Anne,

The only way to effect change in the hospital is to go through the proper
channels.  When your client was getting such poor nursing care and bullying
from the RN, she should have asked to talk to her charge nurse to complain.
Nobody deserves to be bullied and it should be unacceptable to management.
If the charge nurse did not resolve the situation satisfactorily, she should
go over her head to the Nurse Manager, then the Director or House
Supervisor.  Talking directly to the physician is an alternate route.  He
can write orders that the RNs must follow.  She should also have complained
directly to the staff LC.  It's her responsibility to advocate for the
rights of nursing mothers and babies and her burden to see that care is
rendered according to the current standards of care.  If she can't get
results then you go to her manager, or the LC should go up the steps. 

It also helps to put it in writing on a patient satisfaction survey.  Most
hospitals send out the surveys after discharge to all their patients and
they really don't want bad comments mucking things up for them.  Patients
have a choice in health care providers and satisfaction scores are available
to the public.  Your client can also write a letter to the president of the
hospital.  You can be sure it will be addressed then.  But it's always
better to follow the chain of command.  

I'm sorry that she got poor nursing care.  Situations like this give all of
us a bad name.  And it could have been avoided.  I believe, like Cassi said,
that everyone felt they were doing their best.  But they were not doing
their best.  They need a basic lactation management inservice so this
doesn't happen to another of their clients.

Linda Anderegg, BSN, RNC, IBCLC in Chicago

Hospital IBCLC     


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