Right thing? personal opinions needed.

[ejm99]

I'm not a nurse but do have a yr of nursing school under my belt.

My brother and his wife recently had a baby...both parents are deaf due to childhood illness (so that wasn't a concern w/ the baby).

My sil ended up having a CS because she was overdue... she had an interpreter there at the hospital the entire time.

Mom and baby did fine....but I saw her later that day and she looked like HELL.

I was concerned...very concerned. She didn't understand her pain med pump and hadn't been using it...afraid she would od herself...she was asking me all kinds of questions like if she would still bleed etc... BASIC CS aftercare and in my opinion the nursing staff TOTALLY dropped the ball. I was LIVID when she started crying because she hurt so much and no one had bothered to explain the med pump or it's limitations to her. It was as though they thought because she couldn't HEAR she didn't need to know this stuff!

Then the interpreter, her best friend (a hearing girl) said that one nurse yelled at her for not LOOKING at her when she spoke while interpretiting something she was saying in relation to her care...uh...it's the patient that can read lips...the interpeter can HEAR...

I went out to the nursing station and read the riot act....I was NICE but FIRM in a rather ICY way.... that if they weren't sure she understood what they were saying they were to present it in WRITTING...one nurse actually said "she can READ?"

GOOD LORD!

Well she went home on Monday....still looking and feeling like hell.

I went to take her and the baby to the peds on Tues because he needed to checked for jaundice.

She cried from the minute I picked her up til I brought them home....

the ped dr took me aside and said if mom wasn't doing better in the next 2 days she needed to follow up w/ her OB and to watch for signs of infection.

So I went back the next day to take the baby for the comparitive bloodwork and she seemed so much worse that I called her dr.

OB said take her to the ER....

so I took baby to do bloodwork and my brother (who I called home from work) took her to the ER.

Sure enough INFECTION. It seems that someone didn't give her a script for antibiotics on release...

I mean I know how awful those nurses were w/ her and think someone didn't do their job....the OB swears up and down that she SHOULD have been given one on release...and that's just standard for her patients....

I am SO mad....and so is my brother and his wife....she ended up admitted and put on IV antibiotics for another 4 days...while her baby stayed with us.

Talk about traumatic for EVERYONE..my poor dh just about had a coronary when I called and told him to come home early I needed an extra pair of hands since we now had 3 kids AND a newborn to care for! (I truly didn't mind...but it was so unexpected it made my house total chaos).

The ped bless her, called me to check up on them both and was FURIOUS when she found out how she'd been treated in the hospital and instituted a new policy about WRITTEN communication for the hearing impaired in her office (she is her first deaf parent )....to be sure that nothing like this happens w/ the baby.

I saw her the other day and she's doing great now but is very regretful that she wasn't more vocal about her care and the baby's care in the hospital and lost those beginning precious days w/ her new son due to her readdmission because of the hospital's mistake.

So....was there anything else I could have done?

I walked away from the nursing station that day feeling like they had a better understanding of her special needs....but apparently not.

[BabyRN2Be]

I'm really outraged at what happened. I have a B.S. in speech-language pathology and was working on deaf ed minor until the "Early Childhood Intervention" minor came along. I've known Exact English all my life, but feel that I could communicate with ASL if I had to as a last ditch attempt.

Because of my background (my best friend in grade school was profoundly deaf) I'm very sensitive to the needs of the hearing impaired and my hospital has my number in case someone comes in needing an interpreter at an odd hour, especially in L&D.

It does sounds like some bad nursing took place (in my un-nursing educated opinion - that will change soon :)) regardless of the fact that she was hearing impaired. Not being given the script, nor explained the possible symptoms of infection.

I feel really bad that she missed the first precious days with her newborn.

Katherine

[CatskillsRN]

Also, I recommend that people be careful about the use of friends and/or family as interpreters. The friend may not be sufficiently knowledgable to interpret some of the medical concepts well. Also, it may distort the natural relationship that does or should exist between the deaf patient and his/her friend or family member. It may be a violation of privacy to disclose the information. While the deaf patient may consent to the disclosure, he may give the consent because he feels he has little choice. A neutral, professional should be used whenever possible -- one that is familiar with medical terms and accustomed to giving and receiving medical information.

llg

Hello!!

As a mom of a profundly Deaf man (21 yrold) :rolleyes:and as an healthcare provider (RN, DOula, SNM) I have seen a lot od these situations,and from both sides as well.

We all sign at home but I have been surprised sometimes by the lack of understanding and awareness from the healthcare sytem of the needs and of the differences of the Deaf community.

I am trying to get a better fluency in ASL in order to get closer to my pts and I have seen some MW doulas RN following the same trend. The ideal is of course being fluent in ASL in order to communicate concepts and not only translating verbatim. Sometimes Clients will not even understand what the procedure is, or what the purpose of the procedure will be.

There is an association in Az who is trying to provide OB and MW care with professionals trained to work with the Deaf community, I know a CNM in NYS (she is also a certified ASL interpreter) who was giving Childbirth Education to Deaf women in NYC at Seton Birthing center before it closed.

I am very proud to say that her and i will be giving a class awareness about Mw profession in a NY deaf school to HS students and she will tlak about her work.

I think that whoever has the most remote connection with the deaf community (ASL or not) should really think about starting creating individual or associative connections with some additional training in order to serve the deaf and HOH population. We need you! :uhoh21:

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

I have a large hearing loss, but speak fine since I lost my hearing after the age of 40. I see this happen over and over again in the hospital. Oddly enough, I learned ASL before I became HoH, which came in handy. I think all the advice is good and I would urge you to continue instructing the hospital. They obviously need the help. The Deaf are dismissed in so many ways and treated as subhuman. You can do something about this.

On CODAs: Sometimes I have to keep my 12 year old daughter or my 8 year old son home to make phone calls for me. You wouldn't believe how many places don't make any accomodation for the deaf. I have a favourite Canadian band and go to alot of their concerts. We were told we couldn't have an interpreter or stand close to the stage because if they made provision for us, then they'd have to make a "special effort for the blind and people in wheelchairs and normal people wouldn't have a chance at all." Yes, this was said to our faces by the band stage manager.