communication

I was about to observe my patient undergoing Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) today but unfortunately the procedure was postponed because my patient is uncooperative. She was too nervous. I guess nobody explained clearly how the procedure would go and what is expected from her.  Probably, it was explained to her in a language she is not so much familiar with. She was then asked to lie still and to relax. But how will you expect someone to relax if she doesn’t have a clear picture of what’s going to happen and why do they need to do it with her? Perhaps all she knew is that you want that long tube to be inside her and how is it possible without causing her so much discomfort. For someone who’s not in the medical field, that would definitely scare her preventing her to give her full cooperation in the procedure.

If I will be in her situation, I would surely feel the same thing. Being naïve and not knowing what’s going to happen is somehow scary. Imagine a situation where someone will ask me to enter a dark room wherein I don’t know what is inside and what’s going to happen once I enter that room. How will I feel about it? Of course it will create a lot of questions and fear. All scary things that is possible to think of will definitely enter my mind and in the end I will not probably go inside that room at all even if it was really necessary for me to do that.

In real life, there are a lot of things I am frightened of and mostly I am afraid of something I don’t have control over and something that I don’t have knowledge about. In some instances it’s very hard for me to decide on things especially when I totally don’t know about the possible consequences of whatever decision I will make. Most of the time, I tend to consult someone regarding certain things and once it is explained to me clearly and all my doubts had been answered, I will be somehow enlightened. The fear I have inside will in some way be lessen.

This also applied to our patient, as a nurse everything we do to them should be explained and doubts should also be entertained. This made me realized the important role of the nurses in answering the inquiries of patients regarding certain nursing procedures. Going back to basic, let us remember that before doing any nursing intervention, we really need to find time to explain what we are going to do with our patient. In our busy work schedule, sometimes we take for granted to spare even little of our precious time to clarify with them some things.  Mostly, we are too pre-occupied with our work so we tend to neglect this important role. Well’ I guess it’s time for me to remind myself again of this simple but very important thing, effective communication with our patient is very therapeutic and should never be ignored at all.

Let’s start communicating again and show them that we care. J

-cha-