Friday, November 16, 2007

I have my reasons...

So i have been neglecting this blog recently. I have had a paediatrics exam, and my master's thesis was submitted this week. Thus, I have a right to ignore this blog. HOWEVER, I will be back in full force soon.

One thing I am grateful for is my experience with emergency response. I have been involved in prehospital emergency response for about 8 years now, and I teach advanced first aid (also known as Emergency First Response) to those wishing to be a part of pre-hospital care, such as police officers and firefighters.

Anyway, the reason I'm glad that I have this experience allows me to be better able to prioritize my nursing care. We had simulation lab this week for post-partum, and one of my classmates decided after the patient complained of cramping that he would get her some acetominaphen. I'm sorry, but when your patient who is post-partum is complaining about abdominal cramping, you need to explore this pain. You need to know if their uterus is contracting, or if it's not. If it isn't it could mean that the patient is at risk for hemorrhage. In this simulation, the patient did in fact have a non-contracting uterus, and was saturating a pad in less then an hour.

I was sitting near them (i was given the job of the 'observer'), and I wanted to scream "She is bleeding! She is bleeding! Do something about it!" but I didn't. Later the nursing instructors did talk to my classmates about their prioritizing, but I don't know if they truly understood what they did wrong.

Airway, Breathing, Circulation (and you can add a 'D' for Defibrillation). I have yet to take an ACLS course, but I'm sure that the priorities are the same. If you have someone who is bleeding, that is the priority, period.

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