When personalities clash
Not everyone gets along with everyone else: That is life. However, in the medical field, it can cause more problems than it normally would. You get any bad combination, be it nurse-aide, aide-aide, nurse-nurse, aide-patient, patient's family-administration, (dizzy yet?) and it can cause a lot of headaches on an 8 hr shift. We see it a lot-you get a patient who doesn't like an aide, and suddenly they are rude, demanding, nagging, and in return the aide will be slow to answer the light, put their calls and questions last on priority list, and give minimum effort for that person's comfort, and the vicious cycle continues. It's so hard to break that vicious cycle, and makes it hard for staff as they have to switch patients, etc. in order to adjust to the circumstance.
In order to illustrate, I will tell you about a patient we have had for long time at one of my facilities. She came as a hip patient, and we quickly learned she would be a needy patient, not out of necessity, but out of wanting to be babied. These patients are our favorite (sarcastic tone) because we of course, have plenty of free time, and love being thought of as bellhops, personal slaves, and waitresses. This patient called constantly, and was obsessive compulsive about things she could but wouldn't do for herself, such as readjusting her own pillow. As I said, it was her hip, not her arms, that she was in our facility for.
One night, as she was pulling these kind of shenanigans, I had another patient who was also a hip patient, but had a much worse time of it in terms of his condition. However, because he was determined to get better and go home, he would try harder and did much more for himself, so much so that all I had to do was set his shower up for him, help him to the bathroom, where he told me he would call me when he was finished. I exited his BR in time to see her light go off...again. I went down to her room, and she asked me why it had taken so long for me to get to her-because she calls so often and for such insignificant things, we leave her call light for last so we can meet the needs of all the 29 other patients too. I told her I was putting a patient in the shower, and she asked how I could leave him alone and whined to herself that "He must be in much better condition than me, he couldn't have had surgery on his hip like me." to which I couldn't keep quiet.
"Yes, actually he just had a full hip replacement," I replied. She thought about that for a minute, then said "Well, I'm sure mine is much worse." I simply stated "Well, he is determined to get better and get out quickly, so he has been doing most his cares for himself and working really hard, so that's why he can do what he is doing without my help." Needless to say, she did not like that-not one bit. I was later warned by a coworker to stay out of her room, that she kept complaining that some girl came in and told her she was lazy and that she wouldn't help her, and she wouldn't stop complaining until she had my job. She went on, in her stay with us, to then get similarly mad at half a dozen other staff members, enough that we could only assign one or two certain aides to her.
We need to make sure our interactions with others don't drive them away. It was sad to me, because when she first arrived, she was so kind we all loved hanging out with her, but by the time she moved out, none of the aides was sorry, they were glad to see her go, because she had caused so many problems and headaches. Remember that everyone wants to feel loved and safe with us.
In order to illustrate, I will tell you about a patient we have had for long time at one of my facilities. She came as a hip patient, and we quickly learned she would be a needy patient, not out of necessity, but out of wanting to be babied. These patients are our favorite (sarcastic tone) because we of course, have plenty of free time, and love being thought of as bellhops, personal slaves, and waitresses. This patient called constantly, and was obsessive compulsive about things she could but wouldn't do for herself, such as readjusting her own pillow. As I said, it was her hip, not her arms, that she was in our facility for.
One night, as she was pulling these kind of shenanigans, I had another patient who was also a hip patient, but had a much worse time of it in terms of his condition. However, because he was determined to get better and go home, he would try harder and did much more for himself, so much so that all I had to do was set his shower up for him, help him to the bathroom, where he told me he would call me when he was finished. I exited his BR in time to see her light go off...again. I went down to her room, and she asked me why it had taken so long for me to get to her-because she calls so often and for such insignificant things, we leave her call light for last so we can meet the needs of all the 29 other patients too. I told her I was putting a patient in the shower, and she asked how I could leave him alone and whined to herself that "He must be in much better condition than me, he couldn't have had surgery on his hip like me." to which I couldn't keep quiet.
"Yes, actually he just had a full hip replacement," I replied. She thought about that for a minute, then said "Well, I'm sure mine is much worse." I simply stated "Well, he is determined to get better and get out quickly, so he has been doing most his cares for himself and working really hard, so that's why he can do what he is doing without my help." Needless to say, she did not like that-not one bit. I was later warned by a coworker to stay out of her room, that she kept complaining that some girl came in and told her she was lazy and that she wouldn't help her, and she wouldn't stop complaining until she had my job. She went on, in her stay with us, to then get similarly mad at half a dozen other staff members, enough that we could only assign one or two certain aides to her.
We need to make sure our interactions with others don't drive them away. It was sad to me, because when she first arrived, she was so kind we all loved hanging out with her, but by the time she moved out, none of the aides was sorry, they were glad to see her go, because she had caused so many problems and headaches. Remember that everyone wants to feel loved and safe with us.
Comments
Post a Comment