Nurses Get Blamed...

When the doctor is late

When the doctor is rude

When the doctor doesn’t spend enough time with the patient/family

When the patient/family doesn’t like what the doctor has to say

When the patient asks for “sweetener” and the nurse brings Splenda when the patient ONLY uses Sweet ‘n Low. Nurses did go to school to be waitresses, after all.

When the doctor tells a patient they get to go home at 8 am when you just started passing morning meds and still have to complete all of the discharge instructions

When the IV pump beeps because the patient messes with it, or keeps kinking the tubing

When it’s too cold in the room

When it’s too hot in the room

When the “migraine patient” who is rating their pain 10 out of 10 (who coincidentally has the TV turned all the way up, all the lights turned on, playing on their IPad and laughing loudly with their friends who are in the room visiting) isn’t due for meds for 2 more hours

When the patients don’t get the care they should because the hospital never provides enough staffing

When pharmacy forgets to send up meds

When the diabetic patient with a blood sugar of 400 has his family sneak in a large Dairy Queen Blizzard and eats it while hiding in the bathroom

When the doctor gets called to clarify an order because doctors have such very “special” handwriting

When the doctor opens a chart that is out of new order sheets/progress notes

When the doctor walks off with a chart and loses it

When surgery doesn’t go as planned

When the food sucks

When there is nothing on TV

When the TV is hard to see/hear

When the hospital décor is ugly and outdated (hello 70s avocado green)

When the patient sneaks a Big Mac Value Meal an hour before a procedure they were supposed to be NPO for

When they point out a change in patient status, lab values, etc. and the doctor ignores it or pawns it off on another doctor

When they don’t answer a call light quickly enough because the patient next door is coding

When they do everything possible to coerce the patient to drink their colonoscopy prep and they can’t tolerate it enough to get clear before their procedure