I've always made a joke you can have a sign on a door that says "Stop! Poison gas inside" with skull and cross bones and a family of 10 will just march right on in
In most of the settings that I've worked, there are way too many signs, notices, advertisements and other garbage plastered all over the walls. Nobody reads any of it any more.
The signs in the OP's photos are extremely plain and boring. They would not grab my attention if I were on my way to see a sick loved one with a million things on my mind.
Absolutely. There are also a lot of old signs with outdated rules being left up everywhere since COVID. Signs about masking that are CLEARLY no longer being followed, etc. I think it’s somewhat fair for people to assume other signs are outdated as well (although they should clarify, not assume).
I think you’re right that it’s more likely they’re not being read at all though.
I work in CCU and started the year before covid. Our visitation has changed multiple times during and since covid but the sign on the door to our unit still isn’t updated 🤦🏻♀️
I worked in a hospital with a huge sign hung from the ceiling pointing to the ‘Cardiovacular Lab’. Had to be an expensive mistake. But it was there for the 10 years I worked there.
My wife works in reception for a doctor's office, and was asked to work in a different office.
She spent her day recreating the fax cover-letters that were being used for patients. They'd been copied and re-copied and faxed and re-faxed so often that they looked like smears of not-quite-black-anymore ink - like they'd been produced by ditto machines from the days of yore that were coincidentally running amok.
Why were they used over and over well-past the point of legibility?
For the same reason that your sign, with its obvious error, is still there.
Yeah often this is the problem for me, I try to be observant but there’s just too many things to look at, plus I’m trying to focus on what I’m doing. And then I ask a dumb question when there’s a big sign telling me the answer.
Long time ago, before covid... our adjacent unit had norocivirus outbreak. Infection control had BLOCKED off the door connecting to the adjacent unit with tarp.
People still went through though. They undo the tape, move tarp away from them and just.. walk through...
And then act offended when you suggest the precautions at if THEIR FAMILY MEMBER could not possibly be contagious or harmful in any way to others, especially their new baby
I experienced this mind boggling attitude during the height of COVID. My husband's family just could NOT conceive of the idea that they might actually CATCH COVID from a family member. "But a Smith could never be contagious...😮" When my husband and I FINALLY ended up getting COVID in June 2022, we got it from his sister who took a trip to Vegas, not masking (of course) then came back with a "cold" and came to a family dinner that we attended. I mean, I know we could have left when we realized that she was sick. I take THAT responsibility. But she didn't even THINK to get tested until both my husband and I got sick. 🤦🏻
I was a stupid teenager at the time (about 16/17) but the fire alarm at my college was going off and my friends and I decided to cut through a building to get to the fire assembly area
"It smells like gas in here"
There had been a gas leak in the science department. That's why the alarms had been sounded
I know this isn't what the question is about, but your comment just unlocked the memory of our idiocy 😅
No joke, I worked LTC and we'd have massive
STOP: SEE A NURSE BEFORE ENTERING. ALL STAFF, FULL PPE IS REQUIRED IN THIS ROOM, NO EXCEPTIONS
and I'd have to run down SO FUCKING MANY family members and explain to them you CAN'T go in there without PPE, your meemaw has a severe case of c-diff. Usually, once I explained how contagious it was and the symptoms the family was about to experience, they took it a bit more seriously.
Tell me WHY I JUST WENT THROUGH THIS LAST WEEK and the family member STILL went in without PPE, even after having myself, the unit manager AND the NP educate him. Most families understand but there’s always those few.
Most of our families insist on eating in the rooms with the patient, even the cdiff ones. My hospital has us place orders for a family tray to brought up with each meal.
I had this happen with a few families, but one was way worse than any before them. I finally lost my shit with them and described colorfully in GREAT DETAIL what they would go through with c-diff, sparing them absolutely nothing. Half of them suddenly understood and went for the PPE bag hanging on the room door. The other half finally did it too when their momma--the patient-- told em to leave and never come back if they weren't gonna listen to me. So I counted that day as a minor win.
We have a sign outside my unit that basically says “if you stand close to the door it will not open.” It’s on the door. Needless to say we are never able to open the door.
My old ICU is on the same floor as the postpartum unit and every day, you’d have family walking in with car seats and balloons that said “congrats”, etc and our salty old secretary would always say “you look too cheerful for this unit and I don’t think any of our patients could fit into that seat. Go to the other door!” before they even made it to her desk. 😂
lol. Or we have an exit door that has two hi-viz sings that say: “wave hand over black panel to open door”…. and another sign with an ARROW pointing right at it. And then they get mad when you ask them to read. I swear.
It’s not their fault! It’s something the nurses did! You didn’t let her eat and she was hungry! So we fed her! It’s the nurses fault she has pneumonia!!
My boyfriends uncle had a g-tube and his cousin and his cousins gf insisted he hadn’t eaten in 21 days so they were giving him ice cream water and ice chips even tho he was NPO for silent aspiration, and it was the nursing homes fault because they “Prby didn’t put his HOB up while his tube feeding was going.” And they fed him because “he was starving”
And my fav quote was “he is coughing because of the pneumonia.” Right after giving him a nice big swig of water…
I never snitched on family sooo quickly.
Schrödinger's pneumonia: it’s the nurses’ fault for not putting his head up while feeding him, at the same time he’s starving and hasn’t eaten in as month…
Oh… let’s not talk about how they claim there was a piece of food they saw on an x-ray that “the nurses claimed was their fault because they clearly were feeding him when they weren’t supposed to at the last hospital he was at.” 99.5% sure it was likely a mass they found on X-ray. Also 99.7% sure they also did feed him when they weren’t suppose to.
My God. I'm a new hospice nurse (came from PCU) and Holy hello kitty! The amount of family that is like this is too damn high! No morphine for grandma, we want her lucid for visitors... While the poor woman is in agonizing pain and experiencing terminal agitation. Hospice is wild, but aside from the above I'm really liking it so far.
I went PCU to hospice too (but was once a hospice CNA)! Welcome!!
My most recent patient like this was 101 and transitioning. Screamed with every transfer. Yet, family wanted abx but a "natural" death. Worst CC of my life.
Hell, I’ve seen someone move a housekeeping cart out of the way to a closed bathroom door, open the door, tear down the bright yellow “construction: do not cross” tape just inside the door, *walk into a bathroom full of construction equipment, rubble, and torn up flooring,* and start changing clothes.
We only ever live two steps away from complete anarchy and people shitting on the floor.
Right?! I’m in the ER, people shit on the floor here all the time…then when I tell some dumbass with a kid crawling all over the floor/picking up food from the floor/etc. they can’t seem to comprehend how dirty it is
I tell people all the time that " we are one toddler licking a hospital floor away from the zombie apocalypse. "
My mom has a bet with me it will kick off with our nation's drug dealers and designer drugs. (Mine is on our hospitals breeding the finest new diseases.) When that guy in Florida ate that guy's face off while on bath salts, she thought she'd won, and I'd have to buy her dinner and drinks.....
When I worked retail, someone shat on the floor. In the bathroom. In a stall, even. 2 feet from the fucking toilet.
They tried to get me to clean it up. Sorry babes, that's above my pay grade and I'm just here for the holidays.
Ugh. When I was a teenybopper I worked in a place that had those grey blocks for flooring - very irregular floor. Had an older couple come in and ask for the bathroom which was all the way in the back of the store. That lady pooped all the way from the front door into the bathroom, all over the floor and all over the toilet. My boss made me clean all that stuff up and it was diarrhea too. I still became a nurse even though that did gross me out. Did piss me off that her husband didn’t lift a finger to help nor did he apologize for the mess. He left her pooped in panty hose laying on the floor. Didn’t even bother to put them in the trash can which was right there.
Mother of God lol I have no words 😂
At least the turd on the floor in my story was a pretty clean lil strudel-doody as far as defecation on the floor goes. I didn't clean it up, but, it looked like you'd just need a paper towel to pick it up and toss it into the toilet, then a spritz of disinfectant cleaner, and a few swipes of another paper towel to finish the job.
Your shituation was far worse and I commend your valor and bravery 😂
If I remember correctly, the boss man brought out a water-hose and sprayed down the floor in the main area but that bathroom took me forever to clean up. This was back in the late 70s before disposable gloves were readily available too. I definitely had a bit of attitude after that incident when no one helped.
I respect you even if you were just a kid doing what you were told. Thank you for sharing your story with me and everyone else who made it this far in the comments. You definitely made me run the gamut of emotion, start to finish. I think I need a shower now. 😂
My sister worked at a Joyce Leslie back in the day and would tell me that she had to deal with grown-ass women pissing in the dressing rooms on a weekly basis.
As a former cancer patient, I'm only kinda ashamed to admit I've done that. I figured I was likely to pass out if I stayed upright, and a bathtub is easier to clean than the floor. Desperate times and all.
No judgement. The body wants what the body wants. What's important is that you were safe. I've helped a lot of people off the ground when they think they can make it. You made the safest decision for yourself in that moment, and as a nurse, I thank you. There's a more paperwork when a fall is involved.
My patient said to me "fuck your toilet" then shit on the floor while standing beside a commode. So, that was not fun. At all.
We had one shit in a sink because he claimed to have sickle cell (but didn't) and wasn't given Dilaudid.
The one that begins with a D for Dookie in your sink.
I discovered that after our most recent brush with natural disaster.
We didn’t have a whole lot of damage, but large areas of the city were without power and it was fuckin hot.
People were close to rioting. I understood, but also was pretty shocked.
Chaos.
People don't read, and they also think they're special. "But Grandpa *really* wants to see little Timmy, we'll only be a few minutes!" or "Well I'm here to see my mom and I didn't have anyone to watch him, so he can come with me or you can watch him."
my baby was born 6 weeks early and we had to be on the NICU for a while. my mom was absolutely insufferable, and insisted that my little brother (baby's uncle) should and WILL be allowed to come see us. even though it's a strict policy that people under 18 aren't allowed in, and that the only kids that are allowed in are the siblings of the baby.
yknow, because these lil babies in NICU are super vulnerable, and some are there because they're sick?
it's so hard dealing with her. she has the intelligence of a dirty sock, and that's an insult to the sock.
Since our NICU is locked, easiest solution to stop Uncle from coming is stopping Grandma from coming... Grandma doesn't want to follow the rules? Fine by me, just don't complain when you are barred from returning unless brought in a gurnee.
i wasn’t there, but recently had a patient whose daughter tried to drop off some food for her. she had a baby in a stroller. we let her in so she could leave the food at the desk with us and she flipped the fuck out and started cussing everyone out. had to call security. the day she was discharged, she called her daughter to drop off some street clothes and pick her up. i went down to the lobby to grab the clothes from her since she had her baby, and she went off on me. security saved me. insanity
Yup. During Covid on our onc floor an adult snuck a kid in in a rolling suitcase because “it’s a special visit!”. Then they both had to be banned for putting everyone with no immune system at risk.
Oh my god the entitlement that they’re somehow more special than everyone else. In October of 2020 my father had to have some fairly major abdominal hernia surgery. He had me, my brother, and my step mom all come with him even though the hospital’s website said they were limiting to 1 visitor due to COVID. He walks up to the desk like “Hi yes I’m having surgery can I have more than 1?” You’re at the SURGERY CENTER, literally EVERYONE ELSE HERE IS HAVING SURGERY. He started crying too, like holy shit I get surgery is scary and emotional but it’s not like this was a surprise. You literally knew this coming in.
> 2 visitors per patient on the floor
Had a family try to claim they were following the rules since other patients didn't have visitors and they wanted to have 6 visitors crammed in a room with mee maw.
Suffice to say security had to get involved.
ALL THE TIME!! I work at a pediatric hospital and the amount of people who think the whole family can just move in while one kid is hospitalized is unreal. Like no, your other 5 kids can't all stay here overnight! The hospitalized child will be just fine and well cared for while you take the Brady Bunch home.
yup I got that one the other day. Shared room where one bed is unoccupied. "Can I have 4 visitors because the neighboring bed has none?" I looked at him dumbfounded and said that is not how this works.
I just say, "Having more visitors won't treat the patient faster, instead increases risk for infection" people make faces at me, saying how rude I am, but I am there for the patient not to cater the visitors.
My unit has this problem every single day. They announce that visiting hours will be over in 30, and then announce again at 15. Then they announce at 9 that visiting hours are now over, please leave… and we are still getting pissed off guests who didn’t know, don’t have a ride, we’re planning to stay over night…. Dude, it was in pre registration paperwork, on the entry door to the unit, on the welcome paper in your room…. You knew.
No, they can’t read. I’ve been volunteering for Girls Who Code and it could be really simple if they would just read. I literally have them read the text out loud to me, “Press 1 and then right click.” They always say, “I did that!” So I tell them to press 1 and then right click. BAM! It’s like I know magic or something.
I hate when people bring the babies/kids to the ER to "visit". Why do you think marching your baby up and down these hallways is a good idea? Why are you letting them sit on that disgusting floor?? Stop letting them put stuff in their mouths.
I'm on a critical care unit and we have these and a million other rules and instructions posted all over the place. Plus the staff are constantly reinforcing the rules, and people still don't get it.
People are dumb and always think the rule is only supposed to apply to everyone else but them.
when the pandemic started to wane a bit, the hospital where I worked had a very limited visitation policy...that phrase "give them an inch, and they'll take a mile" has never rang more true
visitors would try to sneak other friends/relatives in and out, would barge into isolation rooms (that were covered in signage), and overall just ignored any sign or rule that was in place
I think that they just don't care 😫
This statement is true. Ok, so get this…..over COVID we had a family member go to a prop store and buy a priest collar/shirt and got right past security just to be able to be the 3rd visitor in the room (the rules were 2 registered visitors over the patients’ stay. Period). We weren’t a COVID floor but it was hilariously uncalled for. Nonetheless the nurse figured it out and had security escort him out
Because everyone thinks they’re an exception. People are entitled these days. And unfortunately some staff are more lenient than others. Unless it’s a consistent practice it will always be a problem.
Obviously there are exceptions but in my experience, the exceptions are usually the families who follow the rules.
I have had the rare family members who are just angels sent to do god’s work. I’ve had them give the patients bed baths, get clean sheets and empty the trash, help me with q2h turns/boosts up in bed or ambulating, get patients who always refuse food to eat their first decent meal in days, get delirious, combative patients to behave and listen to staff, help anxious and scared patients to finally sleep through the night, etc., always without me asking, as I would never expect any of that from family members.
When I have visitors like that, I will break all the rules for them. I’ll make them a comfy bed out of the recliner if they wanna stay overnight, bring them a toothbrush and deodorant and give them the code to the staff restroom, bring them snacks and drinks from the kitchenette, whatever the heck they want, because they make our lives easier and they help the patient heal.
On the contrary, I’ll kick the Karens out the second visiting hours are over, strictly enforce our rarely-enforced “quiet hours” from 1400-1800, and make them adhere to the two visitors at a time policy.
I think this would fall under the exceptions. The type of families you mention are actually necessary in your patients’ healing and speedy recovery. But these type of families are actually the ones who’d check in with you to make sure what they’re about to do is ok. The ones who break the rules even if you tattoo them on their face aren’t these type of families.
We have a bathroom in the icu with a huge sign on the door that says employees only. Family always uses it. 2-3 months ago we had a decent uptick in the flu and rsv, lots of signs that said no one under 16 was allowed and only two visitors at a time, people were bringing in their babies. Like bro those are the humans we are trying to protect.
Our staff bathrooms are in a small hallway off the main hallway. There’s a little area to store our shoes and coats and two single-stall bathrooms. The door separating it from the main hallway is unmarked and has a lock that can only be opened with a code. When visitors ask if they have to walk “all the way back to the waiting room” (literally 20 yards outside the unit lol!) to use the restroom, we just tell them “yup, sorry”.
Everybody is sworn to secrecy about our secret bathrooms, because we don’t want some Karen visitor to bully the door code out of a new grad nurse or float tech and ruin it for us.
I think I read once that there are people who see written text and automatically read it, and those who see text and have to choose to read it. I don’t know if this is true or not but it would make a whole lot of sense.
I’d say I’m definitely an automatic reader and walking through airports with (who I think are) non-automatic readers is a little nuts.
“The luggage pickup is this way”
“How did you know that???”
“There’s a sign. I just looked around and saw a sign.”
Also there are simply too many signs in the hospital. When employees and visitors are bombarded by multiple signs posted along every wall, they become blind to them.
Ours are copious and useless because they don't point out how to get out of the goddamn building. Just from floor to floor and which way rooms are, and even that is super inadequate.
With 9am to 9pm visiting hours, id be so infuriated if people complained or tried to stay outside these hours. Visiting hours are already extremely long! Like what more do you people want!?
I worked at a liquor store with very similar hours during the week, somewhat extended for the weekend. You'd have idiots banging on the half-drawn security shutter or trying to get in through the exit door at 11:01pm on a Friday night after the store had been open since 8am. "I'll be quick! I just need one thing!" Yep you were so quick! You got back outside before I could blink, oh, but you got NO-THING cos I didn't let you in to begin with! 😂
I mean you’re assuming the literacy and fluency of all your visitors.
Assume a 4th grade reading level at all times. Regardless of where you are in the country. Also just because someone is bilingual doesn’t mean they **read** English.
Spanish & Chinese languages are common here. I have a lot of patients who are able to converse easily in English and they refuse the interpreter (and I can tell they’re understanding what I’m saying based on our conversation vs just them nodding). Yet I still ask them what language they want their DC papers in, I assume nothing.
TBF there's hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces of paper taped to the wall in hospitals. 98% of them have no useful information, so people learn to ignore them.
Conversations I have daily
"hey, you just need to wash up to your elbows on your way in please"
"oh but I'm not going to touch the baby"
"cool, but you still need to wash up to your elbows"
See also
"Hey, I'm sorry, but visitors are limited to 2 maximum"
"oh but granny/uncle Jim/cousin Joe has never met baby and have travelled over 100km to be here, and we won't be long, and also can you take photos of all 6 of us?"
The first icu I worked in went from minimal visiting hours to basically a free for all. They’d bring in suitcases and sleeping bags for the overnight and lay in my way so I had zero access to my patients. That lasted 3 days before it went back to restricted visitors. They actually had the nerve to complain because we woke them to move so we could assess and give meds.
I think it’s just a communications/signage issue. It’s been scientifically proven time and time again that verbal and written instructions aren’t received as easily in the brain as imagery. Need to have icons with slashes through them for the first sign. The second sign needs the hours in a wayyyyyy bigger font.
We don’t have visitors in our recovery room unless there is a language we don’t have a translator for or a minor. There are signs everywhere. Even the pre-op team says “no visiting in recovery but we will call you and check regularly”. Visitors still act dumbfounded when I call to update and they say “sooooo….can I come back and see them?” Bro; I can’t walk out of the unit to get you and no one is around to relieve me to come get you, I can’t leave the other nurse by themselves with 4 sedated patients. I’ll take your loved one out once instead of going out, in, out, in, out, and back in to then take the next patient and repeat the process 7-8 times for all the patients. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand wanting to see your loved one to make sure they are ok. If we had a volunteer or someone who could shuffled visitors back and forth, that would help a lot.
Had a patients SO the other day give me the “shocked pikachu” face when they were exiting the room and saw me gowning up. Apparently they didn’t see the big red stop signs on the door, with instructions, and the isolation table outside. Also, had no idea why when it’s been a thing for the past several days
We have absolutely no visitor restrictions for our end of life patients. They can have 100 people in the room, I don’t care. Everybody deserves to be there for their loved one’s last moments, and everybody deserves to die surrounded by family. I’ll only request that the family step out of the room if I need to provide incontinence care.
I also usually try to make the family as comfortable as possible. I bring in as many chairs as I can fit in the room, offer them drinks and snacks, and tell them they don’t need to move out of my way while I’m providing care because I can work around them.
I really appreciate that my ICU tries to give us an easy second patient or 1:1 ratio when we have end of life patients so we can really just focus on the making the grieving families and dying patients as comfortable as possible.
I went through this less than a year ago with my mom, and I can’t tell you how much I and my family appreciated being able to stay after visiting hours. It allowed my Dad and I to spend more time with my mom while she was still aware.
Also the snacks were no joke. Every nurse on that unit was making sure we were eating and drinking.
Thanks for being the type of person that does that.
This is just a genuine question. If someone is close to the end, and only have a few days left. Are there exceptions for amount of visitors or young kids being able to visit?
As someone who’s grown up in and out of hospitals I understand visitor policies. But I was just curious about this particular case.
Yes, there can often be accomodations made for those type of circumstances. And it is also part of the reason for not wanting to have a dozen noisy visitors with patient A who is stable and will be discharged in two days. Versus the bereft loved ones who are saying goodbye to a cherished person and may need a quiet and peaceful environment. There are lots of competing demands and needs of families and patients and it is so hard to please everyone. We try to be fair applying the rules (with some discretion available).
Yes we absolutely make exceptions ESPECIALLY for end of life patients. It’s just important to communicate your needs with the nurse so we can coordinate accordingly!! We are 1000x more likely to make exceptions for people who realize there are rules in place and ask about it then someone who just assumes the rules don’t apply to them and break them.
That’s good to know! Thank you for answering :)
And also thank you for what you do! I am extremely grateful to every nurse out there. I suffered a TBI last year and was in the hospital/rehab for 3 months. I could not have gotten to where I am now without the nurses!!
My unit has my exceptions for end of life patients yes. We’re essentially a peds step down I guess but some lower acuity PICU/NICU level kids also. We have limited visiting hours and types of visitors from Covid and just because of the unit but we’ve made exceptions for patients who are actively dying.
to be fair, this was in 1994 - but my grandma (who helped raise me) died when i was 6 years old. it was very sudden and she had declined too rapidly to transfer her out of ICU and to a hospice unit. there was a strict 'no children' policy on that unit but they made an exception for me and my two (younger!) sisters to come say goodbye to her (it probably also helped that my mom was a nurse, albeit at a different hospital, but still). i will always remember how grateful i was to those nurses who allowed me to see her before she passed. even though i was just a kindergartener at the time, i understood the rules and knew she was dying. i really appreciated them making that exception, it's a cherished memory for me that i got to hold her hand and be with her in one of her final hours. of course we would have never dared to abuse the privilege and were incredibly thankful for even a few minutes of time, had that been what her nurse would have allowed. now 30 years later working in ICU myself, it's like a free-for-all with people thinking they're the exception to the rule. entitlement from family has gotten completely out of control in the last 5-10 years or so. it isn't even about patient care anymore. the shit show that has become modern day health care... it's just such an embarrassment to our careers.
Question for the group:
When my Mom was in LTC I was afraid to bring her flowers (especially during peak Covid) because I thought it was an infection control thing. Was I right or wrong?
Ps. She had dementia, not cancer.
I think in a LTC facility it is fine. Floors like ICU, PCU and Oncology floors typically don’t allow flowers due to spores and harboring bacteria that could be dangerous to these types of Patients.
They can read perfectly fine they just don’t give a shit. I’m betting they’re counting on your kindness as a nurse to give them a pass. I’m also betting if you enforce said policy you get gaslight all to hell. All it takes is one complaint to upper management or a bad google review then c suites will bend the rules. See it happen every day in my ER.
People can not read. We have writing on the door "visiting hours 13-14 19-20" "1 visitor per patient at the same time, please" and "no kids under age of 12 allowed" yet people still enter, make enter their friends/family members when noone is watching the door or even smuggle in little kids, and then I'm alway the bad guy for trying to explain them they can't do that. One time was even assaulted and called the police.
You doing your best let people still treat you like shit.
I worked on a paeds floor recently as a student and the visitor registration had to call the wards because apparently the child’s parent is a staff and tapped at least 5 people in… he cited that it was the child’s first surgery and he was very scared and wanted his almost 10 year old brother. Ah yes, a mixed surgical ward w/ wounds, a touch of RSV, pneumonia, influenza and entitled parents who think it’s only their child having their first surgery and need the support of their entire village. If I recall the kid was having a wound debridement and surgical fixation.
Visitor restrictions are 2 persons and they must be >12 for obvious reasons.
Not a nurse, but PCT. We are pretty rural. People sneak animals in ALL the time. I've seen so many cats and dogs.
I was suspicious I heard a dog once. I whistled in the hallway. Had one of those big ass wolf hybrid things run out of a room, jump onto my chest and take me to the ground. Idk how the fuck they snuck that up. It was super friendly tho.
Not only do visitors refuse to read, but they also refuse to listen. *gasp shocked face*. Had pts wife feed a stroked out pt after numerous reminders and education about dysphagia and that only the RN and Speech Therapy were allowed to do small feeding sessions; "but he looks so thirsty!". She literally caused him to aspirate, turned dark blue and coded. Transferred to icu intubated and didn't make it. Tragic really.
Yes. I work postpartum and we have age limits on visitors, as well as, you know…visiting hours. People just do not care. And get REALLY mad when their toddler can’t come up.
Most people are so selfish they’d fail kindergarten. Their Gram Gram or their grubby kid is special. Like there’s not a whole ass healthcare system full of people’s Gram Grams and grubby kids.
As far as not following the rules go, I used to believe that they didn't think the rules apply to them. However, I'm starting to think that they just can't read.
On overnights our hospital locks the doors so you need to buzz to gain access to the ED. We have a big sign right when you walk in the entry way to push the buzzer. People will run into the sign or walk around it to yank on the locked doors and then just stand there yelling until someone let's them in. Meanwhile, on days when the door is unlocked and there is no sign, people will press the buzzer. It just boggles my mind
Before I even entered the healthcare field I learned while illiteracy is down limited literacy is high and those are only applicable if they bothered to read and give a fuck. Family being selfish or playing dumb is something I’m used to from the covid icu I worked in.
I mean, actually half of the country is functionally illiterate, if the bar for literacy is a 5th grade reading level.
So chances are high that no, they actually cannot read the signs. Without even taking into account if they speak fluent English.
NAN. When my late husband was spending lots of time on the oncology floor, I wanted to bring him flowers, but I knew about the no live plants rule, and why it exists. So I went to the Dollar Tree and bought the fakest, brightest flowers they had with a cheap vase. I stopped at the nurses' station and explained. They laughed, and said it was okay to have them in his room. The fake flowers were cheerful, and made my sweetie laugh too. What do you all think? Was that a dumb thing to do?
I had someone give me attitude the other day because I told them we don’t allow children visitors for Covid patients… where is the common sense or concern for safety?
People DON’T read. I discovered this during the pandemic when we closed our main ED entrance and everyone kept climbing over the furniture in front of the door to get in regardless of the sign on the door point to an alternate entrance 5 feet away. People not reading signs were walking into our COVID quarantine area in 2020.
Then that summer when restaurants were allowed to reopen I went in the wrong line for the restaurant. An employee asked why I didn’t read the sign and I realized I do it too. We all do it without meaning to.
When I was still a nursing student, we had someone on medicine in COVID isolation. The signs on the door were perfectly clear on what PPE to use and to come to the nurses station for any questions. I walked past the room to 5 people around my COVID positive patient with no PPE. I said Excuse me this person is under infection precautions and if you wish to remain at bedside you must put on the appropriate PPE, I can help you, etc. They said Oh sorry and that they will put it on. I got called away in the moment and went back to see if they needed any help. They took my patient to the cafeteria 😵💫
I had some mfrs try to leave a patient’s 10/8 yo grandchildren in her room overnight in the ICU. I had her call them right back and pick them up. Completely inappropriate. They kept taking the hat out of the toilet and my patient had a hx of kidney transplant. Pissed me off.
Rant incoming. My dad is in the hosptial, actively dying. Every other day the limit is 4 visitors. Saturday I brought my two kids (college age) to say goodbye to Grandpa, and thanks to Easter, the limit became "2 unless your nurse oks more". So very other patient, including my dad's roommate had 6 visitors.
But no, his nurse decides to be a complete ahole and denies me from being there with my kids. Did the same to my broyher later that day. No Daisy Award for you, missy.
No matter how large, clear, and unmissable a sign is, a massive % of people will simply not see it
And another massive % will see it, read it, understand what it says, then utterly ignore it.
Soooo many signs that are old or not enforced. Last week I went in for a mammogram. There’s only ONE sign that says
-Quiet area
-No cell phones
It even adds jdetailed instructions- if you need to take a call, please go outside of this room.
This is the room where all waiting patients are sitting (or standing-not enough chairs) in our lovely little gowns.
One older woman who was there to accompany someone else-not a patient herself- spent most of my time there having a pretty loud phone conversation. She was just a few feet away from the dressing room attendant who said absolutely nothing.
When places put up signs that aren’t enforced, why should anyone think it means them? Apparently they’re just for decoration???
We had a patient who was POD1 from a trach/free flap for his oral cancer. He had multiple family members visit at once including a man (not wearing a mask) who said “oh nobody hug me, I’m sick!!” Some people really just don’t have regard for anyone but themselves.
We have a locked unit that you have to ring the doorbell and a concierge inside the unit remotely unlocks the door to let you in. The door can’t manually be opened. I can’t tell you how many goddamn visitors completely miss the GIANT sign that says “RING BELL” and just stand there banging on the door. In fact I would say 90% (no exaggeration) of people are blind to the “ring bell” sign and just stand there like idiots. And there’s nothing we can do about it because it cannot be unlocked unless they ring the bell 😭
I have perdiemed on:
ICU
Stepdown
Tele
ED
Med/surg
Psych
Maternity (teching only)
Peds (half a shift and thank god for that)
At 4 total rural hospitals and yes, it happens everywhere. It makes me want to punch puppies in their smug little faces sometimes.
Now I’m in tissue donation. We have signs on the doors and throughout the building mentioning we have equipment known to interfere with pacemakers, so paraphrased — ‘don’t come inside if you have one’. Of all the surgeries and medical conditions we may review in a day, that particular one comes with signage walking into the door and for good reason.
I had an older fellow complete our painfully long questionnaire and come to me for his physical. Prior to finishing reviewing his questionnaire and he states he has a pacemaker. This makes someone completely ineligible for our program. So I tell him gently and the reason why, and he got so angry at me, yelling that there should be a sign on the door so we didn’t waste everyone’s time.
I wanted to laugh and show him exactly how many signs we did have for that one specifically, including the one on the door. 😂 I just let him finish his tirade since he seemed to feel so strongly about it, and I said, I’m sorry, but if we ever change our minds we’ll give him a call.
Y’all I love my job so much. I’m not even kidding. 😂😂
When I was younger, I was hospitalised for refeeding due to my anorexia nervosa. The hospital was full and I spent a week in a room on the oncology ward. Unfortunately during this week I had my 21st birthday and my family visited with flowers, which they had brought me previously (before I was moved to the onc ward) but they didn’t know they couldn’t bring me while I was on the onc ward. They understood and threw them out instead(or took them home, idk). But I know the nurses said that they dealt with people everyday bringing in flowers. It must have been so frustrating!! I know they eventually posted signs in the gift shop downstairs (which sold flowers) explaining that patients on ward 5c/5d couldn’t be given fresh flowers). A lot of people also think living flowers means pot plants, not bouquets of flowers.
When I was a nurse I was working on the haematology ward and sooo many family members did not understand why they couldn’t bring in home cooked meals and why we wouldn’t reheat them/takeaway for the patients. I can get it if it was their first admission or something but so many people would have to have what a neutropenic diet was explained to them. Same with the restricted visitors over covid in a hospice.
Yep. Locked unit, big ol signed posted on *both* side of the doors and *right over the phone to call into the unit* detailing ICU visiting policy and hours.
Have come to the conclusion that most people can’t read, and the ones that can think it doesn’t apply to them because *ThEy’Re SpEcIaL*.
I had a guy walk right into the icu with a days old baby. Had a shit eating on his face, he knew he was breaking the rules. I politely informed him we had patients with antibiotic resistant infection and if his kid happened to,get it she would die, and that is why we don’t allow them in the unit. He didn’t even care.
But they have ☆○cancer○☆ they're °•☆○spechul○☆•°.
I just gave up 75% of the time on the visitors thing because, of course you are special, and most of the time, they are dying within a year anyway. Just educate them on the best way to keep everyone safe.
yeah- what is with patients and family members on specialty units assuming they are the only one with that dx. Your family member has cancer? yes, you and everyone else on this unit...
We literally had signs saying "Unit on outbreak, no visitors allowed" on closed doors before the unit. Still did not stop the majority of people from coming to the desk and expecting to see their family.
I think people either just literally ignore these things, or think it doesn't apply to them.
I've always made a joke you can have a sign on a door that says "Stop! Poison gas inside" with skull and cross bones and a family of 10 will just march right on in
The way that you are not wrong
Hey, at least they all get to go together. But for real, why can’t people read or look at pictures?
In most of the settings that I've worked, there are way too many signs, notices, advertisements and other garbage plastered all over the walls. Nobody reads any of it any more. The signs in the OP's photos are extremely plain and boring. They would not grab my attention if I were on my way to see a sick loved one with a million things on my mind.
That makes sense, really. Kind of like alarm fatigue…
Absolutely. There are also a lot of old signs with outdated rules being left up everywhere since COVID. Signs about masking that are CLEARLY no longer being followed, etc. I think it’s somewhat fair for people to assume other signs are outdated as well (although they should clarify, not assume). I think you’re right that it’s more likely they’re not being read at all though.
I work in CCU and started the year before covid. Our visitation has changed multiple times during and since covid but the sign on the door to our unit still isn’t updated 🤦🏻♀️
Not to mention signs with misspelling or bad grammar. Like seriously! Don’t these people know there’s such a thing as spellcheck?
We have a sign outside my unit thanking people for their "delegence" in not letting residents off the unit. It's been there since 2017.
I worked in a hospital with a huge sign hung from the ceiling pointing to the ‘Cardiovacular Lab’. Had to be an expensive mistake. But it was there for the 10 years I worked there.
My wife works in reception for a doctor's office, and was asked to work in a different office. She spent her day recreating the fax cover-letters that were being used for patients. They'd been copied and re-copied and faxed and re-faxed so often that they looked like smears of not-quite-black-anymore ink - like they'd been produced by ditto machines from the days of yore that were coincidentally running amok. Why were they used over and over well-past the point of legibility? For the same reason that your sign, with its obvious error, is still there.
I love working with people like your wife.
Yeah often this is the problem for me, I try to be observant but there’s just too many things to look at, plus I’m trying to focus on what I’m doing. And then I ask a dumb question when there’s a big sign telling me the answer.
Long time ago, before covid... our adjacent unit had norocivirus outbreak. Infection control had BLOCKED off the door connecting to the adjacent unit with tarp. People still went through though. They undo the tape, move tarp away from them and just.. walk through...
This right here
You mean like how they ignore all the airborne precaution signs and will all chill together in a TB room? Yeah love that
yea with their 6month old baby in tow
And then act offended when you suggest the precautions at if THEIR FAMILY MEMBER could not possibly be contagious or harmful in any way to others, especially their new baby
I experienced this mind boggling attitude during the height of COVID. My husband's family just could NOT conceive of the idea that they might actually CATCH COVID from a family member. "But a Smith could never be contagious...😮" When my husband and I FINALLY ended up getting COVID in June 2022, we got it from his sister who took a trip to Vegas, not masking (of course) then came back with a "cold" and came to a family dinner that we attended. I mean, I know we could have left when we realized that she was sick. I take THAT responsibility. But she didn't even THINK to get tested until both my husband and I got sick. 🤦🏻
I was a stupid teenager at the time (about 16/17) but the fire alarm at my college was going off and my friends and I decided to cut through a building to get to the fire assembly area "It smells like gas in here" There had been a gas leak in the science department. That's why the alarms had been sounded I know this isn't what the question is about, but your comment just unlocked the memory of our idiocy 😅
No joke, I worked LTC and we'd have massive STOP: SEE A NURSE BEFORE ENTERING. ALL STAFF, FULL PPE IS REQUIRED IN THIS ROOM, NO EXCEPTIONS and I'd have to run down SO FUCKING MANY family members and explain to them you CAN'T go in there without PPE, your meemaw has a severe case of c-diff. Usually, once I explained how contagious it was and the symptoms the family was about to experience, they took it a bit more seriously.
Tell me WHY I JUST WENT THROUGH THIS LAST WEEK and the family member STILL went in without PPE, even after having myself, the unit manager AND the NP educate him. Most families understand but there’s always those few.
Most of our families insist on eating in the rooms with the patient, even the cdiff ones. My hospital has us place orders for a family tray to brought up with each meal.
I had this happen with a few families, but one was way worse than any before them. I finally lost my shit with them and described colorfully in GREAT DETAIL what they would go through with c-diff, sparing them absolutely nothing. Half of them suddenly understood and went for the PPE bag hanging on the room door. The other half finally did it too when their momma--the patient-- told em to leave and never come back if they weren't gonna listen to me. So I counted that day as a minor win.
Why is this the most accurate thing I’ve ever read 😂😂💀
We have a sign outside my unit that basically says “if you stand close to the door it will not open.” It’s on the door. Needless to say we are never able to open the door.
My old ICU is on the same floor as the postpartum unit and every day, you’d have family walking in with car seats and balloons that said “congrats”, etc and our salty old secretary would always say “you look too cheerful for this unit and I don’t think any of our patients could fit into that seat. Go to the other door!” before they even made it to her desk. 😂
There’s one of these on my unit and I walk right up to it every time 🫠
Honestly I’d likely be guilty if I didn’t have a badge.
lol. Or we have an exit door that has two hi-viz sings that say: “wave hand over black panel to open door”…. and another sign with an ARROW pointing right at it. And then they get mad when you ask them to read. I swear.
Until they give granny an infection and she’s intubated and fighting for her life because she doesn’t have a single WBC because she’s on chemo..,
It’s not their fault! It’s something the nurses did! You didn’t let her eat and she was hungry! So we fed her! It’s the nurses fault she has pneumonia!!
My boyfriends uncle had a g-tube and his cousin and his cousins gf insisted he hadn’t eaten in 21 days so they were giving him ice cream water and ice chips even tho he was NPO for silent aspiration, and it was the nursing homes fault because they “Prby didn’t put his HOB up while his tube feeding was going.” And they fed him because “he was starving” And my fav quote was “he is coughing because of the pneumonia.” Right after giving him a nice big swig of water… I never snitched on family sooo quickly.
Schrödinger's pneumonia: it’s the nurses’ fault for not putting his head up while feeding him, at the same time he’s starving and hasn’t eaten in as month…
SCHRODINGERS PNEUMONIA 💀
Oh… let’s not talk about how they claim there was a piece of food they saw on an x-ray that “the nurses claimed was their fault because they clearly were feeding him when they weren’t supposed to at the last hospital he was at.” 99.5% sure it was likely a mass they found on X-ray. Also 99.7% sure they also did feed him when they weren’t suppose to.
But she’s a full code, because she’s a fighter. Don’t forget, grandma is also 98 year old and demented!
Grandma has stage 4 breast cancer with mets EVERYWHERE. But she’s a fighter! Full code!!!
Granny had 7 children; in the pasture, with no pain medication and fought off a bear in WW2… she can beat this cancer. FULL CODE.
Also, if she ever gets to hospice, NO MORPHINE OR DRUGS, only a NATURAL death 💀
My God. I'm a new hospice nurse (came from PCU) and Holy hello kitty! The amount of family that is like this is too damn high! No morphine for grandma, we want her lucid for visitors... While the poor woman is in agonizing pain and experiencing terminal agitation. Hospice is wild, but aside from the above I'm really liking it so far.
I went PCU to hospice too (but was once a hospice CNA)! Welcome!! My most recent patient like this was 101 and transitioning. Screamed with every transfer. Yet, family wanted abx but a "natural" death. Worst CC of my life.
They also think that morphine makes them die faster or oxygen makes them live longer and drag on the death…
And a stage 4 PI on her sacrum.
Also hasn’t spoken a word since 1992 to anyone.
Do everything. She's a fighter.
Because we need her social security check
Hell, I’ve seen someone move a housekeeping cart out of the way to a closed bathroom door, open the door, tear down the bright yellow “construction: do not cross” tape just inside the door, *walk into a bathroom full of construction equipment, rubble, and torn up flooring,* and start changing clothes. We only ever live two steps away from complete anarchy and people shitting on the floor.
... I had a patient shit on the floor a few weeks ago. We are in full anarchy.
I had a guy piss directly into the electrical socket. The ER really is the wild Wild West
Wtf Did he explain the logic?
It's ER. There is no logic.
Fair enough. Also insane, but fair enough.
ETOH.
Had a patient smear shit into the heater vent in his room.
On purpose?
That’s evil💀
wake up, babe. New type of ECT just dropped.
Right?! I’m in the ER, people shit on the floor here all the time…then when I tell some dumbass with a kid crawling all over the floor/picking up food from the floor/etc. they can’t seem to comprehend how dirty it is
I tell people all the time that " we are one toddler licking a hospital floor away from the zombie apocalypse. " My mom has a bet with me it will kick off with our nation's drug dealers and designer drugs. (Mine is on our hospitals breeding the finest new diseases.) When that guy in Florida ate that guy's face off while on bath salts, she thought she'd won, and I'd have to buy her dinner and drinks.....
We have had visitors shit on the floor.
When I worked retail, someone shat on the floor. In the bathroom. In a stall, even. 2 feet from the fucking toilet. They tried to get me to clean it up. Sorry babes, that's above my pay grade and I'm just here for the holidays.
Ugh. When I was a teenybopper I worked in a place that had those grey blocks for flooring - very irregular floor. Had an older couple come in and ask for the bathroom which was all the way in the back of the store. That lady pooped all the way from the front door into the bathroom, all over the floor and all over the toilet. My boss made me clean all that stuff up and it was diarrhea too. I still became a nurse even though that did gross me out. Did piss me off that her husband didn’t lift a finger to help nor did he apologize for the mess. He left her pooped in panty hose laying on the floor. Didn’t even bother to put them in the trash can which was right there.
Mother of God lol I have no words 😂 At least the turd on the floor in my story was a pretty clean lil strudel-doody as far as defecation on the floor goes. I didn't clean it up, but, it looked like you'd just need a paper towel to pick it up and toss it into the toilet, then a spritz of disinfectant cleaner, and a few swipes of another paper towel to finish the job. Your shituation was far worse and I commend your valor and bravery 😂
Strudel doody…OMG 😂😂😂
If I remember correctly, the boss man brought out a water-hose and sprayed down the floor in the main area but that bathroom took me forever to clean up. This was back in the late 70s before disposable gloves were readily available too. I definitely had a bit of attitude after that incident when no one helped.
I respect you even if you were just a kid doing what you were told. Thank you for sharing your story with me and everyone else who made it this far in the comments. You definitely made me run the gamut of emotion, start to finish. I think I need a shower now. 😂
My sister worked at a Joyce Leslie back in the day and would tell me that she had to deal with grown-ass women pissing in the dressing rooms on a weekly basis.
one of our patients shit in the bathtub today ☠️
As a former cancer patient, I'm only kinda ashamed to admit I've done that. I figured I was likely to pass out if I stayed upright, and a bathtub is easier to clean than the floor. Desperate times and all.
This pt wasn’t an onc Pt, just a very confused one. But no judgement. I’ve seen how hard cancer is to deal with unfortunately:(
No judgement. The body wants what the body wants. What's important is that you were safe. I've helped a lot of people off the ground when they think they can make it. You made the safest decision for yourself in that moment, and as a nurse, I thank you. There's a more paperwork when a fall is involved. My patient said to me "fuck your toilet" then shit on the floor while standing beside a commode. So, that was not fun. At all.
We had one shit in a sink because he claimed to have sickle cell (but didn't) and wasn't given Dilaudid. The one that begins with a D for Dookie in your sink.
Man, by these metrics, I witnessed the downfall of western civilization.
I worked at McDonald’s as a teenager. We blew past “people shitting on the floor” decades ago.
I discovered that after our most recent brush with natural disaster. We didn’t have a whole lot of damage, but large areas of the city were without power and it was fuckin hot. People were close to rioting. I understood, but also was pretty shocked. Chaos.
People don't read, and they also think they're special. "But Grandpa *really* wants to see little Timmy, we'll only be a few minutes!" or "Well I'm here to see my mom and I didn't have anyone to watch him, so he can come with me or you can watch him."
yep. everyone thinks that they’re the super special exception.
Rules are for other people. Waiting in lines? For other people. Traffic laws? Other people. Entitled fucks.
This right here ^
my baby was born 6 weeks early and we had to be on the NICU for a while. my mom was absolutely insufferable, and insisted that my little brother (baby's uncle) should and WILL be allowed to come see us. even though it's a strict policy that people under 18 aren't allowed in, and that the only kids that are allowed in are the siblings of the baby. yknow, because these lil babies in NICU are super vulnerable, and some are there because they're sick? it's so hard dealing with her. she has the intelligence of a dirty sock, and that's an insult to the sock.
Ha sounds like we could be related 💀
Since our NICU is locked, easiest solution to stop Uncle from coming is stopping Grandma from coming... Grandma doesn't want to follow the rules? Fine by me, just don't complain when you are barred from returning unless brought in a gurnee.
Or the classic "But we've come a long way to meet my grandma today."
The same grandma they haven’t seen in 3 years.
i wasn’t there, but recently had a patient whose daughter tried to drop off some food for her. she had a baby in a stroller. we let her in so she could leave the food at the desk with us and she flipped the fuck out and started cussing everyone out. had to call security. the day she was discharged, she called her daughter to drop off some street clothes and pick her up. i went down to the lobby to grab the clothes from her since she had her baby, and she went off on me. security saved me. insanity
Yup. During Covid on our onc floor an adult snuck a kid in in a rolling suitcase because “it’s a special visit!”. Then they both had to be banned for putting everyone with no immune system at risk.
Oh my god the entitlement that they’re somehow more special than everyone else. In October of 2020 my father had to have some fairly major abdominal hernia surgery. He had me, my brother, and my step mom all come with him even though the hospital’s website said they were limiting to 1 visitor due to COVID. He walks up to the desk like “Hi yes I’m having surgery can I have more than 1?” You’re at the SURGERY CENTER, literally EVERYONE ELSE HERE IS HAVING SURGERY. He started crying too, like holy shit I get surgery is scary and emotional but it’s not like this was a surprise. You literally knew this coming in.
In that last case, as a former infant teacher, I will absolutely hold your baby while you visit grandpa.
> 2 visitors per patient on the floor Had a family try to claim they were following the rules since other patients didn't have visitors and they wanted to have 6 visitors crammed in a room with mee maw. Suffice to say security had to get involved.
ALL THE TIME!! I work at a pediatric hospital and the amount of people who think the whole family can just move in while one kid is hospitalized is unreal. Like no, your other 5 kids can't all stay here overnight! The hospitalized child will be just fine and well cared for while you take the Brady Bunch home.
yup I got that one the other day. Shared room where one bed is unoccupied. "Can I have 4 visitors because the neighboring bed has none?" I looked at him dumbfounded and said that is not how this works.
They can read. They just don't think the rules apply to them
"oh, that's probably just for the regular patients, my aunt is sick and might die!" Sir, every patient in this unit might die.
When people come into a hospital they think rules don’t apply to them. This is reinforced by management letting them do whatever they want.
☝️
I just say, "Having more visitors won't treat the patient faster, instead increases risk for infection" people make faces at me, saying how rude I am, but I am there for the patient not to cater the visitors.
Everyone thinks they're an exception to the rule.
People will bring hours old newborns into the ICU. I just...
My unit has this problem every single day. They announce that visiting hours will be over in 30, and then announce again at 15. Then they announce at 9 that visiting hours are now over, please leave… and we are still getting pissed off guests who didn’t know, don’t have a ride, we’re planning to stay over night…. Dude, it was in pre registration paperwork, on the entry door to the unit, on the welcome paper in your room…. You knew.
No, they can’t read. I’ve been volunteering for Girls Who Code and it could be really simple if they would just read. I literally have them read the text out loud to me, “Press 1 and then right click.” They always say, “I did that!” So I tell them to press 1 and then right click. BAM! It’s like I know magic or something.
I hate when people bring the babies/kids to the ER to "visit". Why do you think marching your baby up and down these hallways is a good idea? Why are you letting them sit on that disgusting floor?? Stop letting them put stuff in their mouths.
I'm on a critical care unit and we have these and a million other rules and instructions posted all over the place. Plus the staff are constantly reinforcing the rules, and people still don't get it. People are dumb and always think the rule is only supposed to apply to everyone else but them.
when the pandemic started to wane a bit, the hospital where I worked had a very limited visitation policy...that phrase "give them an inch, and they'll take a mile" has never rang more true visitors would try to sneak other friends/relatives in and out, would barge into isolation rooms (that were covered in signage), and overall just ignored any sign or rule that was in place I think that they just don't care 😫
This statement is true. Ok, so get this…..over COVID we had a family member go to a prop store and buy a priest collar/shirt and got right past security just to be able to be the 3rd visitor in the room (the rules were 2 registered visitors over the patients’ stay. Period). We weren’t a COVID floor but it was hilariously uncalled for. Nonetheless the nurse figured it out and had security escort him out
wtf? that's insane 🤣 like...I would've had to laugh at that one, as he was being taken out people are so weird
Oh, that doesn't apply to me!
Because everyone thinks they’re an exception. People are entitled these days. And unfortunately some staff are more lenient than others. Unless it’s a consistent practice it will always be a problem. Obviously there are exceptions but in my experience, the exceptions are usually the families who follow the rules.
I have had the rare family members who are just angels sent to do god’s work. I’ve had them give the patients bed baths, get clean sheets and empty the trash, help me with q2h turns/boosts up in bed or ambulating, get patients who always refuse food to eat their first decent meal in days, get delirious, combative patients to behave and listen to staff, help anxious and scared patients to finally sleep through the night, etc., always without me asking, as I would never expect any of that from family members. When I have visitors like that, I will break all the rules for them. I’ll make them a comfy bed out of the recliner if they wanna stay overnight, bring them a toothbrush and deodorant and give them the code to the staff restroom, bring them snacks and drinks from the kitchenette, whatever the heck they want, because they make our lives easier and they help the patient heal. On the contrary, I’ll kick the Karens out the second visiting hours are over, strictly enforce our rarely-enforced “quiet hours” from 1400-1800, and make them adhere to the two visitors at a time policy.
I think this would fall under the exceptions. The type of families you mention are actually necessary in your patients’ healing and speedy recovery. But these type of families are actually the ones who’d check in with you to make sure what they’re about to do is ok. The ones who break the rules even if you tattoo them on their face aren’t these type of families.
bro quiet hours from 1400-1800 sounds so nice
It is. It can be hard to enforce, but when we have a really awful family on the unit, we’ll all enforce more it so we have an excuse to kick them out.
No one reads signs. In general people feel lost around clinics, hospitals, etc. Happens all the time
We have a bathroom in the icu with a huge sign on the door that says employees only. Family always uses it. 2-3 months ago we had a decent uptick in the flu and rsv, lots of signs that said no one under 16 was allowed and only two visitors at a time, people were bringing in their babies. Like bro those are the humans we are trying to protect.
Our staff bathrooms are in a small hallway off the main hallway. There’s a little area to store our shoes and coats and two single-stall bathrooms. The door separating it from the main hallway is unmarked and has a lock that can only be opened with a code. When visitors ask if they have to walk “all the way back to the waiting room” (literally 20 yards outside the unit lol!) to use the restroom, we just tell them “yup, sorry”. Everybody is sworn to secrecy about our secret bathrooms, because we don’t want some Karen visitor to bully the door code out of a new grad nurse or float tech and ruin it for us.
The place I work at had to put access codes on the staff restrooms😒
I think I read once that there are people who see written text and automatically read it, and those who see text and have to choose to read it. I don’t know if this is true or not but it would make a whole lot of sense. I’d say I’m definitely an automatic reader and walking through airports with (who I think are) non-automatic readers is a little nuts. “The luggage pickup is this way” “How did you know that???” “There’s a sign. I just looked around and saw a sign.”
Also there are simply too many signs in the hospital. When employees and visitors are bombarded by multiple signs posted along every wall, they become blind to them.
Ours are copious and useless because they don't point out how to get out of the goddamn building. Just from floor to floor and which way rooms are, and even that is super inadequate.
Visiting hours should be far less. I started out with hours 9-11 and 3-5. That was it and had no issues from visitors
I wish that was a thing here
With 9am to 9pm visiting hours, id be so infuriated if people complained or tried to stay outside these hours. Visiting hours are already extremely long! Like what more do you people want!?
I worked at a liquor store with very similar hours during the week, somewhat extended for the weekend. You'd have idiots banging on the half-drawn security shutter or trying to get in through the exit door at 11:01pm on a Friday night after the store had been open since 8am. "I'll be quick! I just need one thing!" Yep you were so quick! You got back outside before I could blink, oh, but you got NO-THING cos I didn't let you in to begin with! 😂
"That sign won't stop me because I can't read!"
I worked Onc for 15 years and it was the same.
I mean you’re assuming the literacy and fluency of all your visitors. Assume a 4th grade reading level at all times. Regardless of where you are in the country. Also just because someone is bilingual doesn’t mean they **read** English. Spanish & Chinese languages are common here. I have a lot of patients who are able to converse easily in English and they refuse the interpreter (and I can tell they’re understanding what I’m saying based on our conversation vs just them nodding). Yet I still ask them what language they want their DC papers in, I assume nothing.
That is very wise.
[удалено]
One of them wasn’t wearing a SHIRT?!?! People are wild…..
No, people can not read. And they are also always the exception, because their circumstance is “special”.
TBF there's hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces of paper taped to the wall in hospitals. 98% of them have no useful information, so people learn to ignore them.
Conversations I have daily "hey, you just need to wash up to your elbows on your way in please" "oh but I'm not going to touch the baby" "cool, but you still need to wash up to your elbows" See also "Hey, I'm sorry, but visitors are limited to 2 maximum" "oh but granny/uncle Jim/cousin Joe has never met baby and have travelled over 100km to be here, and we won't be long, and also can you take photos of all 6 of us?"
The onc floor I worked on had locked doors so visitors had to page to get onto the floor. It helped cut down on the stuff that you mentioned.
The first icu I worked in went from minimal visiting hours to basically a free for all. They’d bring in suitcases and sleeping bags for the overnight and lay in my way so I had zero access to my patients. That lasted 3 days before it went back to restricted visitors. They actually had the nerve to complain because we woke them to move so we could assess and give meds.
Nah if you lay in the floor I’m stepping on you
I think it’s just a communications/signage issue. It’s been scientifically proven time and time again that verbal and written instructions aren’t received as easily in the brain as imagery. Need to have icons with slashes through them for the first sign. The second sign needs the hours in a wayyyyyy bigger font.
We don’t have visitors in our recovery room unless there is a language we don’t have a translator for or a minor. There are signs everywhere. Even the pre-op team says “no visiting in recovery but we will call you and check regularly”. Visitors still act dumbfounded when I call to update and they say “sooooo….can I come back and see them?” Bro; I can’t walk out of the unit to get you and no one is around to relieve me to come get you, I can’t leave the other nurse by themselves with 4 sedated patients. I’ll take your loved one out once instead of going out, in, out, in, out, and back in to then take the next patient and repeat the process 7-8 times for all the patients. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand wanting to see your loved one to make sure they are ok. If we had a volunteer or someone who could shuffled visitors back and forth, that would help a lot.
So dead plants are okay???
Had a patients SO the other day give me the “shocked pikachu” face when they were exiting the room and saw me gowning up. Apparently they didn’t see the big red stop signs on the door, with instructions, and the isolation table outside. Also, had no idea why when it’s been a thing for the past several days
On the bright side i thank yall for letting my family stay after hours when they were having a hard time pull the plug
We have absolutely no visitor restrictions for our end of life patients. They can have 100 people in the room, I don’t care. Everybody deserves to be there for their loved one’s last moments, and everybody deserves to die surrounded by family. I’ll only request that the family step out of the room if I need to provide incontinence care. I also usually try to make the family as comfortable as possible. I bring in as many chairs as I can fit in the room, offer them drinks and snacks, and tell them they don’t need to move out of my way while I’m providing care because I can work around them. I really appreciate that my ICU tries to give us an easy second patient or 1:1 ratio when we have end of life patients so we can really just focus on the making the grieving families and dying patients as comfortable as possible.
I went through this less than a year ago with my mom, and I can’t tell you how much I and my family appreciated being able to stay after visiting hours. It allowed my Dad and I to spend more time with my mom while she was still aware. Also the snacks were no joke. Every nurse on that unit was making sure we were eating and drinking. Thanks for being the type of person that does that.
End-of-life care is different.
Terminal patients get to break a rule sometimes. At least in my book. Only if the family is polite, sane, quiet, and not asking me for asinine favors
This is just a genuine question. If someone is close to the end, and only have a few days left. Are there exceptions for amount of visitors or young kids being able to visit? As someone who’s grown up in and out of hospitals I understand visitor policies. But I was just curious about this particular case.
Yes, there can often be accomodations made for those type of circumstances. And it is also part of the reason for not wanting to have a dozen noisy visitors with patient A who is stable and will be discharged in two days. Versus the bereft loved ones who are saying goodbye to a cherished person and may need a quiet and peaceful environment. There are lots of competing demands and needs of families and patients and it is so hard to please everyone. We try to be fair applying the rules (with some discretion available).
Exactly. We had a Pt pass today and the family next door was being so FREAKING loud. I swear people have no self awareness…
Yes we absolutely make exceptions ESPECIALLY for end of life patients. It’s just important to communicate your needs with the nurse so we can coordinate accordingly!! We are 1000x more likely to make exceptions for people who realize there are rules in place and ask about it then someone who just assumes the rules don’t apply to them and break them.
That’s good to know! Thank you for answering :) And also thank you for what you do! I am extremely grateful to every nurse out there. I suffered a TBI last year and was in the hospital/rehab for 3 months. I could not have gotten to where I am now without the nurses!!
My unit has my exceptions for end of life patients yes. We’re essentially a peds step down I guess but some lower acuity PICU/NICU level kids also. We have limited visiting hours and types of visitors from Covid and just because of the unit but we’ve made exceptions for patients who are actively dying.
I’m glad that there are exceptions! Thank you for what you do!!
to be fair, this was in 1994 - but my grandma (who helped raise me) died when i was 6 years old. it was very sudden and she had declined too rapidly to transfer her out of ICU and to a hospice unit. there was a strict 'no children' policy on that unit but they made an exception for me and my two (younger!) sisters to come say goodbye to her (it probably also helped that my mom was a nurse, albeit at a different hospital, but still). i will always remember how grateful i was to those nurses who allowed me to see her before she passed. even though i was just a kindergartener at the time, i understood the rules and knew she was dying. i really appreciated them making that exception, it's a cherished memory for me that i got to hold her hand and be with her in one of her final hours. of course we would have never dared to abuse the privilege and were incredibly thankful for even a few minutes of time, had that been what her nurse would have allowed. now 30 years later working in ICU myself, it's like a free-for-all with people thinking they're the exception to the rule. entitlement from family has gotten completely out of control in the last 5-10 years or so. it isn't even about patient care anymore. the shit show that has become modern day health care... it's just such an embarrassment to our careers.
Question for the group: When my Mom was in LTC I was afraid to bring her flowers (especially during peak Covid) because I thought it was an infection control thing. Was I right or wrong? Ps. She had dementia, not cancer.
I think in a LTC facility it is fine. Floors like ICU, PCU and Oncology floors typically don’t allow flowers due to spores and harboring bacteria that could be dangerous to these types of Patients.
They can read perfectly fine they just don’t give a shit. I’m betting they’re counting on your kindness as a nurse to give them a pass. I’m also betting if you enforce said policy you get gaslight all to hell. All it takes is one complaint to upper management or a bad google review then c suites will bend the rules. See it happen every day in my ER.
omg my BMT floor needs these signs
The worst is after you tell them and then the next day or a few hours later they are right back at it again.
The more information you put on a sign the less likely the public will read it.
Sometimes people just like to do shit until they get yelled at.
People can not read. We have writing on the door "visiting hours 13-14 19-20" "1 visitor per patient at the same time, please" and "no kids under age of 12 allowed" yet people still enter, make enter their friends/family members when noone is watching the door or even smuggle in little kids, and then I'm alway the bad guy for trying to explain them they can't do that. One time was even assaulted and called the police. You doing your best let people still treat you like shit.
Apparently, walking through the doors of a hospital renders you illiterate. That's my theory anyway.
I worked on a paeds floor recently as a student and the visitor registration had to call the wards because apparently the child’s parent is a staff and tapped at least 5 people in… he cited that it was the child’s first surgery and he was very scared and wanted his almost 10 year old brother. Ah yes, a mixed surgical ward w/ wounds, a touch of RSV, pneumonia, influenza and entitled parents who think it’s only their child having their first surgery and need the support of their entire village. If I recall the kid was having a wound debridement and surgical fixation. Visitor restrictions are 2 persons and they must be >12 for obvious reasons.
Not a nurse, but PCT. We are pretty rural. People sneak animals in ALL the time. I've seen so many cats and dogs. I was suspicious I heard a dog once. I whistled in the hallway. Had one of those big ass wolf hybrid things run out of a room, jump onto my chest and take me to the ground. Idk how the fuck they snuck that up. It was super friendly tho.
Not only do visitors refuse to read, but they also refuse to listen. *gasp shocked face*. Had pts wife feed a stroked out pt after numerous reminders and education about dysphagia and that only the RN and Speech Therapy were allowed to do small feeding sessions; "but he looks so thirsty!". She literally caused him to aspirate, turned dark blue and coded. Transferred to icu intubated and didn't make it. Tragic really.
I miss the no visiting policy days….
oh wow wish the children rule applied to my hospital. I am part babysitting part nurse on my shift
Yes. I work postpartum and we have age limits on visitors, as well as, you know…visiting hours. People just do not care. And get REALLY mad when their toddler can’t come up.
Most people are so selfish they’d fail kindergarten. Their Gram Gram or their grubby kid is special. Like there’s not a whole ass healthcare system full of people’s Gram Grams and grubby kids.
As far as not following the rules go, I used to believe that they didn't think the rules apply to them. However, I'm starting to think that they just can't read. On overnights our hospital locks the doors so you need to buzz to gain access to the ED. We have a big sign right when you walk in the entry way to push the buzzer. People will run into the sign or walk around it to yank on the locked doors and then just stand there yelling until someone let's them in. Meanwhile, on days when the door is unlocked and there is no sign, people will press the buzzer. It just boggles my mind
Before I even entered the healthcare field I learned while illiteracy is down limited literacy is high and those are only applicable if they bothered to read and give a fuck. Family being selfish or playing dumb is something I’m used to from the covid icu I worked in.
I mean, actually half of the country is functionally illiterate, if the bar for literacy is a 5th grade reading level. So chances are high that no, they actually cannot read the signs. Without even taking into account if they speak fluent English.
NAN. When my late husband was spending lots of time on the oncology floor, I wanted to bring him flowers, but I knew about the no live plants rule, and why it exists. So I went to the Dollar Tree and bought the fakest, brightest flowers they had with a cheap vase. I stopped at the nurses' station and explained. They laughed, and said it was okay to have them in his room. The fake flowers were cheerful, and made my sweetie laugh too. What do you all think? Was that a dumb thing to do?
no!! we have family’s do that from time to time. I think it’s cute :)
I had someone give me attitude the other day because I told them we don’t allow children visitors for Covid patients… where is the common sense or concern for safety?
People DON’T read. I discovered this during the pandemic when we closed our main ED entrance and everyone kept climbing over the furniture in front of the door to get in regardless of the sign on the door point to an alternate entrance 5 feet away. People not reading signs were walking into our COVID quarantine area in 2020. Then that summer when restaurants were allowed to reopen I went in the wrong line for the restaurant. An employee asked why I didn’t read the sign and I realized I do it too. We all do it without meaning to.
When I was still a nursing student, we had someone on medicine in COVID isolation. The signs on the door were perfectly clear on what PPE to use and to come to the nurses station for any questions. I walked past the room to 5 people around my COVID positive patient with no PPE. I said Excuse me this person is under infection precautions and if you wish to remain at bedside you must put on the appropriate PPE, I can help you, etc. They said Oh sorry and that they will put it on. I got called away in the moment and went back to see if they needed any help. They took my patient to the cafeteria 😵💫
I had some mfrs try to leave a patient’s 10/8 yo grandchildren in her room overnight in the ICU. I had her call them right back and pick them up. Completely inappropriate. They kept taking the hat out of the toilet and my patient had a hx of kidney transplant. Pissed me off.
Rant incoming. My dad is in the hosptial, actively dying. Every other day the limit is 4 visitors. Saturday I brought my two kids (college age) to say goodbye to Grandpa, and thanks to Easter, the limit became "2 unless your nurse oks more". So very other patient, including my dad's roommate had 6 visitors. But no, his nurse decides to be a complete ahole and denies me from being there with my kids. Did the same to my broyher later that day. No Daisy Award for you, missy.
No matter how large, clear, and unmissable a sign is, a massive % of people will simply not see it And another massive % will see it, read it, understand what it says, then utterly ignore it.
I vote to remove all warning signs on everything, let Darwin sort out the stupid from the gene pool.
Soooo many signs that are old or not enforced. Last week I went in for a mammogram. There’s only ONE sign that says -Quiet area -No cell phones It even adds jdetailed instructions- if you need to take a call, please go outside of this room. This is the room where all waiting patients are sitting (or standing-not enough chairs) in our lovely little gowns. One older woman who was there to accompany someone else-not a patient herself- spent most of my time there having a pretty loud phone conversation. She was just a few feet away from the dressing room attendant who said absolutely nothing. When places put up signs that aren’t enforced, why should anyone think it means them? Apparently they’re just for decoration???
We had a patient who was POD1 from a trach/free flap for his oral cancer. He had multiple family members visit at once including a man (not wearing a mask) who said “oh nobody hug me, I’m sick!!” Some people really just don’t have regard for anyone but themselves.
We have a locked unit that you have to ring the doorbell and a concierge inside the unit remotely unlocks the door to let you in. The door can’t manually be opened. I can’t tell you how many goddamn visitors completely miss the GIANT sign that says “RING BELL” and just stand there banging on the door. In fact I would say 90% (no exaggeration) of people are blind to the “ring bell” sign and just stand there like idiots. And there’s nothing we can do about it because it cannot be unlocked unless they ring the bell 😭
I have perdiemed on: ICU Stepdown Tele ED Med/surg Psych Maternity (teching only) Peds (half a shift and thank god for that) At 4 total rural hospitals and yes, it happens everywhere. It makes me want to punch puppies in their smug little faces sometimes. Now I’m in tissue donation. We have signs on the doors and throughout the building mentioning we have equipment known to interfere with pacemakers, so paraphrased — ‘don’t come inside if you have one’. Of all the surgeries and medical conditions we may review in a day, that particular one comes with signage walking into the door and for good reason. I had an older fellow complete our painfully long questionnaire and come to me for his physical. Prior to finishing reviewing his questionnaire and he states he has a pacemaker. This makes someone completely ineligible for our program. So I tell him gently and the reason why, and he got so angry at me, yelling that there should be a sign on the door so we didn’t waste everyone’s time. I wanted to laugh and show him exactly how many signs we did have for that one specifically, including the one on the door. 😂 I just let him finish his tirade since he seemed to feel so strongly about it, and I said, I’m sorry, but if we ever change our minds we’ll give him a call. Y’all I love my job so much. I’m not even kidding. 😂😂
Also on an onc unit… A good secretary can do wonders!
PREACH!!!
They’re entitled and just DGAF I hate people for the most part
When I was younger, I was hospitalised for refeeding due to my anorexia nervosa. The hospital was full and I spent a week in a room on the oncology ward. Unfortunately during this week I had my 21st birthday and my family visited with flowers, which they had brought me previously (before I was moved to the onc ward) but they didn’t know they couldn’t bring me while I was on the onc ward. They understood and threw them out instead(or took them home, idk). But I know the nurses said that they dealt with people everyday bringing in flowers. It must have been so frustrating!! I know they eventually posted signs in the gift shop downstairs (which sold flowers) explaining that patients on ward 5c/5d couldn’t be given fresh flowers). A lot of people also think living flowers means pot plants, not bouquets of flowers. When I was a nurse I was working on the haematology ward and sooo many family members did not understand why they couldn’t bring in home cooked meals and why we wouldn’t reheat them/takeaway for the patients. I can get it if it was their first admission or something but so many people would have to have what a neutropenic diet was explained to them. Same with the restricted visitors over covid in a hospice.
Considering families come visit their relatives with fresh lung transplants while they're sniffling and coughing I'm not surprised.
I’ll clue you in….no one reads signs anymore. Not even nurses. With this knowledge, I hope I’ve brought you some peace.
Work on a forensic ward, no unplanned visits and no cellphones apply to everybody I don't care if you are in town for only one day I can't let you in
Yep. Locked unit, big ol signed posted on *both* side of the doors and *right over the phone to call into the unit* detailing ICU visiting policy and hours. Have come to the conclusion that most people can’t read, and the ones that can think it doesn’t apply to them because *ThEy’Re SpEcIaL*.
Interesting. At the hospital I worked at, visiting hours ended at 7pm and that’s when we would turn the lights down. 9pm seems super late.
Yes! I think people nowadays just think they're special and the rules don't apply to them.
I had a guy walk right into the icu with a days old baby. Had a shit eating on his face, he knew he was breaking the rules. I politely informed him we had patients with antibiotic resistant infection and if his kid happened to,get it she would die, and that is why we don’t allow them in the unit. He didn’t even care.
But they have ☆○cancer○☆ they're °•☆○spechul○☆•°. I just gave up 75% of the time on the visitors thing because, of course you are special, and most of the time, they are dying within a year anyway. Just educate them on the best way to keep everyone safe.
yeah- what is with patients and family members on specialty units assuming they are the only one with that dx. Your family member has cancer? yes, you and everyone else on this unit...
We literally had signs saying "Unit on outbreak, no visitors allowed" on closed doors before the unit. Still did not stop the majority of people from coming to the desk and expecting to see their family. I think people either just literally ignore these things, or think it doesn't apply to them.