I still remember my first patient from my first clinicals. She was about my age, but came from a much different background. She was African American and came from a low-income family. Despite our diversity, we began to talk and she began to tell me about how lonely she felt and how none of her friends would visit her during her frequent hospital visits. Even though I had assignments to do and charting to finish, I sat in her room for hours and let her know that she had a friend. We talked about all the things she had going on in her life and I just sat and listened. I made sure that anytime she was readmitted to the hospital I would visit her and let her know that she had people that cared about her. I did not let any prejudices get in the …show more content…
I had a patient that was known to be unruly, would try to roll out of bed, and was unwilling to communicate. When I was in the room assessing him, he began to try to roll out of the bed after having an argument with his brother and becoming agitated. I tried my best to reason with him and keep him in bed, but no matter what I tried, he refused to stay in bed. I used his call light to call the nurse for some assistance. However, a tech came in and helped me to reposition the patient in bed. She then raised all four bedrails and started to leave the room. This was still during my first clinical rotation and I was unsure on rules and when I should speak up about the care of a patient since I had not learned much yet. I felt unsure and scared about speaking up to the tech because I did not want to offend her or make her mad. However, I knew I had to do what was best for the patient regardless of how I felt. Before she could leave I told her that leaving all four rails up was a form of restraint and that it was unethical to use restraints on a patient when the doctor had not ordered. She reluctantly came back to the bed a lowered two of the bedrails. By this point the patient had started to calm down and was staying in his bed. This gave the nurse time to call the doctor and see what he suggested to do so the patient would not fall in the future. The tech never said anything about me …show more content…
A time I used communication for the sake of a patient was when one of the patients I was helping care for was scheduled for an open-heart surgery that day. However, the surgeon canceled the procedure due to being ill. Upon looking at the patient’s medications, I noticed that many of her medications where still scheduled to be held. I told the nurse and we told the doctor together about the medications that needed to be restarted. The doctor asked questions about the patient’s conditions that I was able to answer. We concluded that all the medications were not only safe to be restarted but necessary due to the clients rising blood pressure. It made me feel good knowing that I helped the patient, doctor, and nurse by catching what could have been an