Need help with paper re; Bed Number Ten

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:confused: has anyone had to write a paper on the book called Bed Number ten? I've read the book but having trouble getting started. Can someone help me? I hate writing these darn papers, please help someone.
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What angle does the instructor want you to take on the book? Start with that and make an outline, it should help you get unstuck. That's all I can think to tell you...

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

i haven't read the book, but from the two synopses i read i get the gist of it. it is about the patient's view of the insensitive way she was treated and communicated with (or lack of) when she couldn't speak. go back in your textbook and re-read the part about how we are supposed to treat and interact with patients. is calling a patient "bed number ten" appropriate? is letting the patient hear you refer to them as "bed number ten" appropriate? is the tendency for nurses to objectify patients when there is a lot of technology involved with their care appropriate? i think that is as good a place to start a paper. considering that, what do you think the subject of the paper should be about? respect? empathy? sensitivity?

i worked on a stepdown unit where we had long-term patients on ventilators who were unable to talk. talking is a major means of communication. when people can't talk, nurses have to be sensitive to other methods of communication that might take longer such as the author's (eyelid blinking) or sign language. we had to remember to face them and look at them. i recall a incident with a deaf man who was very angry and having a sign language conversation with an interpreter and a social service worker where he was pounding the bed constantly and red in the face because he was so mad--he couldn't yell because he didn't know how. that was an eye-opener for me--a deaf/mute "yelling" about something. the patience of the two people who were, at that moment, paying attention to him was awesome. never crossed my mind that could happen. sensitivity, i guess, sometimes needs to kick us in the head to get our attention.

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:confused: has anyone had to write a paper on the book called Bed Number ten? I've read the book but having trouble getting started. Can someone help me? I hate writing these darn papers, please help someone.

We had to read it and write about it in Basic Adult Health class. I didn't have trouble writing about it but maybe that is because our instructor gave us a list of questions regarding the book.

I do have to say this, one of our instructors from fundamentals was an ICU nurse and I remembered her talking about how she talked to the patients whether they were "awake" or not. How she told them before she had to insert NG tubes, unlike in the book when she had hers thrust into her throat unaware.

I think ALL nursing students should have to read this before EVER touching patients. It is SO easy to get caught up in the hurry-up-ness of nursing, we ALL have to take a step back and KNOW that whether our patients can communicate or not, they deserve the same treatment as anyone else.

GOOD LUCK on your writing

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I also think that every person wanting to be a nursing or entering nursing school should have to read this book, I thought that it was awsome...I makes you realize what kind of nurse that you do not want to be...My mother in law bought this book because my father in law was diagnosed with Guillane Brae, but he had great nurses in Tyler Texas...In Tylers nursing programs this book in mandatory reading.....

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This book sounds more and more interesting; I'll have to check it out...:D

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I think all nursing students should have to read this, I start nursing school in December and I am so glad that I read this book first....

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

I just heard about it - can't wait to read it!

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The hospital in this book is Houston......You should read it, the book is GREAT.......

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i agree with daytonite's post.

one of the pt's biggest contentions was how she was invisible, ignored and disrespected.

very few of the staff made an attempt to devise a communication system when she could no longer speak.

how would you feel as completely helpless pt whose needs were completely ignored?

that's what this book is about.

an invaluable lesson for all of us.

leslie

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