Do Hospitals Do Too Much?
November 9th, 2007 | The Blog
Do hospitals take on too much responsibility for patients? Is it really up to a healthcare establishment to fix everything wrong with a patient’s life? If a patient comes in with a broken foot but is also homeless, is it up to the hospital to find a place for that person to go in addition to treating the broken foot?
That’s how Geena begins the latest poll over on Nursing Voices, and she continues:
When a patient is discharged and has a home but no one can come and pick them up, why is it our job to get them cab fare or a bus token?
I actually discharged a patient once in this situation. He said he had no one to pick him up, so if I could just take him out to the bus stop he’d take it from there. I felt really weird doing that. I’ve had other patients demand cab fare to get home.
Am I making sense? I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I don’t see how we can fix everything.
If the patient has nowhere to live, and there’s nowhere to take them - what are we supposed to do? I feel like the way things are going, we’re going to have to start feeding patient’s cats while they’re in the hospital.
Of course it would be nice if we could fix everyone’s problems, but our resources are already stretched thin.
What’s your opinion?
Let her (and all of us) know by voting today!
5 Responses to “Do Hospitals Do Too Much?”
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It is in the nature of nursing to treat the patient holistically….to understand that they may come to the hospital with a disease or acute illness, but their environment or social disparities may keep them from achieving wellness. It doesn’t have anything to do with insensitivity, though many of us became nurses because we are acutely sensitive to our patients wellbeing. Rather, it just makes sense to stop for a minute and consider what may bring my patient back to the hospital? What financial, social, environmental issue may actually be contributing to his illness. Nothing new, Florence did it.
Case Managers, social workers and discharge planners are employed in hospitals to help patients access community resources in cases of the needs you describe. I do not understand why the nurse writes about feeling responsible but doesn’t make the effort to educate herself on what could be available for help. Medical Social Workers have been in hospitals for as long as I can remember. No, we don’t go to patients’ home to feed their cats but we can call a vet in the patient’s neighborhood to send resue groups or the Humane Society to check on pets left behind in an emergency. I have heard of nurses actually taking in a pet until the patient went home. It is part of nursing to view the patient from all aspects, not just their broken foot. Yes. that’s what Florence would do. Do student nurses recite the Florence Nightingale Pledge when they get their caps in a ceremony? Oh, that’s right, we don’t wear caps anymore. Maybe we should.
As with all things it is a matter of balance. It is of course very important to care for all of the patients needs and treat them hollistically. It is also beneficial to the hospital to make their discharge easier and chance of re-admission smaller.
However, it is not beneficial to the patient or the hospital to undertake tasks for them that they are quite able to do themselves.
This either undermines there independance or allows the unscrupulous elements of society to take advantage of measures in place to support the vulnerable.
Helping someone who cannot get home is part of nursing. Giving handouts to those who are able, but simply unwilling is impractical, inefficient and inappropriate. In much the same way it would be wrong to give a bed bath to a fully mobile individual or painkillers to someone with no pain.
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Do Hospitals Do Too Much?” It is of course very important to care for all of the patients needs and treat them gently.It is work of goodness for mankind.
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