Professional Practice
Hi guys,
During my first week of Prac I had an incident that I think you guys would like to hear about. I had completed a PT session with a client; I transferred him back into his wheelchair and was putting all the parts of the wheelchair back on it. I picked up the footplate and while handling it I grabbed onto the calf pad which isn’t actually attached to the footplate and the footplate dropped out of my hand onto the pt’s hemiplegic foot, this cut his middle toe and bruised the dorsum of his foot. When this occurred I thought it was the end of the world and that I was the worst physio in the world. Luckily the staff at the hospital were very supportive and helped me work through the paper work that needed to be filled out and assured me that it was an accident and that they have all had a similar situation.
The things that I learned from this unpleasant experience is the importance of being extremely careful and knowledgeable with the equipment at all times but especially with hemiplegic pts because they can not protect themselves. The second lesson that I have learned is that accidents do happen and that there is no need to stress out. The more appropriate thing to do is to understand the situation and to know about the process and procedures that you must go through to ensure the well being of your pt and yourself.
The process at my hospital is:
1) Notify a nurse to dress the wound
2) Notify the pts doctor of the injury
3) Fill out an AIMS form
4) Write out what occurred in the integrated notes
5) Notify your supervisor
I hope this never happens to any of you guys but if it does, don’t stress, that will not help the situation in any way. Go and find out from your supervisor what the procedure is that you have to go through and take care of the situation.
Good luck with the rest of prac!!!
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2 comments:
Thanks for putting that up because what to do in a situation like that is not something the supervisor tells you on orientation!I can only imagine how that must of felt at the time, but it is important to remember that it was purely an accident. These things happen and it sounds like you know that. You took all the necessary steps and notified all the people involved and i'm sure the patient understood that it was an accident. It is hard to not let something like that get to you, but hey, we're students and there to learn and learn from our mistakes. We don't have to be perfect...yet.
Shadi! You are NOT alone! I can safely say I understand how you felt then! Just a quick sharing what happened during one of my placements in S’pore! Right in the middle of a neuro outpatient gym, my stroke patient fell to the ground while I was assisting him to sit down onto his wheelchair. I swear I locked that wheelchair!!! Surrounding us were other patients, their family members, other PTs and allied health team members including occupational & speech therapists. It was a world-shattering experience... I could feel the spotlight on us and my face went really warm. I just wanted to die then. It was a slow controlled descent to the ground luckily, as I managed to ‘fall’ with him. With the help from my supervisor and other PTs, we promptly did a subjective and assisted the patient onto a plinth. The situation was investigated and it revealed that the w/c was locked but because it was ‘old’, the lock did not serve its important function. Hence, the w/c moved while the patient was sitting down. Similarly, we had to quickly inform the doctor-in-charge who promptly came to the gym and an incident report form filled up. In addition, I performed an objective musculoskeletal assessment on the patient’s hip and spine to ensure he was really alright. I also had to call his family members to inform them regarding the incident… These were followed by a good 5mins cry in the toilet (I am sure you skipped this part! Good job!). I think your experience has reinforced to me that yes, accidents DO happen to people and others can understand that. What’s important really, is how we manage it after it occurred that will determine if we are competent or not. I have also learned that locking is not good enough, got to test it!!!
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