I can't imagine a worse diet for a diabetic. He was on pills at home, not insulin, but in the hospital they've been shooting him with insulin every day because his blood sugar has been going crazy

First DH had a similar problem....thankfully, I was able to "fire" the doctors who were ordering the insulin.

DH was not a diabetic...his blood sugar would go up when in pain (he did have cancer), and I was away on a business trip.
He went into the hospital when I was on a business trip, his blo0o0d sugar was a little high, so they started pumping insulin into him - told me he had developed diabetes.
Of course, because he wasn't diabetic, they couldn't control his sugar levels, and kept giving him different doses. Went into insulin shock one night, and the next day, I called his oncologist and demanded that the drs prescribing the insulin be fired...DH agreed.
Checked him out of the hospital (with a meter and pills, if necessary)....and a decent, balanced diet (that was also a problem).

Blood sugar normalized within 24 hours, never happened again.

Does your friend have family that can speak up for him? I found out, through many years, that you have to watch them like a hawk.

As to the "nurse" not knowing about caffeine - if he/she was giving out meals, or responding to call light, they were probably a CNA, not an RN or BSN....problem in hospitals today, is that many of the people walking around in scrubs are not registered nurses....most are anything from CNAs to LPNs...but all are called "nurse".

I firmly believe that hospitals should put certification on name tags.

I was just talking about this! My mom has been in the hospital several times recently. She's just finishing a two-week stay, hopefully beign tranferred to a rehab today. She is diabetic and the food they serve her is not at all a special diet. She does have choices but none are ideal for diabetics and she is not really in a good way to make the best choices in her weakened state. They offer mostly typical cafeteria-type foods - meatloaf, rigatoni, salisbury steak,etc. They don't offer much in the way of whole grains, fresh fruits or fresh vegetables. They are given a white roll and butter, soda, ice cream, etc with most meals.

The one morning I was there she had pancakes for breakfast and her blood sugar was very high afterwards and they had to give her insulin (she was not on insulin at home). The nurse said that always happens - the pancakes always shoot up the blood sugar of the diabetic patients. Well then, why do they keep serving pancakes to the diabetic patients????

As a nurse, I see both sides. First let me say that being a nurse is a thankless job sometimes. That doesn't excuse the way some treat their patients. We are the "front line" so to speak, so often we are required to defend ourselves against angry and sometimes violent patients, angry family members who feel that they are positive what is best for their family member and half the time we are defending the Doctors orders... something we have no control over. I'm a critical care nurse so often we get people on my floor with complications from diabetes. (Often it's DKA or diabetic ketoacidosis) We DO put the patients on a clear liquid diet to start out (It should be a diabetic clear liquid diet) but the choice of the diet is not ours... the doctor decides that. Often they will order you to proceed to the next diet as tolerated. Perhaps this is what happened with your friend and it was just never proceeded. This should be questioned. You said your friend would never complain.... That's silly. We are not mind readers. We would much, MUCH rather you politely question or complain than to be miserable and complain to all of your friends. Why? Because the WORST part about being a nurse is the family members. They are nervous and worried for their family member and they feel perfectly within their rights to tell us how to do our jobs and to be verbally abusive. This happens multiple times a day... trust me, I do it everyday. As far as waking the patient up... we do hourly checks on our patients in the Critical care unit. Why? The doctor orders it that way. We turn the patients and give them back rubs to prevent skin breakdown every 4 hours. That may seems excessive but we have a majority of patients that are unable to move themselves or who come from nursing homes and are already in terrible shape with their skin. We don't enjoy waking our patients up... I wish people would realize that the night would be 100% easier for us if we let you sleep, but you're in the hospital for a reason and that reason is our responsibility to take care of. I would assume your friend is on an IV (Which btw, also wreaks havoc on your blood sugar) I'm not saying that hospitals do not have faults or that the one your friend is in isn't a bad place... there are bad places out there. I just want people to see the other side. As a nurse, I would never try to tell my mechanic how to fix my car, I would never try to tell a pilot how to fly but in my job, I am constantly being told that I'm doing something wrong.

I'm an RN... I started out as an LPN (Which IS a nurse, Monica) I answer call bells, feed patients, clean up bathroom messes, give baths, change bedding, check vital signs, administer medications, document in charts, communicate with the patients, family, doctors, specialist, etc. Sometimes I'm in charge on my floor so I also have to take care of transfers and admits, scheduling and ill calls. We do it all. Our name badges state our certification. (And in the hospital where I work, the nurses have to wear navy blue scrubs and the aides wear hunter green)

mom24....I have only had one problem with an RN, and he was a BSN in a very well known University hospital.

He dislocated DH's shoulder and broke the arm, then tucked him back in bed, and couldn't be found for hours.
We won the lawsuit, but the nurse kept his license.

All the other problems I have experienced were with CNAs and LPNs, I have found that, to control costs, keep only the PA mandated 1 RN per floor on a floor, and the general care(even dispensing meds, which is illegal) is left to LPNs and CNAs.

Mom24 - would you have a problem with medical personnel wearing name tags that identify their qualifications?

Alisande, our hospital's doctors usually put our patients on insulin even if they are on pills to control their diabetes at home. The rationale is that insulin controls them better under the stress of being sick and in the hospital. However, the patient can always refuse any medication they do not want to take. It is his/her right and their body. They need to speak up or the family needs to speak up for them...which they always seem to do. ( :

We also have 1 hour bed checks on our med-surg floor now. This was implemented after a patient was found dead, laying in the floor next to his bed. Low staff one night, full floor, extremely busy. I wasn't working that night but heard all about it. The 1 hour bed checks are done to protect the patients and not done for our convenience. It's rather a pain in the butt really to have to do more paperwork on top of all our other work/charting/papwerwork we have to do. Plus, we are normally in and out of the rooms constantly anyway, cleaning up patients, giving meds, turning patients, answering call lights, checking bed alarms that go off, checking on patients we are worried about, etc....much more than once an hour a lot of times.

Nursing is a thankless job and I wish now that I had chosen another profession.

Just a side complaint, I can understand why nurses don't wear the white uniforms and starched whit hats, (although there was one nurse who still did, she said she worked hard to earn it and wore it proudly) but it would be nice if their scrubs would be color coded. Every hospital I've been in everyone looked alike, in colorful printed scrubs. Other than that, I know there are cases where oops, bad care, and lapses happen, but for the very most part, the hospital personnel do their best. Saying that doesn't diminish your complaint, Alisande. I hope things are better for your friend.

Susan, I feel for your friend. He sounds like my father who never, ever questioned medical personnel - the janitor could come into his room and give him medical advice and my Dad would do it.

Is your friend normally normally so passive? The medical delivery system has changed drastically and I honestly believe it is our responsibility to be knowledgeable about our health and medical treatment. And that means asking questions so that you know what is happening. When I took my Dad to see his specialists I always took a notebook with my questions and then jotted down the answers. I also asked for copies of any test results to keep in my folder.

I hope your friend realizes that he needs to speak up and ask questions.

nurses

Honestly, by and large the nurses have my sympathy. My best friend is a nurse married to a nurse, and over the years I've relied on CNPs for as much of my medical care as possible. I often thought I'd like to become a nurse, but knew much of the job (such as taking--and defending--orders I disagreed with) would drive me nuts.

My friend has two grown sons who visited him last week but don't live nearby. I'm not a close enough friend to want to volunteer to advocate for him in the hospital, but I think even if I were, he wouldn't want anyone to make waves. While Oprah described "the disease to please" as affecting women, I think a lot of men have it, too.

They need to speak up or the family needs to speak up for them...which they always seem to do. ( :

Kath, re your :( - do you really think it's wrong to speak up when errors, which could cause death, occur?

Maire, I would say he's always non-confrontational. I do freelance work for him at home, and many times he's told me how he said "yes" to an invitation or request but wished he hadn't. He finds it very hard to say no. Plus something about medical personnel renders him mute. I think that's probably not uncommon.

Monica... no I think wearing my nametag with my qualifications is great. Mine states my name and title and then under my name tag, but hanging beneath it in large, bold letters is RN. We don't have LPN's on our floor. We are staffed with 6-7 RN, BSN or MSN nurses (On a good day... 5-6 on a bad day) for each shift. We also color code our scrubs... nurses wear navy blue, aides wear hunter green, respitory wears tan and black, housekeeping wears burgundy, etc.

I don't think any nurse has a problem with family members asking questions or bringing up concerns about their family member's care. I actually think we would prefer that. What I have a problem with (I won't speak for others) is when a family member swears at me, calls me names, tells me it's "stupid" that their post op family member isn't allowed to eat yet, tells me that their family member needs more pain medication while their family member is lying there sleeping, tells me I should allow their family member to "go outside and smoke" because they are "stressed enough". It goes on and on.

The last time I was in the emergency room, it was for medication. My doctor was on vacation, it was Sunday and I was in a wheelchair, at that time. I refused to get on the bed, sat there with my arms folded. I told everyone why I was there and to call the doctor on call, who had told me to go to the hospital and for them to contact him. I had to have a written prescription, as I was out of refills. I was polite but firm. My BF was waiting in the car, any idea how long a man will wait in the parking lot? BF's is one and a half hours, I found out. I rolled out of there and left. I had all my medical records with me, in a briefcase, a big one, in fact. The doctor on call asked me why I had left. BF in the car, maybe who could leave at any time? He told me to go back, to the 4th floor, there was a written prescription waiting for me. I have to watch myself, as I'm infamous for my temper. My fear was they would try to commit me. I've done all my research ahead of time, and know exactly why I'm there. The nurses and waiting to be doctors, threw their hands up, said they were busy, etc etc. If I wanted to sit there and wait in my chair, fine with them! I have great respect for nurses and most doctors. Just my 2 cents.---marcy

Monica, I never once said they shouldn't speak up. I'd rather they did. But, like Erin said, they can become totally obnoxious and interfere with the patient's care. I've seen families take the patients out to smoke against medical advice, bring in inappropriate food or food when they aren't supposed to eat at all, bring in junk food to diabetics, etc....

Oh, Erin, I also love when we get a patient from ICU and they've only had 1 on 1 care (or 1 on 2 care) from a nurse, then they come to our floor and expect us to only take care of THEM. Then the family comes in and gripes about how much better the care was up there and interrupts when we are taking care of another patient in the room to insist we check their family member's tv controller or some other unimportant-at-the-moment thing.

I also loved being cussed at, having fingers pointed in my face, being hit, kicked, scratched, bitten, spit on, etc...how many other professions have to deal with that? I love getting screamed at by a family member, only to be told "oh, I'm sorry, I know it's not YOUR fault, but I'm so mad at the doctors...blah, blah, blah.

I understand, Kath..I have only yelled at a nurse once - when she fell on DH, broke his arm, and then lied to me...saying he fell while walking from the chair to his bed.
Why didn't I believe her? Because he couldn't walk, hadn't even been able to even stand for months. Yup - I reamed her out, but good.

I think some people don't speak up because they want to believe that they don't have to. Here you are sick and maybe scared and on top of that you can't depend on the professionals to figure it out, plan the treatment and execute it properly without your having to second guess everything? Some people just want to believe they need to sit back and do what they're told and everything will be okay.

Monica,
LPN's are legally able to dispense medications. I have done it for 25 years. I just checked on PA regs and they can there as well. Maybe not in the specific hospital you are at but they can, unless specified I guess. I hold a License, not a certificate. Medical assitants and CENA'S hold a certificate, not a license.

I've been hospitalized and was grateful for being woken up to be checked on (that's why I was there, after all) and given food that was appropriate for my condition. Sometimes patients don't understand the "reasons" for the treatment/food that they're given, so they think the doctors/nurses don't know what they're doing. Believe me, they do know what they are doing, much more so than a patient does.

And Paula, we as medical professionals would love to believe that people would be smart enough to check their sugar if they're diabetic, that people who suffer from psychiatric disorders would take their medication as prescribed and that someone who has COPD would stop smoking, but that just doesn't happen. Unless you have worked in the medical field and have seen the effects of having to work with seriously decreased staffing due to cuts because of the economy, you can't imagine the amount of stuff that goes into a 12 hour nursing shift. There are times that I don't get to go to the bathroom because I don't have time. I probably get my scheduled lunch break two out of five days. I love my job and I am very good at it, but I'm not perfect and I can't fix a problem if I don't know there is one.

mom24,
I'm not sure what you think I was saying but I just think it's human nature to want to have someone else take care of your problems, especially when you are sick and vulnerable. I wouldn't call the patient passive but maybe they just choose to have faith in the medical system. People are saying that patients needs to advocate, watch everyone, be on guard, speak up, etc. I'm not saying that isn't a good idea but wouldn't it be nice if we could put our trust in the professionals (whether it's our doctor or our plumber)? Isn't that the whole point of having professional anythings? They are supposed to go to school and learn stuff so you can just pay them for their expertise. Now we end up paying them AND Googling AND asking for advice on message boards AND calling in favors from friends in the same field, etc.

. . . but wouldn't it be nice if we could put our trust in the professionals (whether it's our doctor or our plumber)?

Yes, it would be nice. But much of the time that's simply not the way it is these days.

The only medical person who can deal in an optimal fashion without hearing from the patient ...

... is a vet ... isn't it??

ole joyful

". . . but wouldn't it be nice if we could put our trust in the professionals (whether it's our doctor or our plumber)?

Yes, it would be nice. But much of the time that's simply not the way it is these days. "

MOST of the time that's not the way it is and it's very tiring.

I guess my point is that "trusting the professionals" and expecting them to know that you are unhappy with some aspect of your care are two very different things. We expect the patients to be active in their own recovery. We can't do it all for you... you know your body better than I do so if something isn't working for you and you make a concious choice not to speak up and tell me, there is not much I can do.

mom24, I have the utmost respect for medical professionals, but it IS scary to read and hear about medical errors, wrong medications, medication mix-ups, etc. It is hard to trust that everyone in a medical setting knows what they are doing, and it is difficult to know how to protect yourself and loved ones.

We have a really crappy local ER, when my husband had a sudden eye problem, we sat around and waited for 5 hours to see a doc, and first thing he did was check him for stroke. Now surely, if there was any chance of a stroke, they should have ruled it out immediately? I am sure after 5 hours, the damage would be done.

At the same place, I was misdiagnosed with an allergic reaction when I had severe bronchitis, almost pneumonia. No one even took my temperature, they sent me home with allergy meds and an epi pen?? Next day when I went to our family doc I had a high fever and was immediately put on strong antibios. I was lucky they kicked in quickly and I did not have to go to hospital. Anway, we all have stories like this, and it seems to be getting worse.

We have been very lucky, with all of the medical issues we have had with our son. He has been in 5 hospitals, since he was hurt in an industrial accident. That left him a para, and has now had two strokes. We don't live in what would be concidered the hub of medical technology, but I can say in all honesty his care could not have been better. He has had talented, caring, responsive nuring staff, as well as doctors. When they know their limits don't meet his needs, he has been sent out of state to larger facilities. I try to work WITH the staff, because he is unable to communicate very well. I am not a medical professional, but over this past 11 years, I certainly have learned and seen a lot. I advocate for Brian, and yes, there have been times I have disagreed with some of the directives, but we discuss them, so we understand each others views. Afterall I have been through it all with him, and he is my only concern, as they have many patients to be concerned about. Being an antagonist helps no one. I keep a notebook with me at all times, so I have some knowledge to speak to staff, if I have a concern. These dedicated professionals, have kept my son alive when several times, there was little hope. Our society has become so angry and rude, it is very sad to see the verbal abuse so many seem to think is OK. I have had staff I cared for more than others, but never felt any of them have not done the best they can for us. His and my ( 2 surgeries this year too) rooms have always been clean, the food is good, not 5 star but good and usually there are choices so you should be able to find something satisfactory.
I thank you ladies, and any men if it applies, for your dedication to your patients. Its a big job, that I for one appreciate. I wish more of you could feel the same. Makes me want to never relocate.

My DH spent most of the month of August in 2 hospitals with a staph infection in his blood. It attacked his heart, lungs, kidneys, stomach. He had to have his defibrillator removed because the "vegetation" attached to the leads. It's amazing he's still alive actually. But he is alive and getting better every day due to the excellent care he received in our local hospital and in Atlanta at Emory University Hospital. Then again in our local hospital. We saw so many different kinds of doctors and they were all excellent.

We had dealing with many nurses, techs and other hospital support personnel. I can honestly say we only encountered 2 nurses I didn't care for. One just talked non-stop and kind of got on my nerves. The other one fussed at me for falling asleep in DH's room after he had the defib removed. It had been a very long, exhausting day and she came in the room telling me not to fall asleep in there because DH had pull off his oxygen. So sorry didn't know it was my day to watch him in ICU!

Other than that and one nurse DH wasn't too fond of because they were too much alike we had a very positive experience.

The food was a different story. DH didn't eat much mostly because he was so sick. The food wasn't very good either. He lost 32 lbs in August. The food I got at Emory was pretty good. Unfortunately that's not what they serve the patients.

Linda

The past 18 months we have spent a lot of time at the doctors and in the hospital. I can say my hubby has been given excellant care every time. They answered every question we had and sent us home with a lot of good information for us to read. One doctor even gave my hubby his home phone number if he needed anything. We had a couple scares but they helped us through all of it.

We appreciate the doctors and nurses so much. They have always bend over backwards to help us..

Susie

I volunteer at one of our hospitals and I feel like I've just about seen it all. LOL I find our nurses and volunteers go beyond the call of duty. I had no idea the public--the visitors--could be so rude, but I have certainly found that out. Very few family members or visitors say "thank you" and it has taught me a lesson!! I say "thank you" to everybody that does the slightest thing for me!!!

Oh Golly....I can barely stand to read some of these posts...they sound so NOT like my experiences; and there have been many more than I like to remember. In Colorado....California and now here in Oregon I have had such excellent care by MD's, Nurses, Aids, even janitors and the "adorable" Army "medics-in-training" (can't remember the hospital name but spent 10 days there)and too many days every time I have been admitted, usually for pneumonia and complications. I remember being treated like royalty. Yes, I went many days on liquid diets because test after test after test required fasting/liquid diet. If done strung out as an outpatient it would not have been days on end without food; but WOW the things I got out of the way in quick order was amazing. AND...the nurses etc. were more concerned about my lack of food than I was! And, Insulin. Only have it when hospitalized....I understand that they can more carefully monitor my needs...testing before meals..then calculating my insulin needs..even while on liquid and/or IV. And I had the "respitory (sp) techs EVERY 4 hours....for ME....not for them....24/7.

You know what. I think that "I" might of been a considerate patient, and maybe they "liked" taking care of me. Just a thought. Sorry

Nanny

Nanny, the "sorry" at the end of your post--which people often add when they're not the least bit sorry--leads me to think you might be suggesting that those of us who have had less than optimum medical care got what we deserved because we were inconsiderate. I hope my assumption is wrong, because not only would that insult us, the patients (or the patients' families), but it would insult our medical teams as well.

I've had both good and bad experiences while in the hospital. The bad taught me to make sure I had a family member with me as my advocate. Often times as patients we are too sick to challenge a situation.

In June of this year I had a hysterectomy and was in for 5 days. My nurses were amazing, so much so that I didn't want to come home :)