Comments on: Every Hospital Patient Has a Story: The Decline of Compassionate Care giving in American Hospitals.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:12:33 +0000

No one that I’ve read about has mentioned the Veterans Hospitals. They act like we’re getting it for free. I was a Corpsman in the Navy, female, and am Service Connected of 40@ for cancer and Osteoporosis from an injury. Being a Corpsman, Medic, I know my rights. They don’t like that. Although I’m never rude or hateful, I have always been known to complain about the neglect and abuse, along with compliments of those who treat me well. After my last hospital stay, I’ve again gone to my patient advocate. To give a few compliments and tell him of the emotional abuse and neglect that I recieved while only pushing my call button three times within a week because I didn’t want to hear their crap or look into those eyes. I did tell him that the Nurses Aid gave better care than all the nurses put together. It could be that they’re used to old men who don’t know their rights. I’ve been forced to seek outside care for my other liver cancer, to avoid the stigma of also having HCV, which I got in the service, but didn’t file yet for it. Know your patient rights. Know the nurses and doctors responsibilities and your own. Then, when you get out of the hospital, go to you PA and get the paperwork to file a Tort complaint, if a Veterans Hospital, or get an attorney. I’m in the middle of filing a Tort Complaint. Yes, when it hits them in the belt, changes will be made, but with my SSD also, I’m never going back to the VA Hospital except for tests. I’m also getting 10% more disability. Was going to give up on it, but now, knowing my previous doctors caused it to get worse, my Osteoporosis from negligence. Don’t sit and do nothing. If you want something changed, YOU have to do it. Mary

By: nurse

nurse — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:33:09 +0000

I have read some of these comments and suggest that some of you pray that one of their
loved ones never becomes a Registered Professional Nurse and is subject to the disrespectful, clueless, bashing that we are, unfortunately subject to by some people
in society that think that we are glorified, paid “servants” to run, skip and jump
at the speed in which you feel is appropriate. I have been an RN for twenty years. I have worked in every area of the hospital setting and I can tell you that when I hear
a young person tell me they want to be a nurse now, I cringe for them. It truly is one of the most difficult jobs today. Management doesn’t give you enough staff,supplies,doctors avoid families and phone calls from us with your concerns,the bottom line is what’s important to the hospital. When we advocate for some patients,
we have problems with the doctor sometimes, but as patient advocate we are the ONLY
one who is their for you. The doctor writes a note to show he was there for the day so he can send a bill, we provide direct patient care, comfort the family, are responsible for contacting other disciplines necessary for you loved ones care, and you want us to
mop the stairs too? When most of the family doctors come to the intensive care unit where I work, they ask me how to treat their patient. We are not housekeepers, maids,
or babysitters. We are educated, trained, professionals and have worked hard, sacrificed
much, to get our education as well. The average age of the RN in this country is in their mid forties. It’s not a profession that people are running too. It’s a calling I
believe, and so do many that I know that I’ve worked beside. If you want respect, you must give respect. Most of us don’t have coffee breaks, lunch breaks, because we stay
where we are because we don’t want to leave our patients. We don’t need to be in the room to know what is going on. We have other responsibilities too. We must check orders, have endless charting and documentation to do, and so on.

By: TheHeartoftheMatter

TheHeartoftheMatter — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:40:04 +0000

Ms.Chesler,

I’ve worked as a Registered Nurse for 28 years thus far,and am wholly proud of the compassionate and intelligent care I give to my patients. My heart truly does fill with joy as I go about my work caring for the sick and the suffering.
In that spirit,I was feeling sorry for you as I read of your trials and tribulations.All human beings have the right to receive compassionate care. Sadly,while it is true there exist many examples of substandard care in hospitals the world over,there also exist many stories of wonderful care – which you have chosen not to acknowledge.

In any regard,any person,entering a hospital for care, who would so smear an entire profession as you have done,very likely would never feel satisfied with ANY standard of care received. You even chose to denigrate a “really nice,kind” nurse as “not professionally smart”,and intimated that she deliberately,not accidentally,left your leg compressors on.

Registered Nurses are NOT the lapdogs of the pampered,lettered,entitlement-seeking rich.
Whatever sage points you thought you were making were dissolved by these acidic,myopic, & disparaging remarks:

“Hospital personnel are easy to criticize. Could I do the job of a nurse or a nurse’s aide? I doubt it. The work is as repetitive as housework, it is “dirty” work and no one really wants to do it, one’s job is never done, there are always new patients crying out for attention and help. And yet, the salary is reasonable for the education achieved and the work is neither isolating nor undignified. While everyone assures me that there is a serious shortage of nurses (hence, the outsourcing of the profession), I myself did not see nurses overworked. What I saw were civil servants on a permanent work slowdown.”

THESE are words of which to be proud?

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:17:02 +0000

Phyllis, I was in a hospital in Dallas earlier this year for hip replacement surgery, and had similar experiences to yours, but without rage being directly expressed by the staff. Most of the time I had no family with me, since my husband and I have no other relatives nearby, and I was not aware of the need for my own nurse going in (or how useless even that could be). I wound up actively afraid of most the staff in the acute care ward and risked further injury just to make the transfer to the inpatient physical therapy ward (minor risk: faulty wheelchair).

For a while I thought it was just one bad hospital, but when I was going to outpatient physical therapy I met a woman who had had surgery in another hospital in town, one with a good image (good advertising). She complained about her treatment by the nursing staff including the Patient Care Aides, and I was shocked and disappointed when she told me where she had had surgery. She in turn was shocked and disappointed when I told here where I had had my surgery.

We both realized we are ‘in for it’ when we have to go back to a hospital, because both of us are over 60 and it’s inevitable at some point.

I’m all for a national conversation on the subject of hospital care and will participate if it occurs. In the meantime, I will try to find a hospital with a caring, competent staff in the Dallas area, and the quality of hospital nursing care will be a factor in where my husband and I move after retirement.

By: qwfwq

qwfwq — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:25:50 +0000

It’s too bad you didn’t go to a hospital like Northwestern Memorial, in Chicago. I was operated on there recently for a malignant melanoma, and I could not have been taken better care of if I owned the place. (I do not work there, and I’m just a regular person with a pretty good health plan.)

It runs like a Swiss clock and has a top-notch staff. I don’t know what their management is doing, but they are doing it right. I was absolutely astounded. It’s like a well-oiled machine. I’m sure from the staff’s point of view it’s not all beer and skittles, but from the patient’s point of view, it’s wonderful.

By: Revolution of the Soul | The Doctor Is In

Revolution of the Soul | The Doctor Is In — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:32:34 +0000

[...] 1: Phyllis Chesler’s recent piece, “Every hospital patient has a story“, at PajamasMedia. It is a piece to be read to completion, including its lengthy comment [...]

By: Carol Gould

Carol Gould — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:26:52 +0000

I live under the socialised NHS system in the UK but I subscribe to ‘BUPA,’ which is the private health care plan. I had breats surgery for a small lump and the treatment at the exclusive private hospital was atrocious. My British friends told me I would have had a pleasant and compassionate experience had I gone to Charing Cross Hosptial under the NHS as the staff are permanent and csre about their patients from beginning to end. Like Phyllis I had horrible, cruel, uncaring and often sadistic nurses at the private hospital. More recently I have had darling nurses and doctors for various health issues in the NHS. In July fell in Trafalgar Square and the NHS amblulance staff were just wonderful and so, so caring. Maybe there is a future for universal health care in the USA.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:21:13 +0000

Phyllis, I could barely get through this entire post. As someone who works in healthcare but as an independent contractor and also someone who temps and has been sent to work for administrative positions in hospitals I concur with everything you are saying and speak about. The problem is that you and I are seen as the pain in the ass, the troublemaker for speaking out — or calling for a dialogue as you put it. It’s sadly way too systemic. One of the reason’s I work for myself is because of the very reasons you mention. I get to work directly for my clients, on my clients behave and I do not have to be beholdant to the politics of this profession that in itself is just sick sick sick. While I am helping only one woman at a time, I can go home knowing I did only what was right for that woman.

I am so sorry this happened to you. Perhaps with your clout you can do something amazing to change this.

By: Pam

Pam — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:25:37 +0000

The more heavily regulated any given business is, the worse its condition. Banking, airlines, and medicine come to mind. Every regulation adds to cost and decreases efficiency.

Had the hospital that Dr. Chesler had her knee surgery in not been regulated and hamstrung with all sorts of laws about diversity, the sadistic creep disguised as a recovery room nurse would have been fired the first time, and if not by the second time, she treated a patient in such a horrendous fashion. No doubt if this dreadful woman were fired there would be all sorts of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth about racism and Islamophobia. This woman’s race and religion have nothing to do with her sadistic behavior. This woman is dangerous to her patients and should never work in a hospital or doctor’s office again.

Hospital administrators bear the lion’s share of the blame for having a culture where management hates labor, labor hates management, the various labor groups hate each other, and all of them hate the patients. Each individual employee is responsible for his or her own attitude and behavior, but a pervasive negative culture will drive off the best employees leaving the patients at the mercy of anyone who happens to feel like working there and putting up with, or even contributing to, the garbage.

Airlines are often expert at having the above scenario and then wonder why the passengers would rather walk to Boston than ride on their airline and why there are so many labor problems and why everything is such a mess.

Also, we, in this country, have created a Cult of Victim-hood. As a result many people feel victimized because they have to work to support themselves. After all, royalty and career welfare recipients do not have to work, so why should they. They are victims of the world and spend a lot of time letting the world know about it. After all, in a hospital setting they are victims of their patients, and everyone should feel sorry for them. How dare the patients bother them! Can’t they see how hard their lives are!? Doesn’t everyone feel just so sorry for them because they do not have pay the size of a cardio-thoracic surgeon’s. Why should he wear a Rolex while she wears a Timex. And on and on and on. In the process of being fake victims they really do manage to make victims of their patients.

All of this, the endless government meddling, the victim-hood, the excusing horrendous behavior based on race or religion, must go.

By: tanstaafl

tanstaafl — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:46:07 +0000

Unions treat patients as part of management and creates an adversarial attitude towards patients and patient care.

An interesting observation, so the patient can be seen in some circumstances (extremely stated) as the “enemy”.

When I accompanied a friend to a hospital emergency room last year (southern California), I remember being struck by the thought that the patient(s) seemed almost irrelevant to the life of the hospital.

Granted, it was the emergency room and things were slightly crazy, but the same feeling lingered after my friend was admitted.

The patient (condescendingly addressed as “honey” or “dear” or “sweetie”) seemed almost incidental and not really central or even important in the sundry goings on of hospital life.