I need to vent about my shift last night. I am still upset after 10 hours. I had a patient who had posterior neck surgery, an older woman who was in a lot of pain. When I came on she was complaining of pain 9/10 and was crying and screaming for help. Patient refused to move because of pain. Through the night I gave her every medication possible to help...around the clock Dilaudid, breakthrough Dilauddid, Codeine, and Flexeril. That was all the pain specialty MD had ordered. When I checked her just before report her pain was a 3/10 and she said she felt a lot better and had slept some.
Her daughter comes in and is furious that I have given her this much medication. No vital sign changes and no mental status changes. Daughter states she is very concerned with the type of care her mother is receiving and is seriously considering transferring her to another facility (fine with us). Even though the patient is competant to make decisions the daughter is power of attorney and has taken over.
After explaining the pain scale and what our goals were for managing pain the daughter still was upset and there was nothing I could do to make her happy so I stopped trying. Here I was, all happy that I had helped my patient and achieved my goal and she has the nerve to be upset. I busted my butt for the patient, how dare she say that she is concerned about the care the patient is receiving? What is wrong with some people?
Thanks for listening, my family doesn't understand my frustration.
