Just to reiterate something we all know...
That whoever the patient and whatever they may have please remember to show some compassion and attempt to not "talk over them" about their condition/symptoms to a supervisor or other health practitioner. This applies to both awake, alert, compus patients and those that are critically ill and sedated (some of the patients that I'm treating at the moment).
There are times when we get so focused on what we need to do to pass a placement or so as not to get told off by a supervisor that we forget that we are in the profession of dealing with people.
There is a book I'm told that is written by a patient who had a head injury and can remember from the acute period when no one thought she would live of medical staff "doing things to her" without ever telling her what it was they were doing, or talking about her to other staff in a manner she felt was inappropriate.
Even if the patient looks asleep and is sedated heavily, I still try very had to remember that sometimes the things I may do to them (eg. suctioning) is really not pleasant and that they need reassurance and even just a simple explanation of what's happening. Obviously they can't be involved in the treatment session but at least talk to them...maybe I look like a fool to everyone else talking to my sedated patients but I hate to think if our roles were reversed and it was me on that bed. Hopefully someone would talk to me before doing anything and not just do it (for once the Nike ad is wrong).
3 comments:
Man, to be honest, I only do things I love to do. I do physio because I love my patients . I dont care whether I can pass my placement or not because it is not up to myself (if some supervisor only wants to fail you and they can do it very easily), but it is up to myself what character of physician I want to make, so I treat patient with the best skill that I have and the loving heart inside of me, and I know well that they are the core ingredients of a good physician. I just found that if you have both of these two in you, everything you does before your patient is just. that is my passion. dont care about the placement, dont care about the supervisors. it is you, you are the treating physician, you are the patients' primary contact. you only represent yourself, your character, not your supervisor or whatsoever!Simon
I totally agree, I saw the worst ever example of talking over a patient on my last prac, a consultant walzed in with a team of residents and interns (lietrally abot 8)and poked and prodded at the patient encouraging them all to have a feel and quizing them and didnt even introduce one of them to the patient. He was the only one that spoke to the patient. The juniorsall directed their comments to the consultant. The only explanation given to the patient, who thought he was in hospital for liver problems was "i think you hae got some problems with your ticker". I read in the notes he had end stage liver failue and the Drs suspected his heart was close to failing and given his condiiton they weren't going to treat it. 9 Doctors in the room and not one of these explained it to him. It was really bad, makes me so angry!
I’ve seen this being done so many times whilst on placement, and also as a visitor to friends in hospital. I don’t know if its fear on the physios / student Doctor’s / anyone else’s part, or just a simple not caring. If I’m treating a patient with another student and they start talking to me about anything other than what we’re doing, I’m just as likely to ignore them. I’m not being rude; I’m being considerate to the patient. I believe this is such an important issue, and generally as physio student’s we’re better at it than most professions. As Lisa says I’d much rather get the funny looks when talking to my sedated patient, then not inform them of what’s being done to them.
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