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| No. 60 | 
Dec 23, 2008, 09:02 PM
 Re: My 9 year old patient was raped and required surgery Originally Posted by ssouthernyankee  I can't believe I'm about to share this but....I myself was in a eerily similar situation at 11 yrs. old. I have a good sense of what she's going through, it's just making it all the more difficult......
Another question, would it be unprofessional for me to share some very vague details about my own experience to help her know she's not alone and that healing is possible? I just don't know what to do but I have to do something. I am beginning to rethink my career at this point.
Bless you for sharing your story  In regards to your question at the end, we discussed this alot in our ethical piece of my BSN program during clinical rotations. We were always told that you never tell someone-I know what you are going through, etc.- UNLESS you actually DO know what they are going through. I think it would be good to speak with her. This may make your patient feel less alienated and alone. I will definitely keep these sweet children in prayer. 
Another thought I had was maybe getting some bubbles for this patient, or if it is not scary for the patient getting a little water gun or spay bottle for her. This may sound silly but my peds instructor said she would do this and have water gun fights with her patients. It helped them to laugh a little and feel more like kids again. Only bad thing was not all the nurses appreciated this and didn't play along. I thought it was a cute idea.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 61 |
Dec 23, 2008, 10:26 PM
Re: My 9 year old patient was raped and required surgery Originally Posted by prmenrs When we deal w/a situation like this, imho, we need to move around our own righteous anger and sadness in order to help the patient. Focus on her--if you're falling apart, weeping, how does that help her? If there's an incident in our past that this little girl reminds us of, deal w/it, but not in front of her.
Social service, psychiatry, child life team should all be involved to help her express and cope w/her feelings. They can provide the emotional support she needs, and support the nursing staff, too. They can give you ideas of activities for her. She needs play time, learning time--time to do something fun and distracting.
Art supplies are good, hand held games, board games if someone can play w/her. The assignments should be arranged to provide her w/"primaries", a team that she sees consistently.
Best wishes.
My God I don't cry and break down in front of her. I leave the room first. I'm doing the best I can.
| | No. 63 |
Dec 23, 2008, 10:40 PM
Re: My 9 year old patient was raped and required surgery Originally Posted by rph3664 If you think this is anything new, it isn't.
I collect old medical books and have a gynecology textbook from 1908. 100 years ago. It has a picture, from the autopsy, of the perineal area of an 8-month-old girl who had been raped and died as a result.  will not be forgotten.
Thanks but unfortunatly I know this isn't anything new. I've lived it. Just the first time I've seen it in another patient. I don't work on a peds floor. Just med/surg. A very small hospital. 100 beds, so this isn't seen here normally. She is our only peds patient on my floor.Just because we are all to well aware of all the evil in this world doesn't mean we can or should we ever get use to it. Sorry not wanting to come off hateful just not dealing well.
| | No. 65 |
Dec 23, 2008, 10:55 PM
Re: My 9 year old patient was raped and required surgery Originally Posted by ssouthernyankee Thanks but unfortunatly I know this isn't anything new. I've lived it. Just the first time I've seen it in another patient. I don't work on a peds floor. Just med/surg. A very small hospital. 100 beds, so this isn't seen here normally. She is our only peds patient on my floor.Just because we are all to well aware of all the evil in this world doesn't mean we can or should we ever get use to it. Sorry not wanting to come off hateful just not dealing well.
I can see where you're coming from. I posted that because a lot of people hear stories like that and think "people these days....." when it's always happened.
Not so many years ago, people would have denied that such a thing COULD happen, or that it only happens to those people, over there.
When I worked in another city, a preschool-aged girl was admitted with some relatively ordinary problem and was discovered to have an STD (I forget exactly what, and it doesn't matter). The Addressograph had the patient's address on it, and someone said, "The ABC Trailer Park. What do you expect?" and I replied, "This is going on in XYZ Wealthy Neighborhood too."
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