My Job
I was telling the daughter of a patient in the Intensive Care Unit that I was going to be checking on her mother every hour. She was not happy to hear that. “When is she going to get any sleep?” Excuse me??? You mother is in the ICU. She is on a ventilator and you are worried about when is she going to get any sleep. Are you serious? I thought that she was going to be happy that her mother was going to be checked on frequently. Boy, was I wrong.
I explained to her that I was not going to disturb her mother every hour. Just that I had to check her urine output (since her UO had been running low) and I was going to check her ventilator settings every hour. I explained that I will try not to disturb her mother.
The daughters response was, “I was in the ICU last week”. What does that even mean? You were a patient in the ICU. Or that you were with your mother in the ICU and the RN did not check on your mother every hour?
The charge nurse told me that the common response is that patients don’t get any sleep in the ICU and the daughter should know that she can’t be controlling the environment of the ICU. The charge RN asked me if she should speak to the patient. I told her no. I told her that if the daughter gives me problems again, then she can speak to her. Otherwise, I will deal with it. As a nurse, I am used to angry family members.
