May 18, 2009Poison Phrase: You didn’t ask for pain-killer
The nurse told Janet that her surgery called for pain killer every four hours. What she didn’t tell her was that Janet had to ask to get it. Janet had assumed from the comment that painkiller was an automatic part of the treatment.
After an agonizing night, the doctor explained,
- We didn’t give you pain killer because you didn’t ask for pain killer.
The irony was that Janet actually worked at the hospital where she received surgery, and she still had a painful communication breakdown. Her experience was an eye-opener for her. You many think your point is obvious, but if others don’t get your message, clarify.
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Being a nurse myself I wanted to say, “I can’t imagine a nurse not saying ‘if you are hurting let us know (you can have pain medicine every 4 hours).’” I then remembered that years ago, before I was in a medical profession, I had surgery and do not remember being told what a morphine pump was. I stayed up the first night silently crying. The next day changed as activity began and the nurse midwife noted me lying still while she passed by. She was a patient advocate. I was then taught how to push a button to feel relief, I was given analgesics by mouth, and I was instructed to start slowly walking to lessen the pain. It was truly an eye opener. So, granted, in a hurried atmosphere many things can be overlooked. I work a busy ER and realized just this week how near impossible it is to provide complete self-care education as we hurry patients in and out of the department. The instruction process will always be evoloving and improving as care, policies, and procedures change. Thank goodness for the availability of continuity of care throughout the healthcare community.
Comment by dorothy — May 20, 2009 @ 4:42 am
It’s when we have a minute that we can take the time to establish policies to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen. When it’s a choice between letting a patient suffer in pain and saving a patient life, the decision is obvious. But when we discover patients ts have suffered unnecessarily do to poor communication, it’s the time to create phrases, policies and efficient communication systems to make sure they get that info – even when staff is running at a very fast pace.
It is a blessing to have people whose job it is to make sure information flows gracefully.
Comment by merylrunion — May 20, 2009 @ 6:31 am