Have u ever??

[marielina85]

Has anybody ever had a bad expierience in a hospital setting that made you never wanna treat someone the way you were treated???Well i was and let me tell ya it was horrible.I was about halfway done with lvn school and i had a car accident that landed me in the er.I just remember waking up in the er not knowing what the hell happened and why i was there.I remembered being on the road and driving but thats all i could remember and next i wake up in the er.Anyways long story short i asked the er nurse what had happened and why was i here?She told me i had had a car accident.I remembered my sister was in the car with me so i asked the nurse where she was and if she was ok.She then proceeded to ignore me and i kept askin her because i mean come on i didnt know if she was alive or dead.She then told me that there were more important people there that were more important than what i wanted.So then i proceeded to ball my eyes out till she told me where she was at.I understand the er is a busy place But wow could it have killed her to take 2 min to go find out where she was at????man that was coldhearted and since that point i vowed to hopefully never ever treat any of my pts like that and i hope i follow through as long as im a nurse.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I was in the hospital with the stomach flu once puking my brains out and having severe diarrhea. I was very dehydrated in the ER, quite hypokalemic, and very orthostatic. When I was admitted I got put on a telemetry unit. My room mate was an 80 year old women s/p pacemaker placement. She needed assistance to the bathroom. She would ring and ring and ring and no one would come. Finally I would take her. We were both having output measured. No one ever came and dumped the hats in the bathroom, though, so when I had to go have more diarrhea I had to first dump the other lady's urine before I could use the bathroom. It was disgusting to me sharing a bathroom with a stranger while I was having so much diarrhea. I see now how messy some of my patient's bathrooms and commodes get and it's even grosser to me. Ugh.

On that same admission my father was visiting and the nurse told her she had to work with me now, so he better go F-off. Honest to God. Same nurse told me she had to do a rectal temp on me. I refused and she asked me why I even bothered coming to the hospital if I was just going to refuse care. Uhm, I'm gonna be febrile whether you take it orally or tymponically or rectally. I have a fever.

Same hospital visit I was admitted with n/v/d and the admitting doctor had nothing ordered for me for nausea. What the heck? The same jerk nurse got zofran ordered quickly though. +1 for her.

The same visit I told the nurse I felt my blood sugar was low. She told me it had just been tested 4 hours ago, it can't have changed that much.

To be fair, I had a second stay at this hospital about a year later. I had a private room that time. The visit was longer, but the nursing care I received was excellent. I had no complaints that time. I was on their cardiac step down unit (for no reason other than bed availability), so perhaps the staffing was better?

Another ER visit I had suffered a traumatic head injury. I was backboarded. The entire ambulance ride in I was vomiting and the medics kept having to log roll me to puke in a bedpan. Good times. I got to the ER at the area trauma center. The medics told the doctor I had been vomiting. They put me in a room by myself, still backboarded, no call light or anything. I was terrified I would vomit and aspirate.

[canigraduate]

HOLY CRAP!! I am NEVER staying in the hospital as a patient by myself. EVER. (If I have a choice, anyway.) Yikes.

[creating_wellness]

Oh yeah. Good times.

When I had knee surgery several years ago, I was very comforted by the gentle, kind, patient understanding and care I received. Two thumbs up. Inspires me to this day. I definitely can relate to anyone who has bladder distention from being unable to void post spinal anesthesia; it's the weirdest feeling. And oh, the pain after knee surgery.... oi. Deep deep bone pain, shooting up and down the leg. And the fun of taking all the scheduled Vicodin you can but then puking it all up.

Then, recently I had an IUD inserted by a woman who, as she introduced herself, closed her eyes when she shook my hand, then proceeded to say that she suspected I could have gonorrhea/chlamydia because the test wasn't done immediately beforehand (hellloooo lady, how about asking about my sexual history first, rather than jump to conclusions... maybe asking a few questions would have made me feel comfortable enough to tell you that I had a full STD workup after I was raped a few years ago, and have since not been exposed to risk... you'd think a practitioner about to do an invasive procedure like that would establish trust first. You'd think.) She redeemed herself because she went slowly, described what she was doing before doing it, and asked if I was okay. And, she wrote a cute prescription to be "spoiled rotten" and an Rx for a hot fudge sundae, "walnuts p.r.n." So it wasn't completely horrible. But, I wish she had looked me in the eyes and asked "do you have any history of trauma I should be aware of before beginning this procedure?"

(oh, to clarify: we decided to go ahead with the IUD placement, and to also do the G&C workup, and that she would follow up if there was a positive result.)

Remember, when you are out in the world practicing, that there are many women (AND men) who have survived sexual assault as adults or as children, but still carry some triggers and psychological wounds with them. Do not assume. It is okay to ask directly. It shows that you are open to discussing the information as it may relate to their care. I kinda wish I had spoken up to this practitioner and told her my history, but the urge to just get it over with was stronger. I never mentioned I was a nurse, either. I'm not angry at this practitioner, really; because how could she have known that was something I needed if I never spoke up?

I guess my point is this: Especially in the realm of reproductive health care, let's work together to grow awareness of traumatic sexual histories and how they can impact patients during intimate/invasive procedures.