When I stepped behind the curtain there were wires everywhere! It’s not that I wasn’t expecting a lot of attachments, as I had read the patient’s notes and was aware of his case. My mind began to boggle as to where I would begin to untangle the various leads and cords:
Telemetry
O2 with humidification
IDC
ICC basal and apical
Central line
Pacing wires
BP cuff
Sats monitor
Intramuscular line for pain
DVT prophylactic pump
We were planning on helping the patient move from their bed to a chair following a pneumonectomy – so simple I know! I knew that everything had to be on one side of the bed, so I began to arrange things accordingly, but I was slow and hesitant while trying to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong. Everything was going fine, but I haven’t seen DVT pumps before so I asked the accompanying physio (not my supervisor) what I should do? The patient could see I was not completely sure of myself, and it was extremely uncomfortable as the physio gave me a very simple and obvious reason for being able to remove the cuffs. I felt like a complete idiot and it was obvious that the patient thought I didn’t know what I was doing.
I felt like saying to the patient, “don’t let my lack of experience fool you to thinking I have an absence of knowledge”. Any tips to avoid looking dumb in such a situation?
Mike
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3 comments:
Hi Mike,
Although I am now well at home with drips and drains this was not always the case. Here are a few simple rules to simplify the situation - if it is stuck inside the patient ie such as an IV canula, IDC or pacing wires, take extra care not to remove!!! (very messy and depending on the patient could amount to a lot of paperwork). Anything stuck remotely near the heart, also best left alone because this often leads to extremely annoying alarms with too many buttons to chose from when trying to silence them (just a hint - it is often bright yellow one and on newer machines look for the red flashing light)!!! :) Everything else can pretty much be removed when transfering a patient for a couple of minutes. OK, being serious now, all you really have to do is fake it!!!!! Patients have no idea what you really do and dont know. I perfected this skill in my first year as a graduate nurse and can now successfully argue that blue is yellow. If you're not sure, just excuse yourself from the room for a sec and go find a friendly looking nurse (preferably one not running around like a headless chicken) and they should be able to help you out. Take every opportunity to suck up to the nursing staff - your life on the ward will be heaps more fun and a whole lot less daunting!!!! Hope it helps :)
i would like to hear that argument leah!
Hey mike,
When you're not sure about something, perfect the art of b******t. Just look in their obs chart or something and pretend in a confident manner that there's something you need to check at the nursing station, ie. telemetry is perfect. Then just check, and walk back confidently as if nothing is wrong and you knew all along. I also fully agree with leah and others who have said to get on the good side of the nurses, they are an indespensible bastion of knowledge to a petrified physio student...
Hope you're enjoying cardio :)
Neil
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