Yeah, I realize that they're teaching us best practice and that's not going to happen all the time in the Real World, and that some of these things were minor. But the unattended handoff/transfer, the ambulating by herself, the not knowing what a suture removal kit is... it was always the same nurse on the same shift, an unfortunate pattern. Turns out he hasn't been here in the US that long. Uses different terminology (and that's what he's used to). There's a bit of a language barrier, too. And cultural (and perhaps culture-related care) differences. At any rate, one of my sisters was the "bad cop" earlier in the week, so I was the "good cop" and just very calmly and diplomatically discussed things with the charge nurse. I don't know if it will make a lot of difference, but I felt better. I mean, I know I've already screwed up in clinicals -- left the bed in a high position with side rail down once, failed to put the call light within reach of the patient another time. I'm not unsympathetic to the fact that we are all human; I just had a patient tell me I was too negative last week and that I should smile more -- "smile more" for her, while I'm going through this about my mother. Needless to say, since her care was not supposed to be about me, and she wasn't pulling it out of her ass, I'm sure my worry/fear/anxiety/depression were coming through somehow, I didn't bother explaining anything or making excuses to the patient... just tried to smile through gritted teeth and yank my mind away from my mother and back to the patients in my care that day.
But it was the pattern of screwups in my mother's care that bothered me, and the fact that the things were happening at times when none of us were there or could be there. I dunno what kind of training or orientation they gave this nurse, but either he doesn't have the English skills for it to work, or maybe he's worked too long in other systems that don't do things the way we do here, or he has cultural expectations of patients and health care that are quite different than ours, or some combination of all three.
Anyway, she's home now, doing better, still on O2 and I'm giving her the nebulizers but she's gotten to a point where she mixes the meds herself and does it herself. She's doing the deep breathing, coughing, and incentive spirometry without much nagging on my part, so I don't have to worry so much.
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But it was the pattern of screwups in my mother's care that bothered me, and the fact that the things were happening at times when none of us were there or could be there. I dunno what kind of training or orientation they gave this nurse, but either he doesn't have the English skills for it to work, or maybe he's worked too long in other systems that don't do things the way we do here, or he has cultural expectations of patients and health care that are quite different than ours, or some combination of all three.
Anyway, she's home now, doing better, still on O2 and I'm giving her the nebulizers but she's gotten to a point where she mixes the meds herself and does it herself. She's doing the deep breathing, coughing, and incentive spirometry without much nagging on my part, so I don't have to worry so much.