So, today I started another night duty which will last for 5 days. I rarely go for my day duty because I'm always busy during the day. I do ask people to work for me during the day, while I work their night. The only time I comfortably work during the day is when I'm on nigh duty. I could do evening and night duty together without being too stressed afterwards.
Today's night duty is not going as planned. Though I'm very stressed from this week's activities, I still want to attend to patients. I was hoping to get an emergency or something, but then, the unit is as calm. This is a good thing for some people, but to me,a workaholic, I don't really see it as a good thing. I think I need to reduce my stress levels. Though I feel like I have all the energy in the world due to my youth, I know that my rapidly increasing stress levels can spell doom for me if I don't control it.
I had one annoying patient this evening. She's not even a hospital patient, just someone that wanted to access care without going through the normal route.
So, this woman came to the unit through the laboratory department. She told the lab technicians that she wanted a nurse to infuse some IV medications she brought with her. She said she was feeling dehydrated and she wanted only the infusion (she brought with her). She was actually willing to pay for the services, so, they called me to attend to her and get my pay.
Upon seeing the woman, I immediately knew that something was definitely wrong. She went straight to telling me that I should cannulate her and begin the infusion but I refused. On observation, I observed something's that made me suspect that she was chronically ill but I kept it to myself.
Instead of cannulating her, I decided to check her vitals including RBS. Hyperglycaemia and hypotension was discovered. I adviced her to get a hospital card and see a doctor because her RBS was a lot higher than normal but she refused. She said she don't want the long process involved in the hospital.
I called a doctor by the side to tell the doctor my discovery and they gave me a green light to infuse the medication, not as their patient but to just help the woman. I started the process but little did I know that I was in for some serious drama and some ordering around.
Trying to be a good Samaritan, I gather my equipment for cannulation and also gathered what I needed to infuse the medication. I started the process of cannulation around 4pm. I spent about 2hrs searching for a line but I could not secure one. If I enter a line, it will tissue immediately.
My back was aching at this point. Her veins were collapsed. Unfortunately, over here, we don't have a vein finder, so, everything was done using my experience. The most annoying part of this process was that the patient was not cooperative.
She talks a lot. She was constantly ordering me around to put the cannula into a random place that didn't have a vein. Even when I explained to her that there is no vein on sight, she will insist that I put the cannula there. As a nurse, we were taught to always be patient, so, I was patiently trying to explain to her, pay no mind to her constant annoying too much talks, and focus on what I was doing.
I tried and tried but I don't not succeed. No other staff would want to attend to her because she's not an official patient here, so, the work load fell on my shoulders. The constant talking made me loss focus a lot. Her ordering me around was now making me look like I don't know what I'm doing or she's trying to teach me my job.
Now, you can do many things to a health care professional and they'll not react but don't directly or indirectly show them that you know more than them as regards to the health field. They will definitely allow you to do to yourself what you think you know.
That's what I did. I could not take the ordering and too many talking anymore, so, I had to let her be. I even asked her to take water and get some rest to see if the veins would be visible again but she refused. With all these, I just left the woman and asked her to purchase a hospital card so that a doctor will officially review after which we'll continue the management.
I knew that she would not want to do that. I intentionally told her this so that she will go to another hospital. She wanted medical care but she is not willing to pay the required amount to access multidisciplinary professional care (I think she has the money but don't want to spend it).
She pleased that I continue, even promising that she will keep quite and allow me do my job, but at this juncture I was really tired of her, so, I refused.
Another thing that made me refuse to continue my care was because I saw some strange marks in her hand. Marks like that of scarification. People do it over here for spiritual purposes. I didn't know what her motive for doing that stuff was, but one thing I know is that I would not want to be part of it.
After telling her that I can't continue, she left the hospital probably to another medical facility. If she was officially my patient, it would have been different. At least, if anything happens to her and she sues, I would be backed by my hospital. But this one is not officially my patient. If she sues me for something, I would not be able to get strong backings by my hospital. It's better to be safe than sorry.
Thank you for reading..
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