This is awesome, y’all.
I’m in preclinical, assessing my patient. He’s s/p explap that led to a colon resection. I ask him about his pain, you know: “How are you feeling?” and all that crap and he says, “Well, my leg hurts.” Okay. Which leg? “This one.” Can he wiggle his toes? Nice in the left leg, not in the right. Color looks fine, a little pale…pedal pulses? CanNOT feel them. Plus, the foot is friggin’ cold, and they were covered up the same with the blanket. Ask a few history questions, yadda yadda ya, can’t find a reason for the chill. So I go tell his primary nurse. You know what he says?
“It’s because he’s old.”
“…What? I’m sorry–did you just say it’s because he’s old?”
“Yeah. Old people do funny things.”
Wha–I mean, WHAT THE FUCK? He just had surgery. I cannot palpate his pedal pulses. I can feel his popliteal pulse, but it’s weak. He can barely wiggle his toes…in the one foot. He’s complaining of pain. I’ve assessed and documented areas of numbness in his lower leg. Um, guys?
“Well, he probably came in that way.” And how would you know that, since you HAVEN’T DONE HIS ADMISSION H&P, AND ASSESSMENT, IN SPITE OF THE FACT HE WAS BACK FROM SURGERY 5 HOURS AGO, YOU SCUTMONKEY?!
Bastard. Then later, I overheard one of the LPNs on the other side of the floor talking about “that student. They always think they’ve found something funny.”
Well, hell. So, the next day I get there…it’s worse. No popliteal pulse, can barely feel the femoral pulse, foot is white, leg is pale. Can’t wiggle toes, unless you count foot shudders as wiggles. I tell my clinical supervisor the whole thing. She sighs deeply, says: “Student nurses. You people always overreact.”
Bitch. You could’ve at least looked at the damn thing.
Now…we SNs aren’t supposed to go to the patient’s primary nurse unless a) it’s an emergency and b) our CS says it’s okay. Screw that, bitches, I’m getting this guy some help. Frakkin’ looks emergent to me, now, so I go to the guy’s primary nurse.
Hell if it isn’t my good friend Mary, thank the gods! She knows me, she believes me, she goes in, listens to what I say and what the patient says, calls the doc, gets interventions online, and I’m happy to say that by the end of the next week–because he was in there a lot longer than he should have been–he was all better.
Moral? Don’t discount SNs just because we’re baby nurses. Babies know enough to cry when something’s wrong.
