5 Ways To Handle Patient Complaints

While working as an LPN, you will come across hundreds of patients, everyone with a unique behavioral characteristic. Considering their illness, patients often tend to lose their calm and at times get engrossed by anger. They often start complaining about minute things that do not go as per their expectations. In order to deal with such patients, an LPN must know how to handle the complaints registered by the patients. Let’s understand how to handle patient complaints below.

So, whether you are a new LPN who has just finished education from private nursing schools or even an experienced one, take the help of the following ways to address and handle the patient complaints:-

How to Handle Patient Complaints?

1) Listen Attentively

The first and the foremost thing for you to do is to listen to the patient’s complaint attentively. Dedicate your undived attention to the patient and listen carefully to what he wants to convey. Make good eye contact, and let him know that you are genuinely understanding what is complaining about. Do not interrupt in between and let him finish first. Once he is done, summarize his complaint and let him know how you will address the issues.

2) Validate and Apologize

You will be taught to become a bit practical while pursuing your nursing and evening LPN programs. This is so because you will be required to learn to not let go of a patient’s behavior suffer your emotions. So keeping this in mind, whenever a patient shares a complaint while being angry, do not get hyper. Instead, validate his feelings, and even apologize for the inconvenience caused to him.

3) Acknowledge the Patient’s Feelings

Showing empathy to the patients is really important especially when they are frustrated with their illness and complaints. Try calming them down and also try to understand what they are going through. Acknowledge their feelings and make them feel taken care of.

4) Take Corrective Actions

Once a patient shares his complaint, take remedial measures as soon as possible. Also, inform the patient that his complaint is being addressed and will be corrected within a stipulated time. Give assurance to the patient by showing him proof that his complaint is under consideration.

5) Document the Complaints

Having a record of the complaints is always useful. So make sure to document the complaints shared by the patients immediately when they are conveyed. Do not skip to register them and take it to the grievance-handling team of the management. Make it a point to reconcile the issues as soon as possible.

So, if you are finding it a bit tedious to handle patient complaints, consider these ways that can help you resolve all sorts of complaint issues.

Also, if you are all set to commence your nursing journey and want to venture into your nursing education, consider enrolling in the LPN programs of Verve College.

We are an accredited LPN school having excellent Illinois NCLEX Pass Rates. We have an outstanding team of faculty guiding students with the best nursing skills. We even prepare the students for the nursing college entrance exam and help them succeed.