and yes, J, it did end. was much busier than last time. only had time for lunch and dinner and for the last few hours, my partner got called into theatre and i was left by myself to look after the approx 300-400 surgical patients. but it was overall not a bad shift. chest pain, haemoptysis, bleeding tracheostomy site were the only big problems. And every time i entered my ward (ie orthopaedics), i have this distinct sense of "homecoming". This is MY ward. MY patients. (most of) the nurses are great and everything's in order!
realising these days that while sometimes i can be very patient with um...patients, other times some of them reall get me on my nerves. eg this one patient, whom i had to see, although i knew she was perfectly stable & there's absolutely no issues, because my consultant asked me to make sure that i at least cast an eye over each of our patients on a daily basis (since usually he and the registrars don't have the time to). So, this young (ie under 60yo) patient had been waiting 2 days for closed reduction of a Colles fracture. I went to see her quite reluctantly knowing there'd be trouble cos the day before we spent a whole hour getting an informed consent (from her for the procedure) thru a phone interpreter and a patient's representative(!!). A WHOLE HOUR!!!! I don't have the time for that sort of things! It turned out this way because she started complaining that my boss was trying to scare her by telling her that there's a small risk of her feeling some pain even though she will be under GA. (of course, my boss only did so for medical-legal reasons).
Anyway, so i paid her my obligatory visit and as soon as i asked how she was, she starting crying and getting very agitated. "Why are you doing this to me! It's not fair! I've been here 3 days! I am in so much pain..." refused to hear my explanation for the delay for theatre and accept offer for more analgesia. Said she would die because her BP's 160 but would not take any antihypertensive. and she's supposed to be NES!!!
I know that i am impatient by nature and that i should make effort to try to change but..Arhhhh!!!! Some patients must think they are the only patient under our care and when we are not there chatting with them we are off having coffee or reading the paper with our legs on the table!! But medical work's mostly "behind-the-scene". In surgery, we spend at most 5 minutes with each patient in a day. when we are not physically at patients' bedside, we are checking their blood/urine/wound swab/X-rays/CT/MRI/US/whatnot results, ordering more tests, calling up their GPs/other specialists/family, calling up the social worker/PT/OT/speech path, planning & discussing their management, documenting, attending educational sessions to constantly update our medical knowledge so that we are improving our patient care, etc, etc.
sorry, i know the above's not very encouraging but i had to let it out.
posted by zhinger @ 8:44 am
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