they're still human...

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:20 pm

one of my patients this past week is basically comatose and another student nurse decided that talking about the patient as if they weren't in the room was ok... when i gave her an incredulous look because of how she was acting around the patient, she called me a bitch as we were moving my patient up in bed...

this isn't the first time that she's been disrespectful to a patient... she constantly says disrespectful things in front of conscious patients... they're little things, but they build up and build up... yesterday was just the breaking point... thankfully, i didn't make a scene and do something that would get me kicked out of the program here... i just took a much-needed time out instead...

it bothers me so much that some people assume that just because someone is medically unresponsive it means that they can treat them with less respect than any other human being... maybe i'm just too sensitive about this, but all patients deserve the same level of human dignity of any other patient and to be treated as if they know everything that is going on in the room...

and, yes, i've brought this to the attention of our clinical professor through an e-mail... i included a nursing journal article with the e-mail which supported my argument for how to treat comatose or semicomatose patients... if you'd like to read the article, let me know and i'll send you the pdf... anywho, we have a meeting on our next clinical day for the three of us to discuss this whole issue...

Lifeless Reject Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 3734

I'm confused. Is this like talking about them in the third person; the way medical professionals do when they talk about a person's case/symptoms while they are standing in front of a patient?

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:41 pm

I don't see the point of going into healthcare if you don't have respect for the patients.

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:56 pm

talking about the patient as if they're not in the room... doctors and residents will do that constantly... nurses shouldn't... a nurse's job is to be a patient advocate and to work with the patient... it's a more patient-oriented job than a medically- or illness-oriented job...

if you've ever experienced doctors and other medical professionals talk about you while you're in the room, you know you don't like it... now make yourself immobile, mute, and blind... so now you are being treated not as a human being but as a specimen and you can't do jack shit about it...

Lifeless Reject Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 3734

I don't mind it actually, but mostly because it doesn't happen often. I chalk it up to those in the medical profession keeping separation from their patients in order to keep feelings and their job separate. Keeps from clouding judgement.

I understand the point you are trying to make, but I think you both reacted a bit harshly. I can't say that I would have reacted properly if I had been around patients for a good, long time; as you obviously are in the program. Being around people in worst-case scenarios (more or less) all the time ends up getting to you, especially when you start empathizing.

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:48 pm

it's not about empathizing... it's about respect and dignity...

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 5:26 pm

Uty wrote:

I don't see the point of going into healthcare if you don't have respect for the patients.

Then DEFINITELY stay away from nursing homes of any kind. Sad

Lifeless Reject Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 2046

Actually, I tend to like the idea of not saying anything when people aren't around that you wouldn't say if they were around. Then it wouldn't matter if they could hear you or not.

Sadly I've met a number of people in health services have LITTLE respect for the people they're caring for. I think some just turn numb to pain and suffering when they're around it too much.

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2006 11:44 pm

chickiepie wrote:

Actually, I tend to like the idea of not saying anything when people aren't around that you wouldn't say if they were around. Then it wouldn't matter if they could hear you or not.

i like the idea, it's just not usually put into practice... and by not usually i mean rarely...

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:45 pm

update on my patient: she's awake and alert as of today... funny how things work out isn't it?

Lifeless Reject Joined: 09 May 2003 Posts: 3734

What was she in a coma/paralyzed/otherwise incapacitated from?

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:10 pm

i'm not sure...even though she's diabetic, her blood glucose level was within normal limits... so it wasn't a diabetic coma... so basically, i'm not quite sure because she wasn't my patient today...