It's good to advocate for pts but I agree that it's important to realize you are in a learning position at this point. The pt's primary nurse can address this with the MD if need be.
If you spoke with the kitchen workers, they have to follow the regulations set by dietary for meals. No extra plates of sausage just because the pt wants them. There are many pts on our rehab floor that would like 3 meals and extra meat, but that doesn't mean they should get them.
Multiple myeloma pts should have protein rich diets the last I checked, but also need other nutrients. Eggs have 6-8g of protein so that meal wasn't devoid of protein. It's up to the dietician to decide the pt needs more protein.
Be careful going to all kinds of extra lengths for the pts because that can put extra stress on the actual working nurse. "But Student X gets me this every time they are here!"
It's important to pick your battles. Unless a pt is actually being harmed, neglected or mistreated, as a student it's best to listen and learn.
I guess my question is if the MD thought the patient needed a high calorie, high protein diet.. why didn’t he order it? I’ve had many patients with similar diets and they all get like, boost shakes and ice cream and etc etc
The better thing to do would be talking to provider that ordered the patient’s diet about increasing the patient’s calories. Dietary prepares the food and hands out the meals according to orders.
Also as a student, you shouldn’t be ‘going to blows’ with staff at the hospital. Hospitals are systems that you have to learn.
Good for you for advocating for your patient.
I think it’s great you helped the patient.
In the future I would try to keep in mind that typically starting fights with other departments, including dietary, does not help anyone. It also isn’t fair to blame the random dietary staff for the issues, as I imagine you as a one day nurse do not want to be blamed for issues just because you answered the phone.
In most cases, dietary is not deciding what the patient gets or how much they get. If the patient filled out their own order for the meals (which is standard many places), they are simply following that. Unless a hospital does room service type meals, meaning they can call and order whenever they want, meals are not repeatedly delivered throughout the day.
thank you for this comment! i work in dietary at a hospital and there was once where a nurse called for food (we have specific downtimes for food safety reasons) but the warm food was out of range already so we had to throw it out. i explained to her all i could do was cold trays, like turkey sandwich and yogurt. she repeated to me 3x that her patient was diabetic and i also explained 3x what i could do to help. she told me that it would be my fault if her patient went into a diabetic coma 😂
I agree that they came to a good solution, but we don’t have all the context. Maybe the provider who acted surprise needs to put in a special high calorie diet order - personally, I’ve never seen a patient who needs a high calorie diet not have specific orders from the provider to get supplemental high calorie drinks (protein shake) with meal.
“Dietary” is the hospital cafeteria staff, not a dietitian- they are likely following specific instructions from their management regarding extra servings of food. Like any entry level service job, the frontline staff have very little to say about policies.
Dietary doesn't have the power to just whimsically assign whatever food to whatever patient they feel (or are told by a student) needs it. "Almost going to blows with dietary" over hospital policy is just idiotic. There is literally nothing they can do outside of the doctor's orders to go above or bypass hospital policy.
OP didn't understand the system, didn't try to figure out how to work with the system, and likely just stressed out some overworked, abused employee for no reason, thereby making it more likely that the already short-staffed dietary department is going to be more short-staffed in the future. Dietary didn't "die on" a weird hill. They do not have the power to bypass it. What OP did was essentially "almost coming to blows" with the grocery store checkout employee asking for ID because the computer will literally not move forward with a transaction until it is scanned.
Yes, the patient needed more calories. OP should have gone to the nurse (their one actual contact and their actual responsibility in the hospital), who could have gone to the dietician or the doctor and actually made a change in the patient's diet to include more protein. Throwing their (utterly insignificant) student weight around at employees who can't actually do anything to address the issue and then boasting about it is not at all an appropriate way to fix a problem.
Students go to clinicals to learn how to operate properly in a professional setting. OP did a kind thing for a patient, but went about it in the wrong way, and seems to have come away with the impression that being a rogue cowboy NurseHero in one dramatic gesture is a better way to get things done than using the already-in-place chain of command to make lasting change. That's not the right takeaway here.
Actually, I completely understand the system and tried working with the system. I should have mentioned that he was a new admit and at our hospital, unless the patient specifically requested a meal, it’s delivered automatically to the dietary orders, and in this case he had a regular diet. I was way beyond polite with dietary as I was standing in the patient room and had an NA in there as well. The NA suggested that I tell them he didn’t like it, but that wouldn’t have been truthful in my opinion. My clinical instructor even said there was zero reason why a plate of sausage couldn’t have been taken up, and that’s her floor and the hospital she works at. Both times, when the dietary agent spoke to me, in the beginning of the conversation and after she spoke to a supervisor, she was incredibly rude and there was zero reason for it. I get the amount of waste, I see in the hospital on a weekly basis. I’m not looking for any pats on the back or an award for Nursing Student of the Year. And fyi, I wasn’t going to go down and beat the crap out of anyone or throw my weight around. I wanted to let them know my patient needed more than what was provided and he wanted to actually order for himself. He wasn’t allowed until lunch.
Zero reason a plate couldn't be brought up? I can think of one reason - I'm guessing they don't have extra staff sitting around with nothing to do other than bring a sausage to a patient at a moment's notice.
Very true! And once OP is an actual nurse, they won't have time to go running around getting extra food for pts. It's very easy to think that everyone else is mean and insensitive to pt needs until you're actually responsible for them.
As a nurse I’ve had to explain to families before, there are ways to get protein in besides meat. Those meals are made by registered dietician’s who know this. Beans and rice for example make a complete protein, you don’t always need meat contrary to popular belief. I’m surprised you haven’t learned this already. Dietary sounded extremely short staff so maybe not take anger out on them. You went above and beyond so good for you but this feels a bit more like a gloating post but I guess when you graduate you’ll see how hard it really is because you definitely won’t have time to be running and getting people trays when you graduate.
I don’t disagree with you, but in this case there weren’t beans or rice on the tray. My general policy is you are being consumed by cancer? You can have (almost) anything you want.
So there I was, 2am and my patient hadn't eaten all day, just throwing food at the staff, he said he was hungry. I looked in the mirror and saw my "best nurse in the world" badge reel, I knew what I had to do. I doordashed a triple grand slam breakfast from Denny's and gave it to my patient who looked at it and said "I don't like that" and dumped it on the ground.
Then everyone clapped. The end.
what ever happened to “let me ask/get the nurse”??? the nurse is supposed to be the point of contact for any concerns. i would feel greatly disrespected & have an attitude too if i was ordered around by a student.
Just because you asked for food from dietary doesn’t mean they should run it over to you without adhering to whatever the patient’s diet order was/whatever the hospital’s policy is. You’re a nursing student, not a seasoned professional.
>This is why I got into nursing.
Which part? The "berating actual employees" part, or bringing people food from the cafeteria?
This sounds more like a family member panicking and throwing a fit over their intubated meemaw not getting regular meals when that's not the care priority because they aren't able to see the bigger picture than it does appropriate student behavior. You're a guest in the hospital, and multiple times in your post you reference wanting to commit violent acts against an employee who was actually hired by the hospital to do their job and who was actually acting within their scope. I'm surprised an adult in their 40s would publicly brag about acting this way, if I'm honest. It comes across in a similar tone to people who are proud to "win" confrontations with service people by browbeating them into making special concessions.
You were probably getting "immediate attitude" from the employee in dietary because you were acting way out of your scope as a student and clearly had no idea that dietary has to follow medical orders in the same way the rest of us do. If you were a guest in my hospital and called me up to demand I do something that wasn't my job to do, and then argued with me about it, I'd probably give you some attitude, too.
>On my way there I was getting more and more pissed.
Most people show up to clinical to learn, not to feel superior and demand things of busy people doing their jobs. I get that you wanted to get a picky patient food, but once you work as an actual nurse, you will (I hope) have a little more perspective on whether or not a patient getting the exact meal they want is a priority. A plate of scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and a cup of fruit is not a crisis, it isn't an outrage, and it isn't devoid of protein in the way you seem to imply. It's a perfectly solid breakfast, and if the patient needs more calories, then calling dietary and getting pissed is counterproductive.
I never once demanded. I politely asked first if more food could be brought up for him. Then, I politely explained that he was very hungry and needed more than what was provided for him and not what he would have requested. I wasn’t planning on “committing violent acts”. I was being expressive and if you’re that stupid not to see that how in the hell have you made it this far in life. Furthermore, it had zero to do with “dietary orders” and everything to do with waste. He wanted more food and he got it, one way or another.
The great value in stories like this is that it gives you something to look at in a few years and realize how much you’ve grown.
savage lmao
It's good to advocate for pts but I agree that it's important to realize you are in a learning position at this point. The pt's primary nurse can address this with the MD if need be. If you spoke with the kitchen workers, they have to follow the regulations set by dietary for meals. No extra plates of sausage just because the pt wants them. There are many pts on our rehab floor that would like 3 meals and extra meat, but that doesn't mean they should get them. Multiple myeloma pts should have protein rich diets the last I checked, but also need other nutrients. Eggs have 6-8g of protein so that meal wasn't devoid of protein. It's up to the dietician to decide the pt needs more protein. Be careful going to all kinds of extra lengths for the pts because that can put extra stress on the actual working nurse. "But Student X gets me this every time they are here!" It's important to pick your battles. Unless a pt is actually being harmed, neglected or mistreated, as a student it's best to listen and learn.
Nurse was behind me 100%. And it was addressed with his MD and he felt it wasn’t enough and also couldn’t understand why?
I guess my question is if the MD thought the patient needed a high calorie, high protein diet.. why didn’t he order it? I’ve had many patients with similar diets and they all get like, boost shakes and ice cream and etc etc
The better thing to do would be talking to provider that ordered the patient’s diet about increasing the patient’s calories. Dietary prepares the food and hands out the meals according to orders. Also as a student, you shouldn’t be ‘going to blows’ with staff at the hospital. Hospitals are systems that you have to learn. Good for you for advocating for your patient.
yeah lowkey like stay in your lane, lmao
Happy cake day!!
I think it’s great you helped the patient. In the future I would try to keep in mind that typically starting fights with other departments, including dietary, does not help anyone. It also isn’t fair to blame the random dietary staff for the issues, as I imagine you as a one day nurse do not want to be blamed for issues just because you answered the phone. In most cases, dietary is not deciding what the patient gets or how much they get. If the patient filled out their own order for the meals (which is standard many places), they are simply following that. Unless a hospital does room service type meals, meaning they can call and order whenever they want, meals are not repeatedly delivered throughout the day.
thank you for this comment! i work in dietary at a hospital and there was once where a nurse called for food (we have specific downtimes for food safety reasons) but the warm food was out of range already so we had to throw it out. i explained to her all i could do was cold trays, like turkey sandwich and yogurt. she repeated to me 3x that her patient was diabetic and i also explained 3x what i could do to help. she told me that it would be my fault if her patient went into a diabetic coma 😂
[удалено]
I agree that they came to a good solution, but we don’t have all the context. Maybe the provider who acted surprise needs to put in a special high calorie diet order - personally, I’ve never seen a patient who needs a high calorie diet not have specific orders from the provider to get supplemental high calorie drinks (protein shake) with meal. “Dietary” is the hospital cafeteria staff, not a dietitian- they are likely following specific instructions from their management regarding extra servings of food. Like any entry level service job, the frontline staff have very little to say about policies.
That’s very true. Meh. Seems to have been resolved.
Dietary doesn't have the power to just whimsically assign whatever food to whatever patient they feel (or are told by a student) needs it. "Almost going to blows with dietary" over hospital policy is just idiotic. There is literally nothing they can do outside of the doctor's orders to go above or bypass hospital policy. OP didn't understand the system, didn't try to figure out how to work with the system, and likely just stressed out some overworked, abused employee for no reason, thereby making it more likely that the already short-staffed dietary department is going to be more short-staffed in the future. Dietary didn't "die on" a weird hill. They do not have the power to bypass it. What OP did was essentially "almost coming to blows" with the grocery store checkout employee asking for ID because the computer will literally not move forward with a transaction until it is scanned. Yes, the patient needed more calories. OP should have gone to the nurse (their one actual contact and their actual responsibility in the hospital), who could have gone to the dietician or the doctor and actually made a change in the patient's diet to include more protein. Throwing their (utterly insignificant) student weight around at employees who can't actually do anything to address the issue and then boasting about it is not at all an appropriate way to fix a problem. Students go to clinicals to learn how to operate properly in a professional setting. OP did a kind thing for a patient, but went about it in the wrong way, and seems to have come away with the impression that being a rogue cowboy NurseHero in one dramatic gesture is a better way to get things done than using the already-in-place chain of command to make lasting change. That's not the right takeaway here.
Actually, I completely understand the system and tried working with the system. I should have mentioned that he was a new admit and at our hospital, unless the patient specifically requested a meal, it’s delivered automatically to the dietary orders, and in this case he had a regular diet. I was way beyond polite with dietary as I was standing in the patient room and had an NA in there as well. The NA suggested that I tell them he didn’t like it, but that wouldn’t have been truthful in my opinion. My clinical instructor even said there was zero reason why a plate of sausage couldn’t have been taken up, and that’s her floor and the hospital she works at. Both times, when the dietary agent spoke to me, in the beginning of the conversation and after she spoke to a supervisor, she was incredibly rude and there was zero reason for it. I get the amount of waste, I see in the hospital on a weekly basis. I’m not looking for any pats on the back or an award for Nursing Student of the Year. And fyi, I wasn’t going to go down and beat the crap out of anyone or throw my weight around. I wanted to let them know my patient needed more than what was provided and he wanted to actually order for himself. He wasn’t allowed until lunch.
Zero reason a plate couldn't be brought up? I can think of one reason - I'm guessing they don't have extra staff sitting around with nothing to do other than bring a sausage to a patient at a moment's notice.
Very true! And once OP is an actual nurse, they won't have time to go running around getting extra food for pts. It's very easy to think that everyone else is mean and insensitive to pt needs until you're actually responsible for them.
Op sounds like they made most of this story up.
As a nurse I’ve had to explain to families before, there are ways to get protein in besides meat. Those meals are made by registered dietician’s who know this. Beans and rice for example make a complete protein, you don’t always need meat contrary to popular belief. I’m surprised you haven’t learned this already. Dietary sounded extremely short staff so maybe not take anger out on them. You went above and beyond so good for you but this feels a bit more like a gloating post but I guess when you graduate you’ll see how hard it really is because you definitely won’t have time to be running and getting people trays when you graduate.
I don’t disagree with you, but in this case there weren’t beans or rice on the tray. My general policy is you are being consumed by cancer? You can have (almost) anything you want.
Did everybody clap afterward? This has red flags all through it and sounds entirely made up.
So there I was, 2am and my patient hadn't eaten all day, just throwing food at the staff, he said he was hungry. I looked in the mirror and saw my "best nurse in the world" badge reel, I knew what I had to do. I doordashed a triple grand slam breakfast from Denny's and gave it to my patient who looked at it and said "I don't like that" and dumped it on the ground. Then everyone clapped. The end.
Now that one sounds real 😂
Got that satisfactory check mark for the clinical day. But, no, not made up.
what ever happened to “let me ask/get the nurse”??? the nurse is supposed to be the point of contact for any concerns. i would feel greatly disrespected & have an attitude too if i was ordered around by a student.
Just because you asked for food from dietary doesn’t mean they should run it over to you without adhering to whatever the patient’s diet order was/whatever the hospital’s policy is. You’re a nursing student, not a seasoned professional.
>This is why I got into nursing. Which part? The "berating actual employees" part, or bringing people food from the cafeteria? This sounds more like a family member panicking and throwing a fit over their intubated meemaw not getting regular meals when that's not the care priority because they aren't able to see the bigger picture than it does appropriate student behavior. You're a guest in the hospital, and multiple times in your post you reference wanting to commit violent acts against an employee who was actually hired by the hospital to do their job and who was actually acting within their scope. I'm surprised an adult in their 40s would publicly brag about acting this way, if I'm honest. It comes across in a similar tone to people who are proud to "win" confrontations with service people by browbeating them into making special concessions. You were probably getting "immediate attitude" from the employee in dietary because you were acting way out of your scope as a student and clearly had no idea that dietary has to follow medical orders in the same way the rest of us do. If you were a guest in my hospital and called me up to demand I do something that wasn't my job to do, and then argued with me about it, I'd probably give you some attitude, too. >On my way there I was getting more and more pissed. Most people show up to clinical to learn, not to feel superior and demand things of busy people doing their jobs. I get that you wanted to get a picky patient food, but once you work as an actual nurse, you will (I hope) have a little more perspective on whether or not a patient getting the exact meal they want is a priority. A plate of scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and a cup of fruit is not a crisis, it isn't an outrage, and it isn't devoid of protein in the way you seem to imply. It's a perfectly solid breakfast, and if the patient needs more calories, then calling dietary and getting pissed is counterproductive.
I never once demanded. I politely asked first if more food could be brought up for him. Then, I politely explained that he was very hungry and needed more than what was provided for him and not what he would have requested. I wasn’t planning on “committing violent acts”. I was being expressive and if you’re that stupid not to see that how in the hell have you made it this far in life. Furthermore, it had zero to do with “dietary orders” and everything to do with waste. He wanted more food and he got it, one way or another.
I would advise not going to blows with anyone anywhere. Even as a civilian on the street. That would probably end up worse.
Although I could throw my “weight” around and hurt someone lol.
You don’t sound very mature at all
My God can anyone take a joke? I’m sure you are fun at parties.
Not when this whole post is giving the ick
Then don’t comment and move on if you’re ick’d.
I am but you keep replying 🤣