So at my hospital we give very few breathing treatments. In med-surg areas the nurses give the Nebs. One of the few exceptions to this is a floor where they stick all of the patients with breathing problems. At least you don't have to run to different floors to hear, "No...you don't understand. I really can't breath. My breathing is much worse than these other people's." The drawback is you can't walk down the hall without someone requesting a treatment "while you're here."
So imagine my suprise when I encountered a patient who didn't want her treatment. I got in report that she had a history of mental distrubance and had suffered through about 385 pack years. Following is our exchange.
RT: "Good evening, I'm going to be your respiratory therapist tonight."
Patient: "NOOO-OOOOOOHHHH!!!!!"
RT: "Don't worry, it's not going to hurt. It's just your breathing treatment. You remember your pipe? No needles involved."
Patient: "NOOO! I don't want it." As she presses the nurse call bell.
I realize that she's going to tattle on me. I know that the RN will back me up and she just gets one more chance anyway. If a patient tells me they don't want the treatment three times, I feel pretty good about the refusal. Otherwise I always get called a few minutes later to give a PRN.
Secretary: "May I help you?"
Patient: LOUDLY! "This respiratory man is in here trying to put his thing in my mouth!"
RT: Under his breath, "Shit."
Confused Secretary:"...Can you repeat that?"
RT:"Hey, it's the respiratory therapist and I'm trying to talk her into taking her breathing treatment."
Confused Secretary:Sounding not at all convinced. "OK. Call if you need something."
So when I showed her the neb she immediatly got excited and could hardly wait for me to get the medicine loaded. She didn't give me a problem for the rest of the treatment. However, I was really glad she was scheudled for while awake. I don't think I would have wanted to go through the same thing at three o'clock in the morning. I really love this job and haven't been here long enough to get fired.
RT
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7 comments:
Don't you love the crazy COPDers? COPD is rough enough but layering it with some good ol' mental illness is always a surefire way to make things interesting. My favorite patients are the ones with mild dementia during the day who "Sundown" and then go crazy all night...
Love the blog so far--I'm going to go ahead and blogroll you if you don't mind!
Hey! came by way of Resp. therapy 101.
great post, I nearly sprayed my keyboard. Adding you to my blogroll as well :)
Good Sunday morning to you, Respiratory Terorist !
Came by way of Respiratory Therapy 101 !
Liked your post-dry sense of humor.
Will be back to visit again and read more !
Happy Sunday to you, and if you want to exchange blogroll links, I'd be willing to, as well !
Sincerely,
Loving Annie
at least she didn't try to say you were smothering her or trying to set her on fire with all that smoke!!
that's a funny story!!
I love it...
I may be in an off mood tonight, but that was funny!
Good Monday morning to you, RT !
That had me rolling for about two minutes.
"THE RESPIRATORY MAN IS HERE TRYING TO PUT HIS THING IN YOUR MOUTH!"
While that is funny, I could see how you could get in some big trouble. Glad everything panned out okay.
I have been reading and looking for Psychosis and COPD don't mix and is amazing and disturbing how many blogs related to buy viagra are in the web. But anyways, thanks for sharing your inputs, they are really interesting.
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