Friday, June 11, 2010

Nurse blog plug: Those Emergency Blues

Last year I spent a little time in the hospital due to complications from a very routine minor surgery that should have had me out of the hospital within a day or two. Instead said complications kept me there for half a month while my three surgeons tried to figure out what went wrong. I never got a straight answer from them on that, received grossly conflicting information from them individually on what they intended to do with me and when, and was sent eventually sent home with (IMHO) foolish instructions for personal care which had me in the ER two days later. They were nice and well meaning enough, but they really didn't get the communication-with-patient thing. I mean it's not really nice to tell a patient they're going to stick him back in OR the next day and cut him open from mast to stern and pull out his guts so they can visually inspect all of them, and then, uh, do and say nothing until another one strolls in the next day and says they'll wait a bit longer instead.

The nurses on the other hand, were great. [Well caveat the one whose bizarre insistence on 'fixing', despite my protests, my perfectly functional NG suction tube resulted in great pain and discomfort on my part.] However, without doubt they were all professional, friendly, and after seeing what they had to go through daily with me, and much much worse for some of my neighbours, I cannot thank them enough for enduring what they do from above and below in their service to us patients.

So, please, head on over and give the nurse behind Those Emergency Blues a bit of traffic and a thank you in this International Year of the Nurse. You might even learn something.

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