First this is the pov of a tech /nursing student..I thought this might be the place for this post. I have only had one terminal wean patient and the patient was concious and she made the decision to remove her vent.
This is my biggest issue w/becoming a nurse..the whole experience did not sit well with me at all and still doesn't 2yrs later. So here is the story from a techs pov:
I show up to work to find ive been pulled to the icu ..I get report from the tech and she tells me that one of my pts is about to be taken off the vent ...I say what!? (This lady has been in the icu for about 6weeks and I knew her..she was totally alert and would ask for things used the call light etc.) Im a float pool tech so I wasnt familiar w/ the process. This lady was on dialysis , masthenas gravitas , had a gaping abdominal wound with a wound vac that wasnt healing..she wasnt mobile and was incontinent, couldnt eat and had ards ...so after report I go to her room and the process was under way ..her husband ,two daughters, her nurse and the doc were in the room ..so I just kinda peeked in and saw the pt sign a paper the doc had....I never entered the room I just sat at her monitor to watch her vs as things "progressed" about 10mins later I see a respiratory therapist enter the room ..the RT leaves and gives the husband a long hug outside the room..then the doc comes out and sits near me to put in the patients "final med" orders....the nurse comes out of the room very chipper and Normal every 10 mins or so to check the pts vs ..she makes a comment to me "shes lookin real "smurfy" in there" as if shes excited the pt will be dead soon. ..Finally the pt passes ..her family leaves very shortly and the nurse comes to get me for the post mortem care I enter the room and see 15 or so little bottles of morphine on the counter ..i felt sick and really didnt want to be apart of it ..but of course i did my job and helped..I could see tons of sores in her mouth that I never noticed which aluded to the intense suffering she was going through....during the whole time the nurse just seemed to happy and not phased by any of it. Im not sure how I would feel after something like that as a nurse. It was the fact the patient was of sound mind that really disturbed me.