Hey guys
I have just completed my cardio placement on a medical respiratory ward at a major hospital. I was required to assess a patient who had been admitted to ED the previous night with a stab wound to the chest. Luckily the weapon did not pierce the lung, but the patient did lose quite a lot of blood. The incident occurred in a pub fight, and my patient was still quite agitated about the whole situation from the night before, and had been quite rude to the nurses on the ward.
I decided to approach the initial assessment in a calm and composed manner, and although I was required to obtain the essential facts about the mechanism of injury, I certainly did not dwell on the incident. Lucky for me, we did actually manage to get on quite well because we found some common ground (both proud Victorians!), so I was able to carry out the full assessment without any problems. From a respiratory point of view, the patient was in really good shape, and I took him for a long walk (approx. 300m) without any problems, and he was discharged later that day.
The lesson I learned here was just to sum up each situation individually, and not jump in too quickly before you have gained the patient’s trust.
Steve
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1 comment:
Hello Steve
Thank you for the advice. Sounds like you handle the situation very well.
As physio's we will be presented with a whole range of patients with a huge variation in personality traits, emotional issues and 'yellow flags'.
It is important to remain calm and composed and not to play up to their emotions as it will often make the patient harder to handle.
Thanks
Heidi
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