Hi guys,
I thought I would get this Blog reflection posting rolling with a problem that I have seemed to encounter on my Cardiopulmonary placement.
I am on the cardio-thoracic and surgical wards as well as a couple of patients in the ICU. Yesterday I had a patient in the ICU who was a day 1 AVR (atrial valve replacement) and my supervisor, let me have the reigns (so to speak). Which was absolutely great and i thoroughly enjoyed it.
So here I am in the ICU ward with a patient who has just had his heart out in the open 8 hours before and my supervisor, trusts me to assess, treat, and co-ordinate transfer with the nurse. there are leads galore, monitors galore, and there in the maze is the patient, who i must say, looked a lot braver than me. Then it hits me... the self doubt.... "Am i doing this right".... "what if i kill this man"....."is that machine meant to be doing that"..... "can i lift this drain".... "whats this guys name again".... "what am i doing again".....
In the end i was able to grab hold of the irrational psycho inner student and I completed the treatment session safely and without a hitch. (he is still walking today.... he should be having his dinner OOB as i am typing this). According to the feedback from my supervisor I did really well and my Rx was justifiable, and ill get another ICU patient tomorrow.
My question to you guys is, 1- does the irrational student ever show up in you on these placements? and 2- does it happen just in wards where we think that if we stuff up the patient is more likely to die (or is that irrational student again) or 3- is this fear just ingrained in us from university so that we are able to become more cautious and reflective with patients at risk.
Please feel free to comment
Ryan
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1 comment:
Indeed the inner doubts. I just made it through my first week of ortho outpatients, it nearly did me in. Here I am presented with patients and I am supposed to make them better. Diagnosis not such a problem as we have the tools or the info but what to do next? It seems my level headed brain is left at the door and the vacant block that replaces it gives me nothing - confidence, experience, knowledge whatever - its lacking... I muddle my way through but am looking forward to the day I feel good about it. Did I give them too much, too little? Well I guess these are the joys of being students and we should embrace the learning opportunity, it is hard work, we are deeply tired and the inner doubts will continue hopefully as a whisper not as an overwhelming bellow, however that keeps it real!!
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