailed and time consuming than simply dropping off the equipment.

[TechTiger]

ajason495: Entitled assholes have been taught that if they aren't given what they want, they demand a manager because that always works. Doesn't matter if it's stupid or not.

No Nonsense Nurse: True; but being told that a number of ICU and profusely bleeding people are involved should stop it at that point. If they think it's really important, then (from what it sounds like) they could send someone up to get whatever they needed rather than wait until someone from the group that appears to be busy to come down.

[Minidoc]

In the hospital where I work, if there is no one to deliver a piece of equipment for a patient, we send someone down from the floor to get it. There is ALWAYS someone who can be spared for 10 minutes.

[Nocturnesthesia]

I tend to give people in hospital settings the benefit of the doubt because it's such a high stress environment. It doesn't mean that entitled assholes don't exist, but a shitstorm over minor issues is still more understandable than people who get violent over returning pants.