Being the pt.

fergus51 · Feb 27, 2001

I know it is mean, but I was glad when one of our staff nurses had to have surgery on her knee. She is one of those judgmental misinformed nurses who thinks that pts always overate their pain and are drug seeking. Man! Was the shoe on the other foot when she was a pt!! Poetic justice... She has become much more sensitive to client's pain.

I became much more sensitive to little things like modesty. I can relate to women who have to have a catherter put in when those damn curtains swing open half the time. I was so stressed that I can really appreciate a pt's anxiety.

bestblondRN · Feb 27, 2001

I have had several experiences as a patient ranging from excellent to very poor. The best experience I had was in January when I was admitted through the ER of my local community hospital to their telemetry unit at the main hospital 13 miles away. In both settings, the staff were attentive, kind, and kept me well-informed of things as they occurred. I would also add that the hospital experience was "seamless"--no time delays, no waiting for the call light to be answered, and everything done very efficiently. The nurses told me that the patient loads were reasonable and that they enjoyed working there. On the other hand, the worst experience I had was in my own hospital 15 years ago, when I was admitted for viral meningitis. I was sent to a surgical unit instead of neuro, which may have had something to do with it, but I waited long periods of time for medication, call lights, etc. I also found out that I was supposed to have an IV, since I was dehydrated and unable to keep anything down. In the 5 days I was hospitalized, no one started one, and I was essentially NPO for about 4 days of that time--lost 13 pounds! The icing on the cake was when I was in the bathroom, bent over the toilet, unable to move from the nuchal rigidity and wretching, and called for the nurse for an anti-emetic. She wandered in about 10 minutes later and said, "What do you need?". I told her and she came back about 5 minutes later, said, "This is gonna' burn a little" as she injected 10 mg. of Compazine into my gluteus. She turned and left the room and was not to be seen or heard from again that shift. Mind you, I was still standing over the toilet at a 90 degree angle feeling like my head was going to explode! I put the call light on again and the LPN came in and helped me back to bed. I left the hospital that time with no discharge instructions, a prescription for Tylenol #3, and my father to accompany me to the car. Shortly after that experience, the hospital developed a patient-centered model of care, and it became a much more patient-friendly environment, thank God!

swmn · Feb 27, 2001

Excellent question. My mom had a colonoscopy on my unit while I was still in orientation on my first endo job. I did not actually participate in the case, but I saw her both before and after.

I know what she is "like" in real life, seeing how tired and dehydrated she looked before the case was a big clue to how "draining" a colon prep can be. She did not look much better after the case, until she was awake enough to take some fluids. She really enjoyed a simple glass of 7-up, even commented weeks later what a relief it was. Getting PO fluids to patients in recovery has been one of my highest priorities ever since.

iamme457 · Feb 27, 2001

Most of my in-hospital experience was acceptable. My first big stay I dont really remember as it was shortly after birth, back in the 50's you stayed in the hospital for about a week. The next one was at about 5 years old, not much memory of that except the stinky smell of the anesthesia gas...god whenever I smell that type of odor I almost puke; that stay was acute appendicitis, ruptured before they got me to the OR...I was told I was asystole for a short period more than once. I was a scared little kid then and family stayed in the room with me throughout the whole hospital stay.

The more recent ones were as a teen, 15, fractured skull and in a coma for about 10 days. The nurses were kinda indifferent to someone not responding to them...yeh I could hear....my IV infiltrated and my arm was still sore when I went home a few days after. My most memorable stay was after 15 hours of labor followed by an emergency c-section. Exhausted and just minding my own business in the recovery room,(sleeping) a large blunt nurse chose to palpate my uterus without warning and was surprised with me sitting straight up on the carriage and grabbing her forearm and firmly planting ALL MY TEETH, yes I drew blood. Needless to say I got a different nurse for the remainder of my stay there. Oh and yes I told that story to the nurses after my next two c-sections. They laughed at reading the notes but never told me what was actually documented. I had all 3 kids in same hospital but never worked in that one so I have not a clue to what the "palpator" wrote.

Yes this gives me a patients point of view, I like to really listen to what my patients say and I believe them. I try to get them involved in a solution to what is bothering them, usually it is just the lack of control over what the heck is happening to them that is the real problem.

Put on the pith helmets: venting gonna happen

Why the hell cant we take the time to really listen to our patients? Money is the big issue, someone dosent get enough of it or someone dosent have enough of it. We are talking human lives and mostly human mental health, we are messing up so many people in the hospital. They trust the hospitals to cure them not like it was in the 40's and 50's when you went to the hospital to die. Now you once again go to the hospital to die. What have we gained?

Obituaries will read: Died clutching call light, bedpan fixed to buttocks, rigormortis set in before staff was able to respond....Staffing was one RN one LPN and 2.5 aids to 268 residents/patients.

The judge reads the verdict, death by health care reform....Uhhhh...not sure who to convict or what to sentence them to.......seems no one is taking responsibility for this mess. Hummm must be a mistrial.

And life goes on, with fewer ob units to have those babies in, so more midwives...

Deanna