CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Friday, July 18

Rae Coleman

Yesterday I worked with my first "patient." Since Linfield Nursing school is so amazing, they have a "simulation lab" (henceforth known as the SimLab) with very expensive dummies that talk. OK, the dummies don't talk but there is a speaker in their mouths where our professors, who are behind the 2-way mirror, speak into a microphone as though they are the patient.

Yesterday, Beth (fellow member of Team Wild Catheters. . .get it? because we're the wildcats?) and I went into our hospital room (SimLab) and found our patient. Ray Coleman - a 34 y/o construction worker who was getting ready for ACL surgery. Our task was to go in and ask Ray a list of pre-op questions that were given to us. So we enter the room and do everything we've been told to do before getting down to business:

wash hands? check.

introduce ourselves in a professional manner? check.

confirm 2 types of I.D on patient? check.

Problem: the birthday listed on Ray's official hospital wristband does not match the birthday Ray told us was his birthday. The cameras pick up the moment my panic stricken face meets Beth's panic stricken face (yes, we are also being video taped by no less that 5 moveable ceiling cameras strategically placed throughout the room while the rest of Team Wild Catheters watch us in the Debriefing Room.) I believe the length of this look could be described as: an eternity. We never said a word but I'm pretty sure my face said, "oh my gosh, what do we do?" and I'm pretty sure Beth's face answered "I have no clue what to do!"

Several things start running through my mind as I have never been in the SimLab before and we were given no prior instructions: is this just a typo? Did they accidentally put the wrong wrist badge on? Isn't Rae the feminine spelling? Beth says she will go and get the charge (head) nurse. I can only assume she's going to leave the SimLab and go next door to the control room to figure out what the heck is going on.

We have informed Ray of what the problem is and he suggests calling someone. Well, what do you know? there's a phone in the room with a phone number to call the charge nurse. well that's handy. While Beth is calling whoever is on the other end of the line, I try to use my "therapeutic communication" techniques that I've been reading & being taught about. Then I realize it's a lot easier to just be myself and talk to Ray about why he's nervous, what he's most looking forward to doing when his knee is better, etc.

Well, what do you know? In comes the charge nurse. . .our instructor. well that's handy. Beth and I fly through the rest of the interaction: removing Ray's jewelry (nose ring, watch, ring), taking his pulse oximetry (better known as pulse ox on ER), determining he needed oxygen, administering oxygen & applying a nasal cannula. oh yeah. we're good.

Debriefing Room conclusions:
Pro: we caught the error, we called someone's attention to the error, we went for the pulse ox first instead of going straight for the oxygen tube, we "therapeutically communicated" with him
Con: we did not "therapeutically communicate" with him soon enough

Next up: BP clinic at the old folks home!

0 comments: