Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I couldnt figure how to log back on to the site. I am slightly technologically incapable.
My previous placement was a cardio placement in a surgical ward. I had been asked to see a patient who had an operation that many patients that I had seen had had. It was a fairly straight forward procedure and patient and previously with such patients the aim had been to get the patient at least standing out of bed and ideally walking on day 1 post-op.
I spoke to his nurse and she informed me that the doctors had told her thismorning not to walk him and if i wished to do so I would need to contact them first. I could not see any reason in the notes to not walk him but I tried to get in touch with the RMO. as luck would have it the paging system was not working that day so I was unable to get in touch with them. I asked my supervisor and she looked through the notes and said she was quite happy for me to walk him if I was unable to contact the RMO.
After walking him, the nurse who I had previously talked to about him asked if I had managed to get in touch with the RMO and when I told her I hadn't, she took a very condescending tone with me adn went on to explain that it was very irresponsible of me to do so. I tried to explain that I had spoken to my supervisor and that she had said it was alright and also tried to explain the reasons we saw it to be suitable to walk him but she continued to tell me off, as a mother would tell off a child. I spoke to my supervisor and she spoke to the nurse to explain the situation adn everything got sorted out.
I learnt from this situation that if being questioned on why you have done something by a staff member other than your supervisor, giving your opinions or trying to explain why you did something is not always a great way to handle it. In future, I would think a little more abouit my response, and perhaps a simple "My supervisor gave me the OK, maybe you could talk to her about it" would be more suitable!
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2 comments:
Hey to me what you did seems absolutely perfect. It is our job as PTs to get the mobility back into the patient and so if the doctor was unable to be contacted then it would seem our supervisor would be next in line to make the decision on whether to stand them or not. And since you were acting under their instructions then you have done absolutely nothing wrong!! I believe you had a right to stand your ground and rationalise your actions and I would even go as far as to if that happened again asking the nurse in a polite and respectful manner to calm/settle down and to speak to you professionally instead of speaking down to you so you can discuss the treatment of the patient further.
Oh Sarah... the technologically unable. Yes it seems to me that you did the right thing. You can only do what your supervisor wants you to do. If anyone else had a problem with that you should have told them to take it up with your supervisor... in a nice way of course. Also if the doctors did not want him walking, they should of made it very clear in the patient's notes, not just verbally to the nurse. No one is to blame, good job :)
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