Just a little rant about health care workers

[cheerfulpuppies]

Hello everyone,

Before anyone here takes offense by this rant let me say I am a nurse and I know we sometimes draw conclusions based on what the chart says and not what we find out from our patients.

And on that note let me say it is a big pet peeve of mine when Nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, doctor, ect have that tone in their questions and responses like we are non compliant with things. It makes me want to slap them or tell them off. I am once again having a sinus surgery, this one is #3 and hopefully third time is a charm. So I went for my pre surgical testing and the NP says so you are pancreatic insufficient, I say yes related to the CF, and she reads that I take novolog with meals 1 unit per 10 carbs and she says so you have a pump and I say no (otherwise I would have wrote novolog pump) and so she asks me how long have you been a diabetic, so I tell her my first high glucose tolerance test was in 2005 when I changed my diet despite my CF doctor telling me not to change anything, then she proceeds to ask me what my morning fingersticks are. Now I am still learning a lot of this myself and am not an expert but from what I have read morning values don't give a true picture of what is going on with your glucose control in relation to cfrd. Clearly she doesn't know that. My favorite (not really) is the tone they take when asking questions like I am the one being non compliant because I just started insulin now even though I was the one telling the doctor I am ready to start insulin now because I didn't want to have the organ damage that happens over time from uncontrolled sugars. And she had little to no clue about the rest of my CF meds. And to think she works pre surgical in a Cf accredited facility.

Thanks for reading "listening". Anyone else have experiences with medical personnel and think, really and you are the so called professional. I would love to hear your experiences.

 

[Printer]

Hi:

In May I had surgery (non CF) at an approved CF Hospital. CF patients are treated on the 14th floor, I was on the 11th floor. You would have thought that the 14th floor was in another world. On 11, nobody knew anything about CF, really. I told a Nurse a little about the history of CF, this opened the floodgates. Doctors and Nurses were coming to my room to ask CF questions. Because of complications, I was inpatient for twenty-one days.

No joke, I was running mini seminars.

Bill

 

[Dhobs]

After surgery at two days old, my daughter was transferred from the NICU to the surgical unit. My husband and I had been doing research after her diagnosis because we had never heard of CF and we learned quickly that you don't mix the capsules in the bottle because they dissolve and do no good.

One day a nurse comes in and gives me her bottle but no enzymes. I asked her where they were and she said they were already mixed in. I told her I would need a new bottle and the enzymes separately (waste of breast milk too!). She argued and argued until I told her I needed to speak to the head nurse. She left, the head nurse returned and apologized, and I never saw that other nurse again.

This was my first experience with taking real control over healthcare...I never really questioned medical professionals before. I am always respectful but I will question something that seems off or excessive.

 

[Krazy4Katie]

I can't stand when the "traveling" respiratory therapists who are only there as a traveling team to help with the overload of the flu/sick season, that they come in wearing strong cologne or perfume (which if you have CF, asthma or any type of breathing problem) this sets off a coughing spell or asthma attack. And they seem to think they can mix all the CF nebs together to save time. Fortunately after my numerous complaints, the team knows exactly what my daughter needs, plus now she's 17 and voices her own concerns. It just gets frustrating since we are always hospitalized and this is everyday stuff to us.

 

[Ratatosk]

Gotta be vigilant no matter what -- there were times when nurses brought in the wrong oral meds, didn't give ds enzymes, local cf clinic we'd have to remind doctors and nurses to WASH their hands before touching ds... When ds was 6 he had surgery due to a intestinal blockage and his doctor ordered cpt/vest treatments every 4 hours to minimalize chances of getting pneumonia. And while he was on pain meds, we still lowered the pressure and hz so he wasn't too uncomfortable. We had an RT who would come in, hook ds to the vest and sit on his phone and text. Fine, he had to sit there for half an hour, so might as well entertain himself, but... He didn't have it programmed for ds and after about 10 minutes it ramped up to 18-20 hz with optimum pressure. And DS starts yelling stop, stop and DH tried to get his attention and the rt was oblivious, just kept texting in his own little world. DH just YELLED, for $(## sake, shut the #%## down don't you hear him screaming you f$%$ moron. Needless to say we didn't get that rt ever again.

 

[jennywotherspoon]

At our last admission, we left the hospital for a walk outside and returned to find a CF patient from somewhere else on the ward sitting on my daughter's bed, leaning on her meal tray whilst playing cards with another patient and one of the nurses. Had to send daughter back out and compose myself before dealing with the travesty! This hospital is a specialist treating hospital where all cf clinic patients are admitted. No excuses were going to cut it for me on this one.

Over the years I have also intervened many times when incorrect meds were being administered. In the early days, this sort of thing was occasional but now it is a constant battle. So frustrating and stressful.

Do health care workers not understand how much stress they add to the equation when they don't even bother to wash their hands and have to be asked??? I am pretty sure handwashing has been drummed in many, many times and if it was their own child being treated they would be fanatical about hygeine!! Sorry....frustrated rant over now.

 

[greatbay]

My last hospitalization was a constant battle with RT...pharmacy...nurses.
#1 They tried to use the same neb for pulmozyme and albuteral....more than once.
#2 Found out the pharmacy was not keeping the pulmozyme refrigerated.
#3 They kept trying to hang neb equip on wall behind my bed on 02 thingy without bagging it.
#4 Told me that the neb only needed to be changed or cleaned once a week (I was being treated 4 times a day)
#5 Pharmacy sent up generic of medicine that I am allergic to in place of ordered medicine because it was a brand name.
#6 Nurses kept trying to take my inhalers away from me...said I could not administer it to myself...I needed to call them to bring it...I pointed out my Doc said I could keep them with me and she said my Doc doesn't know anything!!!
#7 RT kept trying to lower my 02 setting because I would show good 02 levels when just sitting in my bed...I had to remind them to go to the nurses station and check my monitored records and it would show that if I got up from bed to chair or to potty chair...02 levels dropped to 83 to 84 even on 4 liters of 02!!

I had to spend all my time when anyone, other than family and visitors, entered my room..checking what they were going to do and why. Fight for proper handling of my meds.

Finally told Doc he needed to arrange for me to have at home intravenous...visiting nurses stop in to do other medical care because if I stayed in the hospital I was going to get a few more infections other than the one I was being treated for and they would probably kill me!!! Only took him 4 hours to get everything arranged and home I went.

Now I need to go back in and I am putting it off to the point of it being dangerous for me but it is dangerous for me to go back in also!!!

 

[Printer]

Greatbay:

Are you talking about Boston or NH Hospitals? Are you talking about an Approved CF Clinic?

Bill

 

[lilro]

I have 2-week hospital stints 2-3 times a year, and there is one problem I ALWAYS face. Not a single nurse knows how enzymes work. I take them so I can eat, I don't eat so I can take them. They constantly try to get me to take 4 Creon 24K with 2 saltine crackers. And then when someone brings me outside food, it's a pain getting my enzymes because "I already received my breakfast/lunch/dinner dose", and can't have more. So then they have to talk to the doctor, and by time they come back with my enzymes, my food is cold. Luckily I keep my own bottle specifically for situations like this. They get mad about that too.

 

[greatbay]

Bill....I am talking about a local NH hospital....supposedly CF Approved...The best place to go here in NH is Dartmouth's CHAD center but it is too far away for my husband to be travelling back and forth to and he can't stay up there with me as we have animals that need taking care of.

 

[Printer]

Greatbay:

I'm 25 miles outside of Boston and when my wife was working her traveling into Boston after work was out of the question. We each have a cell phone and we would chat each day. It was only 10-14 days so it wasn't too bad. We are both retired now and when I had neck surgery in May, we still did the cell phone thing.

Don't put your health at risk if you don't really need too.

Bill

 

[jshet]

Last January my son was inpatient at a children's hospital for a gj tube placement. Unfortunately things went bad and he ended up bleeding internally and loosing over 40 percent of his blood. He required 3 transfusions. After receiving those and thinking things were going to head in the right direction, my son asked for pain medication. Can you believe after all of this they wanted to give him ibuprofen? I swear to you that is what they prescribed. I had to say, isn't that like the worst thing you could give him!! The nurse pages the resident idiot who apologizes for making this mistake.

 

[cheerfulpuppies]

Lilro, the next time you are I the hospital ask the doctor to write an order pt may take own enzymes, bring yours in from home a new sealed bottle will help the pharmacy when having to verify the med, also have him write an order pt may keep own enzymes at bedside.

 

[2roses]

CF or not, I think it's best to be with your loved one in the hospital to advocate. I have experienced many of the same negative experiences as the above posts. With my CF kids at a good CF Care Center, with my dad at another hospital, and my mother in law at yet another hospital. Wrong med dosages, right med but wrong time, missing meds, missed resp treatments, questionable decisions, and more. Never had other patients in our room, though (that ones crazy). This kind of stuff can happen at any hospital, even the best.

 

[Printer]

I keep wondering which Approved CF Clinics/Hospitals do you go to, where you have all of these problems. I gusee that I am really lucky being treated in Boston.

Bill

 

[Allansarmy]

I can relate to what you are saying. I am a Dad of a CF young man age 17 now. I am also a R.N./Paramedic for the past 19 years almost 20... wow the more I think of that baffles me I have been doing this for that long. Anyways, back on subject. I feel ya on what you are feeling. I can't speak or even begin to understand what it might be like for you to have gone through, or currently still having to go through. I can only speak from a point of view from me being a healthcare worker and a dad with their child with CF. Now my wife's sister also had CF, she introduced my wife and I and I had the pleasure of knowing her before she passed after living after a 5 year run post double lung transplant.

You kinda remind me of her actually. She made me laugh when she would tell me about how she would be in the hospital and doing her breathing treatments and as she got towards the end of her treatment (you know the sound of the albuterol starting to sputter a bit), the respiratory therapist would flick the nebulizer with their fingers while it was still in her mouth to help get the remainder out for her, she would just give them "the eye". She couldn't stand that! She also knew a lot about her CF meds and diabetic meds and also how much pain meds were needed in order for her to get relief. She had been called non compliant, and even an addict because she would get doses of 150mg of Demerol for her 80 pound body. After she argued over and over with a Resident at one of the hospitals in Houston, the CF doctor got a hold of the resident and told them they were to do exactly what my sister-n-law would ask for and start hassling her.

Well hang in there. Only you know if you are non compliant. From the sounds of things, you are compliant and are more educated than most about your health. May I ask, were you having polyp surgery? My son had that once and I know they can grow back.

 

[cheerfulpuppies]

I had surgery in upstate ny. I had a Fess and windows drilled into my sinuses to help them drain better. I am a week postop and let me tell you this one hit me lot harder than the last two. I even stayed overnight because that is what the cf doctor recommended for pain control. That was a waste since the meds they gave me didn't help and when I asked for the actual postop med that actually helped the resident said NO. I still have quite a bit of headaches and pain, can't sleep at night and got a throat infection that makes it hurt to eat and drink. Despite the fact that we "get sicker" easier. I have never had a sore throat like this before. Feels like I am swallowing razors and I feel exhausted and weak. I need to go to work next week and I hope I am up to it. This being sick thing SUCKS!!!!!!!