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Clinical Assignment Dec.4th-10th

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1Clinical Assignment Dec.4th-10th Empty Clinical Assignment Dec.4th-10th Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:16 pm

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12/12/2011 Michael McDonald
Clinical Assignment Dec 4th-Dec10th

The Other End of The Stethoscope, by Marcus Engel has been an excellent read. The point of view of a critically injured and or ill patient is something that most of us will hopefully never experience, but because of our chosen profession will encounter. This book allows the caregiver to crawl inside the psyche of a patient and possibly see themselves through an entirely different lens. For myself, I have taken several things away from the book. Always stating name and position, and telling the patient what you are there to do, may sound mundane and could be easily overlooked by a hurried nurse, but Marcus explains how crucial all of that information is. The other thing about the book is that it is all entirely Marcus’ perception, preference and reaction, not every patient will feel this way. The book reminds me that I need to approach every patient like the individual that they are, what works for one may not work for another.

1. The Watchdog. I’m not entirely sure what the assignment is here. “Watchdog” in the book is a term for his security blanket. I’m not sure that I’ve ever been someone’s security blanket. We have less than a full day’s work in clinical, and I doubt that any patient has grown attached to me in that length of time. On the other hand, we are constantly being Watchdogs for our patients. That really is all of Nursing. Assessing the patient, their labs, and carrying out orders all relate to guarding the patient as their last line of defense against mistakes.

2. Over-apologize. This time I very clearly remembered a clinical instance. My very first clinical day. My patient was an elderly lady with a colovesicular fistula, and I spent the entire morning constantly rolling her, from side to side to clean her, and change the linens. Feces would fall out of the front when I rolled her to clean the back, and vice versa. I apologized every single time, and she patiently replied “that’s alright” every time. I think I was more embarrassed than anything else. After reading this book, a better way would have been to apologize for causing the discomfort once and then do my job, and ask if there is anything I could do to make the procedure more comfortable to her.

3. Rocked-the-Boat. To this point in my Student Nurse career, I don’t think I have rocked the boat much. The only time I can remember, is when one of my patients was tachycardic (140’s) and the primary nurse didn’t seem to react much when I reported this information to her. I told my clinical instructor, and she did what she could, and eventually the Primary Nurse came in to address the problem. It seemed that this information was more of a nuisance and the Nure really didn’t want to deal with it. The clinical instructor helped me to rock the boat and make sure that my patient got the care needed.

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