| Thursday, May 24, 2007 |
| What is normal? |
Oddly enough, today has been a very interesting day. This morning when I got up, I wasn't looking forward to going to work. One of my patients is basically at the end of her life; she was sent to us from a nursing home and has gone downhill since we've had her. It is pretty depressing and difficult, because nobody seems to want her or know what to do with her, so somehow the burden of it has fallen on me.
Her family doesn't care about her; they won't return our phone calls or come see her. Multiple medical people have come to see her ... neurology, speech pathology, gastrointestinal, etc etc. And nobody seems to want to take responsibility for her care. I have gotten to the point where I'm not sure what to do with her either. I talked to one doctor today who said that basically we need to talk to the family and have them sign some forms that say she doesn't need to be resuscitated if her heart stops beating. BUT we can't get in touch with the family ... so what to do? It's not supposed to be my responsibility (that's the social worker or the psychiatrist's job) but they aren't doing it, so I guess I have to. I've never talked to someone about that kind of thing before.
The interesting thing about today, though, was that for the first time I actually felt challenged. All of the patients I saw had REAL medical problems! They weren't just whining about needing pain meds or wanting to go home. There are challenges - things I need to figure out! And not related to psych issues! And the nursing staff doesn't necessarily know about the issues, so they aren't standing over my head waiting for me to give them an answer. I don't know. I guess for once I felt like a real PA, responsible for people and making decisions and treating people ... and being busy. Without feeling stressed out or overwhelmed. Just ... normal, like this is the way it should be.
I hope it's like that at Highland. |
posted by emily @ 9:33 PM  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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sounds like a challenging situation. let me know how it goes...
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 - Name: emily
- Location: United States
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
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sounds like a challenging situation. let me know how it goes...