SIBLEY MATERNITY NURSES SUCK! SIBLEY ISN'T THE ROLLS ROYCE OF HOSPITALS.............

[Anonymous]

Just so everyone remembers, you are not a nurse's only patient. If you want percocet at this time, but your nurse is currently dealing with an emergency, guess what? Your percocet can wait. Nurses can't be everywhere at once.

To the poster that said that their experience was very as close to a hotel stay as possible, guess what? That's not what a hospital strives for, because they are not a hotel! A hospital strives to make sure that you are safe and taken care of. This isn't the Hilton.

Granted there are many, many nurses out there who really need to rethink their choice in career because caring is obviously not part of their personality. But treat your nurse with respect, learn their name, if they are acting rude, TELL THEM. Ask to speak to a manager. Don't worry, nurses won't treat you better if you buy them a pizza. Nurses don't expect anything from their patients except respect.

Remember that they are there for you to help you transition into life as a new mom, medicate you and make sure that you and your baby are medically taken care of. They are not there to change every diaper your baby has, or wait on you hand and foot.

And also remember that not everyone is scrubs is a nurse - patient care techs are in them too, and very often can be quite rude. If you don't recognize them as your specific nurse, and they are being rude, ask to speak to your own nurse and follow through.

[Anonymous]

I was really impressed with the care I received at Sibley at the end of May. All of the nurses, including labor and delivery and post-partum were very warm, friendly and helpful. I was expecting at least a few of them (I saw 7 nurses during my stay) to have an attitude or give mediocre care (particularly after reading this thread and hearing stories from others) but that couldn't have been further from the truth. I really received top-notch care and can't say enough about the nurses. A couple of them told me they were new and had just started working there in the last couple months. Perhaps Sibley is doing a bit of cleaning house and hiring a lot of new nurses. Either way, they were doing something right when I was there. I may have just been lucky but I think the quality of care is most likely improving. As a side note, I received a survey from Sibley in the mail yesterday asking me how my obstetrical care was. Definitely a step in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

I, too, wanted to write about my very positive experience at Sibley. I have to say, reading this thread in the weeks leading up to my due date did not inspire a great deal of confidence. I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. I delivered a few weeks ago. My labor nurse and all the postpartum nurses I saw were really, really great. I found them helpful, responsive and kind -- not overly sweet or anything, mind you, but that's not their job. There was no issue with them pushing formula or a bottle -- they kept asking me if I needed a stronger painkiller, which I found mildly annoying, but then again, I think they are more accustomed to patients who are more into medication than perhaps I am. One of them gently suggested multiple times that we could send the baby to the nursery -- she could tell we were exhausted -- which in the end was the right decision for us. Lactation support was also very good, FWIW.

[Anonymous]

I completely support 10:34's posting. I had two C-Sections at Sibley, one emergency and one semi-planned. My experiences, in hindsight, were different. While one of them was preferable to the other, that does not mean that one was "bad" and one was "good". Remember that this is a JOB for the nurses and that they have certain priorities and protocol they need to follow. I do believe that it would be nice if they treated each birth as something tremendously important and special because it is, but only to the parents. Each patient would do well to remember that each nurse may be coming off of their sixth 12 hour shift, or have particularly ill patients at that time...I agree, your aspirin can, and SHOULD, wait. This does not negate that nurses should treat each patient as they would like to be treated, but the nurse is there to medically care for each patient. Hospitals are a business and an aggressively competetive one. Constructive feedback should be shared with the "Powers that Be". I think it is absolutely SUPER that the CEO and the VP contacted OP after hearing of this thread, but perhaps if negative experiences happen to another patient, it would be best served to communicate the experience when it is occuring and allow the hospital to react immediately, without being flamed in an anonymous posting. Immediate communication of challenges (and positive feedback) can and are used as training tools. The more immediate the feedback, the more the "challenged nurse" can relate to the feedback and alter his/ her behaviors...food for thought...

[Anonymous]

My experience was overwhelmingly positive at Sibley. I had a vaginal delivery at 36 weeks. The nurses at Sibley were for the most part friendly, caring, and very competent. I delivered my son after a month long bedrest period at the hospital. At 32 weeks pregnancy, I experienced early contractions that landed me into monitored bedrest in a private delivery room. Doctors at Sibley were able to stop the contractions but needed to keep me monitored the whole time. After my 4-week stay at Sibley, I must say that I was treated by at least 20 nurses, many of them visiting nurses. While I agree that the visiting nurses, particularly the night nurses, tended to be less informed on the rules and policies and generally less friendly, the daytime nurses were sharp, competent, and particularly helpful and kind. My husband stayed with me the whole 4 weeks, and yes, there were a couple of night nurses that questioned the policy of having family members sleep over and gave us a hard time. Those issues were resolved on my second day there and when my husband could not join me, my parents would stay over to seep with me. I have only delivered one child so my experience with delivery units is highly limited. However, given my long stay there, I had an opportunity to experience many a hectic delivery room night... running nurses and monitors going off. I can’t imagine that nursing can be an easy profession. Bottom line, if I had to deliver my second baby in Sibley, I’d do it without any reservations.

[Anonymous]

In anticipation of my delivery at Sibley, I read this string of postings and was understandably concerned about the type of experience I would have. After expending a lot of unnecessary stress, let me assure fellow DCUM Forum readers that Sibley can be a terrific place to have a baby. I consider myself a demanding customer and am delighted to report that, we had a terrific experience with the delivery of our daughter in October 2008. Across the board, we found the L&D nurses, post partum nurses, lactation consultants and hospital support staff to be responsive, supportive and kind. Certainly, everyone's situation is different and I was lucky to have an uncomplicated delivery, but this first-time mom was a satisfied customer. Best of luck to everyone!

[Anonymous]

I just posted my own Sibley experience on the Foxhall OBGym forum, if of interest (you can probably search).

[Anonymous]

There is an earlier post asking people to remember not to confuse the techs with the nurses. I know everyone's experiences differ, but I found the techs to be SUPER sympathetic and helpful, while my experience with the nurses--all but 1 over a 5 days period--were the dead opposite.

[Anonymous]

I was just at Sibley last week and had a great experience with the L&D nurses and the post-partum nurses. Everyone was great and very attentive! And they were super busy and I never felt like I was being ignored. Honestly, I could not believe how nice and great the were.