Interesting blog Describes view from family's eyes

Published

Interesting reading from a blog set up by the family member of man with a tramatic brain injury from an MVA. The views and opinions shows how proper communication with family's, especially highly involved family's is so important.

http://prayforkevin.blogspot.com/2009_08_16_archive.html

They will have him back at the hospital within 36 hours. I've lived through cases like this and have seen it happen.

So they are now removing comments they don't like. Guess a nurse responded?

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

One comment in the blog that stuck out to me (from an early post) was about a bm...stating that it must have occurred when he was being bathed, because the family didn't know about it.

Um...maybe it's because I don't work in ICU (there may be a "ha" in there...), but to tell a family about every bm a patient has? Seems a little much. Posting online about every BM a patient has seems a little much, too. I have no problem with an online blog being available to keep family in the loop, I think that part is great, but that is TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

I have not read enough to comment further at this point.

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Specializes in Acute Care.

I read about two pages... I mean, I feel horrible for the patient and family, I really do. But this is like an extreme form of "reporter syndrome." Not only are they writing every little thing down, they are posting it on an open-access blog. Updating friends/family I can understand, but telling everyone who comes across it the last time the patient had a BM? Jeez!

Plus, how intimidating/threatening/demoralizing is this for the staff? If all these things are bothering them, maybe TALK DIRECTLY to the staff. Put the keyboard down, set up a care plan, get a clue, see the other critically ill patients the nurse has to care for!

I'm stopping now...

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.
I read about two pages... I mean, I feel horrible for the patient and family, I really do. But this is like an extreme form of "reporter syndrome." Not only are they writing every little thing down, they are posting it on an open-access blog. Updating friends/family I can understand, but telling everyone who comes across it the last time the patient had a BM? Jeez!

Plus, how intimidating/threatening/demoralizing is this for the staff? If all these things are bothering them, maybe TALK DIRECTLY to the staff. Put the keyboard down, set up a care plan, get a clue, see the other critically ill patients the nurse has to care for!

I'm stopping now...

I agree ... I only skimmed the blog very briefly but came away feeling that 1) the patient Kevin's privacy has been violated beyond repair and 2) that this blog is not about Kevin, but about "look what we're going through" attention seeking. It's a reality show, rehab style.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I agree ... I only skimmed the blog very briefly but came away feeling that 1) the patient Kevin's privacy has been violated beyond repair and 2) that this blog is not about Kevin, but about "look what we're going through" attention seeking. It's a reality show, rehab style.

I agree wholeheartedly with both of these statements. I understand the need to vent, but feel badly that the patient has no choice but to have very private details aired for the world to see, and that is sad to me. :(

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

I step off the elevator and walk toward the report room to get my assignment, grateful for the few minutes I have to sip my coffee and take some calming breaths before I hit the floor.

I've taken report from the previous RN, and I'm filling out my report sheet. As I scan the MAR, I see that the patient in room 110 has hourly eye ointment. I blink, thinking this must be a mistake. No hospitalist in his or her right mind orders hourly ANYTHING. No, it's not a mistake. There it is, plain as day, and the previous RN, who has already reported off and left, did not chart on the 3pm dose, which technically, they are responsible for, and it's now 3:30. Great. And the charge nurse is handing me an admission slip for a new patient from the cath lab, and there is a family member hovering at the nurses' station already. I haven't even looked up labs yet, and already it has begun.

Reluctantly I look up and ask "Can I help you?"

"Um yeah, my brother in law needs his eye ointment. It was due at three."

Ah, this must be family for 110. "I'll be in there in a few minutes." I tell them, hoping this will appease them.

"The ointment was due at three, and it's now 3:30. The doctor said he would have to sew his eye shut if he didn't get the eye ointment every hour...."

Even though I still don't have labs on two of my patients and my fourth one is coming at any moment, I exit out of the computer, stand up, and go to room 110 to give the eye ointment.

I enter the room, and there are no less than four family members sitting there, all watching me. I introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm Virgo_RN, and I'll be Kevin's nurse tonight." as I open the med drawer and start digging through the mass of empty medication bags to find the ointment.

Silence.

"That must be the same gown Kevin was wearing this morning. I don't think he ever got his bath...." says a well-dressed middle aged woman tersely.

"Hi Kevin, I'm going to put ointment in your eye now." I tell him, as I get the tube ready. As I put in the ointment, touching him gently and assessing his LOC, he is looking me in the eye, and I smile at him. I float his heels and fluff his pillow, straighten out his blankets and give him one last gentle touch on the shoulder before making my way to the door...just then my phone rings. My new patient is here.

It's four thirty and I've just tucked in my new patient, performed my admission assessment and started on the medication reconciliation process, and I've still go two more patients that I have no lab values for and still have not laid eyes on. Thank GOD they pulled the sheath on my new patient while he was still down in the cath lab!!!!! I'm leaving my new admit's room, and there, in the hallway, is Kevin's brother in law, looking around frantically. Dammit, he spotted me before I could get into my next patient's room.

"Kevin needs his eye drops" he says "and I think he needs to have a BM."

"Okay" I quip cheerfully, as I head toward Kevin's room and call my CNA on their phone. The phone rings four times, then is answered by the ward clerk. Dammit, the CNA's got her phone turned off again!!!! I go into Kevin's room, pull out the eye drops, administer them, then tell the four people sitting there that since I need help to get Kevin to the BSC, I'll be right back. Not a single one offers to help. They all stand up and leave the room, magnanimously offering to "get out of your way" so "you can do your job."

I walk up and down the hall, peering into rooms to find my CNA to help me. Another RN sees me looking around and asks if I need help. "Yes," I say. "I need help getting 110 to the BSC."

It's now 1700 and I've completed assessments on Kevin and my new admit, but have not documented them, and I still have two patients I have not seen. I have *got* to get in those rooms and at least make sure they're still breathing!

Out of the corner of my eye, as I lightly rap on the door and enter room 112, I see someone coming out of 110. Before they can flag me down, I dart quickly into 112.

112 is an elderly confused woman with a UTI who is incontinent. The daughter, who sits dutifully at the bedside, is clearly upset. It appears that Mom's water pitcher has been bone dry for three hours, and Mom has been stewing in her own urine for longer than that. Apologetically, I change Mom (all by myself, because it's faster than tracking down a CNA), do a rapid assessment, fetch her some ice water, find out she does not like ice in her water so I dump out the ice and refill the pitcher with plain water, fetch some blankets, float her heels, put her SCDs back on, empty the sanipan, change the names on the white board, oh, and the CNA did not get vitals, so I have to do that, and it looks like she had a dose of Lasix due at 1600, and I haven't looked up her K+ level yet....thank goodness her potassium is good. I give her the Lasix and dart out the door to do my assessment on 113. It's nearly six pm and I'm really hungry and have to pee. Oh crap, I have to go give eye ointment in 110, and the new admit in 111 has orders for fluids, and the family has questions.

I run into 110 to give the eye ointment, family at the bedside stone cold silent and glaring at me, then run to 113 to do my assessment. I go to hang fluids on my new admit only to find out we do not stock that fluid on the unit, so I have to call distribution. Distribution does not have it, so I have to call the main pharmacy. It's now 6:30pm. Thank goodness 113 has no family members, no meds due, and is content to wait for their dinner tray to come.

It's 1845 and I'm just sitting down to chart my assessments. My blood sugar is in the toilet and I'm shaking. My bladder is full, but if I can just do my charting, I can go to the bathroom!

There it is. That feeling. It's the feeling you get when there is a family member hovering at the nurses' station. Before I even look up, I know Kevin's brother in law is there. Sigh.

"Can I help you?"

"He needs his eye ointment."

"I'll be there in a few minutes..."

Damn, he's still there. "They were due at five o clock....it's six forty five."

I stand up and go to Kevin's room. As I enter, I am almost knocked over by the aroma of McDonald's french fries. Stomach gurgling, shaky and nearly faint, I give the eye drops. "Those fries really smell good." I comment, as the family members munch away at their fries.

"His tube feeding is due at seven." one of the family members states as he licks the salty french fry grease from his fingertips, "and the last nurse was two and half hours late, and the feeding tube was left open and he had tube feeding all over his gown."

"Yeah, I'll be back in a little bit to do that" I state. I head straight to the patient pantry and grab a handful of graham crackers and a couple of servings of peanut butter. My bladder is bursting, so I stop in the bathroom on my way back to the nurses' station. I'm so hungry, I tear open a pack of graham crackers and stuff them in my mouth as I sit on the toilet peeing.

Just then, my phone rings. The sound is so loud and startling that I am nearly knocked off the toilet. I look at the number, and it is unfamiliar. It could be a doctor calling to check on a patient or give orders, so I answer, dry graham cracker sticking to the roof of my mouth.

"Hello, I'm wondering why Mom isn't answering her phone." says the voice on the other end.

I wipe myself and flush the toilet while holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder, stand up and pull up my scrubs, and ask "Who is Mom?".

"Bessie Smith in room 112" the voice says, in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Well, dinner trays were served a little while ago, and she was sitting in her chair watching the news last time I was in there" I state, as I wash my hands.

"Well, she's not answering her phone. Can you go in there and look and make sure she can reach it?"

As I leave the bathroom, phone to my ear and uneaten peanut butter stuffed in my pockets, for the first time all evening, the CNA approaches me. "Your new patient needs something for pain. I'm going to dinner!" she says, as she bounces down the hall past no less than three call lights.....

....to be continued....

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Virgo, Fantastic. I love you, can I buy you coffee, bear your children, empty your leg bag????

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Virgo, Fantastic. I love you, can I buy you coffee, bear your children, empty your leg bag????

**Snort**

Just sprayed Diet Pepsi all over my laptop.

You're awesome, Fiona!:yeah:

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Virgo....LOL!!!!!! I wish I had the courage to post that in the messages section of Kevins blog...Mean I know...but god that was so funny and such an accurate(sp) view of what we nurses go through. Kudos to you!

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Specializes in Oncology.

Lol Virgo! You missed one part, though.

"Just as I realized I was never going to leave on time, and hoped to manage to get all of my charting done quickly and only stay an hour late, the supervisor came up and told me I was being mandated to work a double."

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
Lol Virgo! You missed one part, though.

"Just as I realized I was never going to leave on time, and hoped to manage to get all of my charting done quickly and only stay an hour late, the supervisor came up and told me I was being mandated to work a double."

Hey, it's "to be continued"! You guys are welcome to add to it!

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Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.

Virgo that should be the post of the year!:yeah:

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