| Model Essays in EN 202 |
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Patient Care: Think Human Being! Pam O’Harra Lying in a hospital bed feeling, sick, scared and helpless, the only comforting thought is supposed to be knowing that when you need something, a nurse is there to help you. You ring the call bell for assistance in going to the restroom and no one comes. You ring the bell again, and still no one comes. You ring it for the third time and a voice comes over the speaker, "I will be back in a few minutes, I have some things I have to finish up". You need to get out of bed right now, and you can’t do it alone. Now, on top of everything else, you’re feeling alone and frustrated. If someone doesn’t appear soon you will have to deal with embarrassment and shame. On top of being sick, look how many other things a patient may have to go through just because of something as simple as no one coming when you ring that call bell. A nurse’s job is not just medical. A good nurse must be empathetic and aware of the patient’s feelings and needs. Empathy is making sure the patient receives comfort, compassion, sensitivity, solace and understanding, qualities that are essential for any doctor, nurse, or caregiver. For patients, a lack of empathy from a physician or nurse can easily be interpreted as its antonym: hostility (Comor, 1997). Patients are human beings and need to be treated as such. It’s terrible to say, but in our society today, it is much too common to hear horror stories of people in a hospital who are treated more like a number or a diagnosis than a human being. I chose to discuss the nurse’s role because in reality he or she normally spends the most time with the patient. It isn’t always the nurse who should uphold these standards of empathy. I just recently had an experience with my mother in which it was not the nurse who needed to show a little more compassion. My mother went to see her physician about two spots they had just found on her breast. The physician started immediately talking about a lumpectomy or a masectomy. He told her that the spots she had were just the right structure to be malignant. My mother came to my house crying, confused, and a total mess. Two days later she went to see a surgeon about having a biopsy done. This physician had an entirely different attitude. He proceeded to explain to her that these spots could be many things, that it didn’t necessarily mean cancer. He told her to have the biopsy, and they would discuss everything else after they found out for sure what they were. There was an instant change in my mother’s outlook. She was more positive about the whole thing, she wasn’t crying constantly, and she was the happy mom that I knew before she talked to the first physician. It turned out that both spots were benign. After all of that, my only thoughts were that the first physician should have had a little bit more consideration for my mother and thought of her more like a "human being" with feelings than just another diagnosis. As a nursing student, we are taught from day one that we must show empathy and consideration towards our patients. In the book Bed Number Ten, there were many instances where the patient was put aside and qualities such as understanding and compassion did not exist. In this book, the patient’s name is Sue. She is suffering from a disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. This disease consumes the entire body. The only functioning part left is her eyes and this is the only way she can communicate. She can also think and feel like any human being, but is not treated like one by many of the nurses and health care providers. In one instance, her respirator triggered an alarm. The nurse that was on duty glanced over at her with that why-are-you-bothering-me-now look. He finally got up and checked the machine and found nothing wrong. He reset the machine. The alarm kept going off and after it had happened several times, he said to her, "you’re fine. You’re just going to have to live with that. I can’t do anything about it"(Baier & Schomaker, 1995, p.111). So therefore she had to lie there with that machine screaming in her ear for a long period of time, just because he didn’t want to be bothered. This behavior definitely shows more hostility than empathy. This woman has more than enough problems hanging on her shoulders right now, and this one nurse just made her problems that much more difficult to handle. Sue and her husband had figured out a way for her to communicate. She would spell words by blinking her eyes. When her husband would come to see her, she would spell words with her eyes such as torture and ignored (Baier & Schomaker, 1995); these words were of course reflecting her nursing care. Incidences like this happen more than anyone would care to imagine. I just recently talked with a woman named Margie who had just had surgery done at a nearby hospital. She was lying in bed in the middle of the afternoon and called the nurse in because she had to use the restroom. The nurse without any hesitation told her that seeing that she had just got out of surgery a few hours ago, she did not have to use the restroom. Margie insisted that she did and the nurse again told her that this was not possible. Well, needless to say the nurse was wrong and it caused a really embarrassing situation. Margie told me that because of this incident, it made the rest of her hospital stay very uncomfortable. She felt like the nurse didn’t take into consideration that she was capable of knowing what her own body was telling her. She also told me that the nurse expressed feelings of anger and hostility when the accident occurred, because now she had a mess to clean up. This was very belittling to Margie and she withdrew from the entire staff at this hospital. This could further affect her health, because she is now not willing to seek health care because she doesn’t want to ever be in a situation like this again. If the nurse would have only listened to Margie in the first place, this situation could have been avoided. In addition to this nurse’s responsibility for the technically controllable aspects of providing help like giving medications, the nurse’s responsibility also includes such aspects as personality, character and attitude to life (Gastmans, 1999). In this incident in which I have just described none of these characteristics were displayed by this nurse. Empathetic and supportive care should not just be given to patients with health problems but also to women who are experiencing the birthing process. For instance, there was a study conducted on 100 pregnant women and the affects of their delivery outcomes based on nursing care. When the women received one-on-one support and empathy from a nurse during their labor, they were less likely to have a cesarean birth (Lindgren, Key, 1999, p4). Another type of delivery assistance that has shown great benefits to mother and child is the use of a doula. A doula is a woman experienced in childbirth who provides continuous support to a woman during labor and delivery. It has been shown in previous studies that continuous support from doulas had reduced rates of cesarean deliveries and use of forceps, as well as decreased need for analgesia and shortened length of labor (Key, Lindgren, 1999). This technique is not widely used in the United States; however, had I known about this technique eight years ago I definitely would have called one during my experience. Having a child should be such a positive experience, and nurses who show a humanistic quality in their care can make a big difference in the labor and birthing process. Women in labor are very stressed, tired, anxious and are experiencing tremendous amounts of discomfort. The last thing they need is a nurse who is not attentive and non-compliant. These behaviors can make the whole child birthing process that much more difficult to deal with. I know because I ended up having both of my children by cesarean delivery and my experience was not a good one. There was no medical reason why this happened, and I’m not implying that it was entirely the staff’s fault. I was very stressed and tired, and I received very little understanding from the nursing staff. When I would ask for anything for pain they would tell me they would check into it and then they would never come back with a response. I received very little smiles or conversation. A couple of times my husband and I saw them rolling their eyes when I asked for anything. You would have thought I was asking them for a million dollars. They expressed very little empathy, and I felt more like a bother to them than anything else. I mentally and physically gave up before I even started pushing. I feel when no one else cares it really puts a damper on your self-esteem and affects your whole thought process. I truly believe that had I been given a little more support and understanding, things may have turned out a little differently. Are nurses developing a more uncaring attitude as our society progresses or is there an underlying reason for this change in health care? Some people believe that it has to do with how much money a hospital is willing to pay for help and some believe that it has to do with the new insurance procedures. For instance, there was one gentleman that was in a Canadian hospital for cardiac problems and was experiencing great turmoil because of his diagnosis. He didn’t know if he was going to live or die. In this hospital he was treated with care and compassion. It made him feel much more at ease and more capable of dealing with his own feelings. He had expressed his observations about how the nursing staff there was so kind and how they had shown so much professionalism with concern. One particular nurse told him that because enough money had been dedicated to the unit, there were enough nurses to allow each of them the time to practice their professionalism without limitation (Comor, 1997). In another instance, a male nurse describes his night on rounds. He had patients having asthma attacks, patients trying to get out of bed on their own and falling and he would later find them lying next to their beds, and patients more critical that needed to be watched very closely. He describes the paper work for insurance reimbursement that must be done on every shift. He spends more time filling out paperwork than any other task. Between not having enough nurses on the shift to handle all of the work and all the things that go along with insurance forms, it has made it difficult for him and thousands of other nurses to ensure that patients get the care that they deserve (Chaisson, 1999). If these nurses don’t have time to care for their patients in a medical capacity, where are they going to find time to show any compassion in their work? Something definitely has to be done about the way patients are treated in health- care facilities. We all know how we want to be respected and treated like human beings when we are well, but it is that much more important to be treated with these qualities when we are ill. It affects the way we think, the way we behave, and sometimes even our healing process. How many times have we all been in a hospital or nursing home where we here the all too familiar phrases, "he just doesn’t have the will to live" or "she is just giving up?" I need to ask myself why are they giving up or why don’t they have the will to live? I personally feel that if people like this were given respect, empathy and a little compassion, it might just give them something to be hopeful for and they might have the will to go on. If we are depressed, have no self- esteem or think that nobody cares, chances are, our bodies are not going to heal as quickly or maybe not even at all. I know time is an important issue in our society and a lot of us don’t have any, but we need to step back and remember that we are all human and need to be treated as such. It may just save someone’s life. References Baier, Sue & Shomaker, Mary Zimmeth (1995). Bed Number Ten. New York: CRC Press. Chaisson, Jean (1999). Nursing stories journalists fail to cover. Neiman Reports, 53(3), p.55. Comor, H (1997). A question of care. CMAJ, 156(4), pp.541-544. Lindergren, Maryclaire & Key, Sandra W. (1999, August). Nursing support inflluences outcomes for Oxytocin patents. Women’s Health Weekly, p4. Lindergren, Maryclaire & Key, Sandra W. (1999, May). Doula support reduces complications and shortens labor. Women’s Health Weekly, p12. Gastmans, C. (1999). Care as a moral attitude in nursing. Nursing Ethics, 6(3), pp. 214-223.
Kretschman: Child Abuse | Gilkey: Religion |
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