A Nurse's Plea--PLEASE don't bring your infants to the hospital as visitors

[Heddi]

It irks me SO bad when people bring infants and toddlers to the hospital as visitors and then allow those children to wallow on the floor and dig around in the trash baskets and get on the bed and play with the IV pumps....

Unfortunately, as we all know, there a severe shortage of nurses and nurse techs.

We are not babysitters. We do not have the time to tell you 10x's in an hour period that your children should not be crawling on the floor of a hospital--it is THE dirtiest part of a hospital. Nurses throw away pens and tape and papers that fall on the floor---why do you want your child crawling on these floors?

I completely understand that Grandma or Grandpa or Mom or Dad wants to see the kids while they're in the hospital. I understand that you think your 2 year old child will have fond memories of seeing GrandDad in the ICU with a feeding tube in his stomach and 14 IV sites in his arm.....

But think of what you are exposing your child to:

MRSA
VRE
Clostridium Difficile
Flu
Pneumonia
Staph Aureus

and those are just the most common ones that we have.

Please--leave your child at home. Get a babysitter. DO NOT expose your child to the myriad of infectious diseases and viruses that are prevalent in a hospital setting.

---

Last week we had a patient who had TB. The family members (all 15 of them) would ignore the 4 signs posted on the door that said to go to the nurse's station before entering room, to wear contact protection, to wear a mask, and to wear gloves. They would go in to this room without wearing a TB-proof mask. They took their infant and toddler-age children into this room without wearing masks.

I educated them. My co-workers educated them. The assistant manager educated them. The nursing supervisor educated them. We educated them on the high risk of contracting TB from this patient. We educated them that a TB infection in a child could be fatal. We educated them on the fact that they weren't just putting themselves at risk, but all of the other patients, their family members and all staff at the hospital. They were at risk of passing TB on to everyone they came in contact with on a daily basis--co-workers, other family members, people at the bank and grocery store.

We told them that children were not allowed in teh rooms because the masks don't fit infants or toddlers. We told them that they had to keep the masks on when they were in the room.

We gave them brochures and hand-outs and printed information regarding TB.

They refused. They would wear the masks outside but take them off when they were in the room.

They continued to bring children in the room, allowed the children to sit on the bed with the patient, to be kissed by the patient (TB is transmitted in mucosa--spit, snot, sneezes).

We had to bar the family from the hospital. They were not allowed to visit at all. Ever.

We had to notify the health department.

Every member of this family---adults, toddlers, and infants, will now be under department of health surveillance for TB, and will have to take TB prophylaxis. They will have to go to the health department, or have a health department worker come to their house to actually visualize them taking the medication as prescribed.

And they will have to do this for 6 months to a year.

They will have to get TB testing done on a regular basis with follow-up chest x-rays.

All because they refused to follow simple directions: wear a mask, no kids.

---

Please. Think ahead before taking any young child, or anyone with a compromised immune system, into a hospital setting. When you are at a hospital, even if you have a fully-functioning immune system, use the hand sanitizers that are located throughout the hospital.

Wash your hands before entering and before leaving the room. If you cannot find a sink, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Pay attention to the signs on the door. If the sign says you have to wear a yellow gown, please do. We are not offering bad fashion advice. Rather, we are protecting you, other patients, hospital workers, and the population in general from infectious disease and viruses.

If the sign says wear a mask, wear a mask. If you cannot find one that fits, let a health care worker know. We probably have one that will fit. If your head is abnormally large or small, and we do not have a properly fitting mask, chances are you will not be able to visit your friend or loved one. We are not trying to be cruel, or heartless, we are trying to prevent the spread of infectious disease to you, your loved ones, health care workers, and the population in general.

If you have children, please do not bring them to the hospital. If you must, please do not allow them to lay in beds or crawl on the floor. Please do not expect the nurses, nurse's aides, janitors, or other workers to babysit your children. Do not allow your children to play with the equipment. Do not allow them to eat or drink food or drinks that are on the patient's tray. Do not allow them to dig through the garbage cans.

If you do bring your child to the hospital, please change their clothes when you get home. Wash their hands. Clean their shoes.

If you have a cough or a cold, please wear a mask. A simple cold to you may be a fatal infection to someone who is immuno-compromised. Cover your cough and sneeze. Use hand sanitizer after a cough or sneeze. Wash your hands thoroughly.

----
Simple steps can prevent prolonged hospitalizations for your loved ones and other patients.

Simple steps can prevent contracting infectious diseases or viruses by you or your loved ones.

Simple steps is all we ask. Please.


Love,
heddi

[LeftCoast]

1. As a fellow RN I have to K&R this thread!

I agree 100%!!!

I can't believe that family though! What the hell were they thinking?

[Heddi]

9. It was ridiculous

There were actually 2 family members that had TB.

Grandma was in ICU, so the ICU Rn's were able to better control the visitor flow.

Grandpa had been admitted a few weeks before Grandma came in, He had pneumonia, got cleared and went home a few days later. But his flu-like symptoms persisted so he came back and that's when they found the TB.

It wasn't evident that grandma and grandpa were related because they had different last names.

So grandpa is in telemetry (where I work) and granma is next door in ICU.

We're taking grandpa's social history and that's when we find out his wife is in ICU with TB.

He also says that he lives with his kids and grandkids in a house, and that there's 17 all together that live in this house. Him, Wife, and 15 others.

Yeah.

So we notify the board of health just because of 2 family members in one house with 15 others that include infants and children, but they drag their feet, of course.

SO the family comes in and is just la-de-da about the whole wearing a mask thing.

They felt they didn't have to wear the mask because
1) No one had TB
2) If they had TB they'd know it
3) Big deal if they had it, it's just a bad cold

I think there were obviously some educational deficits there, but regardless. They repeatedly refused to do the things we asked them to, and with grandpa, it was hard to see when anyone was in the room because he had to be in a negative airflow room and we had to keep the door shut. So you'd go in and no one would be in there, and 10 minutes later 39823987 would be in the room. I don't know how they got in because the room was in front of the nurse's station, but they snuck in some how......

---
Those 2 (grandma and granpa) were 2 of about 8 TB patients we had in telemetry in 2007. I just KNEW my PPD would come back positive when I got it last month. The sad part is that many of these people were in the hospital in other wards for days or weeks, or in our ward for days or weeks before we had reason to believe they had TB and did the testing and got a confirmation.

So all these visitor, workers, etc, exposed without even knowing it.

JUust like the patients you have for 3 weeks and the day before they're discharged you find out they have MRSA and VRE and C-diff. Oh, let's put them in precautions, yeah, but gah! I was their RN for three weeks WITHOUT precautions :(

[LeftCoast]

13. That really sucks

My patient population doesn't sound quite that bad. On the other hand, I'm currently at home sick (have been all this week) from a nasty cold that I'm sure I got when a patient coughed right in my face. The patient had dementia so they didn't know what they were doing, but the germs sure didn't care. Blech.

Hope your health is ok. A positive PPD is a scary thing. Did you have to do the months and months of Rifampin? I've heard that stuff is awful.

[Heddi]

15. My PPD was never positive

but I was sure it would be after having all of the late-Dx TB patients that we cared for this year.

Did I tell you about the guy that had bacterial meningitis that was originally admitted to med-surg, but the only room they had was in Oncology/med-surg, he had a roommate that had cancer (but not neutropenic).

He had a change in LOC, was moved to tele, and later to ICU.

Three days later we find out he has bacterial meningitis.

Whoops!!!

Thankfully everyone who was in contact with him was negative, as he didn't cough or spit on them or anything. But talk about an event to QA! Oh, sorry your neutropenic family member got Bac Men from a nurse who cared for a patient who had BacMen and didn't know it until last week. My bad.

[LeftCoast]

28. I'm glad your PPD was negative!

I don' think I heard about your meningitis patient. Glad it didn't spread.

I just heard we're way above average for C. Diff so I'm sure we'll be instituting new policies and procedures soon. I tell you what. I am SO tired of dealing with it. The other day we had a line of 4 patient rooms all with C. Diff. We called it Poo-alley. It was horrible.

Once you hit critical mass like that it gets difficult to get on top of it. Thankfully things like that don't usually happen at my hospital.

[Heddi]

30. I love the smell of C-diff in the morning

even better if you have a patient with a GI bleed AND C-Diff. Mmmm....hungry :)

We had a VRE outbreak last year. Normally we have about 6 pts with VRE in a year, but in one month we had 14!! So swabs for everyone (not staff...just patients). It had started in ICU and the house keepers weren't wiping down the monitor equipment and bed rails when they were cleaning the rooms.

So we had a bit of education to do with that. Not to mention the cost associated with having to treat everyone for VRE at the hospital's expense.

[northernsoul]

2. K&R - hope this gets spread wide and far

Thanks for your insight, Heddi.

[formercia]

32. Speaking of spreading far and wide

All it takes is one ignorant family to spread TB throughout a community. I cannot believe how ignorant those people are.

In the old days, people like that were sent to isolation communities on islands where they could only kill each other.

[woodsprite]

3. Another thing - cough into your forearm or bend of your arm, not your hand.

They teach and preach that to the kids at the daycare and schools my kids go to. That, and their sanitizing methods have worked pretty well at keeping bugs to a minimum.

[pinto]

4. Good common sense precaution info. Limiting hospital based infections is

the concern of all, staff, patients and visitors alike.

Thanks for the post.

(aside) I had a doc once who routinely wore a mask if he had a cold and was seeing patients. Some were taken aback, but I always appreciated it.

[IndyOp]

5. Heddi, May I just say...

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

I so appreciate your hard work and the work of all nurses and nursing techs who are typically way overworked and way under-appreciated.

You and your co-workers did exactly the right thing by reporting the family - I know you don't need me chiming in on this, but I wanted to anyway.

I used to work in a nursing home and typically had a hard time training new nursing assistants to use appropriate gloves and gowns -- people tend to be careless unless you scare them by showing them what the worst of those diseases look like.

Thanks for working to help us all be safe and healthy! :thumbsup:

[mac2]

10. Infectious disease procedures and monitoring today is

shameful. No wonder hospital related disease are out of control. They also hire immigrant workers who are under paid and not trained properly. DA!

[NC_Nurse]

6. Hear, hear!!!

I know your frustration. See it all the time. Hospitals are dangerous places.
People can be really difficult sometimes. :hug:

There are also other patients to think about. A screaming child does not help sick people rest.
Consideration is so often overlooked.

[Heddi]

14. Oh I LOVE the screaming kids

Or the ones that run through the halls like wild banshees.

There was a family that had tons of kids--their kids even brought their FRIENDS with them to the hospital. THe kids were aged like 10-14 or so, and they would just tear up the hallways, running and touching shit and touching the Lifepak Defibrilator and trying to get into the (locked) code card and looking into patient rooms and just being little shits.

So they're running and running and playing and I say "Hey, no running in the halls, okay?! People are sick and need their rest"

so they go whining to mom who gets in my face about how I don't have any authority to tell her kids what to do and they can do what they want and blah blah blah

I'm already pissed anyway because they're wandering into other patients' rooms and screaming in the hall. I just let her go on and on and on and when she's done I remind her that I do have authority to promote safety within the hospital, and that it is a posted hospital rule that children are not to be unattended, children are not to run in the hallway, and that NO ONE aside from trained medical personnel and INVITED guests are to be in patient's rooms, and that NO ONE aside from trained medical personnel are to touch any equipment, especially the equpment we would use to save their family members life.

I also reminded her that if she refused to stop her children from running in the halls, screaming in the halls, fucking with equipment and going into stranger's rooms, that I actually *DID* have the authority to remove them from the hospital at any point in time.

She was all in my face and cussing and just being a real asshole (I was taking care of her family member and they were not on the verge of dying or anything---just needed some dialysis and would go home the next day). Looking at my watch, I realized it was 9pm and past visiting hours----usually we're not too uptight about it but we do have the right to limit visitors after hours. SO I said 'Well, this conversation is moot. visiting hours were over at 8pm so I'm going to have to ask you to tell your (whoever) goodnight and that you'll see them tomorrow morning".

Oh she got all pissed off and was screaming and cussing and so I excused myself and called security and the nursing supervisor and she and her gang of rugrats were escorted from the building, and rightfully so.

Running in MY hallways? Wrestling in MY hallways? And at 9:00 at night? Oh, I don't think so, honey....

[NC_Nurse]

17. That's excellent! I'm sure the other patients were grateful!

I hope she never came back. What a jerk!

[dana_b]

21. here here!! for you AND the OP!!

I am a RN too and have had to chase a man who refused to put out his cigarette while wandering the halls, chase kids away from the code cart, keep said kids from racing the radio flyers (for our pedi PATIENTS) down the halls, reminded adults to wash their hands, to use protective gear (time and time again!!), and been threatened by adult men because "we had no right to tell them what to do!". I don't understand some people. Especially if they want to stay healthy. We really have the patient's and their family's concerns at heart.

[Heddi]

23. We had a guy that was smoking in the bathroom

and he denied it. I'm like "okay. You're the only person in this room and there are ashes all over the toilet and a cigarette but in the toilet....is there a ghost???"

He was like "Well, you won't let me go downstairs so I gotta smoke up here'. It was the end of a very long 12 hour shift and I'm like "Look, you can't go downstairs because you're on a cardiac monitor. I'll get you a nicotine patch if you want one. But comeon--there is flowing oxygen to all of these rooms. If you smoke, you could really blow up this entire hospital. And I don't want to die here, and even if I don't die, I need this job so I can pay my rent, okay?"

then we confiscated his smokes. Asshole.

[dana_b]

26. ugh!

I know, they don't think! "Just deny, and she'll believe me!" hehe... worse than kids! Seriously, peds isn't easy, but I really find the kids and the families to be less of a hassle. When adults start to get better, they seem to complain more. When kids start to feel better, they play.

[Heddi]

29. I floated to Peds the other day

I had one patient...the other RN's had 2. I'm used to 5 very ill people, crawling out of bed.....

They're like 'oh, don't wake the patients to take vitals' ??? what? I'm used to waking people up all the time to take vitals.

It certainly was a nice change from telemetry :) And they have a really cool fish tank that I spent most of the day staring into :)

[dana_b]

39. 2 patients?!

a step down unit? We have four on the hem/onc unit unless it is BMT and then it's 2. We also have a fish tank- really cool!

[Heddi]

42. no, peds had 2 patients

my unit, Tele/Step down has 5:1 ratio. I only took care of one patient because he was DKA and on an insulin gtt so he was 1:1 because of hourly blood sugars, etc.

It was quite a change. I'm like "ooh...sitting down....I haven't done this in 2 years" ha ha

[mac2]

7. When I was a kid the hospital won't let us in to visit.

The idea was that kids who are young can pick up germs. And those who are in school can bring them or take them to school.

Parents seem to think their kids should be every where they are. No. Might depend on the state, I don't know.

I see kids (babies in car seats on the table) in a upscale restaurant 10pm at night. I can see you are on the road and have to eat but not at a upscale restaurant. Go to a family place or get take out.

Put your child to bed at no later than 7Pm. Older ones at 9Pm. They need lots of rest...and the parents some down time. Lack of sleep might be why so many of them are fat. They stay up watching TV too long, etc.

As Wanda Sykes says...they aren't my kids so why worry? Well they will be taking care of me in my old age.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

8. Another kick. This is very important.

...Though, I'd like to add, bring children to nursing homes. These poor elders never see children.

[Warpy]

18. Nursing homes generally have lounges or day rooms

and that's a great place to keep the kiddies.

[China_cat]

35. Some even have playgrounds.

[Mabus]

11. Happy to give this #5

Hopefully people will read it and follow your advice.

As I read your post my mouth just dropped open. I hate to say it but some people are so dumb.

[mac2]

12. If your hospital has any infectious disease procedures

this is a dangerous situation.

Next time call security and have them removed. They are breaking the law and it's not your fault they are stupid. Someone has to look out for the young if their parents don't.

Thanks for telling people about this problem.

[Warpy]

16. We used to jump through major hoops to get patients out to see

the little ones in the waiting room on the floor. Often it would involve chasing medical orders to have a Thoraclex on simple gravity drainage for a set period plus organizing portable O2 and extension cords for multiple pumps. We discouraged any kid under 6 from entering a patient room for the reasons you cited. Our floors were all carpeted and any time we needed to kneel down on them, we felt like burning our uniforms.

It could be very important for a patient to see the little ones. However, it wasn't worth endangering the lives of the children, and that's exactly what parents of children too young to understand that we meant what we said when we said keep off that floor were doing when they took kids into any of the patient rooms.

PLEASE, folks, keep the little ones home if there isn't a waiting room on the patient floor.

[Heddi]

22. we have carpet but they're sloooooowly changing to hard wood

Gah. I hate that f'ing carpet. Every day the cleaning people go through with this awfully ineffective steam cleaner and clean the hallways, and when someone vacates a room they steam the carpets--double steam if the patient is on any kind of precautions.

The water that is pulled up is black. Ugh.

I *see* and *know* what falls on the floor. The idea of walking on it makes me want to vomit---crawling on it--no. thank. you. I completely relate with the "burn your uniform" and i have actually thrown out very good scrubs in the past if I was on the floor for an extended period of time (responding to a code or a patient who fell). Ugh. NO WAY that thing is going in my washing machine :(

We recently had a patient with a transverse spinal fracture who had a special bed that opened from the bottom--there was a little trap door so you could do peri care, etc. In order to get to the trap door you had to kneel and basically crawl under the bed. It was horrible. Not only was this a ridiculous patient to care for, but the idea of crawling under this bed 3x's a shift was just...ugh. So we'd pile up Chux and towels and all kinds of stuff all around the bed before we'd crawl. No way was I going to throw away good scrubs because of peri care.

:shudder:

[Warpy]

25. The carpeting did decrease the number of patient falls

However there are red rubber tiles with raised circular texturing that would easily have done the same thing and been a hard surface that could be cleaned.

Instead, I kicked my shoes off just inside the door and made a beeline for the washer for the uniform, wearing my undies to the shower.

It was all I could do not to burn everything. They didn't pay me enough to do that.

[Heddi]

27. our union has been trying to get hospital-provided uniforms

They do provide uniforms in OB and surgery---wear your clothes to work, pick up a clean pair of scrubs, wear your clothes home and let the hospital wash the scrubs

They are refusing to do this, though.

I had gotten covered in blood once when a confused patient disconnected her IV and got blood all over her and as we were trying to get her back to bed and stop the bleeding she was flailing her arms, spraying blood all over, and then fell onto me, covering me with blood.

I got a pair of hospital scrubs from OR to wear for the rest of the day.

THE NEXT DAY I was off and got a call AT HOME asking when I was planning to return the scrubs. I was working nights at the time and had JUST gotten home at 8am and the phone rings. Heloooo.....I'll bring them back when I get back to work. They reminded me that if I didn't return the scrubs that day I'd be charged some ridiculous amount for them. What? They're cheap scrubs that they buy in bulk and probably cost the hospital ~~$10 a pair.

So I brought them back in the next day and dropped them off at laundry, after, of course, I had used them to mop up extra water in my bathroom, and cleaned my windows with them :)

[knitter4democracy]

44. Try Kookaburra. It's what I use on Hubby's work clothes.

It's pricey, but it works wonderfully on handwash items and handknits. I use it on mattress pads, sheets and pillowcases, and Hubby's work clothes, too.

http://www.kookaburraco.com/

It's been approved in Australia for use in hospital and nursing home laundries. It kills staph aureus because of the tea tree oil in it, and it makes everything smell really clean.

Oh, and it's the only thing I've ever found to get pee smell out of stuffed animals (from leaked diapers or whatever). Use a bit more and do a long soak. Two rinses, and the dolly's clean.

[mzmolly]

19. I FULLY agree. Further, keep sick people away from newborns.

Even mildly ill people need to stay the heck away.

[smiley_glad_hands]

20. Sounds like a family of freepers. eom

[Heddi]

24. They were a family of morons

to the highest degree

[crimsonblue]

31. Or just do what smart hospitals do, and make a daycare center...

But that would require planning and budgeting... it's much easier to yell at parents for bringing their children, although most people don't really plan on going to the hospital (or maybe you don't know how difficult it can be to get a babysitter on zero notice). Most hospitals are raping patient's pocket books, so how bout they take just a lil bit and make a child-friendly zone? Gotta love the stewards of complete Obviousness...

[Heddi]

34. we don't have enough funds for childcare for employees

There is a waiting list a mile long for employees' children to get into hospital-sponsored child care. There is NO childcare provided for people who work evening or night shifts.

My hospital is a non-profit entity. In 2006, 80% of our budget went to "charity" care. 70% of our patients are without insurance. WE don't expect them to pay and they are hardly being "raped" by our hospital. Just last month we had a patient who had a complete spinal fracture--she will never walk again. She was in our hospital for FOUR MONTHS--two in ICU, two in telemetry. She had no insurance and no way to pay the astronomical bills that she undoubtedly accured. But that didn't matter. She got the same level of compassionate care as the president of the hospital would. Her stay in ICU was well over $200,000 alone. She was on a special bed that our hospital didn't have before her arrival, but one that we had to order at the cost of $40,000. When she was shipped to a long-term ventilator setting in SEattle, the bed went with her. Our hospital will most likely never get that bed back.

Before you start lecturing me and the other health care professionals on this board about what we do and dont' know, and what we do and don't understand, please realize that not every hospital is a cash-making machine. Not every hospital makes money to turn a profit. Not every hospital charges patients out the ass for routine procedures.

Our hospital provides mammograms to EVERY woman in the community--regardless of their means---FREE. FREE of charge.

Like I said--80% of our profits last year went to covering the bills of patients that cannot pay. The only other hospital in this yokel community is a religious based, for profit institution. That hospital charges for soap. They charge for toothpaste. THey charge for gowns.

We Don't, and as nurses, we don't even KNOW if a patient has means to pay or not. That is handled by social services. We provide the same level of care to all patients--rich and poor, with house and homeless, legal and undocumented. Financial records are NO WHERE in the chart. ED doctors don't have access as to a patient's financial status, so there goes the argument that the ED docs only admit those that can pay and dump the ones that can't.

Our pharmacy has a free prescription service that covers 100% of the most common medicines that patients are discharged on. Heart meds, antibiotics, blood pressure meds, prenatal vitamins, chemo meds, AIDS meds. For the rest of their life, as long as they live in a 200 mile radius of the hospital, they will get these medicines for FREE. F-R-E-E. If they can't come to the hospital to pick them up, WE DELIVER THEM TO THEIR HOUSE. FREE.

So please, continue telling me how my hospital is raping patients and how we're ignoring the obvious?

[Heddi]

37. and another thing

we don't have the funds to hire the NURSING STAFF we need. But a hospital is supposed to say "oh, fuck having adequate staffing to care for the increasingly sick patients we have. Let's build a DAYCARE!!!"

Sorry. If you want your loved one cared for by a competent and highly trained professional, then you need to understand that nurses are more important than a daycare.

This isn't about having patients not having daycare. This is about VISITORS bringing children to a setting that is not, and will NEVER BE a child friendly setting.

There is nothing child-friendly about easily communicable diseases. There is nothing child-friendly about ventilators and feeding tubes and IV antibiotics and rapidly infusing blood products.

There is nothing child-friendly about an environment that is heavily stocked with needles and glass vials and heavy equipment that can be easily tipped over by an unwatched child who is curious about the IV poles or breathing machines.

The problem isn't JUST having children in a hospital setting. The problem is also UNSUPERVISED children in a hospital setting. Parents who expect me to take full care of their ill friend or loved one while at the same time being a babysitter to their children. While being an infection control nurse to their children.

How would you feel if the care I provided to you or your loved one was decreased because I spent most of my time coralling children and chasing them around the ward rather than doing the IMPORTANT things I was hired to do---like monitoring the heart of a critically ill patient, or giving medications on schedule, and doing routine physical assessments? That would really suck for you and your loved one if my time was monopolized by people who had no concern for the other patietns on the floor, monopolized by people who can't realize that a hospital full of, um, SICK PEOPLE maybe isn't the best place for a 3 year old with a runny nose and the attention span of a gnat.

Sorry, but I do too much for too little pay as it is. I think I can speak for MOST nurses and nurse's aides when I say that adding "babysitting" to our ever growing list of responsibilities is not something I'm eager to sign up for.

And I'm certainly not going to suggest that one of the highest priorities--over safe patient ratios, increased nurse pay, increased nurse staffing, increased health benefits, decreased mandatory overtime, safe lift teams---be child care for visitors when we don't have the money to hire the RN's we need to function, much less when we don't have the money we need to expand child care for the employees we have that cannot get child care for 12 hour night shifts, therefore, can't work night shifts, therefore, night shift is understaffed.

[dana_b]

40. you go hedii!! k&r!

[FloridaJudy]

33. Back when I was working in a clinic

I got really good at taking vital signs and doing exams with one hand and hauling curious toddlers out of the red bags with the other. On one memorable occasion, the kid was so active and curious that I had to call a halt. "Ma'am", I explained "It's really impossible for me to do a good job while trying to make sure you little one doesn't get hurt. Would it be possible for you to reschedule your appointment for a time when you can get a babysitter?" Mom thought about this for a few seconds before relying "Oh, okay. I guess can send him out to his dad in the lobby".

Honestly, what are some of these people thinking? Quite aside from the safety factor, it's more than a little creepy when I have to do a pap smear with a five-year-old looking over my shoulder. I usually try to find them a quiet corner with a coloring book - or a chair they can sit on and hold mom's hand - but short of creatively using duct tape and super-glue there's no guarantee they'll stay there. I understand that some days it's difficult to find a sitter, but I've had clients who arrange their appointments with those of their friends - so that they can share the transportation costs and take turns watching the children - so it's not impossible.

[Berry Cool]

36. I'm K&R'ing this because it's so important

but frankly it doesn't surprise me all that much that hospitals are treated to kids acting like little hellions (not to mention adults) and parents who defend their right to act that way, even if it puts everyone else in danger.

It happens every day in places like stores and restaurants, so why not hospitals too?

There are way too many parents out there who either can't control their little darlings (and yeah, it's hard but you can at least try) or refuse to lest it somehow stunt their personal wonderfulness. And who simply wouldn't think of leaving them home, or can never seem to find a babysitter. So you become their babysitter.

[Heddi]

38. Funny how there are babysitters for work, or for vacation

or for other things. Yet when some parents see an environment wehre there are other people there to be UNPAID babysitters, suddenly child-care is non-existent.

Let me get paid more than a fucking plumber, and let me work less than 14 hours a day, and let me get health insurance where I don't have to pay $400 a month to cover my husband (who is now uninsured because we can't afford it), and let me have enough staff on the floor to staff appropriately and safely, and maybe I'll think about being a babysitter for your child.

Of course, were there an office party or office meeting or weekend getaway, I'm sure childcare would just be lining up for THOSE events. Funny how that works

[dana_b]

41. sorry, I really like this thread! it hits home

especially when we have a two year old patient and there are no parents at the bedside. We are that child's nurse, babysitter and comfort. It takes a lot of time and care - much more than just being their nurse. and if you have three other kids to watch, it's really difficult. Sometimes we're lucky enough to get an aide as a sitter, but then the rest of the unit is short staffed.

A few times I've walked into the room of a young child and that child's older (but underaged) sibling is there bt the parents are gone - for the night! Then we have to try and get in touch with the parents and tell them that they have to come back and pick up the sibling because we can't watch their other child. More than once they were unreachable. That was really hard to understand.

[Heddi]

43. we get that too with older patients

this is a common situation:

older folk comes from a nursing home. No one visits them in the nursing home. THey get admitted for something and are probably going to die. They're there for a week and narry a visitor in site aside from the hospital chaplain and volunteers that stop in to visit with patients.

Suddenly, patient takes a turn for the worst, and their death is theoretically emminent.

THEN the family comes in and won't leave the bedside---where were you when they were dying, but better? Why wait until they're in the throes of death and can't see you or recognize you before you show up?

Even worse is when I'm the only person there to comfort a dying patient because family just doesn't want to come to the hospital. So this person--young, old, whatever, is dying and I'm the one holding their hand. I don't mind at all, but it's infuriating when family members can't even be bothered for one hour to come by and say goodbye to a dying relative. Or they get there too late and accuse us of "not doing enough" to save mom or dad.

WE had a patient on a vent that was brain dead, and the family member---who was POA---requested that we not remove the vent until the next day because they had to go home that night and watch LOST. Seriously. I swear to God. They prolonged their parent's death NOT until another sibling could come in by air, or until the entire family was able to say goodbye, or so that they could spend one more night at the bedside---no, they wanted to watch LOST.

:frustrated:

[knitter4democracy]

45. That is the exact reason I left early after having our son.

I had an easy labor for the most part, only one stitch, and I felt great. When my mom brought my daughter in to see her new little brother and me, it was crazy. She was two, and the room wasn't childproofed and safe, even though it was a birthing center. As soon as I could grab the doctor covering for my midwife to do the peds check, I was out of there.

When I had my kidney surgery in 2006, we limited the time the kids were in with me and made sure we had two adults there, one per kid. The kids walked with me and gave me hugs and such, but there was a waiting area with some kids's stuff that they spent more time in so Hubby could talk with my nurse or whatever. We deliberately kept them occupied and off the floor and such. Heck, I was creeped out by all the stuff that wasn't washed every day and constantly used the hand sanitizer myself as a patient.