Hi everyone,
I am writing today to relay to you possibly the most scary situation I have been in all year on prac and to ask your opinion on whether I managed the situation appropriately or not. On the ward I was mobilising my patient of whom I has been treating for at least a week. This particular patient has just been told that her cancer had metastasised to her spinal cord, hence reuslting in weakness in her upper limb most significanlty but also her lower limb. The patient had been mobilising with 1x assist and a zimmerframe short distances to the toilet. She is a very heavy woman who was trying to prove to the medical team that she was ready for discharge. Howver, when I began to ambulate the patient, her lower limb all of a sudden gave way and she fell directly onto the floor. I tryed to hold her up but considering she was so large and the incident happened without notice, I could not have held her up. The patient was ok on the floor, only complaining of shoulder pain and that she would now never get home. I automatically called for help and 5 nurses arrived to help me hoist her onto a commode. My supervisor was not on the ward at the time and one of the nurses was kind enough to page her. After the situation had resolved and I was filling out the incident report form, I broke down and became very upset. My supervisor was extremely supportive and reiterated to me that the situation was unavoidable and that it was no fault of mine. I was only really sure of this when I found out that the day after the lady fell on me, she also fell while transfering with other staff.
On review of the siutation, I feel very unfortunate that this had to happen to me whilst I'm already in a high-stress situation being on prac but I do feel as though it could have happened with anyone. My main concern is that I fell apart whilst with my supervisor and showed a weakness which I'm not sure I wanted her to see. I was proud of the way I controlled the situation whist I was with the patient however I do feel like it's very unprofessional to get so upset on prac. My question to you guys, is do you think it's a really negative thing to get emotional on prac and if so, what strategies do you guys employ to remain neutral in very distressing situations??
Kate.
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Hi Kate!
It definately sounded like the lady was pretty unpredictable and you shouldnt feel bad about the incident, it seems you handled it pretty well at the time. I understand how easy it is to get upset on pracs, you are trying so hard to do well, whilst feeling like you still lack so much knowledge, whilst being really tired from trying to work and study in the evenings! Maybe you could try something like excusing youself to go to the toilet and stay there composing yourself for a few minutes? Nearly all of the staff have been in our position and can probably appreciate how stressful it all is. Try not to let it get you down, they are sure to see how professional you are in all other aspects of you patient communication and contact and judge you on that which is so much more important in the end!
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