So at the moment I am currently doing my cardio at Charlies. So all of the patients we see are usually COPD, Pneumonia, CF or Bronchiectasis. However, there was a patient who came in a few weeks ago before I started with an exacerbation of a previous lung condition. So the doctors treated her for this using AB's and other various medications. One of the medications that they gave this patient has the potential side effect of causing peripheral vasoconstriction which can lead onto peripheral ischaemia.
Since there is no way you can test to see if a patient is at high risk of developing this possible complication then the doctors kind of have to wait and see how they respond. It so happens this patient did develop this complication and developed ischaemia of both hands and feet. Now the only option for them is to have their limbs amputated. So recently the patient has progressed and now the pulmonary condition they came in for has completed gone but now the patient is in hospital awaiting bilateral feet and hand amputations.
Now this has been an issue as since we are working on a cardio ward we are having to treat this patient who doesn't have a pulmonary condition as due to the politics within a hospital no other ward is willing to accept her and so she is remaining on our ward until this resolves. So each day I am having to spend upto half an hour treating this patient doing muscle strenghtening and ROM exercises when I am meant to be completing my cardio placement.
I dont mind all that much that I have to do this but aside from getting a bit of an insight into the politics of the public health system in Perth my supervisor has made me realise that no matter where we end up working once we graduate you cant simply forget everything you have learnt in other areas just because you are working in a different area. One of the abilities of a PT is that we have learnt so much in so many different areas over the last 4 years that we are able to treat patients no matter what they present with or where they present, we have the ability to draw on all of our knowledge from all areas to treat a patient effectively.
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2 comments:
A good opportunity to see some of the political environment in the public health system. Take care not to use the name of the hospital so as to maintain confidentiality.
I think you are right, one of the positive things about physio is that it is so varied
I agree, I've found that every prac I've been on so far I've had to use skills from other areas of physio too. I suppose it's the nature of physio - we treat the whole person and not just the one problem. That's one of the things I really like about physio, that no matter where you work, there is always the opportunity to use all the skills you've learnt along the way.
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