I need your help. During a meeting with my Clinical AdvisorI was brated for a writing a paragraph in one of my reflections.
I wrote about a violent patient that I had one night that was admitted. He had to be placed in 5 point restraints and was trying to bite and spit on us.
I wrote that I preceived the expsure of salva, to be a risk to the staff and that I had asked my nursing preceptor if it was appropriate to put a OR mask on him. My preceptor said that it was not the policy and I fully accepted this. It was an aside comment to her and I made no attempt to do this.
My Adivior told me that I was completely out of place to even ask this. she state that salvia pose absolutely no risk to us and even thinking up such a thing meant that there is something fundamental wrong with my thinking and perceptions. Since i am not able to judge the risks I put the patient in danger. I told her that I did not accucually put the mask on the patient I only asked the nurse about it and as a student its my role to ask questions. I also repeated that this is my first mental health rotation.
I told her that I in fact do feel that the pt salvia posed a risk for infections like Hep B, herpes, conjuctaivsis and more. Espesically if it came in contact with my eyes or an open wound. She said that no such risk exisits and that my ability to realistically assess risk is suspect.
She then told me that under no curcumstance do we ever put anything on a pts face except a O2 mask. While this I can accept, am I not allowed to ask question as a student?
She then told me that my entire topic (violence in the workplace) was of concern to her as it is not a typical focus of a mentally stable student.
I felt like I had been hit in the stomach, all i could do was nod and hope this meeting ended asap. she says that I may fail if she doesnt feel that I can practice safely.
What I need to know was I out to lunch for (1) considering that spit exposure puts a person at risk, (2) asking a nurse the question about the OR mask, (3) choosing my topic.
or is my preception so outside the norm that I do in fact pose a threat to my patients.
