A hand this weekend a player was taking a while and before any player said a word the dealer begin tapping the table and telling the player to make a decision. Should this be the dealer or other players responsibility? I had never seen this before from a dealer.

When the dealer did this a player then told the dealer to call the floor for a clock. The dealer seemed hesitant and told the player to make a decision (with no clock yet). Finally a player got the floor to arrive.

Finally, when the floor comes to start the clock, what is the proper way. Should they tell the player on the clock anything?

In atlantic city a dealer can not call clock on a player. Any player at the table can do it.

When the floor arrives he/she should explain that a clock has been called and what that means, tell them how long they have to act (60 seconds is typical) and what's going to happen if they don't. Then give 'em a warning as time is about to expire.

I saw a horrible event once at Bellagio where somebody was trying to get something clarified at the table (I think it was the other guy's bet size, or remaining stack size) and the other player refused to answer and just asked for the clock. Dealer ignored the player asking "how much" and called for the clock. Floor came over and told the guy "the clock has been called, you have 60 seconds" and stood mute. The player kept asking "what's going on? what's a clock? Is someone going to tell me how much it is?" Floor says "you have 30 seconds." Player repeats "30 seconds for what? WHAT IS HAPPENING?" Floor says you have 10 seconds and starts counting. Player starts shrieking (almost) "STOP IT! TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING." Floor declares his hand dead and walks away.

That's how NOT to do a clock.

Was this a tournament or a cash game?

In a tournament, I am much, much more likely to call clock on another player, but only when I am not in the hand.

In a cash game, the only times I have called clock are when there a player has established a pattern of taking excessive amounts of time to take action regardless of the action in front of him. If a player is facing a decision that conceivably could be difficult for a substantial amount of money, I would give him as long as he needed.

This was a cash game. It surprised me that w/o prompting by a player the dealer started to tell the player to hurry up.

Dealer shouldn't be telling people to "hurry up," but dealers frequently (and properly) use subtle signals like "action's on you" or "bet is $10" or holding hand out with open palm.

sadistically hilarious story, made me lol pretty hard.

This.