This week the cath lab sent a patient to the telemetry unit post stent placement who was confused, agitated, and complaining of back pain 9-10/10 and a body temp of 97.1 F.
The cath lab nurse addressed his pain in this manner. "He got as much fentanyl and midazolam as we could give him but he wouldn't lay still." Post procedure orders included ONLY po Vicodin. The nurse was in a hurry to get to the next case in a very busy schedule.
The painful patient reported that he had told the team, when they put him on the table, that the padding under his hips had moved and he was not comfortable. He told them that he had an old lumbar fracture with arthritis and they needed to reposition his hips because he was in increasing pain.
The team responded by saying "you're going to be sleeping anyway" while giving him an IV dose of midazolam. No one repositioned him for comfort, they ignored his request. This patient is a retired RN.
It took the telemetry/ICU team almost 5 hours to obtain a single order for MS 2m IVP which finally provided the poor guy some relief. Not before his poor spouse struggled that entire time to keep her crying, diaphoretic, hypertensive, and painful husband still enough to keep him safe.
Because of his painful agitation the pressure dressings could not be reduced on schedule. 48hour bruising involved all of his anterior lower abdomen, down his inner thigh to just above his knee, his scrotum collected blood, and the floor of his perineum was fully involved.
In my view, this is horrible nursing care and I believe that this patient should complain to the Joint Commission. What do you all think?
